“I didn’t wish to interrupt,” he greeted.
Within the dusk, he moved like another shadow, red eyes glowing, dark clothes contrasting bone-pale skin. A boughstalker, straight out of the trees. A hunter, who could rend her to pieces. She held her ground as the beast approached.
He paused at a polite distance, tail a low and docile sway.
How tenuous, this thing growing between them. Fi wouldn’t go so far as calling ittrust. But partnership required concession, didn’t it? A mutual lowering of guards so they could focus on their common enemy. Antal had earned that much. A week passed, and he hadn’t pushed her against a wall again.
Would he, if she asked him to?
That thought.
That,right the fuck there, was aproblem.
A new problem. A concerning problem. The bane of Fi’s entire week, as a matter of fact. And that was saying something, wasn’t it? She’d grown familiar with nightmares of Verne’s claws, of Astrid’s wretched glare. She didn’t know where to begin untangling these ridiculous thoughts of teeth on her throat, simmering eyes beneath dark lashes, how it might feel if he held her down in earnest and—
“How long have you been watching?” Fi demanded.
Antal’s brow quirked. Little chips in the mask. “Careful, Fionamara. Cause too much disturbance, and someone in the village will notice.”
The words chided, but his gaze dropped to her hands. Fi had been fidgeting, thumb tracing the tingling length of an energy burn. Predators always searched for injuries on their prey. That must be the reason for his furrowed brow. Fi would be mad, an absolutely daft little rabbit if she weighed his reaction as anything likeconcern.
She retrieved the dropped energy capsule.
Never mind that they had to work together. Never mind how good his claws had felt in her hair, those enticing lines of his collarbone framed by an open shirt. He was a daeyari. He was a fuckingdaeyari, and he could rip Fi’s throat open if he wanted to.
“What’s it like out there?” The sooner they got rid of Verne, the sooner things could return to normal: Antal back in Thomas-kweld, Fi back to avoiding daeyari for the rest of her life.
Antal spoke low. “You’re sure you wish to know?”
“Why do people ask that?Of courseI want to know.” Better than waiting for Boden’s automaton birds and their frustratingly brief messages.
“Verne is… feasting. A year’s worth of sacrifices, in two weeks.”
Fi’s stomach lurched. Boden’s messages hadn’t mentionedthat.
“An aggressive strategy,” Antal said. “Verne will test the loyalty of her new supplicants, make them vie for her good will. Some offerings, she’ll gorge upon herself. The rest, she’ll send to the Twilit Plane, gifts to curry favor with the Old Houses.”
And daeyari were strongest when well fed. Verne was keeping herself in prime form. Meanwhile, Antal still hadn’t eaten. Fihoped she was imagining the growing leanness of his cheeks, his eyes glowing dimmer each time she saw him.
“And Astrid?” she asked.
“Verne’s Arbiter?” Antal bared a fang. “She’s been traveling throughout the territory, making Verne’s demands known.”
Fi couldn’t reconcile this version of Astrid. They’d pierced their ears together using sewing needles heated over her bedroom furnace. They’d pilfered alcohol from their parents and snuck onto Shards, drinking and kissing themselves silly beneath the starless Void. Astrid had always been a wild thing, a glint of cunning immortal ancestors in her eyes, but notthis.
“You were never like this,” Fi told Antal, more accusing than gracious. “So what’s different? Why doesn’t Verne give a shit about humans, but you do?”
Antal chided, “I’ve probably known more humans than you.”
“And such diversity, no doubt. Sacrifices, come to be eaten? Cowering attendants? Obedient governors?”
“Not all of them.”
His quiet gave Fi pause. She’d braced for attack, some biting speech about how free-range livestock were more complacent. He scowled at the snow, a cold breeze tousling blue-black hair against his antlers.
“I’ve known many humans. Even as…” Antal’s mouth made a strange shape, a stutter into a frown. “A friend. One of the best friends I’ve ever had.”
Fi gaped wide enough, she could have gathered gnats on a warmer Plane.
