Page 28 of The Last War We Ever Fought

“What do you call her?”

“Mine.”

Rowan felt a shiver down her spine and a twinge of that sour and unpleasant taste of envy hit the bottom of her stomach. “You don’t call her by any name?”

“Only when I miss her, Rowan. I do not invoke her name unless.”

“How do you know she is dead?”

He stared at her for a while before answering, “I saw her eyes.”

Empathy had bid her goodbye a long while back, but her heart dipped a little at his words, the thick sadness behind his deep voice. “Maybe she was playing you a trick. You should have felt for a pulse,” she attempted to joke, but it fell entirely flat.

“I don’t think it was wise for me to touch her.”

Rowan winced. She’d heard of the disease south of Mugril, the one who had eaten through animal and human alike until they had burned villages with all of its occupants to get rid of it. Maybe she had been one of them. Could he have caught the disease, too? Strange.

“Why are you curious about her?” he asked, and Rowan’s body seized up.

“You sound almost human when you talk about her,” she said, truthfully, only to then lie, “There are many ways to kill a human heart. And I know them all.”

“You don't have to plot my death, little thief,” he said, smiling up at the skies. “If you would ask me to guide your blade directly to my heart, I gladly would.”

“Why?”

“I am an unreasonable god.”

“You are, but that is also a lie.”

He chuckled. “Because it would mean something. My blood in your hands would mean something.”

“To who?”

“To me.”

“I still don’t understand a thing,” she said, sighing and taking a lemon sherbet and putting it in her mouth. “How did you delay them?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“It wasn’t the least cruel way to do it. I could have been…nicer.”

“You think that would have disappointed me somehow?”

“Yes.”

“Why does it even matter?”

“Can’t tell you,” he said, taking a lemon sherbet and crushing it between his teeth.

“Enough with crushing the candy.”

“Told you. I am impatient. Long games are not for me. I get straight to the point. Aim directly at what I want, not around it.”

“So much philosophy behind a candy.”

“I apply my philosophies on much finer things, too, Rowan.” He flashed her a slow smile. “If the finer things would let me, of course.”