“What month are you?” Arianna hardly believed in legends having any bearing on her day-to-day life.
“Eleven. Lord Agendi, the Lucky.” Cvareh nodded his head forward. “And tonight, his temple is where I am taking you.”
“A temple sounds like serious business.” She’d had enough Dragon customs today for a lifetime.
“I will be surprised if anyone is even there.” Cvareh soothed her concerns. “The supreme gods—those who are house Patrons—and elder gods To, Veh, Soh, and Bek, have oft-frequented temples. But Lord Agendi is too far down the pantheon and too far out of the way for anyone to make the journey regularly.”
She certainly wouldn’t have called the trip convenient. But Arianna was in a good mood. Her body still felt afire from the fight, her imbibing, and their lovemaking. The night air was crisp on her mostly naked form, charging her skin with a pleasant icy sensation.
Cvareh tugged on the boco’s reigns, leading it to a wide landing platform connected via a stone walk to a small temple with a pointed roof and lined with columns at the opposite end. He dismounted, reaching a hand to her. Arianna ignored it, helping herself off the boco. Some things were never going to change, no matter what came to pass between them.
“It’ll start soon.” Cvareh looked up at the sky. “We’ll only be waiting a short while.”
“For what?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” Whatever it was, he was so excited about it that she forgave his cryptic nature and didn’t press. “Come, let’s wait in the shade of the temple.”
Around the pathway, and the entire island, were long stalks with some sort of egg-shaped growth on the end. They swayed in the breeze, leaves whispering quietly between each other. It seemed no other plants would survive on this particular rock.
Cvareh reclined on a wide step at the entrance to the temple. Arianna poured magic into her eyes to cut through the darkness and peer within, but was generally disappointed in what she saw. There was a statue of a Dragon man holding a box of silver, a crown of flowers atop his head. Coins and other offerings were piled into his little treasure chest, but not much else adorned the space.
Satisfied, Arianna sat next to Cvareh.
“Might I ask you something?”
“You just did,” Arianna pointed out, as though he were a child making such an error for the first time in his life.
“Will you answer it if I ask?” he rephrased.
“That depends entirely on the question. Maybe I will, maybe I’ll rip off your tongue.” She wasn’t used to her threats earning laughter. She wasn’t used to being called out when her words were bark with only a tiny possibility of bite.
“Very well, I shall take my chances.” Cvareh paused, sobering once more. “The woman you loved…”
Arianna stiffened and Cvareh hesitated. She wondered if he was waiting to see if she lashed out for him even mentioning Eva. She wondered why she hadn’t yet.
“Eva.”
“Eva,” Cvareh proceeded delicately. “You and she… you two…”
Arianna sighed heavily. She didn’t want to talk about Eva. But somehow, she felt as if she owed it to the man sitting next to her. The man in whose pleasures she’d delighted in for hours had perhaps earned that much truth. If she was going to talk about Eva, she was only going to do it once. She would tell him everything he wanted to know.
She pulled off the splint, releasing her illusion. The island pulsed with the quiet sort of vibration that all of Nova had. But, like Cvareh had suspected, she didn’t sense the presence of another magical being anywhere.
Seeing her skin exposed in the night was instant discomfort. It was her flesh, not the illusion. But it was also flesh Cvareh had seen, that his mouth had worshipped.
“She kissed me, for the first time, here.” Arianna held out her wrist. Upon it was inscribed:20.9.1078. So much had happened in a mere three years. “She was vivacious, full of life and challenge and heart. She loved like a dream and she fought like a sea monster.”
“What happened to her?”
“I killed her.” Arianna stared out into the vast sky as if the truths she’d been searching for would be there written in the stars. Stars she never could have seen if she’d never met Cvareh. More likely, the truth would be found in the man sitting next to her. Arianna stared down at the hands she’d recently acquired.
“Arianna, I don’t think you should blame—”
“I slit her throat, Cvareh.” It wasn’t some misplaced blame. It was fact. “We met in the last rebellion. She worked with me on the Philosopher’s Box. A gifted Alchemist and one of Loom’s experts on Chimera research. She was the best of all worlds and somehow loved me.”
Ari leaned back onto her elbows, tipping her head back and drinking in the darkness like sharp liquor. It would fuel her words and make her brave. It already had for years, if Cvareh’s gods were to be believed. “She favored Sophie at first. But we were far more well-matched in mind...and in heart.”
“Do all Fenthri favor their same sex?” Cvareh asked with as much delicacy as he could muster.
