Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Gwenna’s cagey responses just irritate me. I point a finger in her face. “You and I are going back to the nest, and you are going to do some serious explaining.”
She swats my finger away from her face with her good hand. “There’s nothing to explain! Just leave me be.”
As if I could possibly walk away from a mystery like this without getting to the bottom of it? After learning that she’s Sarya?
She might not be the thief, but it doesn’t mean she’s not working with him. Or her.
I fight the incredible urge to throw her over my knee and spank her. Then again, that might not be irritation making me want to do that. It might be pure lust. I’m off my potion, so I’m going to be impulsive and turned on. There’s a small part of me that feels an overwhelming sense of relief that Sarya isn’t missing or hiding from me. That she’s been here all along.
That the charmingly tart human I’ve been fighting my attraction for is the woman I’ve been dreaming about, even if she lied to me.
But there are a few too many lies for me to be comfortable. Not when my task is to ferret out the truth of the conspiracy going on. I say nothing, just turn things over in my head as we walk across Vastwarren’s heart and return to the dorms.
When we get to Master Jay’s nest, Gwenna immediately heads for the necessary. I glance in the sleeping quarters, but they’re empty. Checking the rest of the house, I find only the nestmaid, busy chopping vegetables. “Get out,” I tell her. “You’re done for the day.”
The woman turns around, her mouth opening. “I don’t—”
“Out,” I say again, putting a growl in my voice. The woman nods, terrified, and races out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.
As she races away, Gwenna enters, a towel around her hand. She frowns at me as if I’m the problem. “What did you say to Marta?”
“I told her to leave.”
“She has work to do. It’s not her fault you’re in a shitty mood.” She moves to the counter, eyeing the unfinished vegetable chopping on the counter. “If someone complains they weren’t fed, she’s going to be the one who gets in trouble.”
“No one’s here but you and me,” I point out. Even Kipp’s shell isn’t in the corner it usually inhabits. “Which means we’re going to talk about what’s going on.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Gwenna picks up the discarded chopping knife with her good hand and attacks the vegetables.
I move to her side and pluck the blade out of her grip, ignoring the glare she shoots at me. “I want to know what your game is.”
“I cannot even begin to know what you’re talking about,” she says with a huffed laugh.
“Probably because you’ve been lying to me so much you can’t even keep your own stories straight.” That earns me a dirty look, which confirms that I’m on the right track. “Give me your hand.”
She shoots me an indignant glare.
I gesture that she should hold it out. “Just let me see it. I’m not going to sit here and watch you chop up vegetables while you’re bleeding and in pain.”
Her jaw clenches, her expression mulish. Well, I can be stubborn, too. I hold my palm out, waiting patiently. Eventually she slaps her hand into mine. I gently pull the towel off, and I’m not entirely surprised to see that she hasn’t tended to her wounds. “Why didn’t you put an ointment on this?”
“Why are you fussing over me?”
Gwenna is being unusually grouchy, and there’s a distracted look on her face, as if she’s having trouble concentrating. Her pupils seem a little wider than normal, her gaze a bit glassy. Is something else bothering her? As the most experienced on the team, without Master Jay around, it’s my duty to look after her. At least, that’s what I tell myself, since I’m going to fuss. I pick her up, settling her backside on the counter next to the cutting board. “You sit right here and wait for me to get the salve. If I come back and you’ve moved, I will hunt you down and pin you to the ground until you let me doctor your hand.”
Her jaw drops and she makes a sound of protest…but she doesn’t get off the counter.
Good. “I’ll be right back.”
I head across the kitchen, pulling open the cabinet that every nest is stocked with—herbs and potions for headaches and muscle aches, bandages for wrapping twisted ankles, and a tea that helps the too-tightly-wound sleep at night. I pull out a small jar of ointment and a roll of bandages and move back to Gwenna’s side.
This time, she doesn’t protest, just extends her hand toward me.
I tend to her brutalized palm, saying nothing as I wash her hand with water and then dab the herb-laced ointment on her skin. “Did something happen when we were down in the caverns? Something that caused this?”