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Her gaze slid to his throat without her permission. The top of his shirt was unbuttoned so only the highest burn was visible. “Who did that to you?” She had a horrible feeling that she knew, but the question slipped out, nonetheless.

Ikarus didn’t answer. When he brought the ash-stick to his mouth again, she noticed the opal ring was missing from his pinkie finger. He seemed to be missing it too, given how he occasionally rubbed at the spot with the fingers of his other hand.

A breeze swept through Illieck a few minutes later, prompting her to hug her knees a little tighter. She thought about going back inside, but her nerves were still too wired—and, all right, maybe she didn’t want to give Ikarus the satisfaction of thinking she couldn’t handle the cold.

He watched goosebumps ripple across her arm and a second later, her jacket was draped around her shoulders.

Soraya checked it for spiders or hidden needles before slipping it on. “Isn’t there some Dar’rak code about only using your powers to slaughter and maim?”

“That’s a strange way of saying thank you.”

“To you? Only on my deathbed, I think.”

His jaw twitched like he was debating strangling her. “My magic doesn’t always have to cut, you know.”

Snorting, Soraya zipped her jacket up to her collarbone. It didn’t ward off the chill completely but at least her teeth didn’t feel close to chattering now. “No? Then why do you always wield it like a blade?”

Ikarus was quiet for a long time before answering. “Because it’s all I know.”

Silence swallowed them.

The longer she was awake, the more her head seemed to pulse with pain. She watched the fairies throw two more tree trunks into the Astro Temple to try and take her mind off it, then started monitoring the streets. Most of the lower-level burrows seemed to be some sort of shops, and she watched several couples going in with their arms linked, coming out minutes later with cloth satchels that looked much too small for weapons.

The longer she stared, the harder it was to stop herself from wondering which of them were going to die from the Bane. One in three, Ikarus had said. It would’ve been hard to imagine that kind of horror had they not been so many years into this war.

While she’d been staring, the Astro Temple seemed to have grown eyes and started to watch her back. You don’t care, remember? it seemed to say. They’re not your people.

And perhaps it was the need to distract herself from that gaze that had her saying, “Why were you watching that memory?”

Ikarus’s lip curled. He leaned forward, no doubt ready for another sparring match—

Soraya cut him off before he could get a word in. “Don’t. I’m not in the mood for a fight. Would it kill you to have one normal conversation?”

“What makes you think I want to converse with you?”

She shrugged. “You’re still sitting outside with me.”

He took a deep drag, still watching her with that one eye. “I was rewatching that memory because it’s wrong. You’re wrong. Since I was a child, I’ve been told that your entire people were vicious monsters who wanted us dead. In all these years of war, I’ve never met a human who didn’t meet that expectation—until you—and I hate it.”

Soraya could only stare at him. Threats aside, it was perhaps the first honest thing he’d ever said to her. He could’ve been lying, of course. But … no. Not this time. Not about that, at least.

Ikarus held her gaze as he finished the ash-stick. Held it while he tossed the expired butt to the ground and crushed it beneath his boot.

What was he thinking right now? She almost asked the question aloud, until a terrible ache pulsed behind her eyes and she winced. When she opened her eyes again, Ikarus was still watching her, his mouth pressed into a tight line.

Sitting so still she started to question if he was even breathing, his eyes flashed down to the tin still between them, to the last ash-stick left. He picked it up, his gaze briefly flitting to her temples like he could see the pain still stabbing away there and said, “I’ll share this with you, if you answer one of my questions.”

Seemed like a fair price. Depending on what it was. “Shoot.”

“How did our hostages teach you to shield your memories?” he asked. “Mind blocking is an incredibly rare gift I’ve only come across a handful of times—never in a human. It’s been driving me mad.”

Soraya debated whether to answer. On the one hand, the thought of causing him any type of irritation made her smile on some deep level she didn’t really have the time or desire to evaluate, but then he had been so open with her, just then. And seeing as she was going to be out of here tomorrow anyway …

“They didn’t teach us anything,” she replied, carefully watching his face for his reaction. “I still have no fucking idea how I’m able to do it. But it seemed to really piss you off that first day, so I ran with it.”

Ikarus turned his head to her fully, and just as Soraya was sure he was indeed going to strangle her, he laughed.

A deep, throaty, quiet sort of sound that skittered across her bones like a cool breeze in the middle of summer. He shook his head, that laugh fading into a chuckle as he slid the ash-stick into his mouth.