Page 71 of The BoneKeeper's Daughter

You…He pauses.You deserve more than cold friendship.And now it’s easier to hear. It is sorrow upon sorrow, deep enough to be palpable. I want to respond, but in my silence, Kaden has stepped closer, near enough that the heat of his body warms the shivering space separating us, and it pulls me from one side of the veil to the other. There is a question in the air between us that I don’t know how to ask, or how toanswer, and my lungs constrict in something that feels like panic, but is different. All at once it becomes too much.

“Thank you for walking me home, Trader.” Despite my best efforts my voice shakes on the words. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had tried to say his name.

He steps forward again, close enough to me now that when he breathes, the fabric on his shirt brushes my back, against Lorcan’s bones, against my exposed skin. I should move away, should shatter the fragility of this moment, but I can’t. Seconds stretch into trembling inhales and exhales, until he tilts his head forward and rests it gently against the back of mine.

“Wren…” It is a whisper of sound, a prayer and a plea, and when I do not move, he slowly, slowly raises his hand to my neck, softly sweeping my hair over my shoulder to leave the nape naked, sending rippling shivers through my body. “Wren,” he whispers again, but this time his lips are touching me, my name a kiss of warmth on my bare neck. I vibrate against him, a single string plucked on a lute, and I can feel his mouth turn up into a smile on my skin.

Carefully, with a studied patience, he reaches around to the front of my throat, where my cloak is tied, and pauses until I nod, infinitesimally, but discernibly. With painstaking movements, he undoes the knot and lets the fabric billow to the floor between us. The shirt I am in has a wide, long cut for Lorcan — though the sleeves go to my wrists, there is only a thin band of fabric at my neck and waist. My back is almost fully exposed, from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, and Kaden’s sharp, appreciative inhale at the sight causes an answering purr of satisfaction in my heart.

No more than a heartbeat passes before I feel his fingers tracing down my spine, a warm path of skin on skin where no one has ever touched me before, and fire flares in licking flames following the pattern he is drawing on me, not even startling when he accidentally brushes against my bone necklace.

“Wren…”

Wren!

Jerking back, I’m yanked from the moment by the sound ofLorcan’s voice, loud enough to fracture the silence into a thousand pieces, the pain in it cutting my skin.

Lorcan! What? What is wrong?I’m frantic, forgetting Kaden for a moment, grabbing my Protector with panicked hands.Do you need anointing? What has happened?

Nothing. Nothing,but his voice is a moan.

“What’s wrong?” Kaden is on edge behind me, straightening as though sensing danger. I can’t answer him, Lorcan’s voice is drowning out all other sound.

Take me off, Keeper. Take me off, please.

What?He has never asked to be removed. I don’t understand.

Take meoff,BoneKeeper!He snarls at me, a sharp, biting command, followed quickly byI’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please Wren. Please. For now. Sun and Earth. Just take me off your skin. I don’t…I don’t want to be touching you right now.

Everything in me freezes at the words.

“Are you alright?” Kaden’s living voice is abnormally loud in my ears. “Did I…did I do something wrong?” He’s hesitant, worried, and I turn to him, shaking my head.

“No, I…I’m…I…” There is nothing more than stutters of sound, confusion and hurt clear in every syllable, and Lorcan’s presence softens against my spine.

Little Keeper, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Just…it’s alright. Just for now. Put me on your bedside within reach. You’re safe with this one, I think. Take a moment to just be a girl, Keeper. A girl without the dead dragging her down.

He’s so gentle, but so hollow. So flat. For the first time since I wrapped him around my neck, I don’t know him, don’t know what he’s thinking, and I can only rest uncertain fingers on him, trying to figure out what to do. Kaden tilts his head, watching my movements through considering eyes, flicking his gaze from my fingers to my face and back again.

Take me off, Wren. Please. It would be best for both of us. I’m asking you as a favor, Keeper.He’s so hopeless, and though it goes against everything in me, I can’t deny him.

Yes, Lorcan.I don’t know if he can hear the numbness in my words.If it’s what you want.In one swift, sudden move, I pull him from my throat, over my head, feeling his fingers and teeth drag against my spine, almost as if he’s trying to hold on and trying to let go all at the same time. Shaking, I carry him to the small table by my bed and lay him neatly in a curling pile. Kaden follows me, not crowding me, just observing, noting the way my fingers linger on my necklace, until I forcibly pull them away. He waits for me to turn to him, waits for me to lift my head, then steps forward, lifting his hands to either side of my face and resting them there.

“Are you alright?” he asks again, careful and considerate, studying my reaction to his question.

“Is it enough to say I don’t know, but that it has nothing to do with you?”

His brows knit together, and he glances quickly to my necklace before focusing on my face again. “Your comfort is my law, Flame. You won’t offend me if tonight needs to turn into tomorrow. You’ll find I’m a patient man. There is pleasure enough in your company alone.”

I don’t know how to answer him. Lorcan said to just be a girl, just this once, but I’m not entirely sure I know what that means, or more, if once I taste what it’s like, that I’ll be able to let it go. Kaden waits patiently, hands cupping my face, thumbs tracing light lines along my cheekbones, and it feels so good I involuntarily close my eyes, sinking into his fingers. I sense more than feel him step forward, the warmth of his body moving towards mine enough of a hint of what’s to come that I raise my face to his.

If his body is warm, his lips are molton when they meet mine, some lingering unknown sweetness on his tongue flooding my mouth as he pulls me to him, all hesitancy gone the moment my lips part against his. There is a rumble of sound deep in his throat that makes me think of the mountain crumbling, then his hands are under my thighs, picking me up in a swift, surprising movement, wrapping my legs around his waist. Keeping one hand under me, he slides the other up my back and through my hair, tugging until my head bends back and my throat is a curve of moonlight before him. Locking me againsthim, he buries his face in my neck, pressing his lips against my skin and breathing deeply, before lowering me gently to the bed behind us, never separating our bodies from each other.

We land with him on top of me, though he takes his weight onto his elbows, and I can feel the flutter of my pulse in my heart, breath skipping in erratic pants of sound. I am shaking, trembling under his unmoving hands, waiting for him to move forward but uncertain of how to follow. I’m not stupid or naive; our village isn’t a place where things in the bedroom are only whispered about in dark corners. Any happiness is celebrated here, the women as bawdy as the men after a pint of mead; even children know where they come from. It’s not that I don’t understand how the pieces fit together, it’s that I never expected to be a part of the puzzle, and am suddenly and wildly unsure of what to do.

He has paused long enough that it gives me time to worry, so when he raises his head to look at me in the darkness, my shallow breathing isn’t only from desire.

“Have you…” He stops, sighs, and tries again. “Is this a trade you’ve taken part in before, Flame?” My head barely moves, but the slight shake has him inhaling deeply, before letting his breath out slowly.

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