Page 85 of The Horde King of Shadow

KLARA

I’d only ever read about what it felt like to fall in love.

But as I sat between Sarkin’s legs, looking out over the quiet darkness of the Tharken cliffs, with bright stars and a silver moon creating a kaleidoscope of beauty overhead, I wondered if this was what it felt like.

I was exhausted. The wild swings in my emotions that day were so vast that I wasn’t even sureIbelieved them. All I knew right then was that we had a fire going, my belly was full and fed, we had a warm fur blanket draped over us, and Sarkin’s arms were around me.

“Do you hate me for what I did today?” came his quiet question, his lips pressing against my shoulder.

We’d barely spoken in the aftermath of our lovemaking. We’d been ravenous for each other, to the point of obsession. Even after the moon had begun to rise, we’d still been going. Only after I’d begged for a reprieve, sore between my thighs, my eyelids drooping and my stomach rumbling with hunger, had Sarkin relented. He’d called for Zaridan with the black band on his wrist and retrieved his leather satchel. Supplies for our night,including a leather band that he would use to tie our ankles together before we slept.

“No,” I answered, though Ididtake time to think about it carefully. He’d created a terror in me I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to forget. But he’d also given me a great gift. A gift of freedom.

He’d taught me what it felt like to defy death. He’d untied every last thread I had knotted inside me. He’d made me new.

I felt…powerful.

Was this what he felt like, bonded to an Elthika? This knowing, this sense of invincibility?

“You were worried about that?” I asked, turning my head to look at him.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” he told me carefully, reaching up to trace the curve of my face, his fingers running over my scar. “I will never regret what I did to you today. Itwasnecessary. But I never wanted to hurt you.”

My entire body hurt, but somehow I felt weightless.

“I meant what I said. When I first saw you in Dothik…I never imagined that it would be like this,” he admitted.

Together? Was that what he meant? Us, naked, on the edge of a cliff?

“You knew who I was,” I murmured, “when you saw me in the market.”

“I had scouts on you, yes,” he told me. “But I only knew you were part of the royal family, one of theDothikkar’s daughters.”

“Was it always your intention to marry one of us?”

My gut churned, thinking that he could have easily demanded Alanis. Or Lakkis, the beauty of the family. I would have never known him like this.

If not for the scar that Zaridan had marked me with.

A sharp breath left him. His eyes darted back and forth between mine before dropping to my lips briefly.

“No,” he answered. “I never had any intention of taking a Dakkari wife. You were a surprise. One I didn’t foresee.”

I turned more fully in his arms so we faced one another, placing my legs underneath his drawn-up knees.

“You mentioned that…Elysom gave you something calledmysarcommands. That marrying was part of them.”

Sarkin’s gaze flickered. “Are you asking me something specific? Or making a general observation?”

I thought he well knew what my question was, but I could actuallyfeela barrier being placed between us. I was desperate to stop it. I didn’t think I could stand his retreat after today of all days.

“You are very rarely open with me,” I said quietly, uncertain how he would take the words. His brows lowered, and I felt the way his muscles tensed, like he was on the verge of retreating. I gripped his wrist before he could move away, feeling his heat. “Is it so bad that I want to know you? That I want to learn about you? But this wall you keep up…it makes it nearly impossible.”

Sarkin’s shoulders lowered. He looked away from me, his jaw pulsing, his eyes scanning the darkness of the Tharken Pass below us.

“It’s self-preservation,aralye,” he told me. “And it is habit and has very little to do with you.”

“But I’m yourwife, Sarkin,” I argued. “This, between us, is still so new…but I bonded myself to you. Doesn’t that mean something?”

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