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“You mean, you can tell the difference between sweat from exercise and sweat from fear?”
“Exactly. Or sweat from disease.”
“Interesting. And probably a good thing because odors are coming off of me that I don’t want to contemplate. I can’t wait to take a shower.” Her upturned nose scrunched as her alert eyes followed the road.
“If you had magick all this time, why didn’t you use it to escape?”
Her plump lips flattened into a firm line. “My magick has limits. Once they had me tied and muzzled, I was pretty much helpless.” She drew in a shaky breath. “My magick also wasn’t that strong to begin with. I was just starting to learn before my aunts…”
Her words cut off, and grief became all Adriel could smell. She was glad Juniper escaped.
After overhearing the atrocious things the elders had done to draw out her magick, Juniper’s resilience was all the more impressive. She gave them nothing. After months of tolerating their torture, she never buckled under the torment or betrayed the secrets of her kind.
“I think you’re stronger than you realize.”
Juniper’s mouth curved, but the flash of a smile faltered. “I couldn’t give in to them. Not because of any choice I made but because… when I’m scared, my magic sort of dries up. I don’t have control over it.”
For a woman in her twenties, she’d survived quite a bit. Her strength was there, even in the absence of her courage, and it was admirable. Juniper was the type of female who was stronger than most, even in her weakest state.
“Your control over your gifts will improve with age.”
She glanced at Adriel, her gaze unsure. “How old are you?”
Embarrassed by her longevity in the face of such youth, she said, “Much older than you.”
“How much?”
She drew in a long breath and sighed. “I was born in the first half of the fifteen hundreds.”
“Holy shit. For real?”
“Watch the road.” Adriel glanced ahead as the girl gaped at her. “And yes. For real.”
“So that makes you… Over five hundred years old?”
Another sigh. “Yes.”
“You guys are like wine, though, right? You get better with age?”
“That’s one way to look at it.” While her bones were solid, her muscles strong, and her body functioned without aches or disease, there was still a weariness to her mind. She remained sharp but jaded by the things she’d seen. Half a millennia was a long time to live, even from a mostly sheltered standpoint. “Time hardens a person, especially if life isn’t kind.”
Juniper glanced at her again, taking a quick measure of her form. “Do they mistreat all women?”
“Females are cherished among our kind, but not all males are honorable.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Her expression turned contemplative. “You must have seen so much in your lifetime.”
“I’m old, but my experiences in this world are limited. I’m shamefully ignorant.”
Juniper frowned. “I doubt that.”
It was humiliating just how naive she could be. “I never would have considered taking a vehicle to travel. And if I had, I never would have known where to find one.”
“Adriel, you would have eventually figured something out. Cars are everywhere, and no one can run forever—including immortals.”
But even after Juniper suggested a motor vehicle, it had not occurred to Adriel to use compulsion to steal one. If she couldn’t run forever and she wanted to evade a male as evil and conniving as her mate, she needed to start thinking like a lawless rogue.
“All of my adult life, I’ve been disciplined to obey the rules.”
