“What doyouwant?”
“Not this. I need food, but I don’t want it to cause pain. Grief.” His tail swished low at his ankles. “It doesn’t matter what I want. This is the system I was given.”
He tried to step around her.
Fi cut him off again. A warning growl rumbled his chest. Dramatic ass. They’d been through this show of snarling and snapping enough times to cut through the bullshit.
“What’s an Old House?” Fi asked.
A crack hit Antal’s facade like shattered porcelain. Deeper than any blow or curse she threw at him, that trembling inhale and eyes narrowed to slits.
“You’re from an Old House,” Fi pushed, heedless. “Dotheytell you who to eat?”
“The Daey Celva is the governing body of all daeyari.” Antal’s words grated like fractured glass. “We’re a solitary people. Civil service is regarded as a role of great sacrifice and honor. The Old Houses are daeyari families who’ve served on the Daey Celva since its founding.”
Fi offered her most unimpressed eyebrows. “Your family are politicians?”
“Myfatheris a politician.”
“You ran an entire territory, Antal.”
“And I never wanted to come here!”
They stared at each other. Antal hadn’t used that slicing tone since their early days.
Had he softened so much to her, that they both looked surprised?
He softened now, clawed feet whispering over flagstone as he retreated a step. “When the previous daeyari of my territory retired, my father volunteered me. An opportunity to learn independence. Responsibility.” Antal scoffed. “That’s gonewell, as you can see.”
Of all the unsavory attributes Fi had assumed of Antal, a nepotism hire was never one of them. “Have you considered telling your father what happened? Asking for help?”
Antal laughed, back to that biting and humorless thing, noneof the warmth he’d let slip before. “I guarantee you, he’s heard what happened by now. And look at all the help he’s sent.” Antal held his arms wide on the blood-spattered courtyard. “Either I return home in disgrace, or I fix this myself. He won’t lift a finger for me. Not if there’s a lesson to be learned.”
“Is that why you stayed? To impress your father?”
“I don’t give afuckwhat my father thinks of me. I only want to do the right thing.” Antal’s voice dipped. “For once.”
Fi’s voice didn’t dip. “Then do the right fucking thing!”
“It’s not that simple!”
He bared his fangs at her. She bared her blunt teeth right back, pressing their faces too close, makinghimbalk in surprise. His breath smelled like ozone and the sweet of fresh blood.
“You think it’s easier for us?” Fi hissed. “Kinderto us?” She grabbed his shirt, dragging the fabric like claws of her own. “You thinkyouwere the first time I escaped a daeyari altar?”
Antal stilled. His tail fell slack at his ankles, all his fight gone in startling swiftness. The look on his face knocked Fi breathless, not just shock but… horror. Eyes so wide, they couldn’t belong to a predator. Mouth parted, and all Fi could look at was the flushed curve of his lips.
He looked down. Her fist clenched his shirt, blotched in fresh energy burns.
“You’re hurt,” he whispered.
Deflecting piece of shit.
“Getting better with the capsules,” Fi said. “Still not perfect. I’ll be—”
Slowly, he lifted his hand. Fi raised every bristle, spine straight as steel, but when he touched her, his palm settled cool against her aching knuckles. His claws, so much softer than the carving tools she’d just witnessed.
They both stilled. Fi, waiting for the strike. Antal, sherealized, giving her the chance to pull away.
