And, damn, this chick wastall. She easily had six inches of clearance over Viking Viktor.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Aye, he did.”
“Didn’t I say—” he started.
“Ye don’t follow yer own fecking rules. Why should we?”
“Belanna,” Viking Viktor stopped and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Maeve isn’ here,” the woman, Belanna, kept twirling her arrow. She looked relaxed. Carefree. But her jaw ticked as she lifted her chin and glowered at Viking Viktor. “Likely the poor lass is dead, but Braxton needed the closure.”
Viking Viktor’s shoulders rose and fell with a heavy exhale. “Regardless, the city isn’t safe—”
“And neither was the field. But ye went back there…withoutinforming me, I’ll add.”
“The field?” I asked. “You mean the fuckingmurderscene back there? With the dead bodies and Skeletor things and—”
“As you can see,” Viking Viktor cut me off, “there’s a new arrival.”
The tone of his voice was…flat. Impersonal. Dismissive. He talked about me like I was an old lamp he was getting ready to toss.
Belanna pursed her lips. “There hasn’t been a new hybrid in years. What’s yer power?” She turned to me.
“My—what?”
“Yer power,” she repeated. “If yer a Healer, I might kneel and kiss yer feet. Marcel's also dead,” she added to Viking Viktor.
He said nothing. Just dropped his gaze and hunched his shoulders.
“So if ye can heal, ye’ll be everyone's favorite person.” Belanna wagged her arrow in my face. “But other powers will be useful too. We’re not in a position to refuse hybrids. So what’s yer power? Are ye an Illuminator?”
“A Concealer?” Kaelan suggested.
Belanna’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Dead handy, Concealers are.”
My left eye twitched. “Concealer—likemakeupconcealer? I’ve got some of that in my bag. But, well, that’s in my car. Along with my phone. And my car’s not here…”
Belanna and Kaelan gave me blank stares.
Viking Viktor wasn’t looking at me. His eyes never stayed still! He glanced at us, the soldiers at the bottom of the hill, the trees, the tops of his feet, back to us…
It was a wonder the dude didn’t make himself dizzy.
Belanna frowned. “Surely ye have a power?”
“Oh my God.” I dropped my head into my hands, digging my fingers into my aching temple. “The hell kinda game are you guys playing here?”
Belanna turned to Viking Viktor. “Ye sure she’s a hybrid?”
Viking Viktor tilted his head, surveying me speculatively. He’d started twisting his beard around his fingers. Something he did often, judging by those frayed ends. A nervous tic. “The Celestials sent her. I’m certain of that,” he finally said.
“I saw the light too,” Kaelan added.
“Light?”I asked. They ignored my comment. Surprise, surprise.
“But if she’s powerless,” Belanna tapped the tip of her arrow against her chin, “why is she here? What bloody sense does that make?”
Viking Viktor shrugged.
