Nothing betrayed Pride’s emotions other than a flinch at the corners of his eyes.
The perceptive and cunning Kalia still seemed to see it.
Sloth continued, softer this time.“Feel angry if you’d like.Go after Errshek if it pleases you.But I thought…” Kalia’s voice trailed off, and she rolled her lips together in a thoughtful pause.“I thought you cared about her.”
Something about the hushed observation wrapped around Saer’s heart, squeezing it with razor blades.Whatever version Errshek had told her, Kalia obviously struggled to reconcile it with her own observations.
“Have you given yourself any chance to be...still...first?”
The rest of Saer’s ire deflated, though something within him clung desperately to it, like rupturing nails on a chasm’s edge.“Still?”
Kalia released a heavy breath.“Yes.”She dropped her attention to the chair piled with books.Without moving from her own seat, she leaned over and tipped the piece of furniture to its side.The tower of manuscripts fell over with a rustling clatter before she righted the chair.“Start with sitting.”
“Playing ‘almost dead’ was already awful enough.”
“My point exactly.You were terrible at it.We’re starting easier.”Kalia pushed the chair towards Saer with one foot.It didn’t move far, but the resulting, abrasive scraping noise drew his eyes to it.
“Hellsfire, it’s not going to bite you.”
Saer snagged the seat and pulled it towards himself, nettled and not bothering to hide it.He straddled the chair in reverse and settled his forearms on the backrest, facing Kalia.“Now what?”
“Now you get a treat for doing as you’re told.”
“What?”
“Now,”Kalia went on as though she hadn’t just made a joke at Pride’s expense.“Yousit.And you bequiet.”
Saer rubbed his face with his hands, groaning, “Weren’t you just saying you wanted to speed this up?”
“I changed my mind.You need this more.And,” she added as an afterthought, “the brothers’ calendar is off.Has to be.Feels too soon.”
Kalia might as well have spoken in gibberish, but Saer had no desire to dig into whatever she went on about.Though it left him doing exactly as she bid, sitting quietly.
Sloth opened a book on her table and poured over the words.
He made it a half minute and not a second longer.“Is this all?”
Sighing with unveiled annoyance, the demoness put her hand on the book’s pages.It appeared she might snipe at him, but stopped short, changing her question at the last moment.“What do you remember about how Neyu looked?”
Saer growled, ready to lash out, but Kalia went on.“Stop.Close your eyes.Picture her.Tell me what you see.”
His immediate impulse was to argue, but something in Kalia’s pitch made Saer bite his tongue against it.Frowning, he rested his temple on one of his hands, still leaning forward on the backrest of the chair.With the same fading growl as before, he shut his eyes.
Saer’s creased brow evened out before Kalia prompted, “What does she look like?”
Feeling foolish at the start, Saer had a hard time finding the words.“Beautiful.She’s—”
Simple as that, his throat constricted, and the words stuck.
What in the Hells?
Gritting his teeth, he forced his voice past the emotion.“She was so damned beautiful.”
Kalia sat in silence, giving Saer the time he needed.
He inhaled through his nose in an attempt to open his closed gullet.“Her eyes.The blue.I can’t find—” Another pause as the deep cerulean color swam in his mind’s eye.“Nowhere, no one, nothing has its match.”
Kalia whispered, “Did you tell her?”
