This hero shit is exhausting.
“Sure, you can repay the life debt”—he’s rolling his eyes before I even finish my sentence—“by going north with your etching stick and protecting as many villages and towns as you can before the fall with your world-saving runes. Simple.”
“I’ll give Roan instructions. He can etch just as well as me.”
Roan puffs his chest, looking the proudest fucker in the world.
“Faster, actually.” Ahvi shrugs. “I get tired. And I’m a parent now.”
I look down at the hatchling now struggling to keep his head lifted. It flops to the side, like his neck just gave out.
“I’ll tell you what’s tiring;two daeswalking through underground tunnels trying to find said spot where the bind was sewn, because there’sno wayI can spot it from above. There’s thousands of other collapses that look exactly the same.” I shake my head. “Forget it, Ahvi. I’ll find another way.”
His voice turns panic-pitched. “But it almost got you killedtwicein the past cycle alone!”
Dammit, Ahvi.
Everyone glares at me. Even Pyrok, perched forward in the seater with his flask paused halfway to his mouth. As though watching me argue with a nine-phase-old is the most entertaining shit he’s ever seen.
“Twice?”Kaan breathes.
I ignore him, though he’s now staring so hard I feel like Rygun himself has me pinned beneath his claw, snuffing all the truths from my scent.
Arms crossed, I glare at Ahvi. “If you’re going to keep rooting through my head, you and I need to set some ground rules.”
“And if we wait until after the fall, the area might be smashed up,” he busts on. “I won’t be able to do it then. We’ll have lost ourone chanceto fix things.”
Things?
How many morethingsis he intending to fix?
Before I have a chance to respond, Kaan’s in front of me with his hands on either side of my face, cutting off my view of anything else. “Raeve …”
Held by his sturdy grip, I realize how much I’m shaking, the backs of my eyes stinging so much it’s hard to blink the feeling away.
“Donotask me to put myself before him, Kaan.Do not.”
His eyes soften, thumbs brushing over my cheekbones as my lungs heave, accepting deep punches of breath that make my head spin.
“I have four daes to deliver—” …bits of him to Sereme …“No. It’s not happening. He’s not going near that drop-off point. I refuse.”
Kaan opens his mouth—
Ahvi’s the one who interrupts this time. “It’s the only place I’ll allow you to take me.”
Silence sinks its claws deep.
Slowly, I cast my gaze toward the kid, meeting stark silver eyes. Ahvi looking up at me like he’s boasting the key to my mind, dangling it between us with a cheeky smile on his face.
Except he’s not smiling, and neither am I; trumped by a youngling barely taller than my ribs. A youngling who’s obviously dug through my mind enough that heknowsI won’t force him to go anywhere against his will. That I won’t take away his liberties in the way mine have been—time and time again.
If there’s only one place he’ll allow me to take him … that’s where we’re going, whether I want to or not.
Which means we’re going to fucking Gore.
“Besides, don’t worry about me. I have my shield. That’s how I convinced the Tri-Council to let me get Gruffin.”
Cute name choice.
