Amunet’s eyes narrowed to slits, and she came a few steps closer. “DoI know you?”
I waited breathlessly, this unnamed emotion blazing through me.
But I could name it. The heat in my gut, the tight bands squeezing my heart even as my heart beat against them. I wasangry.
I’d given so much for this girl. More than just this life, I’d sacrificed my afterlife. The gods had turned their backs on me because of the choices I’d made. Keir despised me, the Kaldfolk would curse me. All for her. And she couldn’t even bother to remember my face? She got to just waltz in at the very end and take all the credit? Take my friends, my accomplishments—and itwasan accomplishment that I’d made it this far. I had earned the right to live as long as I had. Had earned every breath I took.
The world had always been unfair. In Khada Palace, I had found a way to live with that reality. Just keep my head down, obey, go through the motions, don’t say a word. Pretend everything was fine. No, more than that, pretend to behappy. Grateful.
But right now, standing here, I could no longer pretend. Could no longer bear it at all.
Amunet crouched at the edge of the pool and studied me. Even with Keir between us, I locked eyes with the Gods-Chosen. I refused to be the first to break.
Her face went slack, as if she’d been hit. “You.”
“Me,” I whispered.
Her eyes flicked from me to Keir. Taking in his posture, his protective stance, his stare. And she laughed. “Incredible. I knew the Kaldfolk had taken you, but I’d assumed you’d only last a few days in their captivity. It seems you exceeded my expectations.” She laughed again. A sound I used to compare to birdsong. Now it grated.
Keir’s lips parted as he suddenly understood. “You’re the Gods—”
There was a yank that wrenched Keir’s arm from my grip, then a splash. Between one blink and the next, Keir disappeared underwater.
“Keir!” I screamed, peering into the deep blue, but it was impossible to see through the water. “Keir!”
The water exploded upward, and Keir went flying out of the pool. I heard something crack when he crashed down to the gold floor. He didn’t move.
I swam to the steps leading out of the pool.
A creature rose up from the depths, blocking my path, its massive form shedding water. It turned its yellow eyes on me. And its face…
It was Keir’s. But also, not Keir’s. His eyes were feral, and his lips curled maniacally at the corners. Half the creature’s body was a charred black. Not just burned butscorched.
It was Keir’s qareen, already lunging across the water toward me.
There was no use fleeing. I held perfectly still as he came within inches of me, rising up to his full height, water cascading off his bare, scorched torso. He ducked his head into my neck just as Keir had done at the Lunar Feast, some of his skin flaking off, and drew a deep breath. He smiled against me.
I clenched my jaw as I fought every instinct that screamed at me to run. I wouldn’t be fast enough and would probably only earn this creature’s fury.
His unbound hair swung forward and curtained us off so all I could see was his deformed face as he pressed me against the pool wall, and when I felt the hard heat of him, it became startlingly apparent that he was naked beneath the water.
His large hands came up to my face, and he tilted my head as far back as it would go. His wild eyes sparkled eagerly as he put his nose to my forehead and inhaled. A moan rumbled out of him.
Then he ran his tongue over my runes, from right temple to left.
My nose curled even as my body’s trembling intensified.
He dragged his nose down my cheek and neck until he landed at my shoulder. Where the wound from Bain’s attack was. Keir’s qareen yanked my dress strap aside, running his fingers over the spot. He took another deep inhale. “Mine,” he purred—and then bit down.
I screamed as pain ricocheted down my arm and blood spilled over. He’d used his bear teeth, and they stabbed straight through my flesh. I slapped and shoved at him, but he was immovable. He bit down harder, and my eyes bulged.
A roar erupted behind him.
Keir’s qareen looked up sharply, my blood trickling down his chin.
It was Keir, one arm wrapped gingerly around his abdomen. He was favoring his right leg, and I knew he had to be in pain. But his face was twisted into a look of pure rage, his dagger aloft. Amunet had moved off to the side, inching her way around the pool and out of the qareen’s line of sight.
The qareen stepped in front of me and snarled at Keir.“Mine.”
