46

"No." Sael gave Seneya a placating gesture before walking into the cabin, Kael in tow.

"What do you want that stuff for if you're not sniffing up the wrong tree, boy?"

"She’s acting like she’s chosen,” Sael said, glaring.

“Oh no, it’s not you, is it?” The color drained from Kael’s face.

“Creator, no! I don’t know who she’s met or where, but if she’s an amarar as you say, I’m not doing her tatsuli unless she has ammesta.”

“I don’t think she needs it.” Kael huffed.

“What would it hurt if we did? Better safe than sorry.” Sael grimaced before stepping out of the way for Kael to rummage through his room and pull out a small amber bottle. Sael shook it a little and nodded before walking back outside, approaching Seneya with a half-grin plastered across his face. Curious, Kael followed.

“What’s an ‘amarar,’” She asked. Sohken usually answered those things for her, but he hadn’t been around in a while.

“A lover of the sting, someone who feels pleasure in pain,” Sael muttered before handing her the small bottle.

“What’s this?” She opened it and sniffed at the acrid contents, making her eyes water.

“Something to calm you down a little.” Sael shrugged, smirking as she pulled the cork and drained the bottle's contents in a few hard gulps.

She raked her teeth over her tongue a few times and grimaced. “Doesn’t taste that great.”

Kael watched her, a stern expression of curiosity washing over his face. “No, no, it doesn’t.”

Sael gave Kael an ‘eat crow’ look as the pink tinge ebbed from her face and her shoulders relaxed. A deep sigh escaped her as the tenseness washed away.

“Gaff…” Kael sighed. He rested his head in his hand and sighed heavily, “Yet another mystery.”

“What’s wrong?” Seneya’s clear eyes looked between the two, and she felt that looming sense of shame crawling up over her, interrupted abruptly by a feminine shout in the air.

“Over here, Dee!” Kael shouted out, nudging Sael and Seneya with his elbow and foot, respectively, a reminder to switch to English for her.

“Nothing. You like the sting, and we just have to be careful you don’t get sick. This stuff is poisonous.” Sael nudged her with his foot, and she stood, waving out and over at Dee. Dee dressed far more casually than the other day, in shorts and a tank top, her cheeks glazed with a sheen of sweat and shoulders bearing the weight of a small backpack that elicited dangerous clinking sounds.

“Drinking and tattoos, boy, your lot lives dangerously… hello Sael,” Dee gave him a reserved and flat look that darted between Seneya and him.

Sael raised a brow. “What did I do to earn your ire?”

“Uh-huh. Kael said you tried your hand at her.” Dee grumbled, and Sael’s face twisted.

“It was an accident!”

“Totally an accident.” Seneya agreed, and Sael looked at her with a bit of confusion.

“Your English sounds so much like the—” He started.

She twisted her lips and stared up at him with wide eyes.

“Right…” Sael said. Kael had told him everything, but it felt easy to forget that she spoke English as her first language.

“Riiiiight,” Dee grumbled, glancing about over the three. Her eyes stalled on the dot of Seneya’s arm.

“Okay, she’s standing, and Kael is clean. Call me surprised. Let’s go!”