25
As long as we’re making deals
Savo left quickly, pulling his daughter with him. She tugged at his grip, wide eyes seeking a final look at the monster looming behind.
Antal returned to work with a tight line to his mouth. The sound of claws against metal scraped uncomfortably loud in the empty room. Fi and Boden both stood silent. Both tense as iron. Tonight was about to get more difficult.
After giving Savo the allotted time, they headed into Nyskya.
The late hour left roads empty, windows dark, boots crunching on the skim of fresh snow still fluttering down in lazy puffs. Antal kept out of sight, a shadow on the rooftops, until they reached the yard behind Kashvi’s tavern. He dropped to the snow with a whisper-soft impact and tail flicking. Agitation. Fi felt the same.
She’d whittled out a workable relationship with Boden’s advisory council. Fi gave them preferential treatment for contraband requests, and, in return, they pretended they’d never heard of her. Thick-skinned people, cold-hardened to practicality. Hopefully, that practicality would see the benefit of Antal’s partnership.
Boden faced the daeyari. “I serve my people. If they decide they don’t want you in Nyskya, you’ll have to leave.”
“I understand,” Antal returned.
“There’s… one particular person who might cause trouble—”
The back door of the tavern flew open.
Kashvi stepped out into the snow with black hair wild at her shoulders, red coat half buttoned. She marched past Fi without a glance. Swerved around Boden when he tried to step in her way. Her dark eyes glinted, cold as the crossbow in her hands.
She shoved the barrel against Antal’s chest. Straight over his heart.
“Kashvi, wait!” Boden said.
“That won’t kill him,” Fi added.
Kashvi snarled like a wolverine and pressed her crossbow harder, metal digging into the fabric of Antal’s shirt. This meeting stood a snowball’s chance on Summer of going well, but Fi had hoped they’d last a full minute before weapons got involved. She braced for the daeyari’s response, their plan doomed the moment blood hit the snow.
But Antal did nothing. Kashvi’s assault didn’t budge his stone stance.
“This is… an ally of yours?” Antal asked, a razored glare his only retaliation.
“I hardly believed it.” Kashvi started in a hiss. “Ihardly believed itwhen Savo came by. What he claimed he’d seen.” Louder, lifting to a roar. “Boden. What is this beast doing here?”
“He can tell you himself,” Boden said. “Without weapons.”
Kashvi didn’t budge. “Offering to rip his own claws out, is he?”
“I come to aid,” Antal said.
She laughed like metal scraping stone. “Oh. That’s rich. Daeyari are always sohelpful, aren’t you?”
Antal frowned. “I’ve… perhaps not always acted in your best interest…”
“You ate mysister,you fucker!”
Her words cracked like split ice, fracturing the common ground they’d hoped to stand on.
Tense as the stand-off was, neither Fi nor Boden intervened. Not their place to do so. Fi had lived in Nyskya a full year before Kashvi, down half a bottle of whiskey, finally shared why she left home to settle in the middle of nowhere. Why she still practiced with a crossbow, though it aggravated her illness—but again, Fi had hoped they’d have time for gentler introductions.
Antal fell deathly still. Maybe to the others he appeared the same unruffled creature. Maybe Fi was the only one who noticed his low tail, the stiff inhale.
When Antal didn’t speak, Kashvi snarled and shifted her crossbow to his throat, barrel raking soft flesh beneath his jaw. This caused more visible upset, a curling of claws at his sides.
“Kashvi,” Boden pleaded.
