“With the herbs?”
“Yeah. But also by stealing.” Heat rises to my face. “Small things. To make ends meet.”
“Stealing, huh?” Ardruna sounds like she’s laughing.
The heat in my face intensifies. “I’m not proud of stealing. I know it’s a bad thing. My family doesn’t approve, either.”
“But you were feeding them. Keeping them alive. That’s important.”
“You don’t disapprove?”
“You became a parent to them,” she says softly. “Needing help isn’t their fault, but doing what you could wasn’t your fault, either. It sounds like you were a victim of circumstances.”
Surprised, I glance at her, but she’s not looking at me. She’s looking at Roane. He’s still kneeling there, at that specific tomb, as if he hasn’t noticed us.
“We should stomp a little while approaching,” I muse. “Not to startle him. I value my life.”
“Startle Roane?” Ardruna laughs out loud. “His hearing is as keen as mine. He must have heard us coming from miles away.”
As if on cue, his head turns and he nails me with a glare.
Oh joy.He’s upset with me again.
“Why won’t you go home, stay there and keep safe?” he snarls. “Are you seeking out more monsters I need to save you from?”
“I don’t need your saving,” I say stiffly. “And the library is not my home.”
His jaw clenches. “Be that as it may, you should take cover, not walk out in the open.”
“She has me with her,” Ardruna objects.
“As if you could protect her in case of an attack, Druna.”
“Ro, you’re starting to annoy me,” Ardruna growls. “Just because you stepped in to help earlier, that doesn’t mean I didn’t have it covered. As for you, why are you here? When I first met you, I didn’t think much of it, but now I have to ask you… Who is buried in this tomb?”
“Nobody you know,” Roane says curtly.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the best you’ll get, so drop it.”
The lioness pads closer to him. “What’s the matter, Ro? Are you sick?”
“Fucking drop it, Druna.”
She growls, baring her teeth. “If you weren’t like family to me, I’d have eaten you by now, clothes and boots and all.”
“You’d get heartburn,” Roane says, unconcerned. “Trust me.”
“Because of the knives?”
“Because of my mood,” he snarls.
“Finally, some wisdom from you.”
I listen to them with half an ear, thinking,Is this what she meant about him being nice and funny and teasing? He sounds mostly sarcastic and snide,but my attention is caught by the tombstone. It’s unmarked. Blank.
“Is it an empty tomb?” I hazard.
