Two girls. Two secrets.
Only one can survive.
Years before Nelle Wychthorn plans her escape, Tabitha Catt may unearth something in a Horned God's lair that is the key to freedom.
Desperate to save her beloved aunt from a dark curse, Tabitha is out t...
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Varen was still speaking and it was an effort to concentrate on what he was saying. He paused, looking at me in curiosity with a dash of concern. "Are you alright?"
I blinked, roused out of the tangle of thoughts that were racing through my mind at lightspeed.
"You look a bit spaced out." He clicked his tongue and slowly raised a single eyebrow. "Did my waffling bore you, Miss Catt?"
"I'm so sorry." I quickly gestured to the wyrm branded across his heart. "I'm just... It's just..."—the best freaking news I've had in a long, long time—"Breathtaking." My nose scrunched a little as my shoulders shrank inward. Even I winced at how lame it sounded when I croaked out hoarsely, "Ah, what were you saying?"
His eyes narrowed and mouth thinned as if vexed but it was softened by the amusement glimmering in his gaze. "I was saying, my family line is born with an affinity for wyrms, and those tamers with full wyrmblood are able to bond with the wyrm."
The ends of my hair fanned out in the water when I tipped my head to the side, thinking back to the knowledge I'd acquired from Florin. "Wyrms are currently in hibernation."
His smile was full of pride as if what I'd said pleased him. And there was also an inquisitive gleam in his gaze. "Not many within the world of Houses know that."
No, I expect not. And not many of us, if any, were friends with a Horned God either.
"I do a lot of reading," I replied airily, in way of answer. "I read all sorts of books... Not just porn."
His rich chuckle skated across my skin like a featherlight stroke of his fingertips.
Drumming his knuckles on the rocky ledge, he looked back up at the willwips and said wistfully, "One day I expect the wyrms will awaken from hibernation and soar through the skies once more. Then I expect a new tamer will be born within my family with wyrm genes waiting to be—"
"Wyrm genes?" My eyebrows knitted together as I cut him off.
"I have a theory that tamers are only born when there's a wyrm present. And when they bond, the wyrm tamer's genes are activated." He carried on talking and I only heard portions of it, such as infused and feral power and that's all a guess, of course. Though I was staring at him, my mind had wandered elsewhere.
How was I going to get wyrmblood from Varen?
Ask him?
Steal it from him?
I had less than two weeks to figure it out. More than enough time to fill a single vial with his precious blood.
Suddenly his annoyed voice caught me by surprise when he boomed, "Oh for fucks' sake. Are you listening to me?!"
I jolted and splashed about in the water. "Yes, yes, of course, I am," I reassured him with a little white lie.
