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13
SLYTH
Iwake up sometime after Lorelai. She’s worked her way out of my arms without waking me and stood up. As I watch her, she paces up and down in her hideout, muttering something to herself.
“What’s the matter?” I ask.
She looks back at me. “What do you think is the matter?”
I stifle a smile, knowing full well that smiling at her scowling face will do little but rile her.
Then again, I do like riling her up.
“What, are you saying you didn’t enjoy it?” I sit up, and a pulse of pain burst through my back and shoulder. “If you were faking, you certainly did a good job of it.”
“No,” she spits, the admission seeming to scathe her tongue. She lowers her eyes from mine, but not before I catch a flash of embarrassment in those dark irises. “I just… don’t know what to make of it.”
“It’s sex,” I tell her. “You don’t have to make something of it. Just feel it. Your body will know what to do when I fill you with–”
“Don’t talk about that again,” she interrupts.
“So you can take my cocks, but all of a sudden talking about sex is too much?”
She groans, turning away from me almost entirely. “Just… don’t talk about it. There are more important things to deal with now.”
“Kriseri, you mean?”
A look of pure hate passes across her face as she turns back to me. If I had seen that look on her before last night, it would have struck me more as a threat. Now, it only serves to turn me on, to remind me of the way she looked beneath me. My little killer is capable of burning passion, of love, and of hate, and that excites me.
“That’s right,” she says. “You should be pretty happy that the two of us have a mutual enemy in him. If we didn’t, I’d be treating you pretty differently right now.”
“You’re scared of your feelings for me,” I say teasingly. “You’re trying to come up with other explanations for them. But I saw you last night. It’s not much good to pretend.”
“I’m not changing my whole future for sex. I have other goals. Other enemies.”
“So do I,” I assure her. “But you can’t keep passion like that from changing your life, either. It’s one thing to have more in your life. It’s another to deny this.”
“Is that naga wisdom?” she scoffs.
“It’s something I learned from a friend.”
It isn’t my place to talk about Rory. Zalith’s love for her is his business, even if it will in time have far greater effects on the kingdom that he rules. It has already had deep effects on me. I don’t know if I would have been so open to affection between a human and a naga if I hadn’t seen Zalith and Rory and the happiness that they have found together.
“You can’t keep holding all these secrets from me,” she snaps, whirling around. “How am I supposed to trust you if I don’t even know who you are?”
I nod. “You’re right.” She seems more than a little surprised, but I continue on, not giving her the chance to interject. “I can’t tell you secrets that belong to other people. But you do deserve to know me better. Ask me whatever you want.”
“You have someone you’re fighting for,” she begins, sitting back down on the bed next to me. This isn’t a question, it’s a statement. Apparently, loners know other loners. “Who is it?”
“I am a warrior in the service of Prince Zalith,” I tell her. “I was chosen for that purpose before my birth, and all of my life has been dedicated to him and to his kingdom.”
She nods. “So is that the only reason that you oppose Kriseri? Because he’s the enemy of your Prince?”
I think about Rory again. Of course, Kriseri is my enemy because he is a rival Prince. But the more I’ve spent time in this country, the deeper it’s gone. There are rival kings and queens who I have respect for. Kriseri is not one. He isn’t simply another leader. He represents everything that Zalith and I despise.
“No,” I tell her. “I believe in Zalith.”
But it feels hollow as it rolls off my tongue. Because am I so sure that I wouldn’t be loyal to Zalith if he were as bad as Kriseri? Or if, perhaps, he were better but not better enough? Loyalty is the virtue I’ve been brought up in, not judgment. Yes, I do see things in Zalith that I like and in Kriseri that I hate. But is that the real reason I follow one and fight the other?
