Fi moved swiftly, no telling how much time she had. She Shaped energy to her fingertips then dulled her gaze to see beyond the Winter Plane, searching for a place to cut a Curtain. A Bridge. A Shard. She’d take anything to get her out of here, but she spotted nothing beyond stone and mood lighting. With a growl, she paced the room in search of a different vantage point.
Static pricked her tongue again.
Fi gasped when the daeyari reappeared, directly in front of her. Chests nearly touching. Ozone filled her nose as thick as when she’d laid in his bed, the waft of cold off his skin enough to drag gooseflesh down her arms.
He was nearly the same height as her. Maybe an inch or two taller, thanks to the odd rise of his ankles—a couple more, if she counted the antlers—yet he loomed like a cliff of ice. It took all her constitution not to flinch away, not to back into the wall like some cornered animal.
Surely, that was what he wanted. Fi swallowed hard and held her ground.
The daeyari appraised her through dark lashes, a sharp look to the energy spooled silver at her fingers. He bared a long canine. “I told you not to try that.”
“Well. To be fair.” Fi licked her lips. “You’re faster than I thought you’d be.”
When he huffed, the exhale brushed Fi’s cheek. She braced for teeth.
Instead, he offered a lump of paper.
Wary, Fi took it. Blessed heat sank into her hands. She unwrapped the package to find a baked roll the size of her fist, oozing glaze and cinnamon. For such a small gesture, this topped the morning’s list of baffling developments. Had the dreaded Lord Daeyari stolen a pastry for her? Or demanded it of a terror-stricken baker in Thomaskweld?
“Thanks.” Fi allowed herself to back away a step, itching with his proximity. “Youaregood, right? I don’t need to worry about becoming a mid-morning snack?”
He showed his teeth again. “You talk more than I expected.”
Another confidence boost. Fi clung to the daeyari’s confoundment like shelter from a gale. Confusion made him less of a wraith, more a creature who could be bartered with.
“Is that right?” Fi shot back. “You have a lot of experience talking to humans you aren’t about to eat?”
“Plenty,” he said. No inflection. Nothing on his face.
Cryptic prick.
He paced back to his perch, gifting Fi space to breathe. And to devour the sugary roll like a starved raccoon. She guessed she looked little better: borrowed clothes, hair windblown, eye liner no doubt smudged to ruin.
As food cleared her thoughts, she combed through the ludicrous events of the past two days, trying to make sense of anything. She’d brought the cart to Thomaskweld. Met Astrid.Got fucked over by Milana and Erik. Then came the explosion, followed by…
By the endless black Void. It almost slipped her mind.
“It was more than the explosion,” she said.
The daeyari tilted one crimson eye toward her.
“Afterward,” Fi said. “When everyone was evacuating, there was a…creature. A huge panther with white skin. Antlers. It ripped the governor apart.”
A subtle tension snapped over the Lord Daeyari. His veiled expressions left her unsteady, unsure how to gauge where to push or retreat. Fi keyed to what small signs he relinquished: his tail frozen, eyes unblinking.
“Milana said the same,” he replied. “There are many beasts across the Shattered Planes.”
“I’ve never seen something like this. It had black sclera. Some kind of Void beast.”
His tail made a sharp flick.
“We focus on one thing at a time.” He spoke with finality. A warning edge not to press. Fi still would have.
If he hadn’t startled her, by holding out his hand.
“If you’ve finished yourbreakfast,” he said.
She backed away. “What’s that for?”
