"What do you know?" I ground out.
"More than you're ready for, Betrayer," she spat and I flinched.
So many had called me that since I'd been kidnapped from the city of the gods and brought amongst the humans, but not her. Never her.
"Should I keep an eye on him?" I asked, choosing not to take visible offense, not to let her know how deeply she'd wounded me. Hide the pain, always.
"Yes," she replied easily.
My eyes trailed toward the open window and the garden where the general had been standing moments before. Ksenia didn't trust him. That wasn't all that surprising given the nature of the spy's duty and the fact that she never truly seemed to trust anyone, but something was different about this.
The general had brought Adrian all the way here, had taken pains to train her himself, had defended her honor in the sparring field, and gods knew whatever else he'd done for hersince he pulled her from the wreckage of the wards around the Underground. He was by her side, always. Her protector, defending the single greatest hope against the Geist his people had ever had.
Ksenia knew something.
"Tell me what you know," I demanded, stepping closer.
"It would do the general a disservice to make assumptions about his future based on his past," Ksenia replied slowly, carefully.
My brows drew together as I tried to make sense of that. She was obviously alluding to something, watching me closely and hoping I would understand what she was trying to say. I didn't.
"You're leaving sooner," she said then, changing the subject with a fair amount of disappointment once she realized I wasn't catching on. "Any moment now, I imagine. I can't…you'll be with them now, Dante, and they support her. If she decides to end you, neither Roman nor I will be around to stop her."
"I was never under any impression you would defend me anyway," I grumbled. "As I recall, you're the ones who brought me to her in chains in the first place."
Her lips slanted into a frown but she dipped her head in acknowledgement of the point.
"Until we meet again, Viper.”
Then she bowed slightly, pressing her hands together in a strange way I wasn't familiar with, some human custom, no doubt. I mimicked the movement and watched as she passed through my door again, Phantom trailing after her.
It wasn't long until one of the general's stone-faced warriors came to fetch me. He walked me down the hall to meet with the others in the foyer. I stayed in the back, lingering with the warrior who seemed to be assigned to watch over me.
I saw Adrian's friend first, the one from the Underground who hadn't been Culled. I still couldn't remember his name. He stoodin a circle of warriors, telling some loud story I tried not to hear that the others were chuckling and shaking their heads at. Adrian stood with the general at the front of the group. She kept fidgeting with her strange and beautiful armor, shifting on her feet and pulling at the metal collar, as she listened to the general speaking with one of his men in low tones. I glared at the back of his head, remembering the sting of every slap of his blade from the day before.
What an asshole.
"Thank you, Tamim, you may go," someone spoke suddenly from beside me.
I glanced over to find Adrian's other friend at my side. The girl with the braids from the Second Ring whose name was Zya stood still as the warrior who'd fetched me, Tamim, I supposed, nodded and sauntered off to join the group with the Underground boy. Zya frowned but didn't glance my way, keeping her eyes on Adrian at the head of the crowd instead.
"What did you do to get assigned as my babysitter?" I asked, my voice low so only she could hear.
She tensed, jaw clenching immediately.
"I happen to be one of the few in our camp whom Adrian trusts not to kill you," she ground out through gritted teeth, sharp gaze flicking up to me once. "Though I'm more than willing to try if you keep up that attitude."
I rolled my eyes, looking back to the front just as the doors to the foyer began to open. Second Ringers. Always thought themselves so capable.
"You're welcome to try," I muttered back. "Everyone else has been since the moment I arrived in Pavos."
"The moment you betrayed your bonded, you mean."
I fought against the wince, controlling my reaction so she couldn't see just how expertly she'd struck at my soul. And the doubt reared its ugly head again, the way it had since the oldwoman opened her mouth and spoke of gods and goddesses beyond the Geist, about prophecies and soul bonds and mates, about destiny and choice.
Not a true bond.
Her words played in my head as a mockery of my heart. There was nothing more true, more genuine, more authentic than the bond I'd felt with Adrian. There was nothing more real than my feelings for her. Even though I hadn't chosen them when it mattered, that didn't mean they weren't there. That was the truth. Because it was my truth. No matter what human religion dictated.
