Read Online Ki Book One by Odette C. Bell - Free Book Online

out
there.
    Pushing a hand into the small of Ki’s back
and practically throwing her through the open cabin door, he
whirled to close it quickly.
    Stumbling, she turned, nostrils flaring.
“How dare you—”
    Her grumble was cut short as a wolf call
ran g out from just
behind the door. Startled, she gasped, flattening a hand on her
chest as her eyes widened.
    “ Relax. They can’t get inside.” Shifting
past her, he made his way through the dark to the table he knew was
on the other side of the room. The cabin was small, and he found
his arm brushing past Ki’s. She yanked it back instantly. It
brought a slight smile to the corners of his mouth.
    As he fumbled over the table, his hand
clutched the matches and the oil lamp. Pushing his fingers down the
sticky glass, he struck a match on the chipped wood and finally lit
the oil.
    The glow of the lamp lapped and flickered
up his arm and face. Turning, he walked over and set it down above
the fire place. Ki still stood by the door, a good meter back from
it, her hand pushing into her chest. A wolf was scrabbling at the
dirt outside, occasionally pawing at the door itself. With every
snuffle of its muzzle or scratch of its claws, she gave a slight
shudder.
    “ They will get bored and give up,” he
assured her as he grabbed at some dry wood by the fireplace,
heaping it into the coals.
    “ We have wolves in Tarkan, but they would
never act like this. They are scared of people.”
    He couldn’t stop the mocking chuckle from
shaking his breath .
“That is because you have hunted them near to extinction. They know
to avoid you if they wish to live. Ashkan wolves are by and large
left alone. They know to stick to the woods and not come into the
towns, but up here is their own domain.”
    Her hand dropped from her chest, and no
doubt she fixed him with an incredulous look. In the dark all he
could see was that rounded bottom lip of hers turn in. “Will you use
everything you can as an insult against my people?”
    “ Only when it is true and it stops you from
trembling at the door.” He stood, brushing his hands against his
rough, woolen work pants.
    Twisting her neck up in that haughty way
he’d come to recognize was her main reaction to everything, she
walked further into the room.
    Small, it only possessed a single bed, a
table, a chair, a fireplace, and an old cupboard of supplies. She
walked over to the bed, pressing her hand into it as if to check
the spring. It was made of old, moldering hay that had seen too
much damp, but it was better than the cold stone floor
below.
    Shrugging over her shoulder, she looked at
him, then back down at the bed. Straightening, she tugged higher on
her collar and took a steady step backwards.
    He knew what she was thinking, and he
couldn’t help but laugh. Perhaps she really was a priestess; he’d
met few women as reserved as her.
    “ There should be a canister of wine in the
cupboard. And if we are lucky, the last trackers to use this place
may have left some cheese and preserves.” He pointed past her,
finally controlling the smile that had fattened his cheeks at her
quaint behavior.
    She stood with her bare arms hooked behind
her back, a nonplussed look on her face. “I cannot drink wine. It
is forbidden for a priestess to indulge in alcohol. I will need
water instead.”
    Snickering, he leaned a hand onto the
fireplace. “There is no water. And unless you would like to go
outside to brave the wolves to pull some up from the well, there
will be nothing but wine.”
    Patting her throat demurely, she shook her
head.
    “ Your lips are dried and cracked.
Presumably you haven’t had a drop of anything since you fell to
earth this morning. After all the crying, screaming, and berating
you’ve done, I imagine your throat is parched.” Shifting past her,
he leaned down to the cupboard and began rummaging within. In
seconds he’d brought out a wheel of cheese carefully wrapped in
dark cloth and leather, and a bottle of corked