Captive by Lori Holmes

Author:Lori Holmes
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2020-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

12

Beliefs

Khalvir slept restlessly. The rock at his back was relentless, as was the constant noise from the forest. He could not close it out, no matter how hard he tried. Once again, he longed for the stark solitude of the plains. He wondered how much longer it was until dawn. Too long. The silver circle in the sky was high overhead. He could just make out the cold light, flickering and filtering down through the canopy to steal through the gaps in the pit’s cover above.

Would she come? She had said things were about to become ‘complicated’ and that she did not know when she would be able to return. The prospect of having nothing to break up the tedium, of not seeing her, for any length of time soured his outlook considerably.

Khalvir sank deeper into his furs and tried to find rest. He hadn’t realised he had actually fallen asleep until the sound of her voice roused him. “Juaan,” she called softly. “Juaan?”

He could see her small form turning uncertainly a few strides from him. It didn’t appear that she could see him. He really wished she would stop calling him that. “Khalvir,” he corrected, rising quietly to his feet.

She froze, her whole body locking down. He saw her fists clench and heard her breathing quicken. Was she afraid? He put a hand out and touched her shoulder. She flinched violently. He was stung that she would be so afraid of him.

“It’s all right,” he soothed. “Don’t be alarmed, elf. I promised I would not hurt you.” He lifted his hand away from her shoulder and held both up in the air, displaying he meant no harm.

She breathed again. “Nyri,” she reminded him.

“Khalvir, then.” He moved away from her to sit back against the rock wall. She followed him, blindly it seemed, for she trod on him. “That was my foot.”

“Well,” she danced backwards. A stone clattered in the dark. “Ow! Don’t clothe yourself in damned black, then.”

He laughed softly at her annoyance. “I don’t have much choice, really. It’s either that or go naked down here.”

He could almost feel the heat rise on her skin and gated another laugh at her embarrassment. Her next words distracted him, however. “If you were Ninkuraaja, I’d know exactly where every part of you was without having to see you.”

“Truly? You cannot sense me, then?”

“Well, I can to a certain degree, but not exactly.” She sat down within an arm’s length of him. His skin prickled at her nearness. He felt the urge to reach out and touch her and he struggled to stay focused on her words. “It’s like a part of you… an energy… for want of a better word, is not there or lies dormant, if you see what I mean.”

“Not really,” he lied. She could not know.

She sighed. “It is hard to explain. How do you describe seeing to a blind man?”

“How indeed.” He turned his head to study her, wishing he could see her beautiful face more clearly, the spark in her indigo eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.