“It is too far.”
I keep staring at the horizon.
“You already said that.”
“It matters.”
I swallow.
“Everything here can kill you.”
A pause.
“Almost everything,” he says.
That should not make me want to laugh. It almost does anyway, though the sound sticks behind my ribs and comes out as a shaky breath instead.
I look at him again.
“That was not comforting.”
“It was true.”
There it is again. That bluntness. That strange refusal to wrap anything in softness. I should hate it. Part of me does. Anotherpart is starting to understand that with him, truth may be the closest thing to safety I get.
The transport slows as the terrain roughens again. One of the warriors up front says something in Tigris. Kaiven listens, answers, then looks back at me.
“We stop soon.”
“For what?”
“Water. Leg stretch. The engine needs cooling.”
That sounds reasonable until my eyes cut to the endless grass around us.
“Out there?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
The answer slips out so fast his brows shift by the smallest degree. I hear myself and drag in a breath.
“I mean…”
“You mean no.”
Heat floods my face.
“You just told me there are things here that hunt people.”
“There are.”
“And now we are getting out.”
“Yes.”
“This is not making me feel better.”
