Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Except then he found himself in front of a stove and refrigerator. Though they were modern appliances, he recognized what they were from when he had worked in the prison camp’s kitchen, and he knew how to use them.
He would also benefit from a different focus right now.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
Kane smiled a little. “I feel the same way. I’m willing to bet that the wolven has something to eat here—”
“Kane.”
“Yes?” When she didn’t answer, he turned to face her. “Tell me. Whatever it is.”
“I want to know what happened to you.” She held up her hands. “I’m not formally trained in medicine by human standards, but I have apprenticed for years. And the healing that you have gone through, in a matter of hours, defies reasoning. Where did you go and what was done unto you.”
* * *
Nadya was so used to being covered that the absence of her hood made her feel too light, as if she would float away if she didn’t hold on to the cushion beneath her. She was also shocked she could face Kane at all.
But she had other things that were foremost on her mind. And given the way Kane had looked at himself in that glass? He was as shocked as she was.
“I expected to you to die,” she said softly. “Every night when I would first check on you, I would brace myself to find you unresponsive. And now you’re strong and whole, and perfectly healthy.”
Kane opened his mouth. Closed it. “Are you hungry? I am.”
As if he hadn’t heard her. As if he hadn’t just asked her that.
She was not surprised as he turned back to the kitchen area, and as she watched him move, she remained so confused. It was him… and yet not Kane at all.
He opened the refrigerator and took out a carton of milk to check the date. “Still good. I guess the wolven stays here regularly. Oh, look, an apple. May I please feed you?”
Nadya opened her mouth. Hesitated. “No, thank you.”
As he pivoted around again, he frowned. Then he came back over to her. “May I give you my vein?”
“Oh, no.” She put her palms up as she flushed. “No. I am fine.”
In the silence that followed, she became achingly aware of the height of him as he loomed above her, so vital, so healed… so beautiful in a masculine way.
When he sat back down next to her, he put his elbows on his knees, propped his chin on his linked hands, and stared at the floor.
“I don’t know what she did to me.” He shook his head. “All I know is that I came awake in her hut, and she told me she could save me.”
“Who was she? A healer?”
“No, she was something else entirely. She was mystical, she was… well, it sounds crazy, but she was of another world.” He held up his forefinger to emphasize the point. “That I am very sure of.”
A tingling ran down Nadya’s spine. “Was it the Scribe Virgin?”
“I don’t think so… but I’m not sure I’d know as I’ve never met the species’ creator before.” He shrugged. “She didn’t introduce herself, so maybe she was.”
“What did she say to you?”
“She offered me a resurrection. But then… I can’t remember what happened. It gets hazy for me after that.”
He held his hands out, turning them palm down and splaying all ten fingers. Then he flipped them over as if he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
“All I knew for sure was that I had to get back to you,” he murmured. “It was all about going into that hellhole and bringing you out.”
Nadya’s throat tightened. “You didn’t need to save me.”
He glanced over at her. “And you didn’t need to save me. So we’re even, aren’t we.”
As she stared back at him, she realized that they had been intimates when she had been tending to his body. Now, they were all but strangers, and she couldn’t imagine him naked.
Then again, maybe that was because of what he was like now.
“I took care of you because it was the job I declared for myself.” She tried to clear the lump that was making talking difficult. “You were my duty, so you owe me nothing—and before you say it, no, I wasn’t the one who really healed you. It was whoever you were with when you were gone, and that is the truth.”
“Well, my truth is that I am a male with honor, and after everything you did for me, I wasn’t leaving you in there.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And I should like to take you to your family at nightfall. Your loved ones will be missing you.”
“There are none who miss me.”
Kane frowned. “What of your bloodline?”
This should not hurt as much as it does, she thought as a lancing pain went through her sternum.