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I do my best to move irregularly and to avoid anything that will make a sound I can’t control. I have to move slowly to do so, slower than she moved following me, but I’m making good progress. By the time I get in sight of Lorelai’s home, I’m proud of how subtly I’ve approached.
She’s in front of the dugout, setting a fire. She hasn’t noticed me, I realize. She’s sharpening a blade as the fire dies away, and the sounds of the metal scraping have provided excellent cover for me.
The fire is just about to die. I decide that that’s how I’ll reveal myself. I’ll fan the flames a little so that she doesn’t have to get up from her work on the knife. She’ll be happy to see me, and I’ll be happy to be back. It will be a good start to the ugly conversation I need to have with her.
I’m just about to step forward when she does it.
She gestures at the fire from her place near the shelter and suddenly, the flames leap up by themselves. There’s no mistaking it. Fire elemental magic! And she hid it from me, even when we were discussing plans for fighting the King.
It explains a lot about her,I think through my shock. There was always something about her passion and anger that seemed strange, even for a human living in this kingdom. But she isn’t just a human.
She’s a human who knows magic, and that is an entirely different thing. A human has a place here, even if it’s a cruel, degrading one. But a human with magic? Those are abominations. Either they are destroyed, or the entire country has to be.
She’s made her choice,I realize.It would be the country, not her, that she’d see destroyed.
I take a step forward, and her eyes immediately leap towards me. She knows that I’ve seen her secret. I can see her body reacting with all the fear and anger of a human who’s been hunted down for her forbidden knowledge many times.
I want to tell her that I understand. I know how she’s been hunted. I know that she’s been made into a symbol for humans not knowing their place and rising to powers forbidden to them. I want to tell her that I respect the burning fire in her, that I love it and want to hold it just like the rest of her. I want to say something to her, but no words come to my mouth.
And then it’s too late. She’s already followed her instincts.
A dagger is flying straight at my face.
16
LORELAI
He ducks out of the way of my dagger, and it flies past him, landing in the trunk of a tree a few feet behind him.
I knew he would dodge that,I realize. I wouldn’t have thrown it if I thought it had a chance of actually hitting him. Now is when I could launch a real attack on him. I could bombard him with arrows and daggers and fireballs that sooner or later, one of them would have to hit him.
But I don’t. I just stand there, watching him look at me. Even though he’s discovered my most dangerous secret, I simply can’t bring myself to fight him.
Slyth looks back at the dagger, planted nearly to its handle in the tree. “I thought we were moving past the trying-to-kill-each-other stage of the relationship.”
“You mean you’re not going to try and kill me?”
He seems genuinely surprised by that. “Is that how you expect me to react?”
“It’s how most naga react to seeing a human who can use magic,” I answer. “It’s what they did to my mother.”
His face drops. “I’m sorry.”
“I believe that you’re not like most of your kind,” I say. “You’ve certainly proved that much to me. But it’s hard not to believe there isn’t a spark of that fear in you. A little bit of the sense that something is wrong with a human having magic and that it’s a talent we aren’t supposed to have.”
“Maybe there is something like that somewhere in me,” Slyth admits slowly. “But it isn’t what I believe. In fact, I helped another human develop her own magical powers not too long ago.”
That’s interesting enough on its own, but the way he says it strikes me more. There’s something he’s not telling me, something important about this story.
“You did? Who?”
“Her name was Rory,” he answers uncomfortably. “And it was on behalf of my Prince. That’s as much as I’m comfortable telling you.”
So Prince Zalith is involved in this, too? I’ll have to think about that more. Whoever this Rory is, there’s something about her that he isn’t telling me.
“So…” I start, unsure of where my question is leading.So you still want me? So you’ll still help me kill Kriseri? So you’re not disgusted by me?
He steps closer and wraps an arm around my waist, tugging me firmly into his chest as he stares down at me with an intensity that makes me feel tiny. “So, I think that fire makes a lot of sense. You’ve got enough burning inside of you already, little killer. Not even your magic does it justice.”
