“It’s really none of my business what happened, but if the state of your dress when I found you and the damaged uniform shirt with the hand pin over there have anything to do with it, I’d say he should have been in a better mood.”
Lory couldn’t decide whether to be embarrassed or glad Anees indicated she knew something was going on between the two of them. It made it somehow more …real.
“I have no idea what mood he was in when he left.” Lory managed a casual shrug, despite the incredulous eyebrow Anees raised, pushing her braid over her shoulder as she gestured at the street below.
“If we don’t get out of here, it won’t matter what mood he was in because it will turn pretty grim pretty fast with what Ycken has in store for you.”
Adrenaline flooded Lory’s veins, and she had to close her fists in order to keep the heat from forming into full-fledged flames in her palms. “What is he planning, and why does Falcrest care?” They’d slept together, and he’d disappeared without a word when she’d sunken into the deep slumber of exhaustion, no matter how sweet his words before they’d closed their eyes, no matter the fact he shared with her a secret that gave her a different sort of power over him.
Anees’s eyes widened, and her face contorted as if she’d taken personal offense. With a quick kick, she swung her legback into the room, her gaze on Lory’s face as she growled, “If you’re mistaking Khayrivven Falcrest for the warm and fuzzy type, you are sorely wrong, Lory, even when you share a bed. But don’t you dare doubt his sincerity.”
Lory was so perplexed she forgot what she’d been about to say—and to close her mouth when she couldn’t retrieve her words, but Anees rolled on. “After everything he’s been through… Everything he’s fought for… Have you forgotten what he’s done for you?”
A lump formed in Lory’s throat as she stood her ground, trying not to crumble under the phantom’s scrutiny. A leonthor might have been afraid of the warning glinting in her eyes.
It didn’t matter how Lory turned and twisted the words in her head; they kept coming back to the same conclusion. No matter how attracted she was to him and how life-changing the sex had been,he’d lied to her for much longer than he’d trusted her, and she still didn’t know where they stood after what had happened in this very room.
“He set a trap for me out here. He was the one to rat me out and tell Ycken where to find me to begin with.” Lory blew out a breath because that wasn’t the only thing he’d done. “He also saved me. Twice. When he convinced Brunn and Ycken to let me live and come to Ashthorn, and when I lost control and exposed my fire to the entire academy.” And he’d shared the one thing that might have branded him deeper than the torch-shaped scar on his shoulder—failing to save his sister. It was the only reason she gave him the benefit of the doubt after vanishing from this room like a thief in the night.
Anees dipped her chin. “Glad you haven’t forgotten. And what he sacrificed to do so might kill him one day.” Turning on her heels, Anees started climbing out the window, but Lory caught her by the elbow.
“What did he do?” The phantom had hinted at it before but told her to ask Khayrivven about it. Lory shook her head. “What do you mean,it will kill him?”
Perhaps it was the desperation in Lory’s tone or the fear in her eyes as Anees assessed her like a piece of forgotten treasure. “He vouched for you, Lory, because that’s the sort of man he is. If he believes in something, he’ll gamble his life away in order to protect it.” Her eyes turned the shade of dark only deepest unhappiness could bring forth. “If you betray the Triad, if you as much as set a toe out of line, he’ll die.”
Lory all but managed a shallow breath as the words registered. “Why? Why take the risk? Why would the Triad make such a deal when they could have easily killed me?”
“Again, not my story to tell.” Anees was already climbing, whispering for Lory to follow. “I shouldn’t have told you about his deal to begin with, but the Triad doesn’t like how powerful Khay is. He offered them a tool to control him in exchange for their promise that you’ll live, so they took it.”
Lory’s stomach tightened with dread. Whether the Triad knew about Elina, they didn’t trust Khayrivven, or they wouldn’t lunge for an opportunity to control him.
Anees was already halfway down the facade, her dark hair and clothes blending into the shadows as she drippeddown the side of the building like an elegant drop of black ink. “Are you coming, or do I need to get back up there and make you? Khay gave me permission to drag you across the city if I have to.” She gave Lory a half-humorous wink.
Mixed feelings whirling in her stomach, Lory gathered her skirts and scaled the rough limestone, the skin on her hands and knees tearing as she slid a few feet when she lost footing with her slippers. By the time she landed on the packed earth ground, she was panting, and dark, wet blotches were spreading on the black silk of her skirt.
Anees looked her over, squatting in front of her, and tearing strips of fabric from the hem of her skirt, wrapping them around her knees and her palms. “He’ll also bite my head off if I bring you back injured, so we’ll need to make a side trip to the Medica quarters to procure some tonic.” Her gaze fell to Lory’s stomach, where the tunic overlapped with the skirt. “Maybe for more than the cuts and bruises.”
Lory didn’t even want to consider the meaning of her words, though there was nothing but truth to them. When she’d been running the streets of Dunai, on the run from guards and always on the verge of starvation, she hadn’t worried about birth control, but now that she was eating properly and had a regular cycle, she should have thought of it herself. She’d witnessed too many of the girls on the street ending up with a bundle of joy because they’d failed to educate themselves about how things worked with fertility.
So, she nodded and followed Anees into the moonlit streets, biting back the pain as the bandages on her knees slipped when they climbed onto the next building, disappearing into the night.
Anees was right—Khayrivvenwasin a shitty mood.
When they knocked on the blackened door at the end of the hallway Anees had explained was for hands and phantoms, Khayrivven opened, barking for them to come inside, before pacing the length of the two-room suite consisting of a living room and an adjacent bedroom where the foot of a wide, black-sheeted bed peeked through a gap in the wooden wall. Lory barely dared take a look at the neat shelves along the stone wall enclosing the suite, or the worktable in the corner, where an empty teacup sat beside an open book.
This was Khayrivven’s bedroom—even without him crossing back and forth in front of her, she would have known. It was as unreadable as the captain, and with as many drawers and cupboards that could hold secrets she wasn’t ready for. And it smelled like him—sage and leather and embers.
Heat flared in her chest at the one secret Anees had shared with her.
If you as much as set a toe out of line, he’ll die.
When her gaze fell on Khayrivven again, he had stopped by the small sofa across the room, gesturing for them to take a seat. Not a hint of fire glinted inhis eyes as he assessed her, expression carefully empty as he marked the bandages around her hands while her fresh clothes hid the bandages on her knees. Once more, he wore the mask of the captain who cared for nothing and no one—because that was the only way he wouldn’t get hurt.
But if she’d learned anything about Khayrivven, it was that a whole world of emotion and passion lived beneath that facade.
“You look refreshed, captain,” she said with a wink, running her gaze up and down his form, memorizing the lines of his body hidden behind the black uniform he’d donned. A new hand pin sat at his breast, and on his shoulder, pieces of leather reinforced the sturdy material. Together with the sabers crossed at his back and the sword at his hip—and an assortment of other blades she was certain lingered hidden in the leather on his forearms and in his boots—he seemed ready for battle. The flicker of heat in her chest died.
“What happened?” Lory didn’t care if Anees read anything into her reaction; the phantom had already guessed all the important pieces.
