He assessed her carefully. If she hadn’t spoken to him, it was likely for good reason. “And your parents?”
“Never knew them.” She plucked some grass and piled it beside her. Her mood did a full shift as she spun to face him. “What about you, pretty boy? Tell me about yourself.”
Pretty boy.There was that name again.
“Why would you want to know anything about me?”
She tilted her head. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Because you hate me,he wanted to say. But after she agreed to help him, made him the knife, and brought him to this place, he wasn’t sure anymore.
Vesper cleared his throat as he filtered what he could tell her. He didn’t know how much she knew of southern politics or how old she was when the barrier closed. “I was born and raised in Ellynne. My mother passed away giving birth to my twin sister and me. My father raised us.” He shrugged like it meant nothing, but each time he spoke of it, his chest filled with lead. “But they’re all gone now.”
“Quite the tragic backstory.” The lilt to her voice sounded light but the shadows in her eyes sat heavy.
“I need something to win the ladies with. I can’t rely on this face alone.”
When she chuckled, he stored that information away as a reminder to poke fun at himself more just to hear her laugh again.
He chewed on the next question, fearing she’d throat punch him if she didn’t like it. “Why did you leave Tsillah if your family still lives there? Don’t you want to be near them?”
She scrunched her nose and busied herself with the grass. “That’s a boring story. I’m sure you don’t want to hear it.”
“There’s nothing I want more.” He turned to face her but couldn’t see much past her curtain of hair. “I just know if my family was still around, nothing would keep me away.”
Kyrith sighed and stared out at the sunset as it dipped below the shoreline. Her fingers wove the grass with precision though she didn’t so much as look at it. His bit of honesty seemed to have opened her up, pried apart a sliver of space, and allowed sunshine through. “It was a long time ago, but I was young and ambitious. Foolish, too. When the war started, I wanted to fight. To save our people. But the rulers of Tsillah wanted to hide. They felt they owed nothing and thought distance would grant them safety.”
Vesper frowned. “But Tsillah was peaceful, wasn't it? Obviously it wasn’t run by pacifists. I mean, you were in the army.”
“They weren’t pacifists. They were cowards.”
He watched her fingers as she threaded the grass together. They picked up speed, powered by her story or perhaps the anger that burned inside her.
“It’s the only country run by a matriarch,” she said, fire in those words. “And I wasproudto serve. Until the war. Until they showed their real colours.”
Anticipation built in his chest. “What happened?”
“I decided to take charge. Gathered everyone in secret.” Her eyes grew glossy. “But after I led them into battle, no one returned. They were all slaughtered. Everyone except me and Thorrin.”
The war had been a bloodshed. Vesper recalled the anarchy, constant burials or burnings, and how corpses were piled until they nearly blocked out the sun. He hadn’t fought since he and Fionn tended to other matters like securing weapons and distributing food.
“I remember,” he said, his voice low, full of horrors. “I remember those bodies with thosevinestwisted around their bones.” He shuddered. “Their insides were so … mangled.”
Kyrith lifted her tunic to reveal a tiny patch of tanned skin with a wicked white scar along her side. “I was shot with an arrow made of it and it splintered under my skin. I had to cut myself open and dig it all out with my bare hands. And it happened so fast. It spread through my body, ripped through it more like, and—” She lowered the fabric and stared out over the ocean. “I thought that was it. I even started praying and though I knew the gods had let it happen, I prayed anyway.”
“Maybe the gods were looking out for you.”
She smirked at that. “I don’t need the gods. I make my own destiny.”
Vesper couldn’t help but smile at her tenacity. “At least the gates are sealed and that blastedgruvineis gone.”
“I’ve heard,” she started, “there have been a few plants spotted. Some idiots brought down the barriers in the Sacred Lands and there’s a whole fleet of them. They’ve been brewing down there for, I don’t know, a century.”
The barrier that he and Emmery opened just a few months ago? Another one of his bloody brilliant ideas.
Vesper eyed the grass in her hands. “What are you making?”
Kyrith grinned as she fastened the last knot. “I made you a crown.”