Page 48 of By the Horns
Gwenna
The basket sways,and even though I know it’s not going to tip over and dump me into the depths of Vastwarren, I can’t help but reflexively reach for it. My hands grip the side, and the cut one sends a searing bolt of pain up my arm.
It’s more than welcome, because ever since they opened that tunnel, my skin’s been crawling like mad. Whatever’s up there is long dead and won’t stay quiet in my head. I hear disembodied whispers floating through my mind, speaking in languages I don’t understand. I can feel the presence of their bodies, just like I can feel the oppressive fog of the many dead still lost in the tunnels.
“Gwenna,” Raptor says, his voice dimly breaking through the cacophony in my head. “What happened to your hand?”
Right. My hand. I squeeze the injured one tightly, making it hurt, and some of the fog clears away again. “It’s nothing.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I was just trying to focus.” I squeeze it tight again and again, trying to chase the fog away entirely so I can focus long enough to get out of the drop without having a nervous breakdown.
He grabs my wrist, forcing me to stop, and immediately the voiceswhisper in my head again. I whimper, even as he looms over me. “Why are you doing this?”
“Figured…you wouldn’t be into fucking right now….” I wanted it to be a joke, but I’m not thinking clearly or Raptor isn’t in a laughing mood. I’m dimly aware of him staring at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have. “It’s fine. I’m not on birth control.”
“What are you babbling about?” The basket sways, and he instinctively puts an arm around me.
I lean in close, liking that far more than I should. “Taurians are fertile. Aspeth told me. Shit. I used her old name. Sparrow. Sparrow told me.”
“You’re babbling.”
“I know.” My thoughts are all over the place, drifting away, and trying to focus is like trying to catch a handful of fog. “Sorry. You know that Taurians are fertile. I don’t have to explain it to you.”
“A Taurian is only fertile when the god’s hand is upon him, Gwenna. When he has a knot.” He leans over me, smelling my breath. “Are you drunk? Because you sound drunk.”
“Not drunk.” Though I do feel like I’m drunk, a little. Mostly just foggy, as if there’s too much going on in my head and I don’t know where to focus.
The basket rises to the surface, and the worker waiting nearby hooks it with a staff and drags it to the edge of the platform. Raptor lodges his arm tightly around my waist and carries me over onto solid ground like I’m a satchel. Then he eyes the great many pits that dot the area, sighs, picks me up again, and heads out of the drop zone.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
“Did you breathe in something strange? Eat a mushroom? Lick some strange moss while we were down there?”
“Nope.” I giggle, my head clearing a little. “Why, do I sound like I was licking moss?”
“You were asking about knots. Most Taurians are only fertile during the Conquest Moon, when the knot rises.”
“Oh, did yours go away? I didn’t realize.” Him carrying me is making things worse, I think. He moves through the streets at such a rapid pacethat I’m bobbing back and forth, swaying far more than I did when I was in the basket. “Can—can you put me down?”
But he’s already coming to a halt, his feet slowing. Raptor stares down at me. “What do you mean, did mine go away?”
“I don’t mean anything,” I tell him, a little faint from all the jostling. At least now I can breathe. The voices are going quiet, and all that’s left is the awful itching sensation on my skin that makes me want to tear it off. That takes longer to fade, I’ve learned.
He puts me down and then grabs my arm before I can move away.
“Sarya?”
Shit.
Twenty-Four
Raptor
Ican’t believe whatI’m hearing. How the muck does Gwenna know that I have a knot? Only a sex worker could tell her the truth—or maybe Naiah, who supplies my potions—but the women I go to know that I pay extra for their silence. There’s only one way that Gwenna would know that about my body….
I close my eyes and put my hands on her hips, ignoring her startled squeal as I grope her in the street. I’ve imagined getting Sarya in my arms again so many times. I still know what she felt like, and she felt like…this. I open my eyes again just in time for Gwenna to slap my hands away. “A tall, busty blonde, eh?”
