Page 10 of Feral Guardian
Shehasmissed me.
“That’s it?I have,” she mocks in a low voice. “What else? What’s happened? Have you seen any good performances? Did you go to the night market last season? Tell me!”
I almost laugh but manage to keep my reaction subdued. “I’ve been very busy training and designing new runes.”
“Oh, you’ll have to show me your designs! I’ve come up with a few new ones myself, somereallywicked—eh, wickedly interesting designs,” she corrects herself, but I know what she’s done.
Prank monster.
“I regret teaching you any to begin with,” I say with an amused lilt.
The conversation is flowing easily, and it settles my nerves some despite not knowing why she’d sent me away for four years. Now is not the time to ask and ruin the moment.
“That may be true but now that I already know, you might as well not hold back,” she says, her rounded cheeks glowing as she grins.
I reach into the pocket on my hip and remove my latest perfected design. Morgha’s steadfastness, Kor’Tar’s duty, Gaien’s revelation, Eyzanth’s luck, and Vexune’s prosperity. It’s inlaid in shark tooth and set with amethysts on a leather string. I pass her the necklace.
She sucks in a breath as she takes it all in. “Is this—oh, no, let me guess. Could it be for finding something?”
“For finding you,” I say, showing her the ring on my index finger where the ward-bound companion amethyst sits.
She scoffs. “You think I’m going to run?”
“Perhaps.”
I’m worried about losing her. It’s not a long journey by sea, but long enough that I want the assurance.
“And what’s this?” she asks, pointing to three more runes on the back side. “Burning intruder?”
I chuckle at her attempt at interpretation. I’ll have to school her on these new designs on the journey home. “It’ll burn anyone who tries to remove it from you. Only you can take it off.”
She stares at it and smiles softly. “Thank you.”
My heart swells. “You’re welcome.”
“I’m only going to wear it because it’s beautiful, and for no other reason,” she says, sliding the leather over her head and tightening it until the bone sits directly between her breasts.
My gaze remains there far too long, and I have to jerk my attention away.
“Teach me another one of your new runes!” she says enthusiastically.
I shake my head. “If you subdued an entire academy of guards and servants, I think you’re dangerous enough already.”
“Notallof them. Just a few. Maybe half. They found the headmistress naked and pinned to the ceiling and they came for me! I had to protect myself.”
I reach up to rub my eyes and press against my helm instead. “The headmistress, Lilianna?”
“And the girl who took a huge shit in my bed,” she says, nodding eagerly.
Admission of her bullying makes an angry heat rise in my chest. “Language, princess. And did this girl really defecate in your bed?”
“It was foul. I think she’d eaten something rotten on purpose. It wasn’t her last offense, either.”
“What is her name?” I ask, my stomach tight with fury.
Lily laughs. “What, are you going topunishherfor me?”
“Perhaps,” I growl.
