Page 17 of Blood of the Fallen
I waited for Kall to start talking, but he just stood there, a muscle jumping in his jaw. He pushed the inside of his cheek with his tongue. Novuk took the hint and walked away, but Maki remained.
After another couple of seconds, Kall glanced in Maki’s direction. “Would you mind?”
Maki appeared confused for a moment, then placed a hand on his chest. “You mean… you want me to leave?”
A low rumble sounded in Kall’s chest.
Maki’s yellow eyes narrowed, and his chest puffed. “If it wasn’t because you’re still… convalescent, I would kick your backside.” He turned on his heel and marched away, following Novuk.
With only the two of us left behind, I expected Kall to begin talking, but he just stared up at the sky as if it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. I was about to say something when he finally spoke.
“I want to thank you for staying by my side.” He sniffled and swallowed thickly, avoiding my gaze.
I didn’t know why I had felt the need to stay by him, but I surely knew he didn’t need to thank me. Shaking my head, I said, “I would be dead if it wasn’t for you, so no gratitude is necessary.”
“You gave me strength,” he said, ignoring my reasoning. “Novuk and Maki were spent. If you hadn’t been there…”
“But how could you draw strength from me?” That made no sense. They could draw strength from each other because they were linked as a triad, but I wasn’t even a full member of the pack. I glanced down at my fading coda and was surprised to notice how faint it looked. Ila’s tea was working quickly.
“It wasn’t like that. It just… helped to know you were there.”
How strange it all still seemed. Some of my questions had been answered, but so many remained. Suddenly, a strange force took over, and my hand twitched, the desire to reach out for Kall thrilling through me.
“We move out now!” Chieftess Yura called from the head of the trail that led away from the camp. “We have a long day ahead of us, so get to moving.”
I clenched my fist, shocked by the impulse that had come over me. The idea of touching him hadn’t been repellent. Did that mean I was getting over my repulsion to skin-to-skin contact?
Maki approached us, carrying so many packs that we could only see his legs. Huffing, he dropped them. They landed at his feet with athud.
“I can’t carry all of this on my own,” he complained, running his hands over his hair.
“Big baby,” Novuk shot back. “I’ll carry all of it.”
He was certainly big enough to manage it.
Desna strutted right between us, carrying a big pack on her back. “Preferential treatment for the privileged,” she sneered, giving me a dirty look.
“Drop it, Desna,” Maki barked. “You weren’t there. You don’t know what we went through.”
She paused and glanced over her shoulder. “A triad alpha must be strong, but all I see is a weakling that I’ll have fun defeating.”
A bolt of anger shot through me, and I took a step forward to give Desna a piece of my mind, but just as I opened my mouth, it was as if someone pulled the ground from under me and I fell into a black void.
An eternity seemed to pass before the side of my face smacked against the dirt. Eyes danced in my sockets as I stared at tiny shoots of grass, small pebbles, and Desna’s supple boots.
“Just as I was saying, a weakling,” she repeated, her words charged with venom.
Weakling.
Weakling.
Weakling.
The word repeated over and over in my head, eddying into silence as my consciousness slipped away.
CHAPTER 7
Painwasbentonkeeping its cruel claws anchored to my flesh. I felt it in my limbs, my spine, my skull, an unrelenting pressure like vise grips tightening every few seconds with the purpose of turning my bones to dust while prolonging the torture as long as possible.
