“Ah, Iryana.” Karvek smiled as he turned to see her.
She walked up beside him, close enough that she could whisper. He watched her expectantly, and for a moment, Iryana wondered if she could just push him over the wall. It was a far enough drop that he would die instantly. But the wall between them and the drop was too high. She probably couldn’t manage it even if she was willing to go over with him.
Shaking that thought away, Iryana looked out over the sea of roofs before them. “It isn’t Pyetar, or at least, I couldn’t confirm it was him.”
Karvek tilted his head toward her, jaw tight. There was violence in his expression. “That’s it?”
“No,” she hurried to say, and then forced herself to talk slower, more casually. Confidently. “I wasn’t getting anywhere with him, so I made him finish the mission on his own. I went back to the Dovaki Post.”
“You returned to your family?” His voice was more curious now, but he was still watching her intensely. He turned, resting his back against the wooden wall.
She nodded. “I went to your liaison’s home. I—questioned him. I’m not experienced with this kind of thing, though.” She winced and gave him a guilty look. “I went too far. I accidentally killed him getting the information.”
She made sure her voice betrayed sufficient horror, and let her lip quiver a bit.
“I’m really sorry.”
Karvek rubbed her shoulder, and Iryana made herself lean into that touch.
“It’s okay; he was a traitor, remember? I would have killed him for it anyway.” He didn’t seem slightly displeased that his liaison was dead. “And what did you learn?”
“He was passing messages to my family from someone in the 18th, delivering payment, but he wouldn’t give names. Maybe he would have if I could have drawn it out more. I don’t know. But I found some letters in his house.”
She handed the pile of notes over. Her Uncle Dinhal had written them, but they would line up with the things Karvek would suspect the mole to have revealed. She’d made sure that it would be ambiguous who could have written them.
Karvek took them, opening one at a time and quickly scanning the contents.
She watched him get angrier with each letter, with more betrayals and secrets revealed. And paused when he got to the last one. The “most recent” one.
“They were going to meet,” Karvek said coldly.
Iryana nodded. They’d set the meeting for the twenty-third day of the Harvest Moon, now only two days away.
He was quiet for a long moment.
“Will your family know the liaison is dead?”
“Not for a while, he stayed to himself a lot. And I dragged the body into the woods. It won’t last long up there.” Her face remained neutral even though herinsides were twisting at all the lies. She worried each word was bringing her closer to discovery.
Karvek nodded slowly, then reached his hand up to roughly squeeze her chin. “You did well. I will send someone to intercept the meeting.”
She swallowed. It had to behim. “Is it someone you trust?” She looked down toward the inside of the fort and frowned. “It could truly be anyone, couldn’t it?”
“You’re right. And think how much sweeter it will be to catch them myself. To deal with them myself.” Karvek smiled. “I don’t trust anyone. And neither should you. Don’t forget that, little guardian. I’m the only one you can trust.”
A deep ache settled in Iryana's chest, realizing he meant to isolate her. It made her angry, but scared too. There was still a part of her that wondered if he really was the only one that saw her for what she was, and she wondered what that said about her. But she couldn’t show him any of that.
“I know, Karvek,” she said softly. She needed him to trust her, to not suspect anything.
She looked over his face carefully, looking for any sign that he doubted her, but she found something unexpected. Her mind spun, calculating every nuance of his expression. It was so subtle, but it was there.Want. And he seemed hesitant, something she had never seen in him.
When he touched her, it had always been a way to control. To show his dominance. To distract others. She’d seen almost every soldier hooking up with someone at some point, but never him. Had he ever given her reason to think he wanted her in that way?
Then she realized Karvek never tipped his hand, never revealed what he wanted until he was sure he could take it. He would never pursue someone, because he would see it as a weakness. As giving someone control over him. Even just in that small way.
And if he reached out, it would make him feel vulnerable. She had seen what Karvek did when he felt vulnerable. When he felt like he was losing control.
If she lethimkissher, Iryana could only imagine what he would have to do to feel in control afterwards.
