"Me?"
"You know humans. You know settlements. You know the poison and the cure. And you know what they're capable of."
"I know how they think because I lived with them until they decided I was too weird to keep. That's not exactly—"
"It's more than anyone else here has."
I look at her. She's watching me with that too-perceptive expression of hers—the one that says she's already figured out what I'm going to do before I've figured it out.
"I'll think about it."
"You're going to say no and then show up anyway."
"You don't know me that well."
"I know you exactly that well."
She's grinning. Even with everything today, she's grinning at me.
Chapter 20
"Be ready in an hour."
I don't turn around. The petals are mid-grind and if I stop now the consistency goes off and I'll have to start over.
Also I don't owe him a startled jump every time he fills my doorway.
"Be ready for what?"
Silence.
I turn around.
He's already walking away. Massive shoulders, that walk. Doorway empty.
"Keer—be ready for what?"
Nothing.
I stand there with the mortar in one hand and the pestle in the other. Staring at the spot where he was. He just—walked out. Issued a directive and left. Didn't even look back.
Be ready for what, exactly? A meeting? A trip? A casual walk to my doom? Should I be packing a bag, wearing different shoes, mentally preparing for—
This is fine.
Hours alone with him. In the woods.
Again.
I set the jar down. Carefully. With great control.
Footsteps. Different ones. Kestria fills the doorway—must be a family thing.
"So." She leans against the frame. "I hear you're going flower picking."
"I'm going what?"
"Mm-hmm."
