I started.I’d forgotten she was with me.
Eyes wide and brimming with meaning, she gazed up at me—but said nothing.
Every one of the Bazrian Seven was a sänglure.Just because I couldn’t hear what Alobaz said didn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to hear us—and scent us too.
My hiding place wouldn’t remain secret for much longer.Time to act.
Before I could, a young boy, in the transition phase between childhood and manhood, stepped out from behind the wall of Edwidge and one of the big guys.
The boy was bouncing on his feet, gesticulating with excited sweeps of his hands.He looked up at Edwidge and at the man beside him.
Then his eyes landed on Alobaz.
The boy’s entire face lit up with the force of a hundred lumoons.He ran to Alobaz, slid to a stop in front of him in a plume of dust.His lips started moving.
Alobaz sighed.It was clear even across the street, which was wide enough for multiple carts, and currently free of the manure common to cities of all sizes.
The boy beamed at Alobaz.I gawked.How could the boy do that?Didn’t he scent the monster, so close he could rip his throat out before he could finish another word?
The boy smelled of meadows, fresh and new in springtime, like the clear, pure water of its streams.
He was an easy meal served up on a platter for the likes of Alobaz.
I tensed, preparing to watch the boy die.
Alobaz laughed.The boy threw his head back in brief delight before clapping his hands.
What was this?A … ruse?
Alobaz spoke.The boy, frowning now, shook his head.Alobaz spoke again.I still couldn’t make out a damn thing!
Then the boy plodded up the stairs as if those same feet that had danced moments before were now leaden.He pulled open the door, leaned on it, dropped his shoulders in a visible sigh, then dragged himself inside Slake, the door swinging shut behind him.
With drawn expressions, Alobaz’s six soldiers sidled up to him.Edwidge and one of the big guys nodded greetings at a few of the Galmeenians.
I expected Alobaz to talk with his companions, to scheme up some new heinous crime against the Opalese.Silently, he glanced at each of his soldiers in turn, taking time to absorb their expressions, their postures.Then, without warning, his stare stretched beyond them.Past the onlookers.Around the corner of a general store.
Those limned blue-green eyes speared me.As if he’d harpooned me, and a chain stretched taut between us, I found myself rounding the corner, stepping out into the street, swinging my hips as I prowled toward the man who’d singlehandedly ended the world as I knew it.
The man who’d killed my twin brother.
At my back, Marina’s breath caught.
Chapter24
I’m Your Dream Come True
Alobaz felt the woman before he saw her.A tingle swept along his body like the consuming wisp of a flame, rapidly engulfing him in its tantalizing heat.
His heart leapt at the feeling—an automatic reaction he’d believed long dead.
Lev was saying something to him.Next Moncho was.But all Alobaz could register was this woman.
Her hips swayed.He imagined his hands digging into them, gripping her hard.A band of exposed skin circled her slim waist; he’d drag his lips across it.Her breasts were practically spilling from her bustier.He envisioned himself ripping them free of it before self-awareness slammed into him, attempting to douse the fire.
When his eyes climbed to her face, he sucked in a sharp breath he normally wouldn’t have allowed himself.
She was the single most stunning woman he’d seen in all his long life.
