Page 200 of Season Warriors & Wolves

I sighed. Mal and I shared the same wounds. He would understand. He would know the importance of what I was keeping hidden from everyone. And he would help me with Kilian. “I saw something.”

Chapter forty

Black Pawn takes B5

Malik

I saw something. For the sake of all, I think you will keep this to yourself.

“What’s wrong?” Thora asked, lowering her hands and the threads of magic stemming from her disappeared—the little ice creatures attached to them vanished, too. She sat on the floor across from me, leaning against my library, but even that far I could see the immediate worry, the sheer panic.

“Come here.”

Her lashes fluttered fast and she thought about it for a moment, before going on all fours and hurrying to my side. Driving me insane little by little, only the way she knew how to.

“Is it supposed to be a secret?” she whispered, looking around my room as if it wasn’t the safest space in the whole of Numen.

I tugged on her bow and set her hair loose. Cherry—her hair smelled like cherries. Never had I felt intoxication more than that night in Hellas, my face pressed against her locks. “This ridiculous thing was bothering me.” Before she could take it from me, I wrapped it around my wrist and tied it securely. “Not quick enough, little bird.”

“Fine.” She curled her arms around her knees. “I’ve got like a thousand of them.”

“I’ll burn them all.”

Her round eyes looked up at me so innocently. “Do you not want to tell me?”

“I want to tell you everything. This one…it is not my secret to tell. I still badly want to tell you though.” I lifted my hand to her hair and curled a strand around my finger, watching her chest begin to rise and fall fast. It lasted shorter than the last time, but it was still there. “Look at me.”

And she did. She did look at me.

“It’s just me, Rora.”

Her voice was small when she said, “I know. But it was just him too. Just my uncle.”

I grabbed her face and turned it to me again. “Don’t cry,” I said, my breaths burning. “Because I swear to gods, I will hunt down his soul beyond just to rip it out again.”

“I’m not crying.”

“Good. You look ugly as fuck when you cry.”

“So, this is what hate feels.”

I laughed, enjoying the blank look of anger on her soft face. “You don’t hate me, little bird.”

“I really want to.”

I stood. “Come, I’ll make you hate me in a blink when I kick your arse again.”

“Aren’t we going to keep trying to multiply my threads to control more frost animals?”

“We might be running out of time, and you already know all the science behind it.”

“Need my ribbon back, please,” she said, lifting her palm to me. “Can’t kick your arse back with my hair flying all over the place.”

I turned her round, pulling all her hair back and loosely braiding it, taking my time to run my fingers through the soft, sweetly scented locks that she only allowed me to touch. I took the tie holding my own hair up and securely tied the ends. “There.”

“I’ve always wanted to braid hair with my best friend,” she said, petting the long braid. “I just imagined we’d be in our pyjamas, gossiping about boys, telling scary stories and eating chocolate.”

My hand darted to push the thick fringe covering her brow to the side. “Haven’t we done most of those?”