“Maybe,” he says. “The old teachings say a true bond changes the venom in the mate’s blood. Her body accepts what should kill her. Maybe the teachings are right. Maybe not. No shaman alive has watched it happen with a human, and the records that claim it are older than the ones I trust. It’s theory. I won’t sell you theory as certainty, not on this.”
“And there’s no way to test it first.”
“None that doesn’t end with your stinger in her skin.”
He corks the vial and brings it to me, dark glass, heavier than the last one. I turn it over in my hand.
“How long do I have?”
He takes his seat again before he answers.
“Not long.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have, and I’d rather give it to you gently than invent a number. Soon.”
I close my hand around the vial. He watches me do it, then he leans back, and the warmth spreads over his face again.
“Now,” he says. “Tell me about her. I’ve treated every trouble a Scorpius can have, but I’ve never seen a human close. What is she like?”
“She’s beautiful,” I say, staring at a point on the wall. “Red hair, blue eyes, skin that shows everything she feels no matter how hard she works to hide it. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, of any kind. She’s incredible, Varys. She walked into a bride market in front of a whole city that judges her, rather than let her parents hand her to the old male they’d picked for her to marry. When nobody bid on her, she stood on that stage and lowered her own price, because going home meant obeying. She pulled her best friend out of that life because she wouldn’t be free alone. Her father might be the most powerful man inConcord, and she looked at him in front of everyone and told him he got what he wanted. She’s strong, and she’s stubborn, and she’s braver than any recruit I ever trained on the guard.”
He’s smiling before I’m halfway through it, and when I stop, he laughs, low and pleased, reaches across the table, and pats me on the back.
“You’re done for, boy. In love and in lust, and I don’t stock a tincture for either one.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze. “Maybe this all turns out right.”
“It won’t. She doesn’t want me. She made that clear last night, when she asked me to let her go. Of course I will.”
“Don’t think that way. Everything she knew is gone, Osric. The desert is new to her. Our kind is new. You’re new. She might come around. Stop grieving the woman while she’s still under your roof. Earn her trust instead. That much is fully in your hands.”
I shake my head, and I don’t say anything more. He’s kind enough not to push.
He walks me to the door.
“Five drops in water,” he says. “And come back before you reach ten.”
“The whole city will know I came to see you.”
“Probably. I’ll charge them double if they ask.” He gives me a wink.
I step out into the hot morning.
The sun is up when I take the valley road home, and the cliffs have gone from black to red on the east side. This is what I carry back with me: a stronger tincture, and a theory instead of an answer.
If I send her away, I honor my promise. The mating call goes unanswered, the rut takes me anyway, and Haara does with me what cities do with feral males.
If I let her stay, the rut still comes, and when it takes me, I hunt the one woman I want to keep safe. My venom will most likely kill her.
I don’t weigh the two against each other on the drive home. I can’t. Not yet. It’s hard enough to acknowledge the facts; I’m not ready to make a decision.
A laugh escapes me. As if it’s my decision to make…
Chapter Seven
Esme
The car is gone, and so is Osric.
