Page 40 of Taken to Lemora
She snorts. “Nob, I don’t think so.”
“You are. Perhaps, I need to take you back to Moreth.”
She snorts, then smiles. “You’re serious?”
“I clearly broke something in your brain. The solar that I hurt you, I found…red on my fingers. I hurt you inside.” My voice cracks over and over and I rub my face with the offending hand before balling that hand into a fist.
She reaches for it, but I jerk away from her and put as much space as the path will allow between us. A pad pad veers towards us and I panic at its proximity to Essmira. She’s so small. She could be trampled by it. I was hardly intending to hurt her, but I did effortlessly. She’s so soft and it’s my job to protect her. Even from me.
“Stay over there!” I shout at the rider, directing it to the far side of the path. Giving Essmira a wide berth, I maneuver between Essmira and danger.
The female Lemoran riding the infernal beast frowns at me, as most members of my clan have been frowning at me for the better part of five solars when Merquin came to escort Essmira out of my keep.
“Don’t look at me like that, Stara!”
The younger Lemoran female sticks out her tongue and, as she passes Essmira, tips her head down at her. “Hi there, miriga. Good to see you again!”
“How do you know each other?” I bark, unable to help the words from slipping out. I glance at Essmira apologetically, but she hasn’t turned away from Stara yet.
Instead, she says, “Good to see you, too. And, to answer your question, Raingar, Stara came in to have a tunic mended. Normally, Lyla would handle the Lemoran fits, but she was busy, so I helped her.”
“Yeffa. I had no idea this was your mate. I heard she was some beyond beautiful apparition. Didn’t expect to see her getting her hands dirty with Lyla in the dyes.” She chuckles and Essmira chuckles and snorts beside me and it’s like they’re sharing a secret I know nothing about and Ihateit. I hate it more than most things I’ve ever hated before. But not all. I hated hurting her more.
“It was so much fun. I’ve never worked with Walrey dyes before. The colors are incredible.”
“Aren’t they?” Stara beams, then blasts me with a frosty gaze as she says to Essmira, “Are your bruises healing up?”
“Oh. Yeffa.” Essmira nods and tucks a stray curl behind her ear and I want nothing more than to mimic the gesture. Too bad, I’ll never touch her again. I’ll hurt her every time. I lose control too quickly around her. So nob. I’ll be her mate from afar. It will work. It will definitely work. “It was just a couple of bumps and bruises. The Lemoran anatomy is very different to mine and I think Raingar and I are learning we’ll need to be more careful in the future.”
She gives me so much grace. Far, far too much of it. Stara looks mildly surprised, and then mildly annoyed. “You need help with anything ever, you know you can come to me and I’ll punch Raingar in the nose.”
“I think our poor clan chief has already been punched in the nose by half the clan. Look how swollen his nose is, still.” She snorts so loudly she hiccups and then laughs, like I didn’t make her cry on that bed. Like I really am worthy of being forgiven.
But I know better. Gorman knows better. Merquin and Tana and Reyna and Bebette know better, too. Stara knows better. And Gorman’s right. I can’t accept Essmira’s forgiveness because I know it isn’t real. It isn’t real. So keeping my distance and keeping her safe are the only solutions.
Stara just looks at me and grumpily spits, “A vast improvement if you ask me.”
Essmira just snorts and laughs like it’s a joke, but I don’t know if Stara was joking. Stara continues on and my nerves are frayed when most of the beings on the path to the mines stop and speak to my mate. It’s not that they aren’tnice.They are. They’re just big and I’m realizing now that one wrong touch by a Lemoran, one flutter of a Rekkaru’s bony wings, one swipe of a Hypha’s fin, one misstep by a startled pad pad could be Essmira’s doom.
“Would you stop that racket!” I shout at a mixed group that’s been speaking to Essmira for far too long already. “We have places to be and things to do.”
“Well, we’re here to speak to the miriga, not to you.” The Rekkaru turns his back to me, blocking my view of Essmira and I panic! I can’t have that. I shove him aside, but I shove him too hard and he crashes into the Lemoran female beside him. Both go toppling to the ground in pain because of me.
OHR! I’M THE OHRING PROBLEM!
“Pagh!” I shout, corralling Essmira away from the group.
“Are they alright?” She says, looking over her shoulder as she starts down the hill towards the entrance to the caves system where kintarr grows in reckless abandon. The thing we paid for her with…Ohr! Maybe taking her on a tour of my mines, which are second largest among all the clans after Merquin’s, was a bad idea.
I seem to have only bad ideas these solars.
“They’ll be fine,” I bluster, nerves mounting, sweat forming in between my horns.
“Are you sure? Shouldn’t we stop to check?”
“Nob nob! We’re here. These are the mines. They’re great big mines. I am very proud of the mines. Kintarr grows in the mines. I will show you the mines.” OHRING OHR, RAINGAR, GET IT TOGETHER!
“Are you alright?”
