“I…” Fi swallowed, a lump like stone in her throat. Whatusewas she to him? That felt like a question guaranteed to get her neck ripped open.
“You owe me a debt,” the daeyari said, low as the wind rumbling the cliffs. “And I have need of mortal help.”
“Get your Arbiter, then.” Anyone but Fi.
“I have none.”
“Surely, you havesomeonebetter than—”
“Thereisno one else,” he snarled, baring a glint of fang. “Everyone I had has either betrayed me, or is dead beneath the rubble of the buildingyoublew up. So you’ll have to do.”
Fi’s scowl deepened. No, shedidn’twant any part of this, but no need to be rude—
“Void and Veshri know, I couldhopefor better than…this.” He swept a clawed hand over her haggard hunch in the corner of his living room—morerude. “But you know what happened in the capitol. You say you weren’t part of my attendants’ scheme. Help me determine whowas, if you’re so adamant to prove your innocence.”
The bite in his words gave Fi pause. For years, she’d assumed this daeyari’s leniency came from apathy. Incompetence, even.
To see him now, overlooking his city with an uncompromisingtilt to his chin? Claws coiled like black sickles at his sides? Speaking of anarchy with a flint of rage on his tongue? For the first time, she got a clearer picture of Antal, theLord Daeyariwho’d owned this territory for longer than she’d been alive.
And someone was trying to take that from him.
Someone who’d dragged Fi into this mess. Politics—those larger things she’d spent ten years fleeing. She cursed Milana and Erik, players in some unknown scheme. For the first time since everything went to shit, she thought of Astrid,strutting into her life after all these years, assuring her partners that Fi was perfect for the job.
Had she known this would happen?
Or had Astrid been duped the same, only for Fi to abandon her to another disaster?
To find out, Fi had to survive this daeyari first.
Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since before the explosion, and combined with the potent adrenaline circulating her bloodstream, dizziness was catching up to her. So long as the daeyari claimed he wanted to use her rather than eat her…
“Do I get breakfast?” she asked, testing the waters. After all, he hadn’t let her freeze—or cut her open when she’d raised her voice at him.
The beast blinked.
His frown came slow. Head tilted, as if he couldn’t have heard her right.
“Breakfast?” he asked.
“Breakfast.” Repeat it, and maybe he’d stop gawking. “I’m no expert in daeyari nutrition, but I assume you don’t devour corpses for three meals a day, or humans would be extinct.”
His tail flicked. “Your point?”
“That I”—Fi struck her chest with an emphasizingthump—“require three meals a day. So if you don’t want me to pass out, I need breakfast.”
His tail swished rougher, wider. Not anger. Not hunger.
Annoyed?Void be damned. If Fi could pull off her finest skill on a daeyari, she wasn’t out of her element yet.
He huffed, a disgruntled mutter of, “Breakfast. Of course. Yz’vum en zhem jivvi…”
Fi didn’t speak daeyari. She’d never known a human who did, the immortals miserly about sharing their language, but tone enough told her that wasn’t a flattering—
Static sparked Fi’s tongue when he vanished.
She blinked at his absence.
Not for an instant… had she expected that ploy to actually work.
