“I tried to save you!”Isaac barked.
“You buried me!Tried to leave me for dead!”
The edge went deeper.His hands sank into the fur of herchest, unable to push.All he could do was twist and gasp.
“Beg!”she yelled.“Beg for mercy!”
Blood trickled down his neck.
“I swear,” Zaria growled, “if I don’t hear some real, honestpleas.”
“Fuck you,” Isaac hissed.
“Isaac—”
“No!Fuck you!I’m sick of your threats!I’m sick ofenduring your chatter!Most of all, I’m sick of yougetting in my way!”
The blade trembled at his throat.Her mohawk spilled acrossher face, glowing green with fire.
“Do it,” he said.
“Don’t test me, squire.”
“I’m not,” Isaac said, “your fucking squire.”
He looked her right in the eye.Neither of them blinked.Dust spilled from the spine of a titan, sprinklingacross the tiles.
“I’m calling your bluff,” he said.“You need me.You’rescared.”
She huffed in his face.
“You won’t kill me.”
Her black snout curled.The blade twitched, and her grip onhis shoulder tightened.Their eyes never left each other.He didn’t think aboutthe history of this chapel—its purpose and architecture and all the exaltedcorpses which might have passed through its halls.For once, his life of studyand research faded from his mind.
There was only him and her and a dagger at his throat.
A long moment passed.
She yanked the dagger away.Isaac tried not to gasp inrelief.After stabbing her weapon back into its sheath, she gripped hisshoulder with her other hand, leaving him completely pinned to the floor.Herhands were so big they could meet at his spine.He knew, very consciously, thatshe could pull him apart, like the leg of a cooked chicken.
Isaac swallowed.
“Just seemed like the right thing to do,” she hissed, mimickinghis voice.“Where’d you get that idea, Isaac?Huh?You read that in a booksomewhere, sippin’ on your wine?”
He took a few ragged breaths, wincing at every stretch ofhis throat.
“What was I to do,” Zaria asked, “if I couldn’t dig my wayout, huh?Was I supposed to starve in that hole while you traipsed off toglory?”
“I gave you—”
“You gave me nothing!”she yelled, in his face.“No rope, noprybar, nothing!I would’ve died down there if rust and rock hadn’t worked inmy favor!”She clamped down on a snarl.“Thought you were being heroic, didyou?Thought giving me the choice of starvation or capture was some noblefuckin’ mercy?”
“I did my best!”he yelled back.“I could’ve just let theshibboleth kill you!I could’ve said nothing while you blundered into a hex!Maybe that would’ve been smart!”
Her snout curled.The scar on her nose looked jagged andcruel.
“Listen,” he said, trying to collect himself.“I gave youprivileged information.Sensitive Diet contacts.Do you understand, in theslightest, how dangerous it was to share that information?”
