Page 33 of Ravenous

“You’re frustrated,” Ink intoned. “Because you know what we did was wrong.”

“I’m not frustrated!” she snapped and hit harder. “I like my job. Even when it’s wrong, it’s mine!”Hack!

The limb gave; the sorceress dropped onto her face, a limp sack of ruined flesh.

“In for a penny…” Nadje muttered and swung again, grimly severing the sorceress’s hands with her dulled blade. She stripped the bermetal chain free and tucked the bleeding stumps beneath the female’s torso, out of beak reach.

Those hands would regenerate and now the sorceress had no restraints to bind her magic. For better or worse, Nadje had given the female a chance to become empowered once more.

In theory.

Ink said, “The crows may outpace her healing.”

Pressing her lips together, Nadje eyed the growing black tide on the next branch.

Ink glanced up at the demon. He thrashed, jerking and straining. Whether to drive the birds away or reach the fallen sorceress, Ink couldn’t tell. Either way, the crossroads felt more…aware.

“If you’re committed to your rescued criminal,” Ink said dryly, “I could trace her to your lodgings.”

Reality flashed across Nadje’s face, reminding Ink that she was still a very young immortal. “The sorceress could be as evil as Prince Co?tin. I’ll keep mydistance.”

Ink noted Nadje’s improvised mercy—its rashness, its risks—his mind already calculating consequences far down the line.

He didn’t act on impulse. He avoided the unpredictable.

Yet when Nadje hefted the gold and said, “Let’s leave, partner,” the word landed like a spark in his chest, and that earlier kernel of protectiveness flared.

He crossed to her with his shoulders squared. “Very well, little flame.” He traced them away, the crossroads dimming behind them.

And though he would never admit it, the echo of that single word—partner—followed him all the way home.

Chapter 14Lia

Where am I?

Lia blinked awake, finding herself atop a rough-hewn bed with a fur cover. A fire burned nearby in a hearth. Tendrils of its warmth and shadow danced across a cavern chamber.

As she sat up slowly, memories uncoiled.

The Berserker court. Queen Yrsa’s decree. Arctos’s face. Darkness.

A leather flap scraped aside, and the shieldchief entered, taking up too much space.

Her pulse scrambled as her gaze jumped from his broad shoulders and towering frame to his scar-mapped face. One eye was missing; the other was a cold, glacier blue. The scars told of a mauling by some kind of beast.

In a way,hewas a beast. Despite the tailored tunic and breeches and his thick blond hair tied back in a queue, he looked every bit as fearsome.

Arctos. Her…husband.

Lia rose with difficulty, muscles sore from her earlier tension. Shivering, she eased closer to the fire and farther from her captor.

Her gaze tracked back to the leather flap, the angle of the hearth, the shadowed corners. Not comfort—inventory. This cave had the bed, some benches, and a closet carved near the hearth. Nothing soft, nothing unnecessary. Much like the court.

She still shuddered from what she’d seen in that black cave. In the smokeof braziers, she’d spied rows of hulking warriors lining the hall, many bare-chested despite the chill. Rage had shimmered beneath their skin like heat distortion—Berserkerage simmering just below the threshold of a shift…

By way of greeting, Arctos said, “I thought a day walker like you would wake at sunrise.” His voice was raspy, a mix of gravel and ice.

“I’m nocturnal,” she managed.