“You’re insane.” Ardruna sinks her teeth into the hem of my leather tunic, hauling me back. “Get down!”
The shards fall from my hands as I drop to my knees behind the stone bench. The birds rush into the house, hitting the walls, fluttering about.
One of them perches on top of the stone bench, head cocked to the side. Looking right at us.
Shit.
It opens its beak—straight, serrated inside like a saw, the bronze corroded, giving it a patina of green. A symbol is engraved on it, and I’m close enough to make out two crossed axes.
How is that possible? Then again, here everything is possible, and I’m mesmerized in the face of this impending, gruesome death. Frozen in place.
The bird bows over us, letting us gaze into the darkness of its gullet. The stench emanating from it is a punch to the face.
It jerks me out of my frozen state. Shoving Ardruna back, I scramble away and the bird prepares to jump after us—but something spins through the air, glowing like a falling star.
A knife.
It thuds into the bird and it falls to the floor with a screech, beating its wings and writhing. I watch in horror as it moves some more and then falls still.
A tall figure appears behind the stone bench, crossing the room to reach us in long strides.
It’s Roane.
“Now he’s going to be insufferable,” Ardruna mutters, then grabs my sleeve with her teeth. “Come.”
“What are you doing?”
“That was one bird. Still plenty more to kill. Let’s get out of the way.”
We scramble behind a low wall hiding the rotten remnants of a bed. “He can’t get them all,” I mutter.
“Watch him,” Ardruna says, a note of pride entering her voice as he spins, throwing knives at the attacking birds, felling them one by one.
Gods, she really adores him, doesn’t she? And all right, he is impressive. His fighting skills, his strength and speed are hard to look away from.
But it stings that he has to save my life once again, especially after our last exchanges, and it’s my fault for disobeying and wandering around the city. My pride is hurt. Doing this on my own was as much a test for myself as to show him I could do it. Failing, and failing in front of him… crushes me.
With a final throw, he brings down the last bird and slowly lowers his hands. He’s breathing hard and I could swear he looks like he’s in pain. I want to ask him if he’s okay, but he beats me to it.
“Were you hurt?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
“Good.”
“Are those poisoned knives, covered in hydra venom?” I ask, curious. “Where did you get it?”
He frowns but doesn’t reply. I fully expect him to chew me out for leaving the temple, but without another word, he starts picking his knives from the dying birds. Then he just walks out of the house, his tall form vanishing from view, leaving behind a house full of dying metal birds and us.
His departure is the worst rebuke.
“Where is he going?” I whisper.
“To hunt? To ruminate? Your guess is as good as mine.” Ardruna watches him go. “Probably off to clear his head.”
I don’t comment on that. She still wants to believe he’s brooding over something. To be fair, she has known him for a lifetime, whereas I have barely landed here, disrupting their routine and imposing time limits on the time they spend together.
Now I feel like a home wrecker.
