Page 139 of Sunsplitter

The man raised a brow. Pointed at Fi. “Look at her.”

The hair. It was always the hair. And maybe the feral snarl.

The aedari’s grip tightened on Fi’s wrist. She wore no wings like her partner, knelt on her knees in the loam, but there was a tautness to her, heat seeping off bare arms and nails digging into flesh. Not the slender, carving claws of a daeyari. Herfingertips tapered into short, triangular black talons, made for grasping prey.

Fi knew how to be bold with daeyari—because she’d learned how to deal with one on training wheels. Antal had been right: this was a different creature.

“You’re helping the beasts?” the aedari asked.

Fi wrinkled her nose at the taunt. As if they couldn’t smell Antal on her, the imprint of his mouth on her lips. The trace of hands in her hair. His touch, possessing every part of her.

Except… this aedari didn’t lean close. Didn’t flare her nostrils.

Fi’s heart skipped. These were different predators. Maybe theycouldn’tsmell Antal on her.

“You werewith the daeyari?” the immortal pressed.

“Yes,” Fi said.

The aedari already knew as much. Beyond that, Fi scrambled, reevaluating her strategy.

“They sent you out on the road?” the aedari asked.

“Yes.” Honesty lowered guards. Created opportunity.

“For what purpose? A trap?”

What was Fi to them? What did this aedari see, grimacing beneath her grip?

Nothing. Just a weak little human, taken from a pack of immortal predators.

“They didn’t tell me,” Fi gasped, forcing her voice to a pitiful crack. “They made me do it.”

She hunched, shoulders shuddering. Just a human. Insignificant. Afraid.

It was the right thing to say.

The aedari fell quiet. Early after Fi had met Antal, the first time he’d spotted genuine fear in her eyes, he’d softened forher in an instant. This aedari didn’t soften. Those were the keen eyes of a beast scouring for weakness.

Fi could work with that.

The immortal leaned closer, heat wafting off her like sunbeams, a smell like sand and copper. The light from her ear feathers brushed her face in gold. Her skin glowed faintly, gilded blood beneath the surface, sun-kissed even in dusk.

“The daeyari made you do it?” Her voice turned honeyed.

A sharper heat blazed Fi’s cheeks. The other aedari stepped closer, golden wings blistering as he loomed over her, his scowl decidedly less sympathetic.

“She workedwiththem, Kressya. Arrived with one daeyari to the house. Fought with the other two. Swung a blade into my throat tonight.”

He pointed at his unblemished neck. Fi hadn’t even seen him heal it.

“I thought he’d kill me!” Fi whimpered. Which was notuntrue. She shrank away from the aedari holding her. “Are you going to kill me?”

Merciless Void, she hated that simper, the vile taste it left in her mouth. Fi yearned to spit. To fight. To lash these immortals to pieces. Antal’s words growled in the back of her head.

Don’t try anything too reckless.

Her neck still burned. Her cowering made it ache.