Page 72

“I am not afraid of a few rocks. Besides, what if you need something?”

“Something… Something like what?”

“What if you require my protection?”

I laughed. Tenn’s gaze still lingered on my mouth.

“I’ll be safe inside. And you’ll be out there! What, exactly, do you plan on protecting me from like that?”

He placed his hands on either side of the window outside, bracketing the opening, and leaning so close that his next words fanned across my face.

“Does loneliness count?”

I blinked, stunned to hear my question from the other night turned back on me that way. I remembered how he’d replied, and nodded, my throat growing hot.

“It counts.”

Tenn’s breathing grew slightly uneven. The white returned to his eyes. Awareness snapped between us like an electrical charge.

My lips parted.

“Get some rest.” Tenn suddenly pushed off from the wall and retreated to the tent. “We have lots of work to do tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. Right. We’d be meeting Dorn, Xennet, and Rivven for the first time. I needed a clear head. So far, I’d only met Zabrian convicts who’d been tempered by the presence of their wives. This would be my first time meeting unmarried convicts face-to-face. I swallowed, and pretended not to feel the way my neglected lips tingled.

“Alright,” I said. I closed the window, filled my washbasin, got ready for bed, then slipped under the covers. As much as I’d gotten used to sleeping beside Tenn, being in a real bed again was heavenly, and exhaustion soon pulled me down into the depths of sleep.

I dreamed of myself in that bed. In that very room.

With a white glow coming in through the window.

The next morningI woke at dawn, refreshed from my sleep in the bed and fuelled by the fact that I’d be meeting more of the men today. Since it was so early, I thought I might be the first one up, but after getting dressed and heading out into the kitchen, I found Warden Hallum already waiting for me there. He, too, was dressed, his uniform crisp and his boots impossibly clean.

“Breakfast,” he said, indicating food laid out on the table.

“Thank you,” I said. I glanced around the kitchen.

“Looking for Warden Tenn?”

Damn. He really did see everything.

“He’s awake,” Warden Hallum said. “He’s cleaning up with a hose outside. When he’s finished, we’ll go.”

“Go? Go where?” I’d assumed that, since there were only three men to meet, they would all congregate here.

“One of my men, Rivven, suffered an injury many cycles ago,” Warden Hallum answered. “As a result, he does not work on a ranch like the others, but rather runs a saloon. His saloon is located at a central point, roughly equal distance from the properties of Dorn, Xennet, and myself. We will all meet there.”

A saloon? Interesting. I hadn’t realized that there were any other career options for the men out here.

“Alright. That’s fine with me,” I told him.

“Good,” he said. “I will go prepare the shuldu.”

By the time I was finished eating and had retrieved my hat, the two wardens were outside, each of them holding the reins of a shuldu. I wondered, for a painful second, if Tenn was going to pull another moment like last night when he’d decided for theboth of us that I’d sleep away from him. Was he going to make me ride with Warden Hallum?

No offence to Warden Hallum, but I could not imagine anything more uncomfortable than sitting on a saddle in front of him for an entire shuldu ride. It would be like sitting in front of a big, cold rock. A grey one. With very sharp edges.

But Tenn was already making his way towards me, leading the large sable shuldu by the reins.