Brand of the Moon

Chapter Two

An icy shot of fear raced down Kamaria's spine as her forehead flared up again.

"Tigris!" She shouted, struggling as the stranger gripped her tighter. He pulled her head back to rest on his chest as he wrapped his other arm around her torso. "Tigris!"

"Wild animals have no loyalty," the man countered. "Your Tigris has her dinner. She won't be back."

Kamaria's eyes narrowed. "What do you want? Money? Revenge? Have I killed a precious comrade of yours?"

The man chuckled. "Call it curiosity."

"Of the variety that killed the cat?" She stopped struggling and grinned. "Because that can be arranged."

"The one that blinded it," he rebuked. "Tell me why it happens."

Kamaria gritted her teeth. "I don't know why."

The man huffed, pushed Kamaria from his chest, and spun her around. He maintained a hold on her hands, not allowing her to pull the cloak from her head. She stifled a gasp.

Handsome could not begin to describe the man. His dark hair was pushed back, but curled tendrils escaped to frame his sharp jaw. Intelligent honey-brown eyes stared into her obscured ones. One side of his mouth quirked up into a knowing smile.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"What's it to you?" Kamaria ground out.

"Curiosity, remember?"

For someone who was well aware he could die at any moment, the man's good humour never wavered. Kamaria became increasingly aware of her hands in his large ones. His grasp was firm and unwavering, but surprisingly comfortable.

"I'm Lucian," he said. The words spilled out partially from the hope it would encourage the mysterious woman to reveal her own name and, in larger part, because Lucian simply wanted her to taste his name on her tongue.

"I don't recall asking."

Kamaria expected the cold rebuttal to spark annoyance in the unwelcome visitor.

But his smile only grew wider.

"You didn't, but I'm an old-fashioned man. In my eyes, if a man and a woman hold hands, they ought to be properly introduced first."

"Maybe in normal society," Kamaria fired back. "But not here. Now let me go."

"If I do, do you promise not to blind me?"

"Let me go and you'll find out."

Lucian's gaze never wavered as his hands released hers. He was too trusting, she decided. Too naive.

Just like she was, once many moons ago.

"What do you want?" Kamaria growled, angered by her own thoughts. "To see my face?"

"No."

"To chain me with a ring on my finger?"

"No."

"To–"

"I want to find out why so many men sit at the Ivy Crown, drunk off their ass, singing about a beautiful nymph in the woods. Why, after they leave for their journey, they never return. And why that doesn't ever seem to stop the next man from trying his luck anyway."

"I don't know why."

"Really? You don't know why they never come back?"

Kamaria rolled her eyes. "Don't toy with me. We both know why they don't come back. But I couldn't tell you what makes them come in the first place."