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Warm. He thought.
Instinctually, I tried to go into his mind like I had been doing with fae. But his mind was closed off. I realized that it wasn’t me who had pulled the thought out of him like I had assumed. He had offered it freely.
“You are talking to me now?” I asked him. As I stared into his innocent eyes, a glimmer of amusement emerged in me, almost dispelling the darkness.
Qai yawned in response as Cari jolted and looked over her shoulder.
I turned to her. Initially, she seemed relaxed that it was only me, and not anyone else, but before long, a grim expression took over her face.
“What is it?” I asked as I took a seat across from her and started petting Qai’s head which he snuck underneath my hand as though it was my task to pet him. I was pretty sure if he had a longer tail, he would be wagging it like a dog right about now. His fur was soft and warm, it felt good to pet him.
“I didn’t hear you coming,” she said.
For anyone else, it might have been a normal thing to say. For Cari, it seemed like an embarrassing admission.
“I guess you’re strong enough that I can’t penetrate your mind anymore,” she added, confirming my thoughts.
It was high praise coming from her. It made me smile, but that seemed to annoy Cari even more.
Just because you can’t force me to share my thoughts with you, I said, opening my mind to her as widely as I could while I spoke, doesn’t mean you won’t be privy to them.
I felt her tendrils quickly scanning my mind. She found the guilt I felt over my conversation with Ilerd but did not probe any further. She was searching for something specific.
“You trust me,” she said, withdrawing from my mind as she spoke out loud.
“I do,” I said.
This time, I felt her opening up to me. I did not screen her mind like she had done with me. I didn’t need to. But gratitude was all over her thoughts.
“Are you getting mushy on me?” I asked, smiling.
“I guess I am,” Cari admitted, returning the smile. “Is that a problem?”
I shook my head. For a moment, neither of us said anything; the crackling of the wood was the only interruption to the sounds of nature all around us. Then, Cari spoke.
“I have to tell you something,” she said.
“I know you would,” I replied. “It’s been a while since we had a chance to talk.”
“We never talked,” she said. “Not properly. The moment I decided to turn against the queen, you sort of died.”
“I didn’t die!” I objected.
Cari snickered.
“I know,” she said. “But you were gone. And I wasn’t sure if I could trust anyone else. I thought about telling everything to Kieran but he was... Well, he was a mess. I thought about telling it to Casja after I met her, then I decided it would be better to postpone it since what I’m going to tell you might not help with anything at all.”
“Tell me,” I said. “Then, we’ll figure out together if it helps or not.”
“When we first talked in that monster’s mind,” Cari continued. “I told you that the queen started many wars throughout the years, all for the same end. Do you remember?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Though you didn’t tell me what that end was.”
“I didn’t,” Cari said. “The queen wouldn’t want me to tell you, and I didn’t want you to discard me once I revealed everything I knew.”
She straightened in her seat. The wind was starting to pick up, but it was still warm by the fire. Qai shifted in his sleep but didn’t open his eyes. When Cari spoke again, I couldn’t help but feel like her voice had an ominous tone now.
“You already know how the queen created the monsters,” Cari said. “She twisted her healing powers to inflict the fae she chose. She used me to access their minds and control them. I could not access the minds of the monsters all at once as you can, but I could control them when the need arose, even through great distances.”
