‘Llew.’

She turned from the portrait to face Aris, striding the great marble corridor, Karlani half a pace behind.

Well, at least she wasn’t with Jonas.

Llew pulled herself up straighter. Aris had so far avoided direct contact with her since her return from Turhmos, making it no secret he had little interest in her beyond keeping her out of Turhmos’s hands and, perhaps, finding a use for her in Quaver. If Quaver had no use for Llew’s power, she wouldn’t survive long inside its borders unless Jonas could make a case for her. But clearly Aris had no interest in helping with that.

He stopped before Llew, looked her up and down with a scowl. Not anger. More like an internal disagreement. Probably something along the lines of whether she was worth the effort.

‘I understand you freed yourself from Braph,’ he said, though Llew sensed a question in there somewhere. ‘Hisham tells me he and the rest never made it to Braph’s but met you on the road. Impressive work. Braph was a powerful man.’

Llew shrugged, feigning nonchalance. ‘He used most of his power capturing me.’

Karlani smiled. Probably pleased to hear Llew hadn’t bested a full-strength Karan. As far as Karlani was concerned, the natural order was maintained.

‘Good, good,’ Aris said absently. ‘But he took you to his home?’

Llew nodded, wary of giving too much away.

‘In . . .?’

‘Duffirk.’

Aris’s eyes narrowed and his lips twitched. ‘Duffirk is a big city. I don’t suppose you know where in the city he lives?’

Llew shook her head, this time not omitting by choice. Fact was, she’d never been to Duffirk before, only been led into it by Braph and out of it by Fear. In neither case had she felt like asking about the city’s highlights.

‘No.’ Aris nodded to himself. ‘Still, you didn’t happen to see a— a child while you were there?’

What? Why was he asking about a child?

Llew schooled her features to hide her shock, and shook her head again. She didn’t know what Aris was after, but his obsession with children and who was having them was unsettling. What would he want with a child of Braph’s? She shuddered to even think of Braph fathering a child.

A disembodied wailing repeated in the back of her mind. A wail that had echoed down the halls of Braph’s home, pinging off the copper piping and fading into its depths. It had been spine-tingling in real life and lost little in recollection. Sometimes sounding like a child, sometimes several, it had also reminded her of cats. And she’d seen no child.

Then again, once she’d heard laughter . . .

‘Alright.’ Aris seemed satisfied enough. ‘Look. About you and Jonas.’ Scowling again, like he was reluctant. ‘I’ve told him he ain’t to see you no more.’ He shifted again, leaning back a bit to look down his nose. ‘Not in an, ah . . . romantic capacity, anyway.’

Llew held her own against him, but she wouldn’t dare a look at Karlani. The smug look on that woman’s face would be like a magnet for Llew’s fist and, again, Llew wasn’t ready to explain how she could catch a Syakaran off guard.

‘Now, I reckon you understand,’ Aris said. ‘Jonas is key to Quaver’s military future, and we can’t go having that future compromised. Now, this is the problem I see. You’re Aenuk. I know what you’re thinkin’. You’re thinkin’ I was born hating on Aenuks, and you wouldn’t be far wrong. But, for the sake of argument, it ain’t here nor there because you’re not just Aenuk. You’re Syaenuk. What scares me is you gettin’ yourself killed somewhere there’s no other life but Jonas. He’s the kind of man who would give his life for those he cares about. And I can’t have that. Quaver can’t afford that. So, I think it’s best for all concerned if the two of you keep a little distance. Okay?’ He finished with a friendly flourish, eyes and face bright and open, like all the rest hadn’t come before.

Llew nodded. Put that way, it did make perfect sense.

Aris assessed her a moment longer. Seemingly satisfied he’d got her scared enough, he nodded. ‘Thank you.’ He patted her shoulder, then headed back down the corridor.

Karlani didn’t move, except to shift her weight to one leg and fold her arms. Her loosely curled dark hair framed a symmetrical face with large, dark eyes, a long, straight nose, and cushiony lips. Like Llew, she tended to prefer shirt and trousers to a dress. Except Karlani had the purse to wear quality cotton that washed up proper white. She wore a leather vest over the shirt, shaped to perfectly accentuate her hour-glass frame and push up her bust.

‘You heard the man,’ she said. ‘Jonas needs to be putting his efforts into the next generation of Syakaran heroes, not wasting his time with some leech.’

Clever. Karlani had made up her own name for Aenuks. Llew might have found the funny side if she hadn’t known full well how not funny her power could be.

‘Why do you want to do this? You’re not even Quaven?’ She wouldn’t volunteer.

‘I’m half-Quaven,’ Karlani said. ‘My father is Karan. He met my mother while traveling. Quaver don’t hold their Kara captive like Turhmos do their Aenuks.’

‘Except Jonas.’ Some of Llew’s fight returned.

Karlani conceded the point with a nod. ‘And the captain told you why. I thought you understood. Or did I give you too much credit?’

‘I am not in the mood for this.’ Llew turned for her room, but Karlani followed. It seemed she intended this to turn into a fight. Llew should have seen it coming. Karlani couldn’t stand that Llew had taken her by surprise barely a week earlier. And only a lack of bruising and Karlani’s pride had dismissed Llew’s victory as a non-event.

Llew reached her door, gripped the handle. Karlani came up behind her. Intimidatingly close.

‘Bugger off.’

Karlani snorted. ‘What in the world does that mean?’

‘It means it’s time for you to leave.’ Llew spoke to her door. If she looked at the woman now, she didn’t think she could control herself. She didn’t want to fight. Regardless of the pain and what would happen if she beat Karlani, she had another life to think of now.

Karlani chuckled.

‘You got lucky last week.’ Karlani leaned close by Llew’s ear. ‘Caught me off guard. And I think it’s given you the impression you’re my equal. I want to be sure you know that isn’t the case.’

‘Oh, I know.’ Llew couldn’t help herself. She turned to face the Syakaran, their noses hardly an inch apart.

Maybe she should have invited the woman to punch her, taken it on the nose and let that be that. Karlani’s pride would be intact, Llew’s child would be safe, and Llew would heal.

The smart choice.

Not the one Llew made.

She shoved the Syakaran back, moving faster than Karlani could have expected and using all her added strength.

‘Wha—?’

Karlani flew across the corridor, smashing into the opposite wall and crashing to the floor.

Llew panicked. What had she done? Anyone on that level of the building would have heard.

She opened her door and went to slink inside. But Karlani recovered quickly and pushed Llew through the door, knocking her to the ground. For better or worse, the fight was on.

Llew didn’t know where the Syakaran had learned to fight, besides her few lessons with Jonas. Llew had learned on the streets of Cheer, where there were few rules about fighting dirty. She grabbed Karlani’s hair with one hand, levered her head back and landed a punch square across her cheek, grazing her nose with the follow through. Karlani’s hands clawed at Llew’s face, but with her head pulled back there was no power in it. All she succeeded in doing was healing Llew’s bruised fist. Llew pulled her knees up between them, booted Karlani off and scrambled to stand. Karlani, too, found her feet.

‘How—?’

‘Come at me or get out.’

Narrowing her eyes, Karlani ran at Llew. Llew planted her feet and put up a fist to catch Karlani’s chin, but the Syakaran woman adjusted her trajectory, skirted Llew’s attack and slammed her own fist into Llew’s cheek, knocking her back. Llew flailed, grasping for anything to prevent a fall, grabbed hold of Karlani’s shirt, pulled herself back up and drove the heel of her hand into Karlani’s nose. Karlani hit the floor, swearing, eyes streaming, her hands cupped over her bleeding nose – probably really broken, this time. Llew stepped over her, gripped her collar and dragged her to her feet. She avoided touching her, choosing not to add insult to injury, despite her own aches. She wasn’t too careful, though.

‘That’s twice now.’ She pushed Karlani toward the door and into the gathering crowd that, thankfully, included none of her friends, or Aris. ‘Now, shove off, the lot of you!’

She shut the door, locked it, and cursed repeatedly under her breath.

Her face hurt, aching well beneath the skin.

Karlani was a mess. There was no hiding anything now.

Llew turned her back to the door, fell back against it and slid to the floor.

What had she done?

The knock at her door a few minutes later put Llew on full alert. Silently cursing, back still pressed against the door, all her senses focused on clues to who it might be, expecting the worst. Of course, Karlani would’ve run straight to Aris. He’d string Llew up.

‘Llew?’

Jonas. Not Aris.

Her breath exploded free, and she nearly broke out in maniacal laughter.

‘Llew?’

‘Yes!’ Her stifled laughter threatened to manifest through the word. She stood, unlocked, and opened the door a crack to check it really was just Jonas.

‘You alright?’

‘Uh . . . yeah.’ She opened the door wide enough for him to enter and closed and locked it as soon as he stepped through.

‘You’re in trouble, missy,’ he said, half-comedic, half-bedroom husk, his eyes sweeping the room and coming round to face her. ‘Shit.’ He reached a hand for her cheek, but Llew neatly side-stepped him.

‘Don’t worry. She looks worse,’ she said.

‘I know. I saw the burn marks on her. I thought that meant you’d be okay.’

‘I’m fine.’

He took a step towards her again. She stepped back.

He kept coming on, and Llew kept dodging. This was exactly what Aris had been talking about.

‘Come on, Llew. Let me fix it. It might tickle, but at least you won’t have to hide from everyone, or damage Gaemil’s garden.’

‘She’s gonna tell him and then he’ll know everything.’ She side-stepped and backed away in never-ending circles. He followed, never letting the distance between them grow by more than two paces.

He could have lunged at her. Could have grappled her. Or she could have run from the room altogether. It was a bizarre game they played, and Jonas seemed to think it was quite humorous, going by his smirk.

‘It’ll leave a scar.’

‘Good. I’ve been missin’ the old ones.’

Llew wasn’t ready to give in yet. Aris had warned her about this. Sure, it was only a bruise and a couple of scratches this time, but what about the next?

‘Aris has locked himself away in Gaemil’s Communications office, talkin’ to Quaver—’

‘Talking?’ Llew had never come across a way to talk to others miles away, but she’d never seen electric lights before coming to Gaemil’s either.

‘Telegram.’ Jonas shrugged and shortened the distance between them. ‘It’s a lot faster than the old days when you’d send a message by courier and wait days for the reply. Now you can send a message and have a reply in minutes. And that means Aris waits around those minutes, so he gets the reply first. Point is, Karlani can’t get to him. Not for an hour or more, anyway.’

‘He thinks I’ll kill you if we’re together.’ Llew took a few steps back. Her calves hit something. Her bed.

Jonas laughed.

‘Does he now?’ His eyes grew dark as he took one last step, closing the distance between them.

‘He’s right. What if this was worse? Or, what if something happened to me?’ She glanced at the two windows. They were on the second floor, but that wouldn’t stop anyone determined enough. And anyone who came this far into Brurun looking for her would be determined. ‘What would you do? Right here, right now, there’s nothing living in here but us?’

‘First of all, . . .’ He raised his hand, knuckles curled, holding it by her cheek a moment. Llew had nowhere to go. He pressed his fingers to her cheek and sucked in a breath.

Her skin tingled beneath his touch.

She had been getting used to healing much more severe wounds, both in herself and others, she had expected to cause him much more pain. She gave him a sardonic grin, which dropped as soon as she saw the pink of the skin down the backs of his fingers. Like a mild burn.

He shook his head.

‘All better now,’ he said, hiding his hand from view by taking her head in a gentle grip. He pressed his lips to hers.

‘I wouldn’t let nothin’ happen to you right here . . .’ He tilted her head and kissed her chin. ‘. . . right now.’ He coaxed her head back a little more and kissed under her jaw. ‘Second of all . . .’ He kissed his way down her throat. ‘If somehow you did get hurt . . .’ Kiss. ‘. . . Right here . . .’ Kiss. ‘. . . Right now . . .’ He spoke into the dip between her collar bones. Now, he straightened slowly to speak over her lips. ‘I’d heal you and you’d be so grateful you’d make love to me immediately.’ His breath still tasted like chocolate. ‘I’m afraid I’d be at your mercy, weak as I’d be. But I’ll forgive you.’ He pressed his lips to hers, nibbling until she parted them.

They breathed each other in for a few moments and Llew’s resolve melted. Let whatever would happen go right ahead and happen if she could feel like this.

She kissed him back, gave him her best bedroom-eyes and kissed him again.

He began work on his belt buckle, his lips not leaving hers.

At the chink of the buckle hitting the floor, loathing and nausea flooded Llew. Braph’s belt had sounded the same.

‘Shit.’

Jonas paused, trousers halfway down his thighs. ‘I always dreamed of bein’ seduced with a cuss.’

She turned from him; hand pressed to her head as if she could somehow push those memories out. ‘Shit, shit. Shit shit shit,’ she whispered to herself, bashing her temple with her palm.

‘Llew, I—’

She turned to face him, swallowing the threatening tears.

He’d already re-buttoned his trousers and was re-threading his belt. He stood looking at her. Sad. Mirroring her. No blame. No disappointment.

He crossed the room to her, enveloping her in his arms. She clung to him.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said into his shoulder.

‘Shh.’ He rocked her a little bit, rested his cheek on her hair. ‘You don’t owe me nothin’.’

She sunk her fingertips into his hard back, pressed her cheek into his shoulder and tried to push Braph from her mind. Jonas was here now, and Braph was dead. Jonas was a safe place.

Her door thundered under the pounding of a heavy fist.

‘Open up!’ Aris boomed. ‘I know you’re in there. Both of you.’