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The sun has barely begun rising, and I can’t believe I’m awake before him. His right hand is tucked under DaiSzek’s throat. His face is at peace like a prisoner that has just been freed from bondage. I rest my chin on the ridge of DaiSzek’s back to get a better look. The stubble along his jawline, his long onyx lashes, the smooth cushion of his lips.
“You enjoying the view?” Kane mutters sleepily.
You have no idea. “How’d you know I was staring?”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “It’s a ninth sense.”
“Ninth?!”
He laughs and props himself up. “Well, look who decided to keep us from getting frostbite last night. How’d you sleep, Dai?” He ruffles the fur on DaiSzek’s head. DaiSzek lifts his head like it weighs more than a mountain. He pushes his chin in Kane’s hands while being scratched and adored.
Kane’s face morphs into surprise like he isn’t sure if he saw a poltergeist lurking nearby. His eyes flicker to me darkly, mouth parting to say something.
“What?” I lift myself off my side and sit, trying to look at DaiSzek’s face.
He shakes his head, scans the area around us. I try to pull DaiSzek’s head toward me by his chin, but Kane pushes my hand away. Something wet is smeared on my palm.
Blood.
“Oh god.” I examine it, half alarmed and half grossed out. “You must have eaten good last night, huh?”
Kane sits up. “It’s human blood.”
I yelp, wiping my hand against the dirt frantically. “Human?! How can you even tell?”
But Kane doesn’t answer. His body is rigid and taut at my side.
“Care to show your face?” That voice. Rough, cruel, and deep as it warms my lower belly.
Dessin. He switched fast. Does that mean we’re in danger? Did he get triggered by the blood on DaiSzek?
I look around the dim forest sprinkled with wisps of morning light. But we’re the only three living beings in the area. Maybe he’s overreacting from the blood. Wouldn’t DaiSzek be the first to know if someone was nearby?
“I’m losing my patience,” Dessin warns, rough and deep, like a king standing over an execution block.
The hairs on my neck stand at attention. I should never doubt him. Not when his instincts have always been correct.
There is a deafening moment of silence, not even the wind daring to make a sound. The forest holds its breath.
“If your beast trusts me, then so shall you.” A voice like a snake, slithering between us with its scaly presence.
Dessin’s eyes shoot to the source behind a wide Hyperion tree, then back to DaiSzek, who remains calm and unthreatened.
“I think I’ll be the judge of who I trust,” Dessin says, his tone splashing over me like a bucket of ice water.
A cloaked figure reveals itself from the shadows. The face is hidden, but instantly we’re made aware that the figure is a woman. Her cloak is open, showing her bare, pale stomach and legs. Black silk and leather cover her breasts and a small portion of her bottom half.
We gawk at her in silence.
“If I were a threat to you, I would have attacked in your sleep,” she says.
But Dessin isn’t convinced. His eyes are scaling the length of the woman, studying her posture, her clothing, the language of her body.
“No,” Dessin utters. A rare moment to hear the surprise in his voice. “You’re from one of the ancient colonies.”
Like the moss-covered man in the Emerald Lake forest, I narrow my eyes at her. Kane thought he was from the Naiadales…
“And which colony would that be?” Her tone is glossy and seductive. A jealous wave rips through me as I realize she’s speaking directly to Dessin and not to me. I swallow down the acidic burn crawling up my throat.
