Page 3 of Marked

“I still can’t believe that idiot answered the door without his pants on,” Sley grumbled. Okay, she might be more reserved than me, but she wasn’t celibate. She’d had an arrangement with Graham for months, despite not liking him much. Perga had limited romantic options, unless we were willing to commute or take a chance on one of the transient hunters.

“Sley,” I said.

“What?”

“That’s not the point. The point is you know perfectly well why Blake is avoiding you. Graham made sure he told everyone and anyone who’d listen in an attempt to further humiliate him and to also keep your options limited. I can’t believe you let that jerk in your bed.”

“Me neither,” Sley huffed. “I dumped him, too. Blake didn’t deserve any of that, but we weren’t in a relationship. I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve been trying to apologize for how he was greeted at my home, but how am I to make things right when he won’t even look at me?”

I grimaced. I was currently avoiding someone myself and didn’t have any answers for my friend. “Come on. You can have a drink at my place, and I’ll tell you how I got attacked coming back from Wast.”

“What?” Sley swatted my arm. “Tell me everything.”

So, I did.

I told her the story as we made our way down the forest path that led to my cabin.

My small home sat on the outskirts of the village near the tail end of the brook. I had long put out the fire from last night to stave off the cold, but the smell of smoke still clung to the air along with the sharp tang of pine.

As I stepped through the entrance, I hung my bow and quiver on hooks by the door. When I turned around, a wolf flew through the air, barrelling into me. The force of the impact knocked me over. My back slammed into the floor and the large animal smothered me with its fluffy body.

“Gah!” I attempted to fend off the tongue slathering my face. “Nala!”

My familiar yipped and backed up. She sat on her haunches beside me and opened her mouth to pant, her tongue lolled out the side.

“I wasn’t even gone a full day,” I said.

She slurped her tongue and continued to pant.

“I missed you.” I reached out and ran my hands through her fur. She ducked her head so I could scratch behind her ears.

“You two set a high standard for relationships,” Sley said as she stepped into the cabin behind me.

I scrambled off the floor and wiped my face. “You want to be slobbered all over?”

“Well…I wouldn’t say no…” She shrugged.

I laughed and shook my head. Before I could respond with something witty, Nala bumped into my legs before slipping out of the cabin.

“Let me guess.” Sley closed the door behind my familiar. “Workshop?”

I smiled and some of the tension from the meeting and attack eased away. My friend knew me well. “Grab the wine?”

“Of course.”

Sley sauntered off to my kitchen to grab the beverages while I made my way through the cabin to the back room that housed my workshop.

A large wooden table sat in the centre of the room with an assortment of arrow-making tools spread across its worn surface. A large fireplace lined one wall while a small table with two chairs were pushed against the other. A door on the far side of the workshop led to the outside and had a custom trapdoor built into the bottom portion for Nala to enter and exit as she pleased.

“I have something for you, too.” Sley walked into the workshop and set the bottle of wine and two glasses down on the side table. We spent a lot of time in this room—I made arrows while Sley sat in one of the chairs to the side and unloaded all the town’s latest gossip.

Sley pulled the strap for her shoulder bag over her head and slung the bag over the corner of her favourite chair. Flipping the top flap back, she dug into the leather bag to pull out a roll of twine. “For you.”

“Thank you.” I reached out and took the roll of twine from her and placed it beside my other supplies on the workbench. “But now I’m afraid to ask what it will cost me. I’m not into slobber.”

She giggled and flopped into her seat. “I think a bottle of wine sounds pretty good to me.”

“You also need to eat, Sley. And half a bottle of wine is not enough payment for this twine.”

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