Page 28 of The Dragonrider and the Void
Venrick crouched next to Yarla. She reached for him and in a moment of sympathy, he took her hand. He heard Lark’s sharp intake of breath at the gesture. When he looked up, her face was blank, but her eyes betrayed her, hurt warring with understanding.
“I should check our perimeter,” Lark said, abruptly turning away from them.
Venrick let go of Yarla and caught Lark’s wrist before she could retreat. “Lark, wait.” The contact sent a jolt through him, memories of how he’d been forced to try to kill her. How she’d made him leave her behind to face Barrik alone. “We need to talk, in private.”
“Yes, we do,” she replied, her voice lowering for only his ears.
“Let’s go,” Venrick said, leading Lark deeper into the cavern, beyond the Morsythian’s troop. He continued on to a pointwhere the firelight just barely reached them and then turned to face her. Lark didn’t say anything. He held her gaze, cherishing her presence.
“I…” he started, unsure how he could put what he was feeling into words.
“I don’t know where to begin either,” she said.
“What happened at the fortress. It was… Gods, Lark, I tried to fight it but the curse.” Venrick said, running his hand through his thick hair. “It wasn’t me. I never want to hurt you.”
“I know, Venrick,” Lark said, holding his gaze.
“Is your arm,” he said, wincing at the memory of how he’d broken her wrist like it was a twig.
“It’s healed now.”
“Already? What of your side?” he asked.
“Healed.”
“How?” he asked, then shook his head. “No, I can hear it later. I need you to know that I did everything I could to fight the curse, fight Joc and Barrik. I was fighting for you, not me.”
“I thought I’d see you chasing after us with Ingamar,” Lark admitted, the disappointment clear in her expression.
“If I’d taken to the sky with Ingamar, we both would have been killed. Lamar and Nordraven have assassins hunting us. I couldn’t force Ingamar to sacrifice his life for me, but I couldn’t wait like Cheyanne wanted me to either. I needed to find you. As soon as I had the energy to ride, I set out. I tracked you and nearly caught up with you two days ago, but White Eye had left. That’s when I found the foul in his blood trail and knew you were being tracked.”
“I know you weren’t yourself in Red Lodge. You were cursed, but I needed to face Barrik alone, just as you couldn’t let Ingamar sacrifice himself for you. I knew you would come after us, but if I’m being honest, there’s something else that’s been weighing on my mind.”
“You can tell me, Lark. I owe my life to you. What is it?” Venrick nearly whispered.
“When I didn’t know who I was, when you and Ingamar found me, were you only helping me because it was a condition of the curse or because you truly wanted to?” she asked earnestly.
The question stunned him, sending tingles down his spine and making the hairs on the back of his arm rise. “Lark, I made a promise to you. I promised to help YOU find it.”
“But if we hadn’t grown close. If there wasn’t this spark between us, would you have tried to steal it from me?” she asked.
“Hey,” he said, frowning as he stepped closer to her.
She backed away slightly.
“I would never do that to you. I wouldn’t betray your trust,” he said.
“And now that you know who I am. Marcel Heartfell, the terror of the North, your perception of me hasn’t changed?” she asked.
“No. I know who you really are. You’re not Marcel to me. To me, you are and forever will be, Lark. The dragonrider heroine who saved me from a fate worse than death. You rescued me. I’m in your debt,” he said.
“I don’t want you to look at me differently now that you know what I’ve done in the past. Now that you know about my reputation. And I certainly don’t want you to view me through the lens of having to repay me for anything,” Lark said.
“I want to be indebted to you, Lark. I want you, just you. I want to be near you, help you anyway I can, because I know the real you,” he said, still avoiding what he really wanted to tell her.
“What about Yarla?” There was no accusation in her tone, just a careful neutrality that somehow hurt worse.
“She’s a friend from a long time ago and she needed help.” He took another step closer. “I couldn’t leave her bound up, aprisoner of orcs acting on orders from a rimeshade. Losing her energy, and as she mentioned, about to lose her soul. She needed help.”
