Child’s play, and for the insult, they would learn to kneel.
I sneered, turning my glare upon the deceptive woman in the clearing. Belle. The traitor who’ddare.
“Mila, please. Come down so we can talk.”
Bracing against the need to taste her, my ki seeped through her with a touch so light, the Triloth didn’t so much as flinch at the invasion. Oh, and the stories her blood had to share! “You’re pregnant.”
And then she did flinch, whirling at the sound of my voice and staring into the gloom to my left. “Y-Yes. My second.”
“Josh’s spawn, I presume,” I said, lip peeled back from my teeth. “And it’s”—I tisked—“mundane.”
“It is mychild, Mila.” Her piercing blue eyes were not enough to penetrate the dark, but she tried, squinting into the trees. “And she—or he—will be loved regardless of—”
I chuckled, untangling my ki from Kas, giving the illusion that I stalked the branches at my leisure. Confusing the poor little Triloth down below. “You can’t sense the gender?”
“No,” she snapped, glaring at my phantom ki circling the clearing. “And neither can you. It’s far too soon for that.”
“Hmm. Is it?” I picked at the dirt under my claws, withdrawing from the Priestess ki before it became too… tempting.
Belle’s brow pinched in frustration. “Do you know how long it’s been? How long you’ve been in the forest?”
I snorted, tossing my essence into Kas once more, making the Triloth spin and dance for me. “Time. That’s all your kind thinks of.”
“‘Your kind?’ Are you really so…”
Raising my brows, I peered down at her. “So, what?”
“Lost. Are you really so removed from us that you think—” she took a breath. Exhaled. “Mila, it’s beenfive years. We need you. Please. It’s time to stop playing vigilante in the forest, sister.”
“Sister?” I laughed, yanking my ki from Kas, letting it fly about the clearing without moving a muscle. “What kind of sister brings an army to a family gathering?”
She blanched. “What?”
“Did you think I would not notice them? Did you think the Glaith would be enough to hide your little soldier pets from me?Here?”
Belle tore her gaze away from my phantom’s progress, looking to the shadows on her left. Guilty.
“Tell them to fuck off, Belle.”
“Wh-What—”
I clenched my fist then, forcing ki into the Glaith her soldiers used to hide from me, pushing it to the limit, then slithering through their flesh and bone. Making them kneel. “Can’t you feel them, Belle? They’re suffering. The Glaith. It burns them…”
Her hand went to her throat. Eyes rimmed in white. “Mila—You can’t! They’re soldiers of the rebellion. They’regood men.”
“Tell your good men to fuck off, or they die by the very Glaith you love so much.” I grinned at her, though she didn’t see it. “You recall the way I burned my hand,sister? Do you think you can heal all six of them the way you once healed me? Do you think you can reattach limbs before they water my land with blood?”
“You’re not powerful enough to make that much Glaith explode,” she snapped, glaring at Kas.
I shifted forward, one leg dangling over the edge of my perch. “And you’re willing to take the chance that I’m bluffing?”
She didn’t flinch.
“Mmm, I must say, Belle, I’m impressed. Motherhood has made you”—I licked my lips, letting my specter settle into Kas—“vicious.”
Belle glared at the trees, following the illusion of my ki as it circled the clearing. But on some level, she knew. She knew I had no reason to bluff. Somewhere deep down, she feared what I’d become in the dark.
“Leave us!” she shouted, flinging her hands toward the mountain.
