Page 72 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
She shrugged. “Exhaustion, probably? I should have slept, but there was no food in the dorm, and I was hungry. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten.”
I looked down at her. “You missed breakfast?”
Staring at me like I was stupid, she tried to yank her hand away, but I held it tightly. She glared at me instead. “The last three breakfasts. And midday meals. Though I’ve had some nut bread for dinner the last few nights, so that’s something, right?”
I slowed. My mate hadn’t eaten in three days? The beast inside me howled its outrage, and I worked hard to keep it from my face. “I’ll take you to the food hall after the healers. And I’ll get someone to stock your dormitory.”
She side-eyed me. “No, thank you.”
I stared down at her, letting her see how serious I was. My Soul Tie would never go hungry again. She’d never have to choose between rest and food. She’d never have to exhaust herself to the point that she could be hurt.
I refused to think about the fact that she’d gotten lucky. The stairs to the dormitories were steep, and if she’d fallen wrong, my mate could’ve been dead within hours of me meeting her. Braxus howled somewhere in the building where he was keeping watch, affected by my devastation at just the thought.
Taking her chin in my fingers, I tilted her face up so I could see those pretty midnight-blue eyes. “I wasn’t offering, Avalon.You better get used to seeing my face, because I’m going to be your shadow for as long as I live and breathe.”
Shaking her head, she just blinked up at me. “I don’t understand.”
I resisted the urge to lean down and rub my face along hers, marking her as mine in the way of beasts. “I know.”
We were almost to the healers when she gasped, grabbing at her neck. “Oh no.”
Terror made my heart thunder in my chest.Fuck. Was she more injured than I’d first thought? Had I let her wander the halls with a broken neck? “What is it? Where does it hurt?”
She patted at the hood of her long jacket. “Is it okay?” Her voice shook lightly.
Looking into the deep hood, I saw a stolt, curled up in a ball. Poking him gently, I let out a relieved sigh when he blinked one eye open.Are you injured?I asked him mentally. The ability to speak to animals was the generally accepted power of our Line.
He showed me an image of him leaping off her shoulder as she fell, then hiding in her hood as she was scooped up by the guy from the Twelfth Line.
Name?I asked, and he showed me a picture of a purple flower, a bird known for making a distinctive “ep ep ep” noise and the ocean.
Your name is Ep-Ocean?
He bared its teeth at me. Okay, not Ep-Ocean. He showed me an image of a seed in the grass.
Oh, Ep-sea.
He licked my fingers happily, then went back to sleep. He’ddefinitely chosen Avalon as its person.
“The stolt is fine. He abandoned you as you fell and climbed back into your jacket afterwards. His name is Epsy, apparently.”
She grinned at me. “Like the epsirialle flowers.” Ah, those were what the purple flowers were. Maybe she’d named the little beast.
“I didn’t realize you had an animal companion. Do you have Third Line genes somewhere in your family history?” It would explain the instant Soul Tie.
She shook her head. “Oh, he’s not mine. I just found him. I thought he belonged to one of you?”
I laughed, scratching the little stolt’s head. “I know every animal companion in my Line, and he’s not one of ours.” Grabbing her hand again and tugging gently, I continued down the hall. “He’s yours now. He claimed you. It happens like that sometimes, that instant connection.” I sounded intense, even to my own ears, but was saved by further questions by our arrival at the healer’s rooms. “Let’s go in and get you checked out.”
chapter forty-five
Avalon
The healer was probably moreattentive than he normally would have been, since Hayle was there, glaring at him with an intensity I didn’t really understand. I didn’t understand anything about any of our interactions so far, but Hayle Taeme was a force of nature, and I was swept up in his storm.
When the healer suggested I had a mild concussion and that someone should monitor me during the night, Hayle had automatically volunteered for the job. Yeah, that was definitely not happening. There was no way that this near-perfect stranger was sleeping in the same dormitory as me, let alone the same room.
Despite the almost unnatural comfortableness I felt around him, I wasn’t an idiot. He was powerful, both physically and socially. He could murder me in my sleep, and the responses from the authorities would range from perplexed to confident that I was the one in the wrong. No one would avenge my death. Definitely not my father. He’d probably send Hayle a fruit basket in thanks.
