The Barbarian's Owned(43)

Garr glanced disdainfully at the snake in his hand and gave a flick of his wrist, snapping its back with casual ease. He tossed the limp viper onto Yahlalla’s unconscious form. “Take her from my sight.”

Vaya cracked her top and bottom knuckles in tandem. “My pleasure, boss.” The giantess hefted Yahlalla over one shoulder and also carried the snake out in a bottom hand.

The tide of emotions came on Rae all at once, adrenaline replaced with realization that she’d been a hair’s breadth away from dying. Horror and herbal poison in her blood made her thump weakly into Garr’s chest. She sobbed.

Garr stroked his long fingers through her hair at the back of her head.

“I almost died,” she whispered.

“I know.” There was sorrow in his voice. “But you’re safe now.”

With Vaya gone and the two things that had nearly destroyed her out of sight, the immediacy of Rae’s fear diminished. Or perhaps, it was the way Garr wrapped her up in his arms and dragged her so close they were collapsed almost together.

Rae cried, and she let Garr hold her, and he never let her go until she fell into a drugged sleep.





Chapter Fourteen



It was hard to wake from the cottony, anesthetic sleep caused by her drugged tea. Each time Rae pushed to the surface, Garr was there. He would give her water, insist she was safe, and she’d slip back into an unnatural slumber.

When she finally woke, her mouth was desiccated and her bladder full. Garr helped her to the bathroom and by the time he returned her to bed, her stomach had roused and she was famished.

Her protector brought food, and Rae’s hands shook so badly that he took hold to steady them, helping her manipulate the honeyed cake to her lips.

He brought her the stew leftover from that meal he’d prepared their first night in the tree house, blowing savory steam from each bite before feeding it to her. The rich broth put some strength back into her rubbery body and dulled the ache in her head.

Garr explained that he’d almost immediately run into Vaya returning from Kaython’s Mouth with news that the creature had been generated in one of the old seeding chambers.

At seeing provisions she’d returned with, he’d known she had actually taken the journey and therefore wasn’t lying. It was then they both realized the likely culprit was the Ythirian they had thought was Sylla—that she’d planted the grave berries while doing Rae’s laundry.

“So we returned,” Garr reported.

“Just in time.” Rae still couldn’t believe how close she’d come to dying.

“Had Vaya not traveled without rest, I fear Yahlalla’s deception may have worked.” He stared out the window at the waterfall. “I thought to protect you. But your world—it’s safer than mine, isn’t it?”

Rae sighed and reached for Garr’s arm, touching him to gather his attention before speaking. “My world can be dangerous too.” The dig sites had not always been in the safest regions.

“This whole plan was folly on my part.” He eased from her touch. “I see now that Kaython needed you to solve the mystery of Yahlalla’s genetic tampering. That is the real reason you were brought here. I was arrogant to assume it was for my own benefit.”

“What—what happened to Yahlalla?”

“She will undergo an inquiry to determine whether she murdered Sylla domé Tanu. If she did, we will give her over to their tribe. If not, she will be stripped of her genetic gifts and returned to her family, where she will be placed under house arrest for six cycles.”

He added: “A cycle is about ten of your Earth years.”

“Then what about me?” Rae asked.

Garr’s face fell and he glanced down at his hands. “I will return you to Earth once Lyr permits it. She has… not been forthcoming with our requests to cross her borders.

Perhaps, she blames us for Yahlalla’s activities in her territory. Lyr can be fickle and slow to forgive. I am sorry, but we will find a way.”

Rae managed a grin. “She likes me better than you. Maybe if we talk, just us girls.”

His eyes softened. “Yes. You are easy to like.”

Clearing her throat, Rae considered him and then the waterfall that was the centerpiece of the bedroom’s view. The frisson she’d felt before came back, as though her connection to this place had grown.

She interpreted it as an invitation from Kaython to remain, and even to use the genetics lab if she liked.

And what excuse did Rae actually have to return to Earth? Once Lyr allowed them, Garr could take her to visit her family; no work she did at home could compare to the discoveries lying buried on this alien world. And there were even Earth-based genetic profiles she could examine.