Her eyes met his and she realized how dark they were. His smell suddenly changed and she realized she was sucking on her own lower lip as she studied his face. She saw him take a breath and dare himself.

She acted before he could take the decision from her. She leaned in, turning her head slightly and putting her mouth on his. Was this how it was done? She had never kissed anyone on the mouth. Awkwardness and worry assaulted her. Tats’ arms suddenly moved up and around her, pulling her body against his. His lips moved on hers. He knew how to do this, she thought, and knew an instant of fury at where he’d learned it. Well, she wasn’t Jerd and whether she kissed the right way or not, he’d soon discover that she did things her own way. She shook her head slowly, moving her lips back and forth against his. Scale on softness, she thought to herself, and briefly lost herself in that sensation. His hands wandered up her back and their touch on the tender area between her shoulder blades made her twitch with pain.

‘What is that?’ he demanded.

Embarrassment flooded her. ‘It’s nothing. I got cut in the river. It’s sore.’

‘Oh. Sorry. It feels really swollen.’ ‘It’s sensitive.’ ‘I’ll be careful.’

He bent his head to kiss her again. She let him. Then, from somewhere else on the boat, she heard someone’s voice raised in a question. Someone replied. They weren’t alone here. Not really.

She pulled her mouth from his and bowed her head. He folded her in close to him and kissed the top of her head greedily. She felt his warm breath and it sent a shiver down through her. He laughed softly at that. ‘Is this my answer?’ he asked her, his voice deeper than she’d ever heard it.

‘To what question?’ she asked, sincerely puzzled.

‘Are you choosing me?’

Almost, she wanted to lie to him. She didn’t. ‘I’m choosing to be free, Tats. To not have to choose, not now, not ever if I don’t want to.’

‘Then, then what does this mean?’ He hadn’t released her but there was a stiffness to his embrace that hadn’t been there before.

‘It means that I wanted to kiss you.’

‘And that’s all?’ He leaned back from her and she looked up at his face.

‘For now,’ she admitted. ‘That’s all.’

She was meeting his gaze now. A trick of the light moved stars in his dark eyes. He nodded at her slowly. ‘That’s enough. For now.’

Sedric.

‘No. Go away. Let me sleep.’

Sedric.

‘I just want to sleep.’

Sedric.

‘What?’ He projected all his annoyance into the word. It hurt. He lifted his hand to his jaw, then gingerly explored the whole side of his face. It hurt. Of all the bruises that Jess had given him, this one hurt the worst. One of his eyes still wouldn’t open all the way.

‘I’m hungry.’ Her actual voice was a rumbling, gargling sort of sound. The meaning of it rode into his mind as a thought. No time to worry about his own pain. She pushed his own physical state aside with concerns about her own. She was hungry.

‘Well, I don’t have any more hunters to feed you.’

????

‘Never mind. I’m getting up. I’ll see what I can do for you.’ He was still trying to forget yesterday’s events and their bloody culmination.

The second time Relpda had surfaced, Jess’s lower half had been in her jaws. She’d treated him to one more shocking glimpse of the sheared torso, then merrily tossed the remains into the air, caught them so that they aligned with her throat, and with a couple of jerking motions, swallowed the hunter’s hips and legs.

He’d turned his head away, retching hopelessly. When he heard a splash and felt the raft rock, he’d guessed it was safe to look back. She’d vanished under the water again. He’d taken a shuddering breath and curled forward over his belly. That left him looking at the pool of mingled blood and river water in the bottom of the boat. He’d scrabbled out of it and perched on the log beside it, trying to think what he must do next.

The hunter was dead. He and the dragon had killed Jess. If they hadn’t, Jess would certainly have done his best to kill both of them. Yet it all seemed so monstrous, so hugely outside his experience that he could scarcely grasp it. He’d never expected to kill a man; he’d never expected even to fight or hurt another man. Why would he? If he had remained in his correct place, in Bingtown, working as Hest’s assistant, nothing like this would have ever befallen him.

If he’d remained with Hest, nothing like this would have ever happened to him.

Suddenly that had been a thought that could cut both ways.

The dragon had surfaced noisily. Better, she’d told him. Not so hungry.

‘I’m happy for you.’

The words had been an empty courtesy, but in return she’d given him a flood of warmth. The surge of affection he felt from her had temporarily pushed all pain from his body. She’d followed it with a request. Need help. To get on the wood again.

‘I’m coming.’ And he’d actually managed to help her to a safer perch, one where she could rest.

Sometime before nightfall, he’d recovered enough that he’d eaten the fruit that Jess had harvested. His lips were broken and his face hurt where Jess had struck him, but he ignored the pain to eat. The fruit was both food and drink for him, and he was shocked at how much better he felt for it. That done, he’d inventoried the supplies in the boat. The best discovery had been a wool blanket, even if it was wet and smelly. He’d spread it out to let it dry as much as it would before dark.

He’d forced himself to proceed logically, even to gathering up the piece of line and the fishing spear that Jess had dropped when he’d decided that killing Sedric was more important that killing the dragon. Relpda had watched him from her precarious perch on the logs. When he’d picked up the spear, she’d shuddered and he’d felt her dislike for the weapon.

‘I might be able to get food for us with this,’ he suggested doubtfully.

Yes. Maybe. But hurt. See?

And so he’d had to examine her injury. It was still leaking blood, but her dip beneath the water seemed to have partially cauterized it. ‘You need to keep that as dry as you can,’ he’d counselled her. ‘No more diving.’

Sedric angry?

Her query had actually sounded anxious. Her tone made him stop to consider her question. ‘No,’ he answered honestly. ‘Not angry. We do what we have to do. We had to kill him or he would have killed us. You ate him because, well, it’s what dragons do. You were hungry. I’m not angry.’

Sedric kill. Sedric protect. Sedric feed Relpda.

‘I suppose I did,’ he said after a time of horrified reflection. ‘I suppose I did.’