“Aye, I’m seeing that.” His eyes dipped to Vidar’s silentium necklace and his face hardened. “You have a silentium and still a siren sits beside you.”
“And one sits beside you. I find no bronze jewelry on you, though.”
Nazario smirked and then pushed a lock of dark hair behind his ear. Tucked within the tresses was a strand wrapped in leather and at the end was a small, round, bronze pendant.
“Some of us are more subtle.”
My gaze drifted to the woman sitting stiffly beside him. When our eyes locked, I found that shy disdain bleeding off her again.
“Have I done something to you?” I asked.
Her jaw ticked at the question. “You are Kroan. Your kind has done something to everyone.”
“And men just like him have done worse to all of us yet you clearly trust him.”
She stared at me for a long moment, fear turning her emerald eyes cold and distant. I was not unfamiliar with the look.
“I’ve done nothing to you,” I said. “I’m curious is all. Until us, I’ve never seen another sister with a man in this manner.”
“I’m no sister of yours.”
I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to Nazario. “What are you to each other?”
He hesitated like it was the first time he’d been faced with the question. I could sense it, though. I saw it in the way he pushed thewoman behind him in the market. In the way she hid behind his strength.
“You love her,” I said.
He took a deep breath and briefly glanced her way. She returned the glance, but neither answered me. There was a long, drawn-out silence that fell over the table. The men took another swig of their drinks and I mulled over what little I knew about them.
“Aeris,” the woman finally spoke, her tone softening. “My name is Aeris and…” She lifted her gaze slowly up toward Nazario. “I love him.”
“And your people? What do they think of this?”
“I have no people. Yours killed them all.”
Realization crept up on me like a beast from the shadows, its hot, wet breath whispering truths.
“You’re an Yri,” I muttered.
“No, not really,” she shook her head. “I’m just me. You know there are no more Yri.”
I wasn’t sure if I was feeling guilt. Perhaps it was something similar, but I couldn't—wouldn’t—take responsibility for something I had no part in. Of course, it was then that I realized why she harbored such hatred for me. Many clans had no love for Kroans and Yri had more reason than any to despise us.
“While I’m dying to know what the hell this conversation means, I’m assuming it has very little to do with how you came to be here together,” Vidar said. “Which is the part I’m more interested in.”
“You first,” Nazario said. “You’re a hunter. Not just any hunter. I’ve traveled far and still people know your name and the ship with red sails. Yet the company you keep would suggest a very different man than the one I’ve heard about. Bone Heart never leaves his victims alive. And according to stories, there have been many. Victims, that is.”
“Things change.”
“What things?”
“Things from the water,” I joined. “Things more dangerous than me. Things just as likely to kill my kind as yours.”
Nazario cleared his throat, glancing at Aeris again like they were engaging in silent conversation. She shifted in her seat, pulling her cloak tighter around herself as if she was cold.
“You know of what I speak,” I said. “You’ve seen them.”
“Tides are changing,” Nazario said. “Anyone who’s been on the water for an extended time knows that.”
