“I’d rather walk up to Vaeris and cut his head off.”
“You can’t always cut people’s heads off.”
He seemed troubled by that, his brow furrowing.
I bit on my lip. “I have an idea.”
“What?” he grunted.
“We’ll take turns asking each other questions. If you don’t want to answer, you drink.”
His mouth curved slightly. “Trying to get me drunk?”
I grasped the bottle, and he relinquished his grip. Then I poured some into a cup. “I’ll go first. Have you ever lost a fight?”
“Of course. In Caelir, you bleed until you learn. They don’t coddle children there. They throw you in the ring until you can’t stand. If you can’t rise again, you don’t deserve to.”
“That’s how they teach their own?”
“Not teach. Cull.” The amber flame in his eyes dimmed. “Every father wants a child strong enough to survive. Losing was…expected. Until you were the last one getting up.”
The words lodged in my throat. I wanted to ask if he remembered their faces, but the hard set of his jaw told me the answer.
His gaze sharpened. “My turn. How did you meet Vaeris?”
I sighed.
“Truth or drink,” he said softly.
I put the cup down, the liquid trembling. “Two years ago. At the market. Rheya and I were starving. I was…rooting through trash. Fae use runes to lock their bins.”
His smile turned grim.
“He caught me. He was glamoured to look like a merchant. I thought he’d call for guards. Instead, he gave me his purse. Enough to feed us for weeks.”
He lifted his glass and drained it.
“He kept coming back after that,” I went on, my voice growing brittle. “Bars, brothels, anywhere safe. He…helped me. In small ways. I thought—I thought he loved me.”
The word tasted like ash.
Kairos poured again. Slammed the bottle down.
“He said we’d never be together. That the court would laugh at him for taking a human mistress.” I studied my hands. “They already looked down on him for being half.”
Kairos scoffed. “He’s a coward, and you deserved better.”
“Have you ever loved anyone?”
“I’ve had lovers,” he said with a shine that I hated. “More than I can count. The passion burns hot, then dies cold, but I never cared enough to make it last.”
“Maybe you’ve never met someone worth keeping.”
His mouth twitched. “You sound like you’re volunteering.”
I swallowed hard. “What if I was? Would I be another flame that dies?”
“No.”
