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She studied his face, raking her eyes over him. ‘Why?’
He had no answer for her and avoided her eyes. Gazing instead at the horizon.
She pulled closer to him. ‘You’re hiding something from me, Killen. Why won’t you allow me to complete my vow? Why do you persecute me so?’
Silence fell between them. Dawn’s weak light seeped in as the darkness around them receded, the wind dying down to a soft breeze, the maelstrom dissipating to stillness.
He gave her a long look, one that cut through her ferocity. ‘I don’t intend for you to suffer, khany’s, but when it comes to Kalila, it isn’t all about you and your oath.’
She huffed. ‘Oh, I know my needs are unimportant to you and that your purpose supersedes mine.’
Killen’s eyes clouded as Sana’a’s words pierced him to his core. ‘The first part is untrue,’ he countered.
‘And the second?’
He chose silence, and she scoffed. ‘I have my answer.’
He shut his eyes for a beat, and a flash of vision crossed his mind—a girl racing across a desert, sending blades after him.
He snapped them open.
The nightmares demand deciphering, he thought to himself, before his heart was free to love this complicated, badass, fierce woman.
Still, he needed her. He had a war to wage, which would be much more effective with her by his side.
Was he being selfish? Perhaps.
As if reading his thoughts, the iciness of her glare chilled further.
He shivered, turning to face her wrath. ‘Khany’s Kalila is complicated. I need to learn a lot more from her about this darkness we face. Until then, I’d love you by my side. Let’s battle this war together, and once it is won, she’ll be all yours.’
She jolted. ‘I’ve listened a lot about what you need. What about what I need? What have I worked so hard for so many years to achieve? You might have harnessed your hawkstone and let me get to her today.’
‘Would that have been a kill you’d have wanted? That I had incapacitated her so, you’d slice her throat? Where’s the honour in that?’
She turned away from him, hands crossing over her chest as she hovered alongside him, contemplating his words.
‘Your time will come, Sana’a. This I can promise you,’ he rumbled in due time. ‘I was also not prepared to see you sacrifice yourself, like some form of divine wind hashashin, so that you’d weapon her. I perceived too many variables, and even though I have the hawkstone, my multi-defensive proficiencies are still nascent.’
‘Meaning?’
‘I’ve yet to explore all I can do with my freakish lodestone. I had no assurance I’d have what it took to protect you if you killed Kalila and unleashed an even worse manifestation of kízakan from within her as a result.’
Sana’a stared at him for a beat. ‘While I appreciate the chivalry, am I meant to sit and wait for you to tell me when to blade her? Like a good little girl?’
He gave her a cool look. ‘Naam. Trying to end Kalila at the wrong time, before her purpose on Katáne is fulfilled, could upset the balance of things, sending this entire planet ablaze and alight. I promise once her intentions are revealed, she’s all yours.’
Sana’a ground her teeth. ‘Fokk this shit.’
They fell into silence.
Clouds tracked past them, and life began to stir in the villages below them.
He let her ire flame over him until he sensed it simmering down into a distant pulse.
Only then did the knot in his chest ease.
With a lurch, he noticed masses of Kä’avi on the surface below, milling about in groups, gazing up at the skies where he and Sana’a hovered, gesturing at them.
