Eve picks at the slate roof tiles beside her, breaking a small piece free. With a quick whip of her arm, she launches it toward the empty dock. It vanishes for a second within the dying rays of the sun before rings appear upon the placid surface of the water, an impressive distance from shore.
“We could enjoy the last of the sunset while we’re here,” I say, knowing damn well she’ll argue.
“I’ve zero interest in meeting undead,” Eve scoffs as she pulls herself to her feet.
“Imp in the mud,” I mutter in Malbolge as I stand.
“You can stay,” she says and my brows raise. “I’ll make sure not to laugh as your Sovereign King gives you a few choice words about your decision.”
She flicks a piece of slate at me as she pulls herself to her feet.
Snagging it out of the air, I laugh. “You want me to start a House, yet you’d leave me at the first signs of trouble? Some General, Eve.”
“You need me on a battlefield, I’m there,” she retorts with a scoff. “You want me to stand between you and your mate?” She shakes her head, planting her hands on her hips. “I’m not the Sovereign King of Vis.”
Fair enough.
There hasn’t been a week Ryc hasn’t received a letter from Rowen.
Ryc hasn’t opened any of them.
They all find their way into the fire.
“Of course you wouldn’t need me on the battlefield if you attended your sparring lessons,” Eve says with a smirk.
It’s a clear dig.
And I heave a disgruntled sigh.
“I don’tspar,” I retort, bristling. “I didn’tsparin the hells. I’m not going tosparhere.” I sneer the word each time I say it.
“Without your innate—”
“I remain hidden,” I interject, not wanting to hear her voice the truth I tell myself every night.
Without my innate, I’m useless.
Without a backward glance I begin east, toward Castle Erus.
“You could at least show up,” Eve counters, her voice soft and low. “Not spar, but observe. Learn that way.”
I remain silent.
There’s nothing I can learn from mortalssparring.
Mortals at war? When there’s desperation and theneedto survive…thatI’ll watch. It’s then true combative ingenuity makes an appearance and it’s fromthatI can learn.
Eve sighs. “If you don’t start showing, Cyran is going to say something.”
“Let him,” I reply with a shrug and Eve laughs.
“You say that now.” She shakes her head. “Tomorrow, I start working toward uncovering my innate.”
“What?” The question is more scathing than I’d like.
“The hellfire my contract bestows overrides my natural innate,” Eve says as she leaps to the next roof. “It’s buried, smothered. ButI can still feel it. More each day. Cyran believes with the right exercises I can reach it again.”
“I never realized contracted hellfire wouldburyan innate,” I say mostly to myself as I leap across and land beside her.
