Page 173 of Sunsplitter

His gaze dropped sideways, eyes unfocused. As if he were listening to something. Fi heard nothing but the breeze through grass.

He straightened, then pinched empty air in front of her, scowling at his claws.

“What are you doing?” Fi asked.

He scowled ather. Sniffed.

“What have you done?” Veshri said in a hush.

Fi defaulted to detained-smuggler. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re referring to.”

Veshri hovered a hand over her. Fi tensed as he passed her head, her arms…

His palm paused over her stomach. He sniffed again.

“What have youdone?” he repeated, lower.

Fi stepped back, arms crossed over her middle. She didn’t have to answer, didn’t have to say anything, except…fuck, why were the other daeyari staring at her? Useless co- conspirators.

“I wove some Void ether,” she confessed. “Just a little bit.”

The flicker through Veshri’s eyes was miniscule. Contained in an instant. “Show me.”

“Um?”

Antal bristled at her side. “With all my respect, wise and honored Voidwalker, she’s done no harm. Only mended herself in a time of need.”

Veshri stared at her. Spoke only to her. “Show me.”

The command came… still calm. Entreating. That millennia-dusted voice had sounded the same in Fi’s head when Veshri had appeared for her in the Void. When he’d helped her. She brushed a reassuring thumb to Antal’s hand.

Then she pulled up her shirt.

Veshri stood as still as the cliff. He studied her bared stomach for an eternity, carnelian eyes tracing every pale scar of Void ether. Again.Again.

When his gaze snapped to hers, Fi felt the weight of it like a rockslide. He looked into her.Throughher. Something old and impossible cracking through her very being.

He considered the other three daeyari.

Veshri held out his hand to Fi. “Walk with me a moment?”

Antal snarled quieter than before, but no more friendly.

“Fear not, young daeyari,” Veshri said. “I’ll return her to you in one piece. As before.”

Fi appraised the proffered hand. Then Antal, Ixli, Syvr, these daeyari who’d welcomed her as one of their own.

“I trust them,” she told Veshri. “Whatever you want, you can say it in front of them—”

“Fionamara.”

Antal took her hand, his words reluctant, but soft.

“You let me go on my own when I needed to.” His thumb pressed her palm. “You can go now, if you wish.”

She shouldn’t say no, right? When the progenitor of an entire immortal species wanted to have a private chat about, most likely, the weird Void goo she’d melded with her human flesh, Fi shouldn’t sayno? She entreated Antal with wide eyes:Are you sure?

He pressed his forehead to hers. Cruel, kind-hearted daeyari.