“Is infection back?”
With a frown, he sets me on my feet. “No. Why?”
“Eyes very red.”
His throat moves over a swallow as sharp as the serrated peaks of Monteluce. Without replying, he turns and shoves open a large wooden door, then nods to the room beyond. I slip ahead of him, squinting into the obscurity. It is a cavern with many armchairs set around a metal table that appears wrought from the same metal as Crow talons. It shines darkly in the faint light cutting into the room through slits in the walls. I pad closer, my lids lifting at the sight spilling before me—rolling rock covered in trees like none I’ve ever seen before. Their leaves are fiery—a medley of gold and orange sprinkled through with green.
The air stirs as Cathal comes to stand beside me. “Autumn has come early.”
I glance up at him, at the sunrays carving into the darkness of his face, making his features starker instead of brighter.
He gestures toward the trees. “I can tell by the color of the forest.” At my frown, he explains, “When the weather grows cold, the trees here change hue before losing their leaves. They’llremain bare throughout winter, then sprout new leaves during spring. It’s called seasons. You do not have them in Shabbe.” He turns fully toward me now, his gaze stroking over my face, as if hoping to locate a shred of memory. “When you arrived in Luce, the first time we met?—”
Though I suddenly want to hear all about it, I shut him down with an abrupt, “No talk of past,” for I know it will hurt us both. Especially him. I don’t add this out loud, sensing the male might take offence at being found weak in any way. “Where Fallon and Lore?”
“It was winter when we met. There was snow everywhere. When you noticed it, your eyes grew fucking huge because it was the first time you had ever seen some.” And then he stalks past me and throws open a set of wooden doors.
I wedge my lips together, because I want to know more about thissnowand why my eyes widened, but if I dip a single toe into my past, it’ll create ripples, and those ripples are bound to have consequences.
I follow him past the doors, repeating, “Where Fallon and?—”
The male’s tossed off his shirt. His skin, although shades paler than mine, is riddled with the same puckered flesh as mine—scars.
I touch the one around my neck. “What doing?”
“I’m getting a change of clothes.”
I stare around me, suddenly understanding where it is we are. “You cave this?”
He snorts as he drops down onto the large bed to remove his boots. He tosses them aside before standing and pushing down his pants in one fell swoop. No color stains his cheekbones this time.
I find my hand floating to the doorframe as he pivots toward his armoire, the muscles beneath his skin roiling and clenchingas he moves. Even though I’m uncertain how it’s possible, he seems so much broader without his leathers.
He turns and catches me staring.
Since he’s stared his fill of me every time I’ve swam in the Amkhuti, it feels fair to study his front, which is just as muscled as his rear. The only remotely soft spot on this male’s body is the cock that hangs between his legs, but even that begins to harden as I stare.
“It’sourcave, Daya. The one you picked for us to live in as a family. You and me and”—there’s a hitch in his breathing—“our child.”
My heart emits a beat that is so bladed it gores me.
“You loved the snow so much that you wanted to live in the north.” He throws on a black shirt that clings to his skin like my swallow clings to my throat. “Withme.”
I roll my lips, pushing down the lump that’s making it difficult to breathe. He needs to stop living in the past. For both our sakes.
I turn toward the living area. “Where Fallon?”
“She’s already in Isolacuori.”
I faintly remember Phoebus telling me that this was where the kings of old had made their home in Luce. “So why we here?”
“Because”—leather whispers up legs, boots clunk—“like I said, I needed a change of clothes”—metal grinds and clicks—“and my armor.”
“Why no leave me on boat?”
“Your safety is my number one priority, Príona.” His voice is so near that I whirl back around.
“I safe with Taytah and Akwale.”
