“Do that again and I promise you’ll lose that hand,” Kira threatened.
“We can’t have that.Auralyn enjoys being the only one-armed warrior in House Roake.”
“Why am I surrounded by ridiculous people?”Kira lamented.
“Because they match your own absurdity,” Finn announced.
Kira looked over at him.“You know—you don’t always have to have the last word.”
“How else am I to be heard?”
Kira narrowed her eyes at his faint smile.One of these days—
As if sensing her thoughts, his smile widened in challenge.
Rather than engage, she focused on their plight.“It’ll probably be weeks or months before Harlow sends someone after us.”
There were no plans for a check-in.If he even had the resources to spend on them with everything else going on.
“We need to find the ship the pirates used to get here,” Kira decided.
Pirates weren’t exactly the trusting sort.She doubted they would have let themselves be stranded.The chances of their bosses deciding they weren’t worth the price of retrieval were too great.
“I might be able to help with that,” Maksym announced.
He let out a low whistle.
A green eyed Tuann woman marched through the trees, shoving a bound human in front of her.
“We may have come across one of those pirates,” Maksym announced with a cheeky grin.
Kira’s gaze went from the subdued pirate to the Tuann beside him.“I thought you said you were attacked by Caius’s pod.”
“Just one of them.And of course, I dealt with him before he could become a true threat.”
“Az and Bez will be pleased to know Arly survived and is not a traitor,” Finn said.
Kira watched Arly’s tight expression.“Are we sure about that?”
The Tuann didn’t seem like she was enjoying her good fortune.If anything, she looked resentful.Then again, she’d just survived an attack by someone she’d probably trusted for decades.A betrayal on that level tended to challenge the bottom line of even the most stable individuals.
“What are the chances Az or Bez are in on this?”she asked.
The woman’s eyes burned as she met Kira’s gaze.In that brief moment before she masked her emotions, she was laid bare.Her fury and helplessness on full display.
“I see,” Kira said.
It seemed Caius had chosen wisely in at least one of his subordinates.
Arly wasn’t upset about her friend’s loss or their suspicions.She was enraged because she thought Tage wasn’t the only traitor among them.
“Arly?”Bez’s surprise morphed to joy as Arly shoved the pirate to his knees.
Arly stiffened as Bez rushed in her direction.
“Thank the Mea’Ave.I thought you were dead.”
Something in Arly loosened.She let Bez hug her, leaning in and closing her eyes for a brief moment before straightening.
