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“Pere-grine . . . ” She drew his name out in a sing-song.
He struggled to clear his vision. To figure out where he was.
“Can you see me?” Kirra leaned down. Close. Closer, until her face was the only thing Perry saw. She smiled. “I’m so glad you’re here. I hated the way we parted. ”
He had hated everything before that—every second he’d spent with her. He wanted to tell her so, but he couldn’t speak.
Everything seemed slow and loud, and like he was seeing it through warped glass. Kirra’s lips looked too thin. Her face too long. The freckles on her cheeks and nose drifted over her skin. Then they spread across her face and over her scalp, darkening, turning deep red, and suddenly she wasn’t Kirra anymore.
She was a fox with black shining eyes and needle-sharp teeth.
Panic surged through him. He tried to lift his head, his arms, but his body wouldn’t respond. His limbs were leaden. He couldn’t even blink.
“You knew I was at the Tides on orders, didn’t you?”
It was Kirra’s voice, from the fox. From the animal’s flashing eyes.
“Sable sent me to get Cinder, but I didn’t expect you to become such a distraction. We were just getting to know each other, too. But I always do what Sable says. So should you, by the way. I mean that. I don’t want to see you hurt, Perry. ”
The fox turned away. “Can he hear me, Loran? He seems so far. ”
“I can’t hear if he’s hearing, Kirra,” answered a deep voice. “That’s beyond even my ears. ”
“Are the drugs necessary? He’s already tied down to the cot. I can’t even scent his temper. ” The fox disappeared, moving out of Perry’s line of sight. “Where are the Mole doctors? Sable isn’t going to like this either. ”
Perry heard a door open and close, and then the sound of Kirra’s voice fading.
Above, exposed wires and pipes crisscrossed the metal ceiling. They wavered, like he was seeing them beneath water.
He could do nothing else, so he began at the left corner and worked his way right, memorizing every turn and every bend.
Time passed. He knew because Kirra returned.
“That’s better,” she said, smiling. She sat on the edge of his cot, her hip against his forearm. She was herself again— no more fox.
“I had the Dwellers lower the dosage,” she said. “You’re welcome. ”
Perry could blink now. His mind felt less clouded than earlier, and he could track Kirra’s movement with his eyes. Still, he couldn’t move his limbs, and he badly wanted take his arm away from Kirra’s hip.
She glanced over her shoulder. “He looks better. Doesn’t he, Loran?”
The man who stood by the door was lean, his nose and eyes slender and hawk-like. His black hair showed no hint of graying, but he had a competent, seasoned bearing. Perry guessed the soldier to be in his forties. The stag horns at his chest were sewn in silver thread instead of the customary crimson, likely indicating a high rank in Sable’s forces.
“Much,” responded the man.
One word, but it carried hefty sarcasm.
Kirra turned back to Perry. “You came so close to getting away this morning. I thought you were going to do it. And I was so looking forward to being your prisoner. ” She smiled, moving closer. “Oh, your friend? He’s the Aud who left with Aria, isn’t he? You didn’t tell me he’d be so nice to look at. Though he doesn’t compare to you. ” Her gaze raked over his body. “In case you’re worried about him, you shouldn’t be. He’s locked in a holding cell. With Aria. ”
Perry knew her games. She took his insecurities and hung them on a line, exposing each one.
“Bet you wish you had depended on the right people. That seems like a recurring problem in your life. ”
Perry swallowed, his throat as rough and dry as bark. “I never trusted you, Kirra. ”
She blinked at him, her smile widening at hearing him speak. “I know. You see me for who I am. That’s why I like you so much. You know the truth but you still don’t hate me. Well, that and you look delicious. More so when you’re moving, but—”
She quieted when the door slid open and hopped off the cot.
The man who entered was average in build, with closely shorn dark hair and eyes the color of water. A sparkling Blood Lord chain hung at his neck, the sapphires and diamonds bright against a trim dark coat.
Sable.
Fury crashed over Perry like a tidal wave. He wasn’t prepared to see his sister’s killer. He hadn’t expected the rage that tore through him. He wanted to rip Sable’s eyes from his head. Break his fingers off and snap his bones into pieces. But trapped in his body, paralyzed, the urge had nowhere to go. It pounded inside his skull, shaking loose memories of Liv.
His sister came alive in his mind. Tossing her hair over her shoulder as she laughed. Tickling Talon until tears ran down his face. Punching Roar in the arm over some joke they’d shared.
His mind felt so weak; he couldn’t push the memories away. To his horror, the pressure of tears built behind his eyes.
“Kirra, you can leave now, please,” Sable said calmly. “Loran, bring me a chair, and then you can leave as well. ”
They did as instructed. Perry waited for Sable to come to the chair by the cot, to begin whatever he had planned.
He didn’t.
With every passing moment, Perry’s anxiety built. The drugs were still in him, slowing his thoughts and making his blood feel thick. He couldn’t fight his emotions. He felt his control over reality slip as horrible images flipped through his mind. Bleeding wounds. Burnt flesh and poisoned veins, each one worse.
He’d almost forgotten Sable until the Blood Lord spoke.
“Your temper is faint, but what I can scent is truly extraordinary. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m entirely responsible. The drug you’ve been given has mild psychotropic effects. I can’t imagine you’re enjoying that very much. Hess’s idea, not mine. It was intended to demoralize you. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but your near success on this mission embarrassed him. Personally, I was impressed by what you almost accomplished. I’ve been looking around. I know what you did wasn’t easy. ”
Perry forced himself not to respond. He wouldn’t give Liv’s killer the courtesy of his words.
Sable came to the cot and stood over him. Once again his eyes captured Perry’s attention. Clear, but ringed in dark blue, they studied Perry with a mixture of cold calculation and amusement. “I’m Sable, by the way. ”
He pulled the chair closer and sat down, crossing one leg over the other. “It seems inevitable that you and I should meet, does it not?” he said. “I knew your father, your brother, and your sister. I feel as though everything has led to this. To us.
“I don’t think your father thought much of me, though,” Sable continued casually, as though they were old friends. “We met years ago, when we still had tribal gatherings. Jodan was reserved and quiet around strangers, not unlike yourself, but Vale and I got on much better.
“Your older brother was cunning and ambitious. I enjoyed the time we spent together when he came to negotiate for your sister’s hand. We had many long conversations during his stay in Rim. . . . Quite a few of those were about you. ”
Perry gritted his teeth until they hurt. He didn’t want to hear this.
“Vale expressed serious concerns about you. He feared you’d try for the Tides’ chain, so he asked me to take you into my house as part of the arrangement we were making for Olivia. He wanted you gone, Peregrine. And I accepted. People who inspire fear are my very favorite kind. I was eager to meet you. But later, Vale wrote and said he’d made other arrangements for you. We both know where that led. ”
Sable looked up to the ceiling and drew a deep breath through his nose. The chain at his neck sparkled with gemstones—nothing like the crude metal of the Tides’ chain. Of his chain.
“I would have done the same to Vale had I b
een in your circumstance,” Sable continued. “Betrayal is unacceptable. In fact, I have done the same thing, which brings me to your sister. Olivia. ”
Before he could stop it, a gurgle bubbled in Perry’s throat.
Sable’s eyebrows rose. “Fresh wound? It is for me, too. ” He nodded, quiet for a moment as his eyes took on a distant look. “Liv was sublime. Ferocious. Being around her was like breathing fire. I want you to know that I treated her well. I wanted only the best for her. . . . ”
He shifted in his seat and leaned closer. “You’re very easy to talk to. I don’t just mean because you’re a good listener. ”
At first Perry thought he was joking, but Sable’s expression was pensive and relaxed.
“You’re a Scire, and a Blood Lord,” he continued. “You understand my position like no one else can. You know how hard it is to find trustworthy people. How impossible it is. People will turn on each other for the smallest reasons. For a meal, they will toss a friendship aside. For a warm coat, they will stab each other in the back. They steal. They lie and betray. They lust for what they can’t have. What they do have isn’t enough. We are weak, wanting creatures. We are never satisfied. ”
Sable’s gaze narrowed. “Do you scent it as often as I do? The hypocrisy? The lack of basic decency? It’s unbearable. I get so tired of it. I know you agree. ”
“I don’t,” Perry said. He couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. “People are imperfect, but it doesn’t mean they spoil like milk. ” His voice came out hoarse and quiet, nearly inaudible.
Sable studied him for long moments. “You’re a hatchling still, Peregrine. You’ll agree with me in time. ” He pressed a hand to the gold horns at his chest. “I don’t lie. When I told Liv I would give her the world, it was the truth. I had planned to do it. And then I came to know her better and I wanted to do it. I would have given her anything she asked for, if only she’d been loyal.
“I knew about your friend. Roar. Your brother told me about them when we made the deal. When Olivia came to me months late, months after the time Vale and I had agreed upon, I knew why. I have Auds listening for me everywhere. I have Seers hidden in every patch of forest, acting as my eyes. But Liv came to me nonetheless. She chose me and she told me so. I told her she needed to be absolutely certain. I told her she couldn’t go back once she decided. She swore she wouldn’t. She promised herself to me. ”
Sable leaned closer, lowering his voice. “I am an honest man. I’ve been told you are as well. I expect the same from others. Don’t you? Is that too much to ask?”
Don’t answer, Perry told himself. Don’t argue. Don’t speak. Don’t give him what he wants.
Sable sat back and unfolded his legs, a satisfied smile spreading over his face. “I enjoyed this very much. I’m already looking forward to our next conversation—which we’ll have soon. ”
Standing, he moved to the door, his smile vanishing and his eyes as cold as death. “You know, Peregrine, you weren’t the only one double-crossed by Vale. Your brother promised me a bride, but he sold me a whore. ”