Clanless (Nameless #2)(69)
“Zo?” A voice, soft and deep. “Are you in any pain?”
Zo gave in to the morning and blinked against the light filtering through the needles of the fir tree above her and groaned. Painful pressure behind her eyes from exhaustion and the ever-present ache of her hands made waking unwelcome. She needed rest. She needed more time with Gryphon.
A gentle touch caressed her hand—a welcome contradiction to the pain from the cuts of the blood oath. Her eyes sank back into sleep, until her memory of the night before forced its way to the front of her consciousness.
The blood oath. The man who kidnapped her from the Kodiak! The Ram sword he carried!
Zo’s eyes flew open. But what she saw made her think she was still dreaming. Lying on his side next to her, his head resting in his hand with a tentative smile playing about the corners of his mouth, was Gryphon. The sun hit his face in splotches, highlighting his eyes while shadowing his mouth.
“This isn’t real.” Zo frowned. She reached out and threaded her fingers through his chin-length brown hair. He leaned into the touch and her hand found his cheek. His jaw clenched beneath her fingers. He hesitated then turned his face to kiss the tender skin of her palm.
“Zo, stop,” she commanded herself out loud, squeezing her eyes shut and pulling away. A tear rolled down her face. “Deep breaths and it will pass.” She covered her face with her hands and curled her knees up to her chest, as if doing so would protect her heart. Wake up wake up wake up.
“Zo?”
Her head whipped up at the sound of his voice. That voice! The way he said her name. It couldn’t be. It simply wasn’t possible. Wasn’t this figure just the product of her fatigued body and mind?
“G-Gryphon?”
He nodded.
“But … but you died,” she gasped, tears blurring her vision. She thrust her hands out to feel along the boiled leather vest he wore to protect his chest. “A spear. Gabe told me. He said Ram spears never miss.”
Zo sat up and ignored Gryphon’s shock as she pushed him onto his stomach, face to the soil, and examined his back for a spear wound.
“I’m fine, Zo. I got away.” She nudged him to roll back onto his back and fanned her fingers along his shoulders, his arms, his legs. Tears rolled down her cheeks, her breath coming in strangled spurts. “Ram” gasp “spears” gasp “never miss.”
Gryphon took her by the shoulders and gently shook her from her delirium. “I escaped them, Zo. Now will you please breathe?” He wiped her tears and took up her hands and kissed them, one knuckle at a time, all the while fighting a little boy grin.
“How is this even possible?” she sobbed and launched herself at Gryphon, throwing her arms around his neck and knocking him onto his back. His deep laughter made his chest rise and fall—Zo along with it.
Gryphon was alive!
He trapped her in his arms, his chin resting protectively above her head. “You’re safe now. Everything is going to be fine.” He played with the long strands of her hair, occasionally kissing the crown of her head. With her ear pressed to him, each strong thump of his beating heart brought new hope. A joy that thrummed energy throughout her own body. Gryphon rolled onto his side, taking her with him so she rested in the crook of his arm, staring up at him in wonder.
How could she, in only a few days, have forgotten how attractive he was? Dark brown hair framed his chiseled jaw. Heavy shadows rested beneath his golden brown eyes. Such kind eyes. His Ram nose had a knot at the bridge from being repeatedly broken, but even that added to his rugged charm. “You’re alive.” It needed to be said. Shouted. Over and over again. That knowledge alone made everything bearable, as if a boulder had been lifted from off her chest and she could finally breathe again.
“What happened to your hands?” he asked, taking one up and kissing her palm. Zo closed her eyes at his touch and sighed. Joshua and Tess would be so happy.
“Joshua!” said Zo. “We need to get to the Allies. Joshua and Tess think you’re dead.”
“No I don’t,” a familiar voice approached the tree and Joshua dropped down to his knees, a ridiculous grin plastered to his face.
“I don’t understand.” Zo looked back and forth between the two. “Tess?”
“Safe with Stone and Eva and the rest of the Nameless. By now they will have made it to the Allied Camp. Joshua came with me to get you back. We’ve been tracking you.”
“Oh, no.” Zo remember the Kodiak and the blood oath she’d made. Ikatou would stop at nothing to find her. She was his only hope of freeing his family. If they discovered she wasn’t really kidnapped, that she didn’t leave with Gryphon and Joshua against her will …
She looked down at her hands and grimaced. How could she tell him about her promise? Especially now.
“Your hands, Zo,” he said, mirroring her thoughts. “What happened?”
The truth would ruin everything. She wanted nothing but to reach out to him. To take his weathered face in her hands and brush away the deep shadows beneath his eyes. To trace the strong lines of his jaw and smooth the wrinkled concern from his brow.
“Can you still run?” asked Joshua. “Once those Kodiak discover our tracks, it won’t take them long to find us.”
This was an opportunity to escape her promise to Ikatou and the others. They’d have a difficult time finding the Allied Camp on their own. She could be free of her blood oath! No more Barnabas. No more leaving loved ones. Gryphon was alive! This was a second chance to have him in her life, and she refused to squander it.