Page 166 of Blade of the Nightking

I adjusted the straps digging into my shoulders and tightened the belt around my waist as he crouched and began rummaging through his bag.

“Eidra.”

I looked up just in time to see a leather pouch flying toward me. It promptly bounced off my chest and landed in the sand. Dried meat and nuts spilled everywhere.

“Gods damn it.”

Rìan said nothing, but his stare made it abundantly clear he’d expected exactly that outcome.

Muttering beneath my breath, I brushed as much sand off the food as I could manage before taking a gritty bite. Across from me, he was already eating his own ration, chewing in silence while staring toward the forest. When he finished, he took a long drink from a waterskin before setting it aside and turning his attention to the weapons strapped to his body.

There seemed to be an endless supply of them.

A broadsword with a plain leather-wrapped hilt peeked over his shoulder. Blades of every length lined his belt, the hilt of my bone knife nestled among them.

“Do I get one of those?” I asked loudly.

Rìan looked up. For a long moment, he simply stared at me.

His fingers drifted toward the bone knife, and hope flared in my chest. They skimmed the familiar ivory hilt. For one glorious moment, I thought he was actually going to hand it back.

Then his thumb hooked the sheath of the blade beside it.

Bastard.

He unfastened it with one hand and tossed it in my direction. I made no effort to catch it. The sheath thudded at my feet.

“I want my knife back.”

Rìan tore off a piece of dried meat with his teeth.

The silence stretched. And stretched. My irritation grew with every passing second.

Finally he swallowed. “It's a bone knife.”

“It’s my bone knife.”

His eyebrows rose slightly. “What does it do then?”

I crossed my arms, glaring. “It stabs.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “And that,” he said, “is precisely why you can't have it back.”

He tossed a nut into the air and caught it with his mouth.

“Why?”

He held up his fist, the remaining nuts trapped in his palm, and raised one finger. “Because it possesses magic you have no understanding of.” A second finger followed. “And because you've repeatedly demonstrated that you're utterly incapable of stabbing anyone. Together, they form a catastrophic combination.” He emptied the rest of the nuts into his mouth.

I fumed. “I carried that knife across Elantis just fine before I met you.”

He tilted his head, chewing. “And it's a miracle you're still in one piece.”

I huffed angrily. “You stole it from me.”

He stilled at that, but his expression didn't change. “I'm keeping it safe.”

I scowled and bent to snatch the other knife from the sand, angrily attaching the sheath to my belt. “I want it back.”