His brow was scrunched, the very same way it always was when she asked him questions about math. Or modesty.
The two things Markam was not very well versed in.
“I don’t know what I’m saying,” Sonara said. Her head ached, heavy with exhaustion. And now she doubted she’d sleep tonight again, though she longed to lay down her head. For this wasn’t a part of the plan, a dead Wanderer come back to life to be just like her… and to carry with him Soahm’s scent? “Soahm must be in that ship, Markam. He’s close. I can sense it all over him. And whatever that Wanderer knows… I’m going to find out.”
“By what sort of means?”
She gave him a smile worthy of her outlawing name. “The usual. Maiming. Dismemberment. Whatever is necessary, but you’ll need to keep Thali and Azariah busy. They’ve developed a fondness for their new friend.”
Even now, Sonara could taste theirwonderas they sat off to the side, watching the unconscious Wanderer. Or perhapsnota Wanderer any longer? Strange, that his helmet was missing. Stranger still, that he no longer seemed to need it, unless that was the reason for his still-unconscious form.
“I’ll be pleased to do so,” Markam said. He lifted his hand, and a set of playing cards appeared. “Azariah needs to be brought down a notch or two.”
“Keep pushing her, Markam, and you’ll lose her forever,” Sonara said. “Don’t mess it up, when you only just got her back.”
She turned, but Markam caught her wrist and spun her gently around.
“Promise me one thing, Sunny,” he whispered as their eyes met, and her curse latched onto his aura. For a moment, she allowed herself to breathe it in. To remember the good times they’d shared, when they were only comrades. When she’d learned that he harbored a darkness that she harbored,too. A darkness that Jaxon and his sunshine smile would never quite get.
“I don’t make promises anymore,” Sonara said.
Markam smiled. “All I ask is that you don’t kill him in the process. We don’t yet know his curse. He hasn’t been a Shadowblood for long. You don’t know what he might do in return, once you begin to question him.”
“Is thatworryI hear in your voice, Markam of Wildeweb?”
“Yes,” he breathed. He dropped her hand. “But it’s not you I’m worried about. It’s him.”
Sonara wasn’t sure when she’d fallen asleep.
But she awoke in a sudden panic, sliding Lazaris into her palm with an effortless motion—only to find the fire melted down to mere embers, Markam’s rumbling snores filling the cavern. She’d forgotten how soundly he slept.
Sonara sat up, unsurprised to find the Wanderer was still unconscious, his bindings in place, though she could see the rise and fall of his chest. She watched him for a moment, wondering if perhaps he was faking it, waiting for his chance to escape. But his breathing was long and even, as if he truly hadn’t yet woken.
She’d already been waiting for what felt like hours, but it was no use, trying to interrogate someone in that state. She’d wait as long as it took.
She yawned, stretching her aching shoulders. As she breathed in, an aura flickered to life in her senses. Her curse was often hardest to harness upon waking.
Curiosity.That ripe zing that begged for her attention. And mixed with it…
The aura she’d sensed before, when the Wanderer ship soared across the skies over the Bloodhorns.Fear.
Not coming from within Sonara, butwithout.Around her.
Sonara stood, swiping cavern grit from her palms.
Some auras were simple, easy to manage as they skated across her tongue. She could swallow them away like a bit of cool water, forget that they were ever there. Others were more insistent, like an embarassing memory that constantly tried to re-form in her mind. Sonara couldn’t quite decide which category this aura fell into now. For on the journey to the Garden of the Goddess, at the Gathering, and facing the Hadru, it had overcome her like a monstrous thing. But tonight… it beckoned.
Like a song she longed to draw nearer to, if only to hear the melody a bit more.
This way,the aura sang. It pulled at the threads of her curse, dragging it deeper into the cave.This way.
Sonara wondered if she was making it up herself, or if perhaps the voice was somehow hers.
The aura was like a ripple in the current of the air, far past the rock formations that surrounded this open entry space. Deep, deep, into the shadowed edges of the cavern, and the stars only knew just how far it went.
Foolish, to walk into the darkness alone.
Sonara knew this as well as she knew that the red suns always rose and set.
