“We’ve got time... I’m pretty sure the door is locked.” Ali puts his hand on Luca’s knee, swiping his thumb back and forth in gentle strokes.
Luca meets his eyes and pulls his lip ring into his mouth. I sink down next to him on the cot, trying to offer silent support. Whatever my personal feelings are about Alistair, I know he cares about Luca.
“I wasn’t supposed to come here,” Luca says.
“Can’t imagine why. It’s charming,” I joke, a burst of relief rushing through me when his lips twitch.
“My parents left as soon as they found out Mom was pregnant.”
“Good timing, yeah?”
Luca grunts and scrapes at a piece of loose skin on his thumb. “It was, for me at least, but to make it happen, they had to make a huge sacrifice. There wasn’t any other way.” He tears the skin off his thumb, and blood wells up.
I wince, but he keeps scratching, doing more damage with each pass of his nail.
Alistair tracks the movement, a groove forming between his eyes.
When Luca tears another piece of skin loose, Ali grunts, grabbing his finger and slipping it into his mouth to keep him from doing more damage. By the time Alistair releases his finger, it’s blood-free and half-healed. Lost in his past, Luca barely notices.
I sigh. I don’t like seeing him this way.
“What was the sacrifice?” Malach asks.
“They agreed to have their basilisks bound. Permanently.” Luca’s voice is flat, his tone emotionless. It’s as if he’s telling us about the weather.
A cold hollowness creeps over me, and I rub the heel of myhand over my heart. My fingers shake as I consider all the things he’s not saying.
Living with my magic bound.. . It would drive me mad, and I’m a demon. Shifters are even more enmeshed with their animal side, almost dual-natured. I try to imagine any of the Therions without their beasts and wince.
Gods, they would be half-alive, and that’s the best-case scenario.
I glance away, a lump bobbing in my throat. Luca’s parents made a painful, impossible decision to protect their son, but he’s the one who had to live his entire life with whatever was left of them.
“That’s . . . fuck, man,” I whisper. “That’s horrific.”
Luca hums low in his throat. “Yeah. It is.”
“We won’t let the same happen to you,” Malach says. Stern and blunt, he sounds like a soldier.
I sit up a little straighter. “What Malach said.” I try to sound reassuring and confident, but the wobble in my voice ruins the effect.
Luca tries to smile, but his heart isn’t in it. I toss my arm around him.
The urge to fill the silence is hard to resist, but Luca doesn’t need to hear me talk; he needs someone else to know this terrible thing. Dad’s face flashes through my mind. Words can’t erase loss. I should know.
Alistair’s eyes change from blue to red, then back again. He leans forward slowly and kisses Luca. Thoroughly, but with more tenderness than I thought he was capable of. Alistair—the master spy who doesn’t forgive or forget—is trying to be gentle.
I look away.
By the time he pulls back, Luca’s cheeks are pink. “I’m okay, Ali.”
“Of course you are,” Alistair says briskly. “As Casanell said, wewill work together to find a way off this realm. Now let’s discuss our strengths and weaknesses.”
I frown. He’s agreeing with me, but I’m not sure I like it. Nope, I hate it, actually. Who the fuck does he think he’s fooling? Actions speak louder than words, and Alistair has more than proven he doesn’t want to be my friend.
“I don’t have weaknesses,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Are you sure?” Alistair drawls. “Because you passed out in my arms during the eclipse.”
