Page 40 of Bite of Passage
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?You didn’t do it.”
“It’s an expression to say I’m sad it happened.”
“Then I accept your concern.I think you will be safe when Skarde wakes up, even if he’s hungry.He likes you.I highly doubt he will bite unless that’s what you want.There’s also the pressure of the prophecy to keep his teeth out of your neck.”
“What exactly is the prophecy?”
The dwarf shrugged and gave her a blank look.
“He puts up with me,” she said.“I’m not sure helike-likes me.That might be pushing it.”
“He smiles for you, which means you’re important to him.The drug in the arrow should have stopped him, but for you he pulled himself up a cliff and walked.I have never seen anyone fight with such determination.”
Her heart pounded.The fact that she mattered to Skarde was like being on the radar of a celebrity.
Fontaine slowly turned his head her way.His solemnity sent her heart rate soaring.“I didn’t tell Skarde, but in truth I had my people make that ring for your mother after she cared for my son long ago.”
“So youdobelieve her to be my mother?”
He pointed a finger toward some bushes.
She glanced in that direction and in the next second, when she glanced back, he was gone.
“Where’d you go?”she called out.“You’re wrong!I’m not from here.I don’t belong.”
She wandered toward where he had pointed and pushed through the bushes.A familiar shade of purple peeked through the wall of leaves.
At the edge of an open field, she fell to her knees.Thiswas the field of purple flowers she remembered, the memory that always helped her relax.
She expected the onset of a panic attack, but it didn’t come.Instead, she plucked a flower and stared at its exquisite beauty.
This is real.I’ve been here before.
She whispered, “Maybe I do belong.”
ChapterSeventeen
Gemma joltedawake to find herself in darkness.The rain had stopped.She must’ve dozed off in the field.She’d only planned to rest for a few minutes.Something yanked her upward off the ground.In a matter of seconds, she was on a horse moving fast into the dark night.Before she could think to scream, the hard body behind her locked her in place with a gigantic arm around her midsection and a hand over her mouth.
Neither belonged to Skarde.Where the hell was Skarde, if it was night already?
A small backward glance to view her abductor, and…Oh, shit.
Cade.
On the upside, it wasn’t VanFliet.
On the very bad side, this guy seemed like a one-track-mind kind of guy, one who didn’t lose sight of the endgame when on a mission.
“Keep quiet or I’ll knock you out.”He released his hold on her mouth.
“I want off the horse.I might puke.Motion sickness.”Not entirely true.She didn’t get motion sickness easily.She wiggled against his hold.
“You’ll regret it if you puke on me.”He banded his arm tighter around her midsection.
“I can’t breathe, asshole.Pretty sure your bosses want me alive.”She managed to elbow him hard in the stomach, not that he reacted.
