Both arms drop back to her sides. “Not at all.”
Her words have a tang of falsity, but I give up.
If she is nervous or worried, I won’t pressure her with more questions. I square my shoulders and continue to push through the narrow channel.
When night falls, I finally start to relax. There’s something about the darkness that reminds me of the caves. It makes the wide open space feel smaller—almost like an embrace.
I am quiet as I set up our small camp. I clear away snow, lay the bedrolls inside a leather tent, and then return to the ground. As I kneel, I let my hands rest upon my thighs, palms facing upward. The stone beneath my fingers shifts. Each particle vibrates to the same tune as my mind. My eyes see further than the physical world, aided by my other senses. Slowly, I raise a few bits of stone from the frozen topsoil.
While I cannot call upon the earth’s molten rock like Teo, I can heat the stones to make a surface suitable for cooking.
As my makeshift stove is complete, I scoop snow into a pan, pick out the debris, and put in the dried ingredients.
It isn’t until I sit back, the meager meal bubbling, that I look over and see Melisa watching me. She’s curled up in one of the fur blankets, and her eyes sparkle in the dim light.
“Food will be ready soon,” I say.
“So I see. Thank you.”
I nod.
She smiles, and my whole chest warms. After our fight earlier, I’ve been stewing in my distress, but all her nerves and irritation seem to have ebbed away.
“Will we be sleeping in that tent together?” she asks bluntly.
I nod again, trying to hide my racing heart. “Yes. It will keep us warm. It’s efficient.”
She grins. “My dear Ra’Sa, I told you once before: I wouldn’t mind lying on top of you to help save space.”
I sputter. At least she’s feeling better. She was so quiet on the walk here.
“Well, if you really want?—”
“Relax, Ra’Sa. I was merely joking.”
The lightness in my chest falls flat. “Of course.”
She is silent for a few minutes. “While I’m grateful you’ve come to help me, I know how…eageryou all are to have mates. I won’t keep you from your future woman.”
My brows furrow, and I refrain from saying the words that have slowly snuck into my head.
She could yet sing for me with a stone in her chest. But that’s madness. To speak it is futile.
“I would never pressure you?—”
“Again, I am grateful you came with me on this trek. Not many men would help a woman who belongs to another,” she interrupts.
I blink. “Belong? You remain unmated, do you not?”
“Correct.”
I meet her gaze. “Then you belong to no one. You are free.”
She tilts her chin up. “I am Eneko’s whore, or did you forget so easily?”
I make a face, but she shakes her head.
“Believe me—it doesn’t hurt me to say it aloud. He plucked me up a year and a half after I was first conscripted to the breeding pens. It doesn’t matter that we escaped; I still belong to him. And I will be every second we are in Zlosa.”