He arches a brow but answers quickly. “Nothing beyond what we already assumed. She hasn’t seen Malin in weeks, and he wouldn’t tell her where he was going before he just disappeared.”
Malin is a presumed rebel, the male spotted at several attacks of small businesses. I tilt my head as I eye him. “All that flirting, and that’s as far as you got?”
“My flirting skills aren’t the problem here. The rebels know we are looking for them, and they assume the former Tua sympathizers in our dungeons are feeding us information. They just decided to act and make that information no longer relevant.” Kane shrugs. “Besides, a little flirting could doyousome good. When was the last time you eventalkedwith a female who wasn’t working for you?” When I don’t answer, his gaze finds mine again. “Please tell me you have at leastfuckedsomeone since Bahira left.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you,” I grumble, turning on my heel to begin heading back to the palace.
“Holy gods above, Kai.Noone since her? Not even your cute little assistant, Inessa?”
I grind my teeth together, brushing past a crowd of shifters that pile out of a tavern, their steps sloppy. “Inessa is a valuable member of my council—”
“Yeah, yeah, and she is fucking gorgeous too. Unsurprising considering who her mother is.” He smacks his lips together before looking over at me. “I don’t know how you can spend so much time in her proximity andnotthink of fucking her.”
My brows lower, the stares of a few shifters drawn our way by Kane’s crude speech. “Just because you can’t manage not involving your dick in every thought doesn’t mean it’s hard for everyone else,” I say quietly, earning a deep chuckle from my cousin.
“Fair enough. Still, it’s beenmonths, Kai.”
I don’t need the reminder. I had utilized the Mirror plenty every week, calling out toherkingdom with no response. I have so much I want to say to Bahira, yet I am still being denied the opportunity to do so. It goes against everything I thought we had together. Every moment where I felt like we had found something similar in one another. IknewBahira. Beyond how she felt in my hands and on my lips. I knew she valued being praised for her intelligence more than she ever would for her looks. That she wanted to help because it gave her purpose and because she hadn’t received that same feeling from home. I memorized the way her eyes warmed when I put my trust in her. How they then dimmed when I told her it had been broken. “You don’t just move on from a woman like Bahira,” I finally say as we reach the center of Molsi, a few females lingering their gazes on my cousin and I. Beyond them, three males dip their heads in greeting while even more offer small smiles. A far cry from how my people treated me mere months ago, and it can betraced back to the stories of Bahira and what she learned while shackled with Kane.
“What are you going to do? Just mope around for another three months and hope that she eventually reaches out to you?” When silence again answers him, Kane shakes his head. “Why don’t you justgoto the Mage Kingdom? Call it a diplomatic visit or something.”
“Because Bahira has already been given trouble from a letter Jahlee sent. The last thing she needs is to be the subject of even more whispers of treason just because I can’t get her out of fucking head.”
Kane rubs a hand at the back of his neck as we walk, his voice dropping lower. “I’m sorry, Kai. I didn’t mean—”
“Kai Vaea, you are a fuckingliar!” I stumble over my feet at the voice that comes from directly behind me, Jahlee taking up the entirety of my vision when I spin around to face her. Her finger immediately jabs at my chest, and I hiss as her nail digs into the skin. “You never told me you had heard from Bahira!”
“I didn’t,” I say, my eyes scanning the faces of the curious shifters that pass us.
“Stop lying! I just heard you say—”
“Were you following us?” Kane interrupts, eyeing the bright red wool coat slung over Jahlee’s shoulders, and the scarf wrapped around her head.
“Yes, I was following you,” she growls, rolling her eyes. “I could tell you’ve been hiding something from me.”
“Jahlee.” The rumble of my voice does nothing to ease the rage in her eyes, so I guide us all to an alley between a tavern and a bakery for a semblance of privacy. “If you had questions, you should have just come to me.”
“Oh, sure. Like you would have answered anything involving Bahira. Like you haven’t avoided talking about her since the moment she left.” She narrows her gaze at me, making Kanelaugh. He quiets when we both turn to glare at him, prompting him to lift his arms in mock surrender. Jahlee’s voice cracks when her eyes flit to mine again. “What is going on? And please, don’t lie to me. I can tell when you are, and it’s embarrassing for us both because you are so bad at it.”
I consider lying, but Jahlee is nothing if not persistent, and I know my sister well enough to understand that I’ve already lost this battle. “I did not receive correspondence from Bahira or anyone in the Mage Kingdom.”
She groans, throwing her arms out to her sides. “Kai, Iswearto the gods above—”
“King Dolian reached me through the Mirror and told me that Bahira was being accused of treason.”
Jahlee’s mouth drops open, her arms falling limply as Kane whistles and rocks back on his heels. “What? Because of the letter I sent?”
I keep my voice low as I tell her about my interaction with the mortal king, and his questions about my time with Bahira. But in my hurry to explain, I slip and accidentally insinuate the king was not alone when I spoke with him.
“Who was with him?” she asks, her light brown eyes brimming with emotion. Jahlee has always felt many things all at once, and I often wondered if it was a hindrance to be so open in that way. I had been raised to live behind a mask, to always hide so that my weaknesses were not exploited. I look to Kane for help, but my stupid cousin gestures with his hand for me to continue, apparently just as invested in the story as Jahlee is.
“It doesn’t matter who was with him—”
“Oh, yes it does,” she says, laying her hands at her hips and cocking them to the side. “Why avoid answering otherwise?”
“I’m not avoiding,” I lie, and she gives me a look as if to say,see? I do curse under my breath this time. “Fucking gods,fine.But you cannot say anything about what I tell you.Neitherof you can.”
Jahlee sucks in a sharp breath, one of her hands flying to her mouth. She mumbles something unintelligible beneath her palm, her eyes growing wide enough that I see the whites all around them.
