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He huffed. ‘Don’t insult my intelligence, Sana’a. We both know you were motivated as fokk to get rid of me on Eden II. How do I know this is still not the case? Seeing as you, Shotelai, don’t back down from a kill.’
‘I’m under no obligation to share,’ she shot back.
‘I think you are, Sana’a. Your mere presence on this planet means you’re messing with me. I need to know just how much you intend to upend things.’
‘Sweet shotel hell, are you always like this?’
He lifted a brow. ‘Like what?’
‘A freakin’ gyro, always spinning around at a frantic pace but not going anywhere?’
He smirked. ‘I’ll get going, but only after you answer my questions. Why are you here? And in a Sab?r íkhara no less? Are you still desperate for me, for my blood? Or did my magnetism take hold of your fancy?’
She shook her head. ‘Not sharpest knife in the sheathe, I take it. You tracked me down in an íkhara. Why else would I be here but to win one of the best blade-fighting contests in Pegasi? ‘Sides, I need the schills. I’m also not taken by your freakish magnetism. If you believe that, you’re one sick Katánian eagle who fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. Enough of an explanation for you?’
He shrugged and smirked. ‘Your barbs are cold as ice, I’ll give you that.’
She leaned in. ‘To think I’m keeping them mild for you, Kíríga, so-called usurper, the King without a throne. The one hiding from the noble houses and eyries of this madcap city. Not my insults, mind you, your people’s.’
His eyes narrowed with a dangerous gleam. ‘Do you have any plans to out my presence to my enemies? Or spill what you know about me to your k?thi sponsor, who happens to be a royal family member? A K?'nere?’
‘And also your mother’s sister-in-law, your aunt, I believe?’ Sana’a clipped. ‘I don’t care much about your tribulations, Kíríga. Besides, my bizna is not with you. Please be assured of that.’
He stared at her, his mouth working the lump of klaw in his mouth. ‘I don’t buy your schill charade. ‘Who are you here to blade?’
She clenched her jaw and gave him a stubborn look of defiance. ‘You’re not the kill I seek.’
They glared at each other for a beat until she lifted her hand and placed the shortsword with gentle pressure on his jugular. ‘I don’t share my missions. I’ve nothing further to divulge, so leave.’
He arched his neck higher, egging her on as his hawkstone flared long and hard.
She tilted her face into its brilliance, not flinching for a second.
Their eyes never left each other until the light faded.
Only then did Killen lift his hand to pull her bladed one away from his neck, still grasping her wrist.
When he finally spoke, his words were a rasp that dragged as if over rocks and rough sand. ‘Any sign of you interfering in my plans and I’ll use my talons to throw you to Karth’s wild vultures to pick your bones.’
She sucked her teeth. ‘And I’ll return from the dead leading the pack.’
Despite the iciness of her tone and the menace of the unknown about her, her voice was like music to his ears. A melody that stirred his soul and sent shivers down his spine.
She was like a fierce, unrelenting flame, like a weapon ready to strike. Her diamond-flecked eyes glittered with a dangerous intensity.
He lifted his heated hand off hers and stepped back.
‘Watch your back, Shotelai,’ he drawled. ‘Tis a whole new level of fokkin’ wild up in here.’
‘I’d say the same thing right back at you,’ she murmured.
His lips curled.
With nonchalance, he sauntered past her to the open balcony, vaulting over it and winging his way into the gloomy, moonless night.
Damn it all to hell.
The encounter with Killen had shaken her to the core.
