Page 52 of Invocation

Aruna’s smile fell a little. He opened his hand and peered down at the ring in his palm. “I’ll always be wearing someone else’s skin, then? I must live as a human now?”

She deflated a little. “I didn’t say that. It’s just that with that ring, we can go where we want, as long as we’re careful. We’re free. The world is open to us.”

“Except for Kuda Varai.”

“I don’t know about that.” She held up her marked hand. “What do you think they’ll think of this?”

He considered her outstretched hand.

“We saved the entire forest,” Novikke said. “The Second High Priestess witnessed it. And Ravi left her mark on me to prove it. Do you think that’s enough to earn their forgiveness?”

He took her hand, running his fingers over the black. “It might be,” he conceded quietly.

“I’d like to go back to Vondh Rav sometime. We could talk to your sister again. I wouldn’t mind asking her about this,” she said, nodding to her arm.

He looked up at her, surprised. “You would?”

“Yes. But I’m not dressing up like a slave this time.”

“Fair enough,” he said, then pursed his lips, giving her a careful glance. “That collar didn’t look so bad on you, though.”

Novikke raised her eyebrows.

“…it makes a good handhold.”

“Do you think this is a wise point for you to be making, Aruna?”

He smiled. “Sorry.”

“I’m guessing you would feel differently if you were the one wearing it.”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind.”

Novikke blinked. She was suddenly imagining a few scenarios that had never crossed her mind before.

“Well. We should, uh, discuss that more later,” she said.

“Yes. We should probably get all the way out of Kuda Varai, first.”

They were still on the road that passed through the bottom corner of the forest. “Yes. That. Of course,” Novikke said.

She stepped out into the road, looking one way, then the other. The sun had dipped to the horizon at one end of the path, and the stars and moons had begun to rise at the other end. She made a broad gesture to the space around them. “Where do you want to go?” she asked.

Aruna thought for a moment. “You promised you’d take me to the ocean.”

“I did, didn’t I?” At the time, it had seemed like an impossible fantasy—like something they’d never actually get to do. “All right. The ocean, then.”

He gave her a suggestive look. “Maybe we could find a place with a bed somewhere along the way.”

Novikke suppressed a grin. “Oh, I was already planning on that. Don’t you worry.”

She kissed him again, and they started down the road.

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