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The word pinged around in my head. I ignored it with a grunt, opened my wings, and flew to the building.

I hadn’t thought to warn Suvi first. She wouldn’t have understood me anyway. But she gasped and bucked in my arms when I lifted off, clutching at me in a panic. I held her fast and tried to soothe her, told her she had nothing to fear.

My attempt at calming her earned me a sharp tug at my scalp as she pulled on my hair like it was a set of reins she could use to force me into landing.

In flight, the distance passed beneath us in mere moments. I landed on my feet before the house on the hill. Instantly, Suvi began to try fighting her way out of my hold. I did not let her go. Instead, I held her even more tightly and used my wings to create a shield in front of her, even though a spear would be snapped in midair before it ever reached us, a hurled stone or blade warped and crushed by my power. If I wanted to, I could collapse the entire building on the heads of whichever warriors were inside with nothing but a flick of my claws. River help them all if even one came close to hurting her.

My voice boomed with stark authority.

“I demand passage into this hall. As your prince, I lay my rightful claim upon your sustenance and shelter for the night.”

The words slipped from my forked tongue without thought. As if I’d spoken them many times before.

“If you heed me, you will earn fresh metal. If you refuse, you will pay in both metal and in blood, as sure as my name is... is...”

Like a wind-battered candle in the dark, the words sputtered and went out.

Rolling my jaw in irritation, I gave up on whatever formalities I’d invoked and ploughed through the grass up the hill. The house had a large, pavilion-style room at the front, open to the air. Braided grass and cotton curtains hung threadbare and useless. There were no lights and I heard no sounds.

I kept Suvi wrapped up in my wings, even as she wiggled in defiance, using my power to slide open inner wooden doors. We passed through room after room.

There was no one here.

That was both good and bad. I wouldn’t have to protect Suvi from anyone.

But there wasn’t much of use here, either.

It looked like the place had been stripped bare. Like anything of value had been taken long ago and the structure abandoned. Even the empty house had not come away unscathed from whatever had happened – there were singed-looking holes in several of the walls, like something had blasted through and burned the walls while doing it. Ash and dust coated my feet and claws as I padded over the smooth, wooden floorboards.

Satisfied that no one was here, I finally let Suvi down in the largest central room of the house. She placed her boots down and looked around. I watched her in the gloom, observing her as she toured the perimeter of the room then ducked into another chamber. Like a shadow, I followed her.

She shook out an old blanket that she discovered in a dusty corner, then dropped it and jumped backward with a high-pitched yelp when something heavy landed on the floor with a thud. I quickly shoved her behind me, then bent to see what it was.

It was a leather belt with a stiff knife sheath attached. I pulled at the handle jutting out of the sheath and a long, curved metal knife slid out.

This style of knife, with its carved wooden handle inlaid with blue river stones and its deadly sharp blade, was deeply familiar to me. I stood, hefting the knife in one hand and holding the belt and sheath in the other. A deep, primal sense of satisfaction overtook me when I thought of putting the belt on. I had found it, I had claimed it, I would keep it. That was the way of things.

At least, I was fairly certain it was...

I sheathed the knife and moved to put the belt around my waist when my eye landed on Suvi and I halted. Something in my chest lurched, then went tight. She looked so small in this abandoned place. So vulnerable, with her soft skin and her little bandaged feet. Feet I hadn’t even known to be hurting until tonight.

She watched me with gleaming, guarded eyes as I moved towards her. Her breath caught, her pulse fluttering in her throat when I leaned down close and looped the belt around her waist. I felt her breathing against the scales of my neck and chest, so gentle and warm, and a claw of desire curled low in my belly.

“Here, little star,” I murmured, my voice sounding oddly husky to my own ears. “This is for you. Not that you’ll need it...” My eye flicked up to both of hers. “Because you have me.”

I did up the belt’s buckle with practised ease, muscle memory taking over where conscious memory failed. Something told me that this was a child’s knife and belt, because it settled easily enough around her soft abdomen, resting against the curve of her hips. It likely would not have even fit me. If it was a child’s, that would explain why it did not seem to have been found and plundered along with the main stores of weapons my instincts told me a house of this calibre should have contained.

Suvi had a pinched expression as she looked down at herself. She shook her head in dissatisfaction, as if uncomfortable with the weapon. As if she wanted me to take it back. She fiddled with the buckle and then gave up with a sharp sigh when she found that she could not undo it.

“Keep it,” I told her. It made me feel just a little better to see her with a weapon, even though, as I’d already promised her, she’d never actually need it.

She threw her hands up then went back to the corner, grabbing the blanket then plopping down on the floor with it. She lay on her side, facing the wall. Her back was to me, and despite my lack of understanding about many things, I at least could understand this. The message was clear enough.

She wanted to be alone.

Or, at the very least, she did not want to be near me.

Unfortunately for her, she did not have a choice in the matter.

I didn’t have a choice, either.

For whatever reason, being away from her meant danger and darkness, and I would not go back. I stood, staring down at her still form, trying to calculate how much space I could give her while still being in contact with her all night. I had not really tested how long I could withstand not touching her. Every time I felt unease prickling at the base of my skull and darkness dancing at the edges of my vision during the day, I’d made sure to get closer to her, to stroke some part of her. I did not know if it was illness or madness or poison or maybe just the way I’d been made, but something had gone very wrong inside me and she was the only cure.

Bracing for rejection, I lay down on my side behind her, pressing one hand beneath the blanket until it rested lightly on her bare shoulder. She tensed instantly, then started wiggling forwards, closer to the wall and further from me, all the while trying to slither her shoulder out from under my hand.

“I’m sorry,” I grunted, scooting forward to stay near her. “I have to touch you.”

I worried if I slept too long away from her, that in my slumber I would not feel the darkness closing in. What if I woke in a frenzy and she could not calm me soon enough? What if, maddened and lost and afraid, I hurt her before I realized what I’d done?

That thought inspired fear like nothing else.

Perhaps she might need the knife after all...

To use against me. It wouldn’t do much against most of my body. But if she shoved it into my eye socket, not faltering until she buried it in my brain...

At least it could slow me down.

It wouldn’t come to that. Stone skies help me, if she would just stop trying to wriggle away from me like a river serpent...

But she had nowhere left to try to flee to. She’d reached the wall, the fingers of her hand splayed flat against it. Since we were in the corner, the tops of our heads abutted another wall. I gave up on my weak attempt at courtesy with that awkward shoulder-hold, and hooked my arm around her abdomen, trapping her firmly against my body. My tail hauled itself up over her legs, pinning her in place.