Page 63 of Her Soul for a Crown
“Mighty Heavens,” the man seethed. “Stop this! Can you not see we are—”
He paused as Anula held out the vial. “Help. Siva.”
The fire in the man’s eyes snuffed out. Dismissing the vial, he knelt close to Siva, whispered, and waited. Siva wheezed, coughing out a prayer. A bargain. The man pressed a hand on Siva’s mouth. His shoulders lifted from the floor, back arched, as the blood retraced its path. Slowly and in reverse. With a deep breath, Siva collapsed. Blinked. Breathed.
Relief settling like a balm, Anula glanced at the Blood Yakka, Reeri, who’d heeded her command and saved a human life—as though he actually did care.
***
“Splitting me from a human is too much for their body to take.”
Perched in bed, Anula watched as her blisters healed. The tether sighed in satisfaction, as the Blood Yakka, now Raja Vatuka, held her in his bushy arms.
“Will he be all right?” Anula asked, fingers fidgeting on the wood carving. The blessed gift raejina hid behind her raja. Anula couldn’t blame her. Poisoncraft wasn’t for the faint of heart.
“He remembers nothing,” the Blood Yakka promised. “He is as healthy as the day he was born—now with a new name and new life far from the palace. His bargain saw to that.”
“Is that what you whispered? You told him to make a bargain?”
The Blood Yakka nodded. “I cannot act without one. It disrupts the balance.” His gaze wandered to the painting of the Heavens on the ceiling, a grimace marring his lips. “Thank the Heavens he was lucid enough to pray.”
The chamber filled with heavy silence. Anula heard the unspoken words that hung between. They crawled over scarred tissue, nipped at sensitive skin. If she hadn’t been so focused on her bargain…
“Thank you.” Her voice was small.
The Blood Yakka matched her gaze. “I do not want your thanks.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I do not want that either.”
Anula bit her lip. “It won’t happen again.”
“Do you mean that?” Worry lines wrinkled his forehead. For the first time, Anula wondered who he worried for.
She held his stare. “Yes.”
He searched her, as if trying to read her mind. “I hope so.”
Turning over, he blew out the last candle, leaving Anula alone with her thoughts, her doubts, and her healing skin. She rolled onto her side, watching the Blood Yakka from the edge of the bed, the chasm wide between them. He had judged her fairly, and she’d deserved it, but he hadn’t mentioned the other thing—what she had seen when they kissed.
He had liked it.
It was everything he thought a kiss was meant to be, everything he had dreamed of it being. A sizzle at first, exploding on his tongue and raining down his body. Every muscle, every bone alight. There was a thirst for more, the hunger deep and aching. But he also thought it shouldn’t have happened like this, in another’s body. It should’ve been his breath on her skin, his hands pressed onto her waist, his girth rising to meet her heat. His lips sliding against hers.
Anula softened. How had a centuries-old being never been kissed? She wondered what it would be like to kiss a Yakka—sharp edges and sharp teeth biting gently, teasing and testing bounds.Perhaps kissing a shadow would be the same. She shuddered, her fingers tingling. Desire grew fast and wild, like a fire caught in the jungle.Close the gap, the tether yearned.Find out, it cooed.Pull the shadow—not to kill, but to kiss. To know what his soul tasted like. Perhaps if she touched him just right, touched him gently…
Her fingers stretched across the chasm.
Cursed Yakkas.
Anula yanked her hand back and flipped over, wincing at the tug on her new skin. She’d lost too much blood; it was making her delusional. She pressed her eyes firmly closed and told herself to sleep. Because the shadow that was the Blood Yakka wanted a relic, not a kiss.
As did she.
***
But Anula found herself in Reeri’s mind, staring as a Yakka pressed a kiss onto another’s forehead.
