“We are surrounded by vipers,” he whispered. “They must seeexactlywhat they expect to see. Nothing more.”
I gaped, trying to orient myself, reaching for what I couldn’t have. “Destroy them,” I returned, scarcely audible, my throat dry. “Pull the ki from their worthless, cowardly hides as you should have done to that putrid general—”
“Stop.”He glanced over his shoulder, wary of insubstantial ghosts. “You’re going to get us killed. Do you understand that?”
“They are not a threat unlessyouallow it.”
“Have you forgotten what happened on the frontlines?” he hissed, lips and scruff rough against my ear. “There are consequences, Mila. There is more to this game than slinging power at anyone who challenges me. We are bound, you silly—”
“Yes,” I returned, voice a breathy rasp, “wearebound. You carry the power oftwoTrila-Glísandthe darkness, yet you still think like an Elite—”
Clapping a palm over my lips, he made a sound at the back of his throat and flung his senses into the aether once more. Eyes glassy, even as they stared down at me. When he returned, it was with a snarl. “Keep you voice down, you stupid, brainless chit.”
“Elites,” I scoffed when he released my lips. “All the same. Dumping ki into your silly weapons. Wasting your greatest source of power for nothing but a bit of senseless destruction.”
“Ah. I should indulge you, then? Feed your precious, so-called darkness even if it kills us? Even if your lack of training bleeds into me and we lose control? What then? Kill them all?”
I shivered, stooping to gather my towel, teeth chattering without that brilliant heat in my blood. “The dead c-cannot speak of what they’ve seen.”
He chuckled, draping his shirt over my shoulders. “Can’t they? The general is bound to the most powerful and experienced Trila-Glís in recorded history. His untimely death would be a declaration from beyond the veil, Miss Tannovic,” he murmured, scarcely audible against my ear. “If the general dies, the entire weight of the Empire will fall on us, seeking the power that could best their most accomplished asset. And should they discover what we are,” he continued, “Tilcot’s threats will be but a pleasant memory.”
“You are blinded by fear. Unfit to wield the power you stole.”
He laughed outright then, fingers tightening on my nape. “This from a girl born with incredible gifts, but lacks the smarts to seek training. Too drunk on her own legend to even imagine she could fall.” Thumb tracing the corner of my jaw, he smirked. “You’ve never spared a thought for the long term. Not a shred of discipline in your entire, reckless little body. Never planning anything unless it benefitsyou.All you had to do was join the last of the Priestesses beneath the mountain, and I mightneverhave claimed you,” he drawled. “Knew you wouldn’t. Knew you couldn’t help yourself.”
“No,” I hissed, slapping at his hand. “You wanted me to run. Youallwanted me to run. To fight another day. Fill weapons with ki, orbethe weapon. Submit. But either way—anyway—a slave.” I glared at the cobbles. “Prey runs so the hunter might sharpen her claws.”
He pressed the next words to my temple. Forcing them to strike deep. “And that’s why it was so easy to take you whenIwas ready. So fucking easy to draw you out of that forest, little hunter. All I had to do was drop the bait, and you came running like the obedient pet you were always meant to be.”
“Fuck yo—”
“Where are your claws now?” He thumbed the collar melted into my skin.
Scowling straight ahead, I clenched my fists, blunted nails biting my palms.
“You’ve always been mine, Mila.” We turned a corner, cutting onto a gravel path running parallel to the street we’d used to make our way to the bathhouse. “It’s what you were made for.”
“Made?” I laughed through the ache. “By whom? A dead Goddess?” Fingers trailing through the bushes edging the path, I felt nothing of the network spanning unseen beneath the soil. “I’m to believe some unknown deity gave me power enough to make men kneel, just so I could beyourslave?” Cold and empty, I shivered again. “Was I made so I could watch you squander what ismine?”My fingers convulsed, tearing leaves from branches, crushing the silent traitors in a bloodless fist. “So I could watch you flee from challengers who cannot hope to match you?”
He tisked, stepping back onto the cobbled streets and made a show of looking both ways. Seeing what no other eyes could. “This is not your precious Forest of Sorrows. There are dangers you can’t see. Your impulse to fight what you do not understand has cost you everything you hold dear. I will not allow you the same liberties here, with my life in your tiny, scarred hands.” Trailing his fingertips over the edge of my shoulder, he propelled me from forested path to cobbled street. “Let’s leave the tactical thinking to me, shall we?”
“Doing a fine job there, aren’t you? Power enough to silence his threats, and yet”—I let the squashed leaves fall, palm stained with their scent—“we run.”
“We have until sunrise to come up with a plan that isn’t going to end in bloodshed,” he replied, cutting across the street toward his residence.
“You are a coward, Captain Asher Rawlings.”
“Says the woman content to hide away in her forest playing house with a lion while the world burns around her.”
I sneered, trying to keep pace with his long-legged stride. “You’re the one burning things.”
He glanced at me, a single brow inching toward his hairline. “Ah, but it’syouwho burns forme,pet.”
“Hardly.”
“No?” he asked, slowing to match my pace, tracing the edge of his smirk with his right index finger. “That you continue to argue with that pretty little cunt still sweet and wet on my fingers is impressive.”
“What?” Jaw slack, cold raced through my chest. “There isnot!”
