Free Out Of The Darkness by Calle J. Brookes

You’re food, not pets.”
    “It ’s just a blister.” Now she felt stupid for not saying something sooner. “I’ll be ok.”
    “Sure you will.” He ripped a strip of cotton off his tunic. “It ’s relatively clean. Best we can do.” He wrapped it around her foot and tied it off. “Put your shoes back on. We’ll find another spot to rest for the rest of the day.”
    “But that will just delay us getting home. I ’d rather go on.” She wiggled her ankle, testing for mobility. “Please?”
    He lifted her off the rock and Cass found herself crushed against his chest. Her legs dangled until he pulled them up around his waist. “Hold on.”
    She really had no other choice, did she? She’d suffer the indignity of him carrying her if it meant they got back home just that much sooner. “I’m holding.”
     
    ***
     
    He carried his Rajni against his chest and tried to ignore the feel of her body pressed against his. Again. Instead he chose to focus on berating himself for being so stupid to think that because she hadn’t protested, that she could handle a six hour hike over rough terrain. What were human girls capable of, anyway? He had to remind himself, had to remember that she was more fragile than any female who’d ever been in his care.
    And look how the last females in his keeping had fared.
    His arms tightened around her.
    This was just another reason why he ’d never let her know who she was to him. How could he? She wouldn’t even want him if she knew the truth of things.
    “We ’ll go on a few more hours, then stop for the night. Even if we pushed ourselves we wouldn’t get to Rachion tonight. It’s too damned far away.”
    “Rachion? What about Edni?” Her words tickled his skin and he fought the urge to crush her against him and sink his own teeth deep into her neck. Just for a taste. Like Rajni s had been enjoying for millennia.
    “No portkeys there.” The young bartender had finally relented and passed him a note. Told him to search for a particular shopkeeper in the larger town forty miles east of Edni. It would cost a great deal of coin, but supposedly what they needed could be bought. “Got a tip what we need is the next city to the east.”
    “How far away?”
    He thought for a moment, calculating how far they’d already traveled. “Another thirty miles or so.”
    “On foot? How long will it take us to walk there?”
    “At this rate? Three more days.” He for damned sure didn’t intend for it to take that long. Not by a long shot. He’d find the appropriate place to keep his female safe, then get what they needed and bring it back to her.
    As soon as he found the safest place to put her.
    “I don’t suppose you can fly us there?”
    He snorted. “Hardly. A bat ’s about all the flying animal I can manage.”
    “You ’re not going to leave me in a cave again while you go exploring.” Her fingers clung to the back of his vestis. “I mean it. No go. We stick together.”
    That wasn ’t about to happen. There was no way in three hells he was taking her into Rachion. He’d asked a few drunken youth how to get to that city, and even with their swords at their sides and the battle scars that told him they were experienced fighters, they’d been extremely hesitant to give that information. He’d had no difficulty sensing their fear. Until he reconned the place, she wasn’t going near it. For any reason.
    “We ’ll see.”
    “No, we won ’t. We stick together. That’s the deal.”
    “And you get us both dead. You can ’t even walk ten miles without needing carried. Puny human.” A puny human that barely weighed enough to survive. Had he not seen how small her sister and a few cousins were he’d half think she’d starved herself to be that thin.
    Not so, though. He ’d seen her eat—girl had a healthy appetite. For a human. His girl was just thin, delicate. Fragile.
    Mortal. Vulnerable.
    “We’re finding a safe place for you to stay. Then I’ll get the