"—concern.Not anymore."
Miranda's face had gone white.Her jaw worked, and for a moment she looked exactly like what she was beneath the silk and the perfume and the careful smiles: a snarling, cornered animal calculating its next move.
"Careful,Sub-Commander," she said tightly."You might regret speaking to me like that."
"I already regret that Emily shares your blood."
Miranda's mouth twisted into a snarl, and for a moment, she looked like she might slap him.Then she seemed to remember who and what he was and thought better of it.
So she fled, her heels clicking a rapid, uneven retreat down the side corridor until the sound was swallowed by distance.
Taking deep breaths, he fought to control himself.
"Quite the performance, wasn’t it?”
He turned to see Thyaar leaning against the wall at the junction, arms crossed.He pushed off and walked toward him.
"The demure Lady Evans.Such virtue.Such modesty."He shook his head, lip curling back from his teeth in disgust.“Good thing the daughter is nothing like the mother.”
Stopping in front of Raaevik, he looked at him with understanding that was harder to bear than judgment.
"Whatever you're doing, brother..."Thyaar said quietly."If that is what she came from...if that is the viper's nest she lived in?—"
"She isnothinglike her!”
"I know," Thyaar said."That's the tragedy of it, isn't it?"
He clasped Raaevik's shoulder.
"Go," he said, jerking his head down the corridor.“You can take first watch.”
