Her slayers weren’t there.
But I brought them back with me. I know I did.
She looked around the whole room and... nothing. Her slayers were gone.
There was only one other person who’d spent the night in this room. Asha’s attention fixed on him like a hunter on her prey. The slave stood at the door, white bandages wrapped around his bare chest, watching her.
“Where are they?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.” But his voice said the opposite.
Asha rose and crossed the room, her anger rising in her asshe did. Anger at him for tricking her and anger at herself for letting him.
She slammed him hard into the wood of the door.
The slave hissed through his teeth. His throat arched in pain. It made Asha think of him bound to Jarek’s fountain. It made her think of the shaxa shredding his back. She’d probably reopened every one of his wounds.
“Thief,” she growled, planting her hands on either side of the door to pin him in place. “Tell me where they are.”
His eyes flashed like sharpened steel and his hands grabbed the loose fabric of her kaftan, pulling her in close, reminding Asha that he wasn’t innocent. He was a skral. She would need to guard herself much more carefully from now on.
“Tell me how you get past the wall without being seen.”
“I don’t,” she lied.
He stepped in close, stealing her air. So close, the tips of their noses nearly touched. “The soldats let you passknowingyou’re hunting alone? Your betrothed would never allow it.”
“Allow?” Her hands fell to her sides, turning to fists. “Jarek is notmymaster.”
“He will be,” said the slave.
Asha opened her mouth to snarl at him, except... wasn’t that what she was afraid of?
Wasn’t that why she needed Kozu dead?
Asha lowered her gaze. She stared at his throat, where a frantic pulse betrayed his racing heart.
“You’re right,” she said in the end. “I don’t always use the gate.”
“It’s only a matter of time before my master finds me,” he said. “If I stay here, I’m as good as dead.”
Asha’s fists uncurled. “Are you asking me to show you the way out?”
He nodded.
What did it matter? He wouldn’t survive the Rift on his own.
“Give me back my slayers and I’ll show you.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
She’d left everything but her armor out in the Rift. She needed to get fresh hunting clothes, a new sleeping pack, and an axe.
“Tonight then,” he said.
She looked up to find his eyes softening, his gaze tracing her face.
