“Ah,” Kai called from where his wardstone sat on the mantle, his back to her.“Ready to chat, are you?”
He turned, wardstrings shimmering in the air, clinging to his arms, his neck.Amendments, Ione gathered: he was checking for any gaps, any weaknesses that needed tuning.He leaned against the mantle, smug, and crossed his arms.
Ione threw the door shut and strode to him, not stopping until she was close enough to see him properly.Kai only smirked wider, one eyebrow raised with mild surprise.
“When were you planning on telling me,” she began, her tone clipped, “that my attendant was a pyromancer?”
A flicker of alarm ghosted over his face.“Oh – that?”he asked smoothly.“What, did she burn your lunch?”
Ione grabbed a fistful of his collar and yanked him to her level.“Since you know everything, you must already be aware that Lina fled Oseidos late last night.”
The casual arrogance dropped.“What do you mean,” he asked flatly.
“I’m not having this conversation again.”She shoved him into the mantle, grimly satisfied when the wardstone rattled within its bowl and Kai, gasping, slammed both hands around it to hold it still.“She is gone,” Ione said, storming away from him.“She is in Lodestone.InSoliz.”
“Why?”Kai followed her to one of the few pieces of furniture left in the room, a chaise lounge sitting before a table.He saw something she evidently didn’t on the table and brushed it to the floor.“Did she – do anything?”he asked, wiping his hands.“I mean, she can’t have or she would’ve – ” He cut himself off and rubbed his neck, frowning.
“No, she… I…” Fresh remorse pooling in her stomach, Ione leaned against the sofa, not wanting to sit but not trusting her legs to carry her.She lifted her head, looking to Kai with a vulnerability she loathed for him to see.“I told her who I am.”
She had expected anger.A demand for her to repeat herself, to explain what she was thinking.But Kai stood back and emitted a mean laugh.“Soliz knew we had Menon – they’d guessed, anyhow, but now…” He laughed again, chilling her.“Even those with the best of intentions will crack after what the priests at Soliz are capable of, and then they’ll learn all about our Menon Incarnate.Aye, I shouldn’t have kept Lina’s identity from you – hindsight’s a bitch and all – but at leastI’mnot the stupidest fucking person in the room right now.”
Ione slapped him so hard her bones rang.And, another surprise, Kai merely sighed and straightened his jacket.
“Right,” he said, healing his bloodied lip.He seemed to be thinking, but what he said next did nothing to pacify her: “Your one knows who you are.And we can suppose, from your remarkable skill level, that she knows you can’t control Menon’s powers.Leaving you very vulnerable, and very,verytempting to the Moths’ Archpriest.”
“Someday,” Ione whispered, “I will kill you.”
“Well don’t warn me, I love surprises.”He tapped his chin.“You tell her anything else I ought to know?Any exciting food allergies?”A hint of impatience crept into his tone.“You didn’t happen to mention where, precisely, the very fragile wardstone keeping us all safe is located, no?”
Ione shook her head, her face buried in her hands.Lina’s smile flashed in her mind, the memory of her warm fingertips on Ione’s face.The sweet rain of her lips against her cheeks, her eyelids.
Was it all a lie?Was she so naïve, so desperate for that warmth?
“Have you had a word with Menon about it?”Kai challenged her.“Is She gonna make an appearance at some point?”
Ione’s breath hitched, her hand still over her mouth, ashamed, ashamed, ashamed.She heard a small sigh, felt an unsure hand pat her shoulder.She didn’t have it in her to fight him off.
“I am useless,” she whispered, and Kai didn’t tell her that wasn’t true.“I had promised I would protect her and I can’t even protect myself.And now…”
She looked at him, at the lingering wardstrings, more sensed than seen.At the merciless, glacial power emanating from him, depthless, even when she could tell he worked to mute it.
Just say the word, he had told her once,and we can bring the world to its knees.
Ione drew herself up.Steeled herself.“Your offer, Warden.”
His lips curled, amused.“Oh?”
“Let Artem and Mahina unite.”She squeezed her eyes shut, dizzy.Drowning.“Swear your loyalty to me and whatever you can glean from my heritage and my position is yours.”
He was silent for some time, and when Ione opened her eyes, she found him grinning.“Marriage?”he said at last, slowly, as though testing the word out.His amusement sharpened somewhat, felt like the edge of a knife.“You people really do think the worst of me.”
A deep, cold ache formed in the pit of her stomach.
“Aye, I can work with this.”He gazed out the nearest window, to the glistening turquoise sea.Southward, as though he could see his island of birth from here.“This works just fine.The prodigal son returns, and with Menon Herself on his arm.They love a love story, southerners.”He turned his grin onto her.“And a good love story inspires the most ruthless fighters.”
Ruthlessness.Yes – he liked to fight.He might like to fight for her.
“Oh,” he breathed, pressing a palm over his stomach.He made an odd noise, something between a laugh and a cough, at once anxious and jubilant.“Swords willhateme for this.”
