“So you’re aware this isn’t over.”
“Oh, it will be over sooner than you think.”
Under Eklor’s watchful eyes, she claimed Amurra’s body by the mouth of the headquarters. Unwrapping the linen over her face, she checked to be sure it was her.
It was. Silent, dead. It hurt to look at her. She remembered Amurra’s smiling when she opened the farmhouse door to welcome Kreya in, shouting at Stran to not be a hero anymore, insisting on coming with them to the city. She didn’t deserve to be treated like this, as a bargaining chip.
“I hope you will consider joining us tomorrow,” Eklor said, “to receive my gift.”
Kreya very, very briefly contemplated gutting him here and now. She’d be arrested instantly, though, and lose any chance of saving Amurra. “I hope you will consider going out back and fucking yourself,” she said pleasantly.
Activating a bit of a strength talisman, Kreya lifted Amurra’s body over her shoulder. Without another word to anyone, she carried her new friend out of the headquarters, adding a bit of speed to her movement. They all had a lot to do before tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Zera ordered her followers to stand guard by every window and posted several by the doors. Plenty of onlookers, eager for a glimpse of the Five, still lurked beyond the statue garden outside—they’d serve as an early-warning system as well. “Let me know if you hear any screaming,” Zera told her followers. “Unless it’s by Marso.” She flashed him a smile. “You be you, old friend.”
His chicken bones were clutched against his chest. He gave her a tight nod.
While she waited for Kreya’s return, she weeded through her collection of bones, separating them by source and strength. Stran paced back and forth in front of the waterfall, as if motion would speed time along. Jentt sat still.As still as death,Zera thought. He refused to watch for Kreya’s return, yet Zera could tell that every nerve in his body was attuned to the door, ready for it to open.
“Knock it off,” Zera told him.
He startled. “What?”
“Blaming her.”
“She shouldn’t have sacrificed her future for me.”
Zera rolled her eyes. “You know how they call us the FiveHeroes of Vos? Literally our job to do that kind of shit. Get over it.”
“I want her to live a long and happy life.”
“Yeah, well, she chose happy. So get over yourself and stop making her miserable. It was her choice to make, and she made it.”
“It was my choice as well—”
“You were dead.”
“Not always,” he pointed out. “She could have told me the cost any of the times she woke me. She knew how I’d feel about it, she knew it was wrong, and that’s why she hid it from me. We’re supposed to be a team, facing the world united—that’s the point of marriage! And here she is, unilaterally making decisions that affect both of us and deciding for me what facts I can and cannot handle. How do I know she’s not lying about anything else?”
“She probably is, given your attitude. I know I would.”
“But—”
Zera held up one hand. “No. You took an arrow for me. You died for me. Did you consult Kreya first?”
“There wasn’t time—”
“So? Same decision. You gave me a gift. You gave me a life, a future, hopes and dreams, and all that.” Waving her arms, she indicated her palace, the waterfall, the skeleton pillars, all of it. “I didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to say thank you. So I’m saying it now:thank you. And now I’m giving you a gift: don’t be a dick.”
Jentt looked startled again, and then he laughed.
Zera took that to be a good sign. It had been one of the foundations of her life that while he’d lived, Kreya and Jenttwere together, always united, ludicrously healthy in their relationship. It would be a shame to lose that in Jentt’s second life.
Guine called from the door. “Master Kreya approaches!”
“Let her in, obviously,” Zera ordered.
