“Why? Why are you doing anything to help me? Why go to lengths to hide who I am from everyone?”
Marina’s big, dark eyes darted from my face to his, her knife never wavering.
Baz pursed his lips. Eventually, he bit out, “I don’t know, okay? I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough.”
Marina dragged the blade across his bulge, over the leather of his pants, but didn’t slice. “No, it’s not.”
His inhale was sharp. “Do not hurt my dick, do you understand me?”
“I don’t take orders from you. I’m a Zaragan.”
I was enjoying Marina’s performance so incredibly much, but it was a really nice dick, and the man really knew how to use it, and apparently I’d become the kind of woman who prioritized good dick over killing my family’s longtime enemy. I couldn’t decide whether to be disgusted with myself or not. Rafaela would be disgusted with me, surely, and possibly even Alonso too—though could Terencia’s implications have had any merit to them, and could my father have had an affair with the empress of our conqueror?
I gave my fierce goblin friend a final admiring look, then said, “Put down the knife.”
“Are you certain, Princesa? He has hurt you and held you captive and starved you and caged your power.”
By the Ethers and all the Fuerin, she was right! He had. I was still collared and bound to him, for fuck’s sake. When had I gone so soft? I would almost throw my stupid self in a cage for being so blind.
“Take off my collar and Marina will lower her weapon. If you don’t, she’ll cut you, and believe me when I say she knows her way around a carcass.”
“There’s no need for any of that,” Baz said in a rush. “I’ll remove the collar, just not the rope.”
“Why not the rope?”
“I have my reasons.”
“And I’d better find out what they are or Marina keeps going.”
“Yeah,” she said, “I’ve been dreaming of punishing you for hurting my Sora. Dreaming.”
“Just hold that knife still,” Baz said.
Marina’s hand wobbled, nicking his pants. “I’m old now, not so steady anymore.”
I would have snorted at her act, but it was too brilliant to disrupt.
“I don’t want to remove the rope because there’s a chance you’ll be able to use its faithum to see what I see with the phantom.”
“Don’t want to remove,” I said. “Which means you can.”
“Of course I can. I set the bond. But I want to show you first.”
“No. I’m getting the collar and rope off, and then Marina and I are leaving this joint.” But even as I said it, I understood I was bluffing. I wasn’t ready to leave. I needed answers. I needed people punished. I needed to find every clue that would lead me to my brother.
“I’m asking you to trust me,” Baz said. “Leave it on.”
Marina grunted and made a show of how shaky her hands were.
“Why would I ever trust you?” I asked. But didn’t I already know? I’d tried to kill him—nearly had—and he’d first protected me from his friends’ punishment, and later from further discovery.
His eyes, perhaps not fully pleading but definitely asking, met mine.
I heaved a sigh. “I can’t believe I’m doing this?—”
“Then don’t,” Marina said. “I’ll cut the bastard. For our Teo.”