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I decide not to give any more of Slade’s information away, and remain silent. He likes his privacy, and I owe it to him to shut my mouth. It feels like a betrayal to have said this much.
Chaz’s lips tense again when I don’t answer him.
“Fine. What did you see that scared you? What convinced you they’re so terrible?”
I don’t miss the fact he’s still using pronouns and not naming them.
Slade never intended for me to see them in that vision. He was introducing me to the many immortals he crossed paths with before he was locked away, giving me their eyes so I could see their souls and imprint their essences into my mind for reference.
This... this wasn’t supposed to be possible.
“Karma saw that Lokie. She had to have,” I tell him instead of answering.
He shrugs carelessly, possibly even unconcerned. “Karma isn’t as strong as you are. Besides, Karma owes me her life. If she knows, she’s repaid me by keeping it quiet. Now what about the beasts you mentioned. Tell me, Kya.”
He almost looks like he’s desperate for the information, and it occurs to me that he might not even know about all they did. They weren’t written into very many factual record books.
“How do you know what you are?” I ask him quietly.
The desperate intrigue in his eyes fades into a familiar bitterness. “My mother cast a spell when she stole me away from my biological jinn mother. There’s a reason red jinn are rare. They can’t help themselves from feeding on their children. Long story short, I was a food source for my birthmother, and I was on the verge of death. Mom saved me, almost died in the process of killing the woman who couldn’t get enough of my power that hadn’t even fully surfaced yet. I was young, but I wasn’t as young as the others still believe. Anyway, Mom used an ancient, powerful spell that very few knew existed, and my eyes told the story in sequence: black fire, pure gold, and red and black swirls. They appeared in sequence, terrifying her. She was an archivist and privy to more information than most immortals. She knew what it meant.”
That’s almost unbelievable.
“She knew and still took you?” I ask him, watching as he glares at me.
“I guess a child is deemed less threatening than a man. So yes, she took me, she raised me, loved me, protected me... I’ll kill anyone who ever even thinks of laying a hand on her. She saved my life, and she saw more than the darkness within.”
Then she didn’t see the beasts the way I saw them through Slade’s eyes.
“What did you see, Kya?” he asks again, quieter this time.
“Destruction. Death. Blood... They killed everything in sight. They were so vicious that the Lokies took it upon themselves to expel them from this dimension, even though they were the ones who forced them here to begin with. There was a breach after the Lokies split the dimensions too often to come here. Fixing the breach weakened the Lokies, but they got rid of the beasts that had the power to kill them. That was what weakened them enough for the immortals to get rid of the Lokies afterwards.”
He closes his eyes, seeming crestfallen and a little lost. If he wasn’t a ticking time bomb, I’d almost feel compelled to console him.
“Say the word, Kya. What were they?” he asks in a rasp whisper.
Wings. Scales. Fire. Barbaric. Brutal. Merciless... All of it rushes to the forefront of my memory, and I swallow against the knot in my throat.
“Dragonites.”
The single word has him vanishing from sight, and I sit alone in the darkness. The problem is, now I don’t know whether or not to tell Slade.
There’s no doubt he’d go after Chaz, and this time it wouldn’t be a woman. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill another man the way he did with Roslyn and Leah.
I almost wonder who would win in that fight, considering I just watched Chaz take down an ogre with minimal effort. Slade is just now getting back to full strength after centuries of being restrained and weakened.
I’m not a gambling woman, so I decide to keep my lips sealed. For now.
I also decide to ignore the inexplicable lingering feelings that refuse to go away. I’m a warrior. Not a stupid little girl with a stupid little crush on a possible huge threat.
I never knew freedom was so full of confusion.
Chapter 2
CHAZ
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity fuck.
