“Were you once close with him?”
The vein in Gail’s neck seemed to twitch, and she knew just from the sight of it that she’d struck a nerve. “I was Draven’s Third,” he said, confirming what Nyssa had guessed. “Leader of the pure Venari born. But I don’t know that I would call us close,” he went on further. “Draven had his favorites just as Duarb does. He took who he wanted with him on his trips, not those of us who had earned such titles.”
“You mean he took his friends,” Nyssa said plainly.
“Venari rankings should not be delved out based on friendship,” Gail spat.
Nyssa caught the clench of his fist, the tightness in his gaze towards the fire. She wasn’t ready to get him riled up. Have him shut down. So she changed the subject.
“What about the ones that were born Infi?” she chose to detour. “Do you trust them?”
Gail seemed to relax slightly at the question, and he took a long draw on the pipe. “I will not lie,” he uttered, blowing smoke her way again. “I do not trust anyone in my own ranks. Any one of them would give up everything for the title of Commander or king. Take North for example—” he pointed silently at the Infi man shying away from the firelight. “—he would just as soon slice my throat than to have to walk across this fucking meadow out in the sunlight.”
“So why is he here?”
“Because I’m paying him to help me deliver you.”
The answer was simple enough, but she couldn’t help but notice the twitch in his neck, the tightness of his fingers around the pipe.
“Liar,” she accused.
Gail almost choked on the inhale he’d just taken, a quiet smirk playing on his lips. He gave her a sideways once over that made her pause, and she waited on his snarky response. But his brow simply raised, and his throat bobbed when he released the smoke from his lungs.
“You know, if I didn’t need Man’s crown so badly, I would keep you,” he said, a dilation in his pupils. “Perhaps once I’ve taken the world for myself, I’ll find you again. Make you my Queen. Dazzle you in jewels and velvet. Remind you of the elegant dresses you once wore as the Promised Princess. I might even let you take control of Council and delve out punishments and duties as you were born to do. I think you would enjoy watching as men cowered and fell to their knees—”
“I am perfectly capable of making my own way in this world,” she interjected. “My sister did not die for me to depend on a man to do it for me.”
The wonderment remained in Gail’s darkened eyes. “So you do want it.”
“I want nothing more than to see my people remain free,” Nyssa argued.
“What if that means taking the High crown?” he asked. “What if keeping your people safe meant taking all the power of this world? What if it meant rising the Red Moons and breaking every curse? Would you do it then?”
“I’m not a hero.”
“No,” he agreed. “You’re much better suited for the life of villainy. Much more so than one of heroism on a silly Commander’s arm.”
The accusation made her heart stop.
She didn’t realize she wasn’t monitoring the look that possessed her face. And by the time she did realize it, it was too late.
Gaillaughed.
The deep-seated chortle dissipated into the stark darkness around them and made her teeth clench.
“How—”
“Did you forget the Infi can shift?”
There was no calming the chill that settled in her bones. A thousand thoughts echoed in her mind. She questioned every single encounter she’d had with a new person the last few months.
But it was the people Nadir and Hagen had brought with them to the Gathering that made her mind frantic.
She met Gail’s delighted face.
“How many?” she demanded to know.
“Don’t worry, little Sun,” he winked. “They’ve all left your court.”
