Nadi had hated every second of the awkward silence, but she hadn’t known what to say. But the moment Kalo opened his mouth, she wished he’d kept it shut.
“So.” Kalo guided hischanchaaround to a cluster of luminescent mushrooms that had sprouted up in the middle of the tunnel. The purplish glow of the vines overhead cast strange shadows across his blue-tinged features. “You two. How in the fuck didthathappen?”
Nadi’s stomach dropped. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me, little fish.” Kalo didn’t even bother to look back at her. “You left our kind to kill vampires. You swore a blood debt on him and his entire family. Now you come back riding him like he’s yourmate.”The word dripped with disdain. “I’m simply curious how that came to pass, is all. Can’t fault a man for being curious.”
“It was complicated,” Nadi muttered.
“Mmhm. I’m sure.” Kalo snorted in laughter. “Things were always complicated with her,” he said to Raziel. “Always running off to explore things she shouldn’t. Always getting into trouble. Sticking her tail in places it shouldn’t go.”
Raziel’s interest suddenly sharpened like a blade being drawn from a sheath. “Oh, now that does sound extremely familiar. Go on.”
No,Nadi thought desperately, almost screaming in her head. This was her worst nightmare.No, no, no. Please don’t?—
“Oh, by the moons!” Kalo chuckled, and there was a casual arrogance in the sound. She suddenly remembered the bully of her past. His silver eyes held the same cruel amusement that had made him the terror—and secret fascination—of every fae child in their settlement. “Your tangle with thehebekwasn’t her first. Once, she wandered into a damn nest of them because shewanted to see what their eggs looked like! She was maybe seven summers old. I had to drag her out by her hair!”
“Kalo—” Nadi tried to cut him off.
“By her hair?” Raziel’s voice held a note of genuine amusement that made Nadi want to turn herchanchaaround and ride in the opposite direction. “Absolutely delightful. Do tell me more.”
Kalo glanced back over his shoulder at her, and there was a glimmer in his silver eyes. Triumph, maybe. Or satisfaction at seeing her squirm.Revenge.
“She cried for an hour afterward,” Kalo continued, facing forward again. “Not because she was scared of them. No, our little Nadi was never scared of anything. She cried because I wouldn’t let her keep one of the eggs.”
Raziel laughed. Actuallylaughed.The sound echoed through the tunnel, startling a cluster of many-winged creatures from their perches in the vines above. “She wanted to keep one of those fucking monsters as apet?”
“Mmhm.” Kalo huffed. “She wanted to raise it. Told me she would train it to benice.To not eat people.”
“I was seven,” Nadi ground out through her teeth. “Children are stupid and naive.”
“Some more than others, little fish.” Kalo clicked his tongue at hischancha,urging it forward and away from the mushrooms. “And some never learn as they get older.” He paused. “Though I thought I recalled you getting smarter about trying not to tame dangerous things. Oh, well.”
The silence that followed was thick enough to cut through.
Raziel couldn’t help himself. Because of course he couldn’t. “And what of you, Kalo? What were you like as a child? Did you also attempt to domesticate things that shouldn’t be tamed?”
“I knew better.” Kalo’s voice was flat. “I knew what things were monsters and what things weren’t. What things weremeant to run free and not be tampered with. Some of us learned those lessons better than others.” He paused. “Some of us are still learning.”
Nadi’s hands tightened on the reins. She wanted to snap. Wanted to scream at him that he didn’t know anything about what she’d been through, or why she’d made the choices she’d made.
But the words stuck in her throat like pin bones. Agonizing yet tiny and so very easy to dismiss.
So she let it go.
Because part of her also knew he was right.
They stopped to rest for the night when they came to a chamber where the vines were dimmer—Kalo said it was a sign they were on the right track. Good. The cavern they’d entered was smaller than some of the others they’d passed through, with a shallow stream running along one edge and a cluster of bioluminescent flowers providing a soft, blue-green light.
Thechanchaclicked and chittered as they settled down to feed on the moss that grew along the stream’s banks. Nadi busied herself with unpacking what meager supplies Ebiti had provided them—dried meat that had the consistency of leather, a waterskin, and a small pouch of medicinal herbs.
Raziel had seated himself on a flat stone, watching the proceedings with the air of someone who found everything tedious and fascinating in equal quantities.
A historical study on a primitive people.
His crimson eyes tracked her movements, but she refused to meet his gaze.
“Has she told you?” Kalo’s voice once more cut through the quiet. He’d taken up his own position across the clearing from Raziel, far enough to be out of immediate striking distance butclose enough to aim a shot from his pistol if needed. “About our betrothal?”
