And bywell, I mean they’d collaboratively find creative ways to blow things up, melt tables, probably fix some things, too.
Smart-folk shit.
She tilts her head, watching me for so long I wonder if she’s working out how to politely tell me to get the fuck out of her home. Probably.
Needing something to do with my hands, I retrieve my plate of loaf, lift a piece, and toast the air.
Like an idiot.
I stuff my mouth to smother the moment, moaning as I chew, flourishing her with appreciative hand gestures.
She looks from my hearty stack to the pile of gold drabs I traded, back to me. A small smile pulls at her lips. “You’re different.”
A sudden kick to the cock would shock me less.
I raise a brow, hoping she’ll elaborate without me having to speak through my overburdened mouth.
“I—ahh, lived in the Undercity for a while.” She shrugs, gaze dropping to the dagger in her hand. “Pass out around unfamiliar folk down there, you don’t wake the same. You certainly don’t wakericher.”
In the aftermath of the statement, it’s hard to choke my mouthful down.
I look around. Set my remaining loaf back on the plate. “You shouldn’t say that sorta stuff ’round me,” I mutter, wiping the crumbs from my chin with the back of my arm.
She frowns. “Why not?”
Makes me wanna charge down there and rip out some fucking hearts.
I shrug. “Just shouldn’t.”
Silence sits in the room for so long I pat my pockets, hunting for a flask that doesn’t exist. I resort to crossing my arms, trying to look casually unfazed by the overbearing clarity I’m currently experiencing.
“So,” she says, tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear. Not that it stays there. “Raeve’s alive?” The hitch of her voice pecks at my chest. Makes me wonder if there’s hurt there.
Shit I probably don’t wanna know about.
“Yeah. She’s a bit like one of those blue trash beetles that keeps scurrying around despite everyone taking stomps at them.”
She snorts. “You’re comparing her to acocklerbug?”
“She made me vomit so hard I almost died. Until I stop smelling bile, she’s a cocklerbug.”
The stranger smiles so wide I see the full length of her canines, the rounds of her cheeks going bright red. Such a breathtaking contrast to the way her eyes welled earlier. “Actually, that was all me …”
Oh.
“Well, you’re not one of those.”
Another stint of watchful silence has me scratching the back of my head, wishing I was half as smart as she obviously is. Then maybe I’dknow the right things to say. Not “I’ve been vomiting” and insinuating she’s some sorta crawling vermin.
“So, ahh …” She tucks the same bit of hair behind her ear. Again, it doesn’t stay. “Is Raeve coming back here, or …”
“All goes to plan, she’ll be back in a few cycles. And minus the blood bind I’m guessing you didn’t know about?”
Her brows crush together, any softness cutting from her features. “Of course I knew. I also know they’reimpossibleto sever without—”
“She’s with Bothaim’s protégé.”
She pales. “You mean the youngling King Tyroth traded for the Tri-Council’s favor?”
