“Calyx would have said something clever,” she muttered and kicked at the floor. “But he’s not here. Soryn isn’t here. And I can’t be in here with you two scowling at nothing after–after today.”
Her eyes blinked fast. I pretended not to notice the way they’d reddened.
We’d lost too many souls and hadn’t even had time to mourn them.
She swallowed deeply and tucked her chin, hiding her face. “I’ll go over the journal pages again. Maybe I’ll come up with a bright idea.”
“I have no doubt,” Zandyr said.
The second she stormed out of the tent, he turned to me, his cold gaze stopping me in my tracks. “I know what you’re thinking.”
I squared my shoulders and faced him. “You know I need to go.”
Exhausted as I was, I could push my body to its limits and reach the crater faster than any warrior could march.
“I need to leave,” I said, half of me protesting, the other half elated. “I’ll take whatever traps and runes we’re not using and spread them around the rim. I’ll be back tomorrow. The Serpents have already attacked today, they have to be worn out as well.”
Zandyr cursed under his breath. “Why don’t you just ask The Huntress how grave the danger is?”
I frowned. “Ask?”
“Yes.” He stepped closer. “I know it’s your business, but we don’t have time for pleasantries. If you’re still not speaking, how is her energy right now? Scared? Powerful? Hopeful?”
I clenched my jaw and stared at him.
“I–” My nostrils flared. “I can’t feel her.”
There was no magical switch I could activate and suddenly be enveloped in that intoxicating essence of hers.
“Don’t pretend with me, I know what having a true mate is like,” he said. “I was there after Calyx fainted.”
When I’d first truly felt the brush of Allie against my mind.
I’d suspected, but that was the moment I’d truly felt–and it had explained everything. The worry, the heat, the pulse beating against my spine.
But now there was only a cold absence where her flutter had been.
“It seems you don’t know,” I said slowly. “Because it’s not like that.”
He raised one of his brows, giving me a withering look.
“That was the only time I felt her,” I said at last, reluctant even then.
But that wasn’t the whole truth, was it? Before I’d left for war, there had been a strange pulse pulling me back. I thought the crater was calling me home.
It had been Allie.
Even now, a strange sensation tugged at the base of my spine. That must have been Allie–or the part of her that didn’t want to gouge my eyes out.
“You–” Zandyr licked his lips, sounding suddenly cautious. “You can’t hear her thoughts?”
“No.” A bizarre feeling overtook me, one I’d felt only a handful of times. Envy. It seared my veins and darkened my mind. “We can’t talk like you and Evie.”
What if we never could? What if that day had been an anomaly and I was mistaken about our connection?
He looked at me strangely. “I force myself not to.”
“You–” I bit down on my molars to keep from screaming. “You have this wonderful gift and you’re not using it?”
