We stopped at the fire farthest away from the crowds and Filbur gave me a soft smile, pulling me down to sit in the sand with him. “Have you not noticed? A lot of people were trying to get our attention.”
Oh…So that was what the little nods had been about. “Why?”
He shrugged like it all made sense and sat cross-legged, turning so he would face me and not the fire, setting the plate in front of us. “Our people like humans. It is not the case for all species, but we get along. You are…the first human female they meet. The first human to choose one of us as a life partner.” He winced, seemingly not sure about his own words. “I know you did not actuallychoose, but—”
“I chose,” I said. If there was something I did right in my whole life, it was this. Taking this chance had allowed me to escape a place where I had been abused and miserable. “I know I’m…probably not what you were hoping for. I…”Shit, why was it so hard to fuckingtellpeople what I had been through? Filbur didn’t rush me though, waiting patiently until the words made their way out. “I did not have an easy life before I came here. I apologize if sometimes…I get distant. Wary. If it feels like I don’t trust you or—” My throat closed up, blocking all sounds.
Shit, shit, shit.
I closed my eyes, forcing my lungs to expand. Forced myself to breathe slowly.
Filbur’s hand found mine again. “Tamara.” My name sounded so soft when he was calling it, yet I couldn’t help the little flinch. I’d been so used to people barking or sneering it that I’d been hating this name for a long time. “First of all, you are everything I have been hoping for.”
I let out a strangled scoff. “You don’t even know me yet.”
“I know the humans chose you for a good reason,” he said, picking up a long and sharp wooden stick. He started distractedly stabbing it into some pieces of food, making skewers with both seafood and fruits. “They would not risk this whole project by partnering us if they did not think we would get along.”
He had a point. But my trauma…Maybe they didn’t take it into account. Maybe now I was too broken. Maybe I would fuck this up somehow.
“Second of all, whatever it is you have been through, you are safe here.” He focused back on me as he placed the skewer over the fire. “Safe in alotof different ways.”
My throat bobbed. “What do you mean?”
He picked up some fruit and brought it to my lips. It was green and fleshy like a mango. It tasted like nothing I had ever eaten before, but it was sweet and watery.
“Violence is mostly prohibited here,” he explained. It didn’t make me feel better, it wasalsofrowned upon by humans. It had never stopped Jake. Never stoppedmy parentsafter they’d join this damn cult. “The only situation that would not punish me for attacking and injuring someone would be todefend. Ifyouwere attacked, for example. Then I would be free to do whatever was necessary to save you.”
This seemed too easy. “What’s to say someone wouldn’tlieto get away with violence?” I asked. “Pretend it was to save someone else while in fact they were the ones attacking?”
Filbur frowned, confused. “How would this work? Lies are visible, and the person attacked would tell the truth.”
Visible? “What?”
I accepted the thin piece of smoked fish he gave me.Shit this is good.
“I am not sure what was not clear,” he said.
“What do you meanlies are visible?”
He arched a brow and cast a quick glance at the slowly cooking skewer before turning it. “Do you not see?”
I shook my head. I hadeyesbut not ones that could tell the fucking difference between what was true or not…
He lifted a hand and softly brushed his fingers from one cheekbone to the other, sliding over my nose. “This part of the face heats up when a lie is being told.”
“What? It’s…You canseethis?”
He nodded. “I do. Wealldo. So trust me when I say that if I were to hurt you, you could have me arrested. Maybe even killed if it was bad enough.”
This was absolutely insane. “Just bysaying it?”
“Yes.”
“Just likethat?” He nodded again. “And no one would question it? Call me a liar? Say Iaskedfor it?”
His eyes darkened at the last one.Oh.Maybe it hadn’t been the thing to ask…
“Askedfor it? Who would think someone asked for violence?”
