Page 205 of Sunsplitter
Fi’s lip quivered. “You think so?”
“This is big. You’ve got that look in your eyes.” Kashvi frowned. “Well, your normal eye. Don’t know what’s going on with…” She gestured, vaguely, to the left half of Fi’s face.
Fi squeezed Kashvi’s hand. “We were worried all of this might be too big for us? Well, we were wrong. And those daeyari aregoing to regret ever thinking we couldn’t hold our own.”
Kashvi returned a lethal grin. “He’d be proud of you. Terrified, but proud.”
Fi coveted every word, stored away in a safe, warm place—and to use as blackmail, the next time Kashvi was mean to her.
“I should go.” Quickly. Before Fi ended up sobbing in the governor’s office. “If anyone comes looking for me, especially any dickbag daeyari…”
“I haven’t seen you,” Kashvi agreed. “Just like old times?”
“Thanks, Kashvi.”
Fi hugged her. One moment of calm. A heartbeat of gratitude before—
Kashvi shoved her off.
“Fionamara Kolbeck,” she spoke hard, though her smirk betrayed her. “Get out of here. Go make a nuisance of yourself.”
Fi would. She was aprofessionalnuisance.
A slice of her hand, and she stepped into the Void.
Avroz thought she’d take this sitting down? That he could cast her aside as nothing more than a bartering chip? He was about to learn how much of a nuisance one human could be.
Fi closed her eyes and imagined sea salt. A cliff of pale stone, a carved doorframe and patio. Friends, reunited. Laughter and the chant of seabirds…
She emerged on the Twilit Plane. Waves rumbled against the cliff below, stars above, a tousle of wind in her hair.
Fi jogged up the steps to the porch.
“Syvr!” she shouted above the surf, the wind, thekekof an irritated gull perched on the banister. She banged a fist to the door. “Syvr, get out here!”
“Fi?”
Azalea eyes peered over the railing of a rooftop patio. Syvrwore more relaxed attire than usual, a seafoam shirt with rolled sleeves and open chest, their hair pulled into a loose bun rather than braids.
They swung off the roof, landing beside Fi with an easy swish of their tail. Their grin was a sight for sore eyes.
Followed swiftly by the exact progression of emotions Fi had witnessed on Kashvi’s face: confusion, then alarm. Instead of the standard “what in the merciless Void are you doing here so late?”came stunned stillness, wide eyes.
“Yes, the eye is weird,” Fi said. “I’m aware.”
Where Kashvi had recoiled, Syvr leaned closer, inspecting Fi’s eye with ravenous scrutiny.
“We saw each other… what…three hours ago?” Syvr counted the time on their claws. “What in Veshri’s teeth happened to you—”
“Smell this.” Fi waved the metal box beneath Syvr’s nose. “Can you smell what’s inside?”
They indulged a sniff. “Not a clue. Fi, what happened—”
“Avroz tricked all of us. He led the aedari here on purpose, just to get Antal on the Dusk Council. That fucker slapped Antal across the face and took him back home. He thinks he can get away with it. Wecan’tleave Antal on his own.” Fi balled her fists. Held her breath.
Syvr went perfectly still, eyes sharpening with uncomfortable focus.
She knew the gamble, coming here. Before her stood a daeyari who’d served Avroz for several of her lifetimes. His spymaster. His kezri. Syvr could end her plan on the spot, drag her to Avroz and expose her scheme.
