Our blood could bring you strength, but instead it feeds your fear. That does not make you someone I would be proud to call my own.
Leyus’s words were sharp thorns, digging themselves into the tender places of her chest. Kyra peeled off her clothes with something akin to anger, throwing them against the cave wall, hardly able to breathe as the icy air burned her skin. Soon enough though, she felt the familiar warmth of her fur forcing its way through her body. The cave around her settled into a crisper version of itself, and the air that had felt so bitterly cold a moment before no longer touched her flesh. Kyra turned a few circles on all fours before she curled back onto the ground. Sleep came more easily after that.
She was in her fur, still half-asleep, when she heard Flick approaching. She knew the cadence of his footsteps well enough to recognize him, and she hurriedly changed back before he arrived. She didn’t think she would harm Flick, but she wouldn’t take the risk.
“Kyra, I’ve got news,” he said. But then he stopped when he saw her face. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m not hurt. I…” She fell silent, trying to get her thoughts in order. “Can we sit?”
“Of course.” Flick was still looking her up and down with concern as they settled themselves at the mouth of her cave. “What is it?”
It took some time for Kyra to get her thoughts together. In bits and pieces, she related everything Craigson had told her and then recounted her conversation with Leyus. Flick let out a low whistle when she finished. “Leyus, of all people. What do you make of all this?” he asked.
Kyra took a while to answer. “I don’t really know,” she said. “I didn’t expect my first conversation with my da to go quite like that.”
Flick gave her a crooked smile. “Fathers aren’t always what we wish them to be. I should know.”
Flick’s words triggered a loosening in her chest, and she smiled back despite herself. “I suppose we’ve got something new in common, then.”
“High-ranking fathers who can’t stand the sight of us?”
Kyra couldn’t help but feel a twinge in her stomach. Leyus’s words had hurt, though they shouldn’t have. Why should she care what the leader of a clan of barbarian invaders had to say about her? But apparently she did, when that leader was her father. “Do you think he’s right, about me living in fear of what I am?”
She was glad Flick didn’t respond right away. If he had, Kyra wouldn’t have believed him. “I do see you afraid of your Makvani blood,” he said carefully. “But I don’t think it’s as bad a thing as he thinks. In fact, it gives me comfort that you’re afraid. It tells me that you’re still the same thief girl I met on the street years ago. You might be able to grow claws now, but I’d still trust you to watch my back.”
She nodded, comforted slightly by his thoughts. “Though mayhap he has a point about running from my fights,” she said. “I’m out here in the forest when things are happening in the city.”
And here, Flick’s expression darkened.
“What is it?” Kyra asked. “Are we found out?” She looked around her, half expecting to see soldiers in ambush.
Flick shook his head. “Nothing like that. It’s about James.”
“What of him? Did he escape?” She felt a shiver of fear. What would James do if he was free again?
“He did…almost,” said Flick. “They say that he somehow got ahold of a weapon and overpowered his guards. Two of his men were there to help him.”
The men were almost certainly Rand and Bacchus. But Flick had said he’d almost escaped. “Did they recapture him?”
“Aye, but not before they’d killed several dozen Red Shields and burned one of the Palace buildings to the ground. His two accomplices escaped, though both were gravely injured. The Palace recaptured James alive.”