Page 144 of Ravenous

“So you’d sacrifice your freedom to spare me a hell?”

He tossed back vodka. “Apparently.”

Lia frowned. “Do you want me…as a wife?”

“Not like that.” Honest as ever. “But I won’t see you harmed.”

“Then what does that make us?” She tilted her head. “Strategic allies with poor timing?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Every day I fight my memories of those vampires. You make it easier because you are different. Will you remain so?”

“Yes,” she whispered. Her throat burned, just a glance of heat. Did her subconscious accept what she’d refused to acknowledge? “This is who I am.”

He seemed to believe her. “Then stay. With me. If you want to.”

“I do.”As long as possible, she silently added. She couldn’t pin down the clan’s regent and sensed danger.

“Good. Good.” He fished a small book from his coat. “Have something foryou. I asked Inkletter to source it. It’s a collection of Berserker fables. Tales of your new people.”

She accepted it with a gasp. No gift could be more thoughtful. “Thank you!” She pressed it to her chest, then impulsively reached up to hug him. His neck was right there, the pulse hot beneath salt-scented skin. Delectable. Full of life.

She stepped back, fighting the prickle at her fangs. Nothing with Dagny. Why him?

He flushed along the hard planes of his cheeks, and the little tell only sharpened her thirst.Stop this. You’re not a predator!So she clung to the book like a charm until she got her fangs under control.

“We’ll get more books, and I’ll build you shelves for them.” He seemed pleased with her; she sensed his contentment.

Despite her fears and doubts, his relaxation called to her own. She slid the book into her pocket and kept her palm on the warm leather. “I think you’re happy with me, Arctos.”

“Don’t read too much into it,” he said, then winced at his own pun. Still, his gaze held consideration she hadn’t earned. “I’ll tell Yrsa tomorrow that you’re staying.”

“Can we make this work?” Lia asked, even knowing he didn’t understand all the variables surrounding her.

“I believe we…can move forward.”

“I want your friendship.”But I don’t deserve it!Maybe all vampires were creepy and wrong because they’d recognized the futility of being anything else. Yet still, she channeled Dagny’s boldness to say, “Can we have that bond? I respect you—more than anyone I’ve ever met—and I…I want that bond with you.” A friend would be able to understand her and find compassion for things she couldn’t control.

He stared into the fire for a long beat, wrestling ghosts. She’d asked too much and was sorry for it, aching for him.

At last he stepped closer, curling a finger under her chin. “We will be friends, Emilia. I’ve never given my friendship lightly, and I’m not doing so now.”

“Thank you.”I think I love him—as my friend.Her smile couldn’t be contained. “I won’t let you down.”Liar.Yet her throat didn’t burn on that one.

“Nor I you, little vampire.”

As the winds howled in the background, the moment stretched out between them—calm, improbable, rich with promise.

They were friends. She would eventually confess everything, and he would help her. They would work together as a team, finding other vampires who abstained.

It was in this state, this relaxed and happy state, that the detail from before surfaced, clear as a bell. “Arctos,” she murmured, “has Ravinelun ever traded with the vampires? Bought fabrics, maybe through an intermediary?”

He lowered his hand. “Any material would be burned in disgust. We now know what the dye is made from. Why?”

She could scarcely catch her breath as recognition hammered her. “The queen’s kirtle,” she whispered. “The weave. It only comes from one place.”

He closed his eye. “Bloodreach.”

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