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Nur snorts. “They don’t like you. You should warm them up. Offer something.”
“I don’t have anything to offer,” Arsene mutters.
“They don’t know that,” Nur points out. “Lie.”
“It could be a demon.”
“I hardly think so.”
Arsene sighs, but Nur is right. A demon would attack with teeth and claws. More likely, it’s a scavenger.
“I’ll share my food if you come out,” he calls.
Silence.
“They’re not stupid enough to fall for it,” he says under his breath to Nur.
There’s a scrape and a clatter, and the thump of feet hitting sand. A young human girl emerges from the shadows of the building, carrying a slingshot in one hand, covered head to toe to protect herself from the sun. She holds her slingshot at the ready, another load of pebbles in its cup. She’s about Rhys’s age, on the cusp of adulthood.
When she spots Arsene, she makes a gesture of protection. “Angel!”
“We’re travelers,” he says.
She takes a step back. “Papa says not to talk to angels.”
“We’re looking for a caravan.” Nur steps out from behind him. Arsene turns, ready to hush him, but he shoots Arsene a quelling look. “Let me,” he hisses. “She obviously doesn’t trust you.”
“There could be more scavengers,” Arsene murmurs. “What will we do if they’re hostile—fight them?”
“Are there more humans around?” Nur asks the girl. He edges in front of Arsene.
She gives him an assessing look, her gaze traveling from the tips of Nur’s horns to his claws to his booted feet. Unfazed, she narrows her eyes. “Where’s the food?”
“Answer the question first,” Nur says firmly.
She scowls and points at Arsene. “Not in front ofthat.”
That?
Nur raises a brow at Arsene. “Go on.”
Arsene takes a step back.
“Further,” Nur says.
“I’m hardly dangerous to her!” he protests.
But their twin stares are so pointed that Arsene capitulates. He steps backward into the shadow of the nearest giant, closeenough that his acute hearing can still pick up their words. The girl’s posture unwinds.
Why is she afraid of angels, of all people?
“There’s no one else,” she tells Nur. “Just me. I scavenge this sector. Anyone comes here I—whack.”
She jerks the slingshot in demonstration.
“I see.” Nur takes out the flask and hands it to her. “Here. We have no food, only water, but you can share it.”
“No food?” She twists open the cap on the water and sniffs the flask.
