Willing Sacrifice (23 page)

G
race burst through the door of the hut where Torr was changing. Her dark hair was dripping wet, her face pale and drawn with fear.

He dropped the loose pants that one of the village women had made for him, and drew his sword. “What’s wrong?”

Grace came to a dead stop. “Wrong?” she asked, staring at his naked groin.

The door swung shut behind her, darkening the room. The little bit of orange light filtering through the rough thatch walls was enough for him to see her pupils flare. His animal brain took that as a sign that she liked what she saw, rather than that the room had suddenly gone dark.

A telltale tingle of arousal swept through him, but he choked it dead before it could take over.

“Yes, wrong. You stormed in here like demons were nipping at your heels. What happened?”

She was still staring, and it was getting harder by the second for him to remember his manners.

Grace cleared her throat and finally looked away. “Brenya.”

“Something happened to Brenya?”

Grace’s gaze strayed back to him, but only for a second before she squeezed her eyes shut. “No. She’s happening to you.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific, honey.”

At the sound of the endearment, she opened her eyes again, but this time she looked right at him. The pain he saw there nearly brought him to his knees. “She’s going to hurt you, Torr. And she’s going to use me to do it.”

“Start at the beginning. What did she say?” He sheathed his sword, picked up the pants and used them to cover his growing erection.

The level of distraction in Grace’s tone dropped significantly. “She said that I was your weak spot and that she was going to use that to get victory.”

“Did she say how?” he asked, even as he knew the answer.

“No.”

“Of course not.” One deep breath. Two. Frustration trickled out, but only a little. “Let me get dressed and we’ll go talk to her.”

Grace grabbed his arm. “No. We can’t. What if that’s what she wants? What if it’s part of her plan?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

He started to put the pants on, but she ripped them away and tossed them across the room. Fury and fear trembled out of her. “You’re not listening to me. We can’t play into her hands. We have to outsmart her.”

Torr wanted to be the kind of man who could ease her worries, but all he could think about was how close she was, how sweet she smelled, how he was stark naked and wanted her that way, too. It didn’t matter if she was mad at him or if she was more worried about something else. His body seemed to short-circuit his brain, narrowing his focus to a very small field.

He managed enough honor to ask, “What do you think we should do, honey?”

“Beat her at her own game.”

“How are we going to do that? And why? We’re on the same side.”

“Because she’s going to get you killed.” She grabbed both of his shoulders and shook him—or at least she tried to. She swayed more than he did, but he understood the emphasis she was trying to achieve.

He wrapped his hands around her waist. He couldn’t help it. She was too close, and her touch on him—whether for emphasis or not—was more than he could ignore.

He stepped closer until they were almost pressed together. He could feel the heat of her body against his naked skin and wished desperately for the power to make leather evaporate. “All Brenya wants is for this place to be safe. I’m going to see to it that it’s done right. I’ve been fighting for a long, long time, and I know what I’m doing.”

“I can’t let her hurt you.”

“Even though you think I lied?”

“You
did
lie, but Brenya forced you to.”

“Does that mean you forgive me?”

“Are you going to tell me what you know about my old life?”

He shook his head. “You know I can’t. I wish things were different, but we’re playing by Brenya’s rules.”

“I don’t trust her anymore, Torr. Neither should you.”

“She saved your life. She kept you safe for years. For that, I owe her everything.”

“I’m afraid that’s what she’s going to end up taking.”

He brushed her damp hair behind her ear. “As long as she doesn’t take you away from me, I can handle whatever she decides to dish out.”

A pretty flush colored her cheeks. “I should leave and let you get dressed, go talk to her.”

“Or you could stay.”

That flush deepened, and she wet her lips. “I think it’s better if I don’t. If I stay, I’m going to want to touch you.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me. I’m dying to kiss you again, Grace.”

A delicate shiver raced through her. “I still want you, but I can’t be with you like that again. You’re not the man I thought you were. I can’t trust you now, not after knowing you lied.”

Something deep in his chest screamed in agony as it died. The woman he loved didn’t trust him. His sweet Grace, who willingly risked her life to heal him, no longer trusted him.

He’d lost something precious—something that, once shattered, could never be made whole again. Even if he proved himself worthy of her, the belief that he’d lied would always be in the back of her mind.

Torr stepped away and turned his back. His nudity was an embarrassment now. It hadn’t bothered him before, but now she saw him as a liar, and that made shame fester in his soul. “You should go.”

“Torr, I—”

“I have preparations to make and I need to secure the village perimeter before I go.”

“We should talk.”

He slid the loose pants on, glad to finally be covered. “There’s nothing to talk about. You don’t trust me and I can’t change your mind about that, not when I’m bound by my vow. It’s best if I just focus on keeping you and the others safe. It’s what I do best.”

“Promise me you’ll be safe.”

He didn’t dare. That wasn’t the kind of promise his kind ever made. Instead he said, “Don’t worry about me.”

“Of course I’ll worry. I care about you.”

“Don’t,” he snapped, his voice too loud and harsh. Then, more calmly, “It’s better for both of us if you don’t.”

•   •   •

Grace had hurt Torr. She hadn’t meant to, but his pain was both obvious and devastating.

All through dinner, she kept hoping for a glimpse of him. She wanted a chance to talk to him, to find a way to ease the sting she’d caused. She ached knowing that she’d hurt him, and no matter what she thought to say, nothing seemed right. She knew he had his reasons for lying to her, but until he was willing to tell her about them—about why he would give Brenya a vow that forced him to lie to Grace—she didn’t see how she could forgive him.

Maybe that made her a bad person.

She questioned herself all night, searching for a chance to talk to him, but none came. As the women flowed through the center of the village, gathering their stew and bread, she never once caught sight of his head towering over the crowd. With each passing minute, her heart fell further, until she knew she had to fix it.

She couldn’t live like this, her stomach twisting with anger and anxiety.

Grace gathered some food for him, using it as an excuse to speak to him, then went searching. He’d said he was going to check the perimeter, so she wove her way around the edge of the village, inching out more with each step.

Brenya usually had the humming protective barrier in place by this time of night, but Grace didn’t feel it, didn’t see its subtle shimmer.

By the time she realized that the barrier must not have been put up tonight, she was far enough into the woods that the flickering light of the central fire was barely visible.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” came Torr’s voice from the darkness.

Grace jumped, jostling the food on the small tray she carried. He was next to her, steadying the cup of water before it had time to spill. “You scared me.”

“At least it was me you ran into rather than one of the Hunters.”

“I was paying attention to the temperature. If it had gotten cold, I would have bolted back to the others.”

There wasn’t much light to see by, but there was enough for her to make out his silhouette and a faint glitter of moonlight in his amber eyes. Even without those clues, she could smell the scents of heat and forest that clung to him. He’d used the same soap as everyone else, but on him, it smelled so much better. All she wanted to do was get closer.

“What are you doing out of the village?” The deep tone of his voice smoothed over her senses, making some deep part of her go still and quiet.

She was too drawn to this man. She’d thought it was bad before, but now that she knew what he felt like when sliding into her body—how he wrapped himself around her like he couldn’t stand the thought of letting her go—she wanted even more of him.

Grace had to clear her throat to get the words to come out. “I didn’t see you at dinner. You need to eat.”

“I don’t have much of an appetite. Give my share to one of the kids.” His sword was propped up beside him, visible now that it wasn’t attached to his body.

“There was more than enough to go around. Tori bagged several kills last night. And you need to eat.”

“Fine. Leave the tray if it will make you feel better.”

She found a smooth rock protruding from the ground and balanced the tray on it. “Are you going to eat?”

“Go back to the village, Grace.”

Not “honey,” just “Grace.” The change shouldn’t have hurt her, but it did. She was the one who’d pushed him away, so why was she so desperate to drag him close again?

“You’re still angry with me,” she guessed.

She felt him tense more than she saw it. She was so attuned to him that even his stillness was enough to warn her of a surge of emotion.

“Anger doesn’t even begin to cover what I’m feeling. Not that it matters. Just go. I have work to do and you’re far too much of a distraction to have around.”

Again, the sting of his words hit her hard, but this time she actually flinched.

Torr let out a harsh curse as he ran his hand through his hair. “I hate it that you still react like that to me, after all we’ve been through together the last few days.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You jerked away like you thought I was going to hit you. I know you’ve had a rough life, but dammit, Grace, I’d never do something like that to you. I
love
you.”

His words wrapped around her, squeezing the air from her lungs. The ground beneath her feet seemed to rock. The woods around her dissipated in a shower of glittery sparks, so bright that she was blinded.

In that instant, something in her head burst open, and she remembered everything. The night Torr rescued her and her baby brother—the night her mother was killed by demons. She remembered him lifting her away from her mom’s brutalized body and cradling her close as he carried her out of the house, whispering words of comfort. She remembered the blast of fire behind them, and the scream of the demons consumed in the blaze. He hadn’t even slowed down—not until that slimy, sluglike creature had shot out of the darkness and slammed into his back, poisoning him.

Even as he fell, he’d thought of protecting her first, spinning to land so he wouldn’t crush her.

She could picture his room at Dabyr, the way he grew progressively sicker and more discouraged every day. She’d ached to help him, but there was so little she could do. He’d begged for death, and yet she hadn’t been brave enough to give in to his wishes.

She remembered Dabyr and the safety it represented for her. She’d fallen in love with him there. Gilda, a powerful Theronai, had given her the means to save him there. And it was there that Grace had fastened the disks to their spines in a desperate effort to heal him.

Those disks had connected them for years. It had been his sorrow she’d felt, his anger. Even as far away as she was—worlds apart—she’d still felt his presence.

And now he was here—this man she loved so much and had somehow forgotten.

How could she have done that to him? How could she have forgotten a man she’d been willing to die for? How could she have been angry at him for withholding his past when he’d saved her life and Blake’s?

It was such a miracle that he’d survived, that he was up and walking again. He was whole and strong, just as he’d been the night they’d met. How hard must it have been for him not to tell her what they’d shared?

Tears of joy filled her eyes. Torr—her Torr—was alive and well. She wanted to celebrate what a miracle he was.

Relief and love flowed through her. She surged upward, into his arms, kissing him as she’d been dying to do all those years ago.

He rocked back on his heels but recovered from his surprise fast. Within a heartbeat he was kissing her back, holding her tight. He cradled her as though he would never again let her go.

He loved her. She still couldn’t wrap her head around that. He was such a good man—it was hard to believe he would choose her when he could have whoever he wanted.

Her feet left the ground. His tongue danced with hers. Her body heated in a mad rush, and all she could think about was getting as close to him as possible. She wanted to hold on forever and never let go.

Her brave, heroic warrior loved her—something she’d never thought possible.

“I need you,” he said against her mouth.

Her body lit up like a torch, igniting with sudden arousal. She didn’t know if the disk on her back was feeding her some of his desire, but she felt her skin heat and her nipples bead up against his chest.

She needed him, too. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“I can’t wait. I need you. Here. Now.”

“Yes” was the only response to the fierce command ringing in his voice.

He stripped her tunic over her head, breaking their kiss just long enough to do the job. A second later, his nimble fingers unraveled the knots holding her underwear in place. She was naked from her knees up, wearing only the leather straps around her calves to hold her shoes in place.

His mouth moved down her body, hot against her neck. She felt the sweet sting of his teeth and strong suction bite at her skin. She knew he’d left a mark for everyone to see, and a small part of her reveled in it.