Page 95 of Sunsplitter

How tacky. “More antlers?”

Syvr chuckled. “No antlers. Shapeshifters.”

Fi’s brows shot up.

“Not that dramatic,” Syvr said. “Their overall form, they can’t alter. But they can change their face, their eyes, to mask their appearance. Easier to entice prey.”

Just another kind of predator, then.

“They eat energy,” Fi said. “How?”

“Pulling it to the surface. Very painful, I’m told.”

Fi scoffed. She’d spent a lifetime imagining the feeling of flesh stripped from bones. What could be worse than that?

Behind them, the conversation hardened.

“This ismyterritory,” Jazst said, earning a rare double glare from Avroz and Antal. “I should be the one to deal with my subjects. I’ll go first. Determine what this human knows.”

A sleazy show of bravado, trying to slip in and steal the credit while the aedari slept. Fi wondered if Jazst would be equally generous against a more capable opponent.

“We should all go,” Antal argued. “Less of a risk.”

“All of us will draw attention,” Avroz said, low and chiding.

“Sendinganydaeyari will draw attention,” Antal countered. Then, to Jazst, “And that human isn’t going to want to speak to you.”

“Then I’ll make him speak.” Jazst flashed a fang.

The sooner they killed this aedari, the sooner they could go home, the sooner Fi could make a poster of Avroz for her wall, just to hurl energy daggers at it.

“I’ll go,” she said.

Fi didn’t appreciate the weight of five red stares boring into her. Antal’s least of all. His tail flicked, an argument brewing in his eyes.

He’d left her high and dry earlier. He could get fucked.

“Let me talk to the human,” she said.

“There’s no reason to send you alone,” Antal argued.

“Of course there is.” She closed the distance between them.“I’m more approachable. More likely to get information out of him. That’s what I’m here for, right?”

“We don’t know where the aedari is. You don’t have to—”

“Iwantto.” She grabbed him by an antler, baring her own teeth. “Or do you expect me to just wait here and do nothing?”

Antal fell very still.

Every daeyari around them went rigid, a ring of bright-eyed predators—all staring at Fi’s hand on his antler.

Fuck. Was she not supposed to do that in public? Curse these giant cats and their rituals. Fi released him, fighting an indignant blush.

Antal’s tail swung low. The look he gave her was soft, forgiving, a clearno hard feelings, you didn’t know. Butwhydidn’t she know? In the year they’d spent together, why had he never told her she wasn’t supposed to touch his antlers in front of other daeyari?

Because he’d never expected to show her to other daeyari.

“Inanycase.” Avroz slid his scowl off his son, onto Fi. “The vavraesa is right. She stands the best chance of gathering information from another of her kind. Let her go.”