She’d meant to share something beautiful with me, and here I was reminding her of her sins.
“Tell me about this place.”
She blinked, and some of the heaviness faded. “The realm alters itself to accommodate the needs of the beasts. Those who thrive in the cold live in the mountains.” She stared beyond the treetops to the mountain range in the distance before turning back to me. “The plains house so many different types of creatures that I couldn’t even begin to name them all. And if a new beast appears that the realm hasn’t seen before, the environment shifts.”
Before us, a small pond pooled to life. Bluish-green waters spread outward, and Leena sank to the ground. She dipped her boots in the pond, nudging a newly formed lily pad. Slowly, I sat beside her.
“What beast requires this?”
“All creatures require water. I don’t know when, how, or why the realm creates what it does. I just know my beasts are near, and they know I’ve come to say hello.”
Suddenly, the forest was alive with calls. Chirps hummed from the backs of throats as branches groaned from the added weight of the beasts. Deep grunts rolled in on the breeze from the plains, and the ground beneath us vibrated with the cadence of rushing hooves. The world was alive before, but now it was thriving. Reacting to the presence of a Charmer. And Leena flourished. Her skin glowed faintly, a beautiful glimmer that spoke to her power.
Beasts appeared one by one, flocking to her side to bask in her light. It was a procession of all colors, shapes, and sizes. She treated each creature with the devoted love and attention of a mother. E-Class to B-Class, they were the same to her. She stroked chins, ruffled feathers, cooed words of pure happiness, and placed gentle kisses with her flushed lips.
Why anyone wanted to kill this woman was beyond me.
Twin serpents appeared, encircling Leena before tilting their dragon heads in my direction. She stroked the length of their bodies. “You remember Kinana and Kapro? Go ahead. Touch them.”
Nostrils flaring wide, Kinana edged toward me. I extended my hand to her, and she rammed my palm and slithered against my body. The soothing feeling of running water flooded my veins.
Leena laughed. “She must like you.” I’d never seen her so happy.
Running my fingers down Kinana’s scales, I glanced at the dark shadows hidden in the trees. “So, is this a realm just for your beasts? Or can other Charmers come here?”
“All beasts come to the same realm, though it’s extremely rare to see beasts that aren’t mine.” She paused, eyes flickering out across the horizon. After our surprise bout with the Scorpex, neither of us seemed eager to deem anywhere safe. “Other Charmers can come here, too. The realm is endless. Running into one of them is next to impossible—unless they’re part of your family.”
There it was. Another opening into her past. I just hoped it wasn’t a fresh scab over a gaping wound. “Family?”
She nodded. Kinana left me to curl against Leena. Weighted silence, occasionally punctuated by the soft grunt of a beast, passed between us. In my peripheral vision, I watched her fidget. She picked at the hem of her tunic and pushed her hair off her neck, only to pull it around the front again.
Finally, she sighed. “My parents died when I was four.” Rotating the ring around her finger, she stared only at the pond in front of her. “They tried to tame a beast beyond their capabilities and failed. It happens. Anyway, my aunt took me in. But whenshedied…”
Her beasts nestled in closer, providing what comfort they could through simple contact. Something near undeniable inside me begged me to do the same. Instead, I braided my fingers together.
“Kost is right—most Charmers never leave Hireath. I never thought I would, either. But I was sixteen when my aunt died, alone in a house with too many rooms and not enough bodies. I had my beasts, of course, but…it’s not the same as a human touch.” She looked at me, the saddest smile gracing her lips. A glassy sheen obscured her irises, and my throat swelled shut. The branches sprawling across her face began to recede, disappearing down her neck.
I didn’t dare ask why, not when she was finally opening up about her past. “Is that when you left Hireath? When your aunt died?”
Tila, the monkey creature from the train, crawled into Leena’s lap. Leena stroked her belly, working soft tufts of fur between her fingers. “No. I fell in love with a man on the Council.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah.” She blew out a short breath. “I was eighteen; he was supposed to be the answer to my prayers. Kind and intelligent, and easily the most powerful Charmer I’d ever met. His beasts could last outside the realm for weeks, even months, living off his energy wells.” Her gaze returned to the pond, eyes locked on the rippling water stirred by Kapro’s tongue. “We were happy for a while. Six years, actually. But one day, I found a dying…creature chained in a cage beneath his home. A creature no Charmer had ever successfully tamed. It destroyed me.”
Shifting closer to her, I placed my hand on the ground inches from hers. More ink disappeared, fading down her shoulder. “Something from the Kitska Forest?”
She shook her head. “No. Gods, why am I telling you this?”
“Leena, it’s okay. You can tell me.” My fingers grazed hers. A small, irrational part of me wanted to cup her hands in mine. I wanted to do about a thousand things that didn’t make any sense. She stared at the place where our hands met before letting out another breath.
“It was a human, Noc. A human man.” Her voice cracked.A human.Warning bells sounded in my mind. Isn’t that what the Charmer at the tavern accused Leena of doing? She cleared her throat. “I could never do that. Can you even imagine what that would be like? Controlling another person?”
My gut twisted, and the blood in my body ran cool. Yes, I could imagine. It wasn’t something I’d done, but something I’d witnessed. The horror of stripping someone of their free will… I could understand why it was illegal, especially for a race of people with the power to charm.
Bringing her knees to her chest, she rested her chin on her forearms. “When I confronted him about it, he used a beast to convince the Council I was the one harboring the human—not him. And because he was on the Council and Charmers value beasts above all else, my words meant nothing.”
Tears spilled over, heavy streams bisecting her cheeks. I’d worked as an assassin long enough to know the burn behind Leena’s story couldn’t be anything other than the truth.
