Page 151 of Sunsplitter

Yme lurched through the door to the patio, alert as a wildcat scenting blood. She gasped at the sight of a dead aedari upon her foyer. Wide crimson eyes snapped onto her guests.

Avroz greeted his wife with a soft hand to her arm, a purred “ezria” as he nuzzled his nose to her cheek. It was the most tender Fi had seen him withanycreature. She supposed it made sense. They must have been tender at some point, to make Antal.

Yme shrugged Avroz off, reaching for her son.

“Antal!” She hugged him fiercely, fingers knotting the back of his shirt. “You’re here. Youdid it. You’re not hurt?” She pulled back, concerned eyes looking him up and down.

“I’m fine, azaevi.” Antal tapped his nose to her cheek.

Yme seemed loath to release him. She consented at last, tail high and a beaming smile shifting to Ixli.

“Congratulations on your hunt, kezri. And thank you. For keeping Antal safe.”

“My honor, as always.” Ixli touched a claw to her highest antler tip. Then, a sly glance sideways. “Fi fought just as hard. At Antal’s side more than I was.”

“And,” Syvr added, peeking over Fi’s shoulder like a mischievous sprite, “she’s the one who killed it. Veshri’s sharpened teeth, how wild is that?”

Yme’s stunned silence was, unfortunately, the answer Fi expected.

Antal grabbed Fi by the waist, drawing a startled yelp as he spun her feet off the ground.

“Fierce as any creature with fangs,” he praised, pressing a kiss to her temple.

Yme stared with eyes wide. Not at Fi.

At Antal: smiling broad enough to bare his teeth.

They took the aedari’s body to the kitchen, strung it upside down like an elk. One of the grislier sights Fi had witnessed. She watched with morbid fascination as the daeyari drained the blood, collecting every golden drop. Precious, apparently.

They settled on the patio, a splay of midnight blue sitting cushions. Moonlight slipped through the glass dome in the cavern overhead. A sweet of flowers and tilled soil wafted from the garden. Fi was handed a small glass of aedari blood. Antal and Ixli took their own glasses, joined by Syvr this time, celebration rather than ritual. They toasted.

Well, it hadn’t killed her the first time, right?

Fi tipped the glass back. It was just as thick, just as sweet, though easier down her throat on the second try. The shot left a buzz in her head, heat down her spine. She laughed with the daeyari, enjoying the sensation.

A flicker caught her eye.

Inside the house, Avroz lurked near the doorway. Fi glimpsed gold, him handing a glass to Yme, her cradling it in her claws. Avroz stepped closer, nipping affectionately at her cheek. A private moment. Fi was about to look away.

But Yme pulled away again. The gesture was quicker this time, colder, making Avroz scowl. Curiosity gnawed at Fi like wood rot.

She pushed it from her mind. She didn’t want to ruin this,didn’t want to see Antal’s smile fall. For tonight, maybe not everything had to be fixed. This could be good enough.

Yme joined them, settling on a cushion. Avroz followed, selecting a seat distant from his wife. Fi forced herself not to dissect that, either.

“If we’re done with formalities,” Syvr drawled, a blissful reprieve from her unease, empty glass dangling from their claws as they leaned back against the cushions. “You’re going to indulge us the story of how you plucked that bird, aren’t you? Every delicious detail?”

“Fi was on the road,” Ixli said, pinning Fi beneath a squint. “The aedari took her. How in the endless black Void did you get it to bring you back?”

Fi laughed. “Oh, that? Easy.”

She fell back against Antal. He caught her—points to him for the speedy reaction, only a brief fumble. Claws clamped her waist as Fi swooned a dramatic arm across her forehead.

“Oh, woe is me, a poor human at the mercy of those wretched daeyari. Surely, I only helped them because I feared they’d eat me. Surely, I’m so eager to escape their clutches. I’ll show you how to reach the Twilit Plane, if you just take me back to where you found me.”

Antal’s grip on her tightened. A glint caught his eyes, not the timid creature he usually was in this place, around his family. Fi delighted to see the beast she’d so often sparred with. The one she’d honed her claws on.

The one who’d stolen her heart.