Veya no longer trusted kindness. In her human life, it had too often concealed a price or arrived with barbs beneath it. Even now, with her old life gone and her body transformed into something she barely recognized, her instincts searched Dax’s words for the hidden hook.
“I hate him,” she said abruptly.
Dax did not react.
“I hate that Rhen took the decision away from me. I hate that my body responds to the tether as though it belongs to him more than it belongs to me, and I hate that everyone talks about Leena as though she was the heart of this place while I’m the disaster he dragged inside after she died.”
Her voice caught as anger and humiliation tangled together.
Dax did not correct her or offer a comforting lie.
“You are allowed to be angry.”
Veya frowned.
“He took something that should have been yours to choose,” Dax continued. “Understanding why he acted does not mean you have to forgive the decision.”
She stared at him, unsettled by the absence of argument.
“I thought you would defend him.”
“He is my brother. I will defend his life without hesitation, but that does not require me to tell you that losing your choice should not matter.”
Veya looked down at her hands.
The answer was more complicated than blind loyalty and therefore more difficult to dismiss.
“For what it is worth,” Dax said, allowing a little warmth back into his voice, “I believe Leena would have liked you.”
Veya scoffed.
“She never knew me.”
“She liked people who survived without allowing survival to make every decision for them.”
“You have known me for less than a night.”
“And you have already escaped confinement, argued with Rhen, challenged me, and insulted the coffee-drinking habits of most civilized people.”
“I drink coffee properly.”
“You drink punishment from a cup.”
A reluctant smile pulled at her mouth.
Dax returned it.
“You survived everything that happened to you,” he said. “That does not mean you have to be grateful for what you became, but it does mean there is more fight left in you than Rhen expects.”
Veya glanced toward the looming stronghold, and the brief lightness thinned as reality pressed back between them.
Dax rose with a lazy stretch that looked partly genuine and partly performed.
“We should go inside before you decide the cold does not affect you and refuse to admit otherwise.”
He offered his hand without reaching for her.
Veya looked at it.
