“Right,” I chuffed. “I suppose I’m used to one tragedy being overshadowed by the next. He was a good man, Gus. Death overlooked him one too many times, I suppose, and finally remembered his time was up.”
“Nazario had lost someone the day we met. He had the same sadness. And also the same will to move on.”
“Your captain sounds like a good man.”
“He is. And so are you.”
“I am not a good man,” I said with a subtle smirk, glancing at the water creeping up to the toes of my boots. “I am less kind than most.”
“Nazario said the same. But good men are not kind. Good men fight when all odds are against them, especially for those they love. All odds are against you, Vidar, and yet you fight when others would have given up.” Our eyes met and I felt an immediate calmness move across my chest. “I know you love her. It’s the most obvious thing to me.”
I swallowed, feeling my armor start to chip and crack around me. “And yet I am at a loss. I would fight armies for her, but how do I fight something I cannot see? Something I cannot run through with my blade?”
She blinked, taking in a deep, silent breath. “Why did you come to talk to me?”
I glanced back to see Nazario watching us from one of the campfires as he bathed himself with a rag and a pail of water.
“Would your captain be alright with me asking a favor, of you?”
“It depends on the favor I’m afraid.”
I rubbed some tension from my forehead with a sigh, placing a hand on my hip.
“She has answers,” I said. “But I only know one way to get answers from someone and it’s proven ineffective.”
“You want me to speak with the Kroan.”
I locked eyes with her again, apologizing for a request I never voiced. Instead of shrinking from it, Aeris stared back at Lyla and then began making her way toward her like she was heading to speak with a friend. I followed, catching Nazario in my peripheral tossing on a clean shirt and then marching in our direction. Mullinswas mid-yawn when I returned. I placed a hand on his shoulder and shoved him away.
“Check on Meridan,” I said. “And get some sleep.”
His eyes flitted between me and Aeris before he nodded and stumbled off. “Right.”
“Muñequita,” Nazario said, coming to intercede.
Aeris slowly knelt down beside the cage and curled her fingers around the bars. Lyla didn’t give her a glance, even when she reached into the cage and gently unbuckled the leather gag from her head, letting it slide off her face and into her lap. Once she was free of it, Lyla’s gaze tracked the retreat of Aeris’s hand as she slowly pulled it back like she was thinking about biting it off. As if she knew how she was making everyone nervous, she smiled up at me, showing the sharp teeth she would have used if that was her plan.
“I know you are angry,” Aeris said, her tone sweet and breathy. The kind of voice that could lull a soldier plagued by nightmares into a peaceful sleep. “Even you cannot hide that. But you are desperate, too. Like all of us.”
“Desperate to get out of here and slice you all to bits,” Lyla said.
“If that is the lie you wish to tell,” Aeris shrugged. “It is your own breath you’re wasting on it.”
Lyla’s smile flattened. I wrapped my fingers around the butt of my pistol and Nazario, realizing my caution, stepped in closer to his little siren. Lyla noticed every single movement like a hawk watching a mouse.
“Pathetic,” she hissed. “The way you all clamor about like fools.”
“They don’t want you to hurt me is all,” Aeris said.
“A little Yri like you? What purpose do you serve? I could kill you with one bite. You’re weak.”
“The ability to kill does not determine someone’s worth.”
“Doesn’t it? You’re all killers here, on a journey to destroy something. What are you worth in that case?”
“You’re confused.”
“Oh, yes. Your kind did like to pretend they could feel the emotions of others.”
