Her fingers closed around something cool. Metal. Fi yankedout the hilt of an energy sword.Herenergy sword, side nicked from a crossbow bolt in a sagebrush town on the Spring Plane. She dug deeper, a thrill at the sight of her energy capsules, her transport stone, and… bless the Void, her silviamesh. She nuzzled the light, scaled fabric to her cheek.
“Milana had them in her quarters,” Antal said.
Fi tore her attention away from his gifts. “You’ve been in Thomaskweld?”
“As much as I dare. Verne’s derived daeyari prowls the cliffs, though she tolerated me long enough to retrieve my clothes. So kind of her.”
He sneered at his dark blue shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbows. He had, obnoxiously, neglected to fasten the top three buttons. Why did a daeyari need to waltz around with half his chest showing? His hair tousled blue-black between his antlers. High-waisted trousers clung snug to his thighs. Without the formalwear, the embroidered cuffs or iridescent fabric, he looked unsettlingly like a man out for a stroll in Thomaskweld.
Where he belonged.
How could Fi sleep, knowing a daeyari might appear in her home at any time? What if he decided to pop in for a midnight snack?
Though… he didn’thaveto return her things.
“What’s the catch, daeyari?”
Antal’s nostrils flared, a muttered, “Veshri grant me patience.” Then, louder, “You don’t know much about immortals.”
Accurate. The nebulousness of this creature, combined with the sheer weight of her recent fuck-ups, did, in fact, make Fi want to curl into a ball.Hedidn’t need to know that.
“And?”
“Small favors, spread across a long life, aren’t to be overlooked.Any sensible daeyari knows that.” He stepped off her porch. “Consider your debt repaid.”
“Repaid?”
“I asked you to help uncover this plot. We did so. Our business is finished.”
“But what about… wait, wait,wait!”
For a moment, Fi had something akin to an out-of-body experience, observing in horror as she once again moved toward a daeyari of her own volition, hand raised, as if swiping at air could stop him from teleporting away. A daeyari like Verne would have flayed her on the spot.
Butthisdaeyari paused, slitted red eyes and black sclera cast over a shoulder.
Maybe she ought to be more afraid of him. The squirm of adrenaline in her stomach certainly thought so. And yet as she pictured this lethal beast moping in her bathtub, recalled his fluster when she’d stood her ground before, her demands came easier.
“Verne’s taken Thomaskweld?” Fi asked. Boden’s messages said as much, but hearing the news in person stung. “What are you going to do?”
“Strange. It seems as if you’ve asked me that exact question, several times already.”
Smartass. “You’ve had a week to think about it.”
He fell quiet.
“Surely, you plan to dosomething,” Fi said. “I came to this territory to get away from Verne. You aren’t great, but at least you’re better than her.”
Antal muttered something else, foreign syllables Fi couldn’t translate.
“I’ll speak with Tyvo,” he said.
The name rolled off his black tongue like split ice. Verne,Antal’s neighbor to the east, was a tyrant. Tyvo, his neighbor to the north, was… a predator, straight out of the folktales. Reclusive. Unyielding.
“How will that help?” Fi asked.
“Daeyari territories are strict agreements. Verne has overstepped hers. My other neighbor might be agreeable to keeping her in line.”
This was the best idea Fi had heard all week. Better than Boden’s waiting game. Better than Kashvi itching to point her crossbow at a daeyari skull. Better than any of her half-baked plans. Let the immortals settle their feud, get Antal back in power, Verne gone. Then things could return to normal. Best case, Antal resumed his policy of ignoring Nyskya.
