Not anymore.
Now, it would be only me.
The lack of knowledge of what had happened to him affected me more than I cared to admit. Especially because of the vow Gedeon had lured out of me right before he’d slipped into unconsciousness.
It made me buzz with the need to stab someone, to weave their entrails in an intricate braid and stuff them back inside, to fill my underground with their wails and pleas to die, to prolong their suffering for as long as possible.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead. “You shouldn’t copy the moves, butfeelthem. Like…your next thought.” Like how my feet carried me to Gedeon’s vacant room at night. “Your steps should flow out of you. Don’t let your mind dictate them. It gives away your intentions from afar.”
“What’s even the point of this?” Kali gestured at the rest of the square brimming with our people preparing for the upcoming war with Ilasall. “It’s not like things are going to change overnight. I’m as ready as I can be.”
Peeling off my sweat-soaked shirt, I tossed it on the wobbly wooden bench, savoring the cold biting my back. “The point is that we still don’t know who the traitor is.” Who had informed Ilasall of where we’d hosted the participants of the Matching. And spurred the events that had led to Gedeon’s…disappearance. “So when we go to our meeting in Ilasall next week, we have to be prepared for everything. You need to know how to defend yourself in case I become indisposed.”
“You mean dead.” She blew upward to get the loose hair out of her face. Early spring sunlight highlighted her angular features, identically to how it sharpened the edges of tall, dilapidated buildings looming on three sides of the square, the fourth open to a field of grass. “Don’t use Eli’s fancy words on me.”
It’d been worth a try. Eli had been adjusting his cold-weapon-use-in-close-combat lessons to include fallen comrades, and “indisposed” had become his new favored term.
Bleh, in my opinion.
“Death” carried much more pleasing notes. And the shape of the word held an appetizing flavor. Or maybe it was just the taste of iron swirling in your enemy’s blood.
“But fine. I’ll do as you wish.” Kali cracked her neck, first the left side, then the right, exactly how Gedeon used to do, and took on a defensive stance. “Show me what you’ve got.”
Her blades glinting in daylight, Gedeon’s black sweater hiding her curves, the crinkle of her nose as she secured her grasp on the weapons…
Mesmerizing.
She was going to love the full-body, custom-made sheaths I’d ordered for her mere days after we’d snatched her from the city. I’d been itching to gift them to her for months.
And strap them to her naked body. Fill in the gaps between the black leather with scarlet, coloring her fair skin in my favorite shade, inch by inch, until her protests grew incoherent.
And then, of course, I would take her to Ilasall to unleash herself. Because she deserved to let out her viciousness through the most agonizing methods.
It wasn’t common knowledge, but knives, especially if you were deeply familiar with their capabilities, could cause the most pain out of all weapons. For example, getting slashed hurt more than receiving a bullet. I could testify to that myself. But flaying someone alive…
Now, that shit wasdelicious.
I slippedfrom underneath the fluffy duvet—Kali’s most prized possession—and tucked the corners around her sprawled-out form. For once, she’d escaped reality in her dreams, sleeping soundly.
More often than not, her nightmares would steal her peace.
Gloom clouded her bedroom, obscuring the angles of the sparse furniture: a bed large enough to fit three, two bedside tables, and a closet lining one wall. All were carved from wood as dark as Kali’s hair and Shadow’s fur, his small body barely visible on the pillow above her head.
Careful not to disturb her, I brushed away the strands stuck to her mouth. A pair of green eyes fluttered open, followed by Shadow’s tiny ears popping up.
“Don’t you dare scratch me again.” I tickled the underside of Shadow’s chin. The pink lines on the back of my hand had healed, but as much as I was into pain, I had no wish to experience the kitten’s claws raking my skin.
Purring rose from Shadow’s belly as he settled down. A week had been all it took for him to learn how to climb onto the bed.
Or, if truth was to be told, I simply couldn’t watch Kali hoist the cat on and off the mattress over and over again anymore and had built the makeshift stairs for him to use until he could jump high enough.
Rubbing Shadow between his ears, I sighed at the small puddle of urine under a large window. I’d forgotten how long Gedeon had said it’d taken for Dusk to learn to use her litter box, but it was clear Shadow was going to need some time to acclimate.
After quietly cleaning up, I padded across the room to the door, pausing for one last look at Kali on her stomach, her forearms stuffed under the pillow, her calmness the opposite of the turmoil boiling inside me.
But the twenty-seven steps, the distance to Gedeon’s bedroom, called to me.
As I wandered down the dimly lit hallway and slipped inside his room, a rush of crisp air blasted me. Closing the window I’d cracked open last night, I pressed my forehead to the glass. The chill numbed my nerves, yet I didn’t dare to glance at his bed.
