It was my turn to pull away, avoiding the touch of her blue-tinged skin. “Of course. But you must be silent,” I added, shaking her off, rewarding her cooperation with another toothy grin that made her pale.
The man nodded, steeling himself. “Hurry.”
Humming a tune under my breath as I worked, I tugged a tiny wooden box free of my satchel and flicked the latch. Inside lay a selection of seeds I’d collected in late autumn. Tiny warriors drafted and bred to do my bidding.
“What are you doing?” the man hissed, twisting in his bonds. “They’ll be back at any moment.Hurry.”
“No appreciation.” I tisked, and then, eyebrows raised I showed him my palm. “See? Keys.”
He hesitated, pale brows drawn together above sunken eyes as he inspected my offering.
I curled my fingers, beckoning for his bound hands.
“Goddess,” he whispered, looking skyward, “why have you forsaken us? Why send us this wild thing? Why mock us in our time of need?”
“The Goddess isdead,” I sang, going instead to the youngest among them, and dropping a maple seed in the locks at wrists and ankles. “She burned up with the Temple.” Eyes fluttering closed, I woke the keys with a burst of silent power. “Be still,” I told the child, waiting for the infant trees to outgrow their prisons.
When they did, the boy cried out, eyes wide as he watched my keys rend the iron from the inside, destroying delicate mechanisms as they burned through the energy I’d given them. The chains fell away, leaving the too-skinny youth to scramble to his feet, staring.
I pointed at the slaver’s packs. “Clothes.”
“But—”
Lips pulled back, I snapped my fingers. Impatient to send this group to the coast and return to my solitude. “Focus. You’re ruining the fun.”
“Y-Your teeth. They’re—”
“Jake,” the man whispered, holding out his wrists to me. “Get us some clothes, son.”
Moving on to the last of them, the woman, I hummed my tune, jerking my chin at a narrow game trail concealed beneath the underbrush. “Go. And don’t fear the lion,” I added, beaming at the boy before he disappeared into the dark. “She hasn’t got the taste for man.”
There were no arguments after that.
Chapter 3
“I know what you are.”
I stilled, lingering at the edge of the clearing that would lead this battered family to freedom from the Empire.
“It’s a clever disguise, I’ll give you that.” The Tritan man flicked his fingers toward my face. “The clothes? The hair? You look nothing like us. And certainly nothing like what youreallyare. Except for the teeth. And the claws. Those are a rather obvious tell—”
The woman elbowed him. “But I’m sure none get close enough to see it, do they, dear?”
I flashed her a quick, toothy grin, balanced on the balls of my feet.
Her breath caught, but she continued. “I didn’t think so. And how have you managed to dye your hair such a rich brown—I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name, dear.”
For a moment, I held her eye, then tugged a hand-woven, fingerless glove off my scarred right palm. Letting the captain’s accursed brand see sunlight for the first time in at least three winters. Maybe more. “Walnut husks. Stain anything and everything they touch,” I said, showing her the evidence on my twisted skin.
“Brilliant!”
With a nod, I turned back to the trees, one hand on a branch.
“Wait—”
“I didn’t think there were any of you left,” the man said, taking a careful step closer. “At least none free of the Elites. Have you been living here since the Fall?”
In the distance, Kas yowled—screaming furious defiance at her potential suitor.
