Chapter 29 Karinna #2
She recited her father’s mantra as she returned the wood and rug to how she’d found them. Then, as a mass of panicked squeaking erupted from the hallway, followed by a shriek of surprise, Karinna eased herself out the window, making sure to close it behind her.
It was only the battle rush firing her blood that kept Karinna from panicking as she inched down the tree. Abzi waited for her at the bottom.
How did you distract? Karinna asked. Did she see you?
I woke up many mice, Abzi said. She did not see me. Come. We use portals. They will not look there.
Karinna knew the Jaduna would soon discover the theft of the Loha and leather tube. Thieves checked their hoards regularly, as if expecting them to be stolen, so they could be righteously enraged when someone gave them a taste of their own medicine.
By the time Karinna returned to the guesthouse, the lamps had been lit. Cero stood outside the front door, talking to Linh. The pilot must have seen Karinna, but he studiously ignored her.
“—sleeping and I don’t think we should bother her.”
“She didn’t see the healer earlier—what if she has something serious? I must insist—”
Abzi strolled toward Linh, the perfect distraction. His face lit up and he reached down to pet her.
“What a beautiful—agh!” Abzi swiped at him with one large paw and hissed.
Karinna took the moment to sneak behind Linh and pull herself through the window of the bathroom.
She stripped off her clothes, which were covered with leaves and dirt—a dead giveaway—and threw on a shirt lying on the settee, realizing belatedly that it was Cero’s.
Just as the door rattled, she dove beneath the covers. Cero entered, Linh following.
“Feeling any better?” Cero said. “Do you want to eat? Linh wants a healer to see you.”
“Stop pestering me,” Karinna moaned. “I’ve only just fallen asleep, you imbeciles!”
Linh backed away quickly, and the moment he left, Karinna shoved off the covers. “Candle!” she said.
Cero froze, staring at her in his shirt. His gaze traced her shoulder, peaking out of the collar, and her bare legs.
“Don’t look so put out,” she said, pulling up the collar. “I’ll give it back.”
“Keep it,” Cero said. “Looks better on you. What did you find?”
“Ah—” Karinna was thrown off by the compliment. The map, Veturia. “Get me a candle, I said.”
He brought forth the flame and held it to the wax, reaching out to take the tube from Karinna.
“I’ll hold it.”
“You’re too impatient,” he said. “You’ll light it on fire.”
“Shove off—”
“Hand it over, rebel.”
She finally surrendered the tube, seething. It took ages for the wax to melt, and Karinna paced, even as Cero held the tube as if he had all the time in the world.
The second the lid fell away, she attempted to snatch the tube, but Cero lifted it high.
“Give it to me—”
“Will you hold on?” He easily kept it out of her reach. Karinna cursed her height and climbed on the bed. “Patience, rebel,” Cero said. “We can look at it together, just—oof—”
She jumped at him, tackling him to the settee, pinning his hips with her knees and snatching the tube.
“I bleeding risked my neck to find it,” she growled. “I get to see it first.”
She shook the tube and three rolled parchments fell out. She unfurled them onto Cero. He wasn’t moving and his broad chest was as good a table as any. The first was covered with Kegari letters. She shoved it back in the tube. The second was a map. But it looked familiar.
“That’s New Kegar.” Cero peered down at the map. “The Southern Continent. But that,” he said as she unrolled the third parchment, which was also a map, “is something else.”
The map was intricately drawn, appearing almost painted, and while Karinna didn’t recognize the landforms, it was clear Cero did.
“I’ve seen this before,” he whispered. “In the tunnels below Kegar, but I—I didn’t know what I was looking at.
Now I see. That’s Jaduna. And Walibar.” He pointed to a cluster of dots in a sea of blue.
There were other islands in that sea, and labeled currents, unnatural beasts of all sorts.
But on the other side of the sea—a pocked coastline. Cero inhaled sharply.
“That’s it,” he said. “Old Kegar. You found it, rebel. You found the bleeding map.”
He met her eyes. She assumed he’d be irritated that she’d proved him wrong. Envious, even. Instead, he looked at her like she’d given him hope, like she was the very sun rising.
She did not know what to say.
“You—you’re welcome,” she managed, and was suddenly keenly aware of the awkwardness of their situation: him sprawled on his back on the settee, her on top, wearing his shirt and with enough leg exposed that her mother would have hissed at her to cover up.
She met his gaze, reveling in this strange moment of power. She noticed his eyes had changed again, and were a deep green, the color of an angry sea.
Find out the truth about him, Karinna. Do what you must. But don’t confront him until you’re sure.
Musa’s instructions. Karinna had trained her mind away from them. But now—now she was ready.
An urgent knock startled them and they both turned to the door.
“Karinna?” It was Linh. “Cero bet-Dafra. Are you there? Something has happened—something was stolen. We must search your rooms.”
Karinna rolled the papers back into the tube before shoving it into the cushions beneath Cero.
“Please open the door or we’ll be forced to come in.”
“Rebel,” Cero said with a level look at her. “We need a better hiding spot.”
High pressure, high stakes, and they were entangled. She’d been trying to ferret out Cero’s truth, and finally, it was time.
Kiss me. She thought the words as she looked down at Cero, as she closed the distance between them, stopping inches from his face. Her braid fell over her shoulder and onto his. Confusion lit his expression.
“Ah—” he said. “What are you…”
Kiss me, Cero, she thought again, louder this time.
She did not get closer, though part of her wanted to.
Instead, she held herself apart, staring into his green eyes and thinking the words: Kiss me.
This was in his hands now. If he did it, it would be of his own free will, and Karinna would have her proof.
Proof that he could read minds. That he was more than what he pretended to be.
The knocks grew more frantic, the implorations to open the door transforming into orders.
Kiss me, Cero bet-Dafra.
As the door finally flew open, Cero dug one hand into Karinna’s hair and another into her hip and pulled her lips to his.
Karinna had kissed a few people in her life. Tribal boys, mostly, though there had been that one Mariner lad.
But those kisses were playful and tentative at best. Sloppy at worst. This was…more.
Cero’s lips were soft and sure, molding skillfully to hers as if he’d long since memorized the shape.
His tongue traced her bottom lip, and she gasped at the sensation, at the heat that flared from her belly to every nerve ending.
She forgot why she was doing this, other than that it felt right and good and she wanted it.
He pulled her closer. His warm hand slid down and wrapped around her thigh, and now her fingers were running through his long hair and she didn’t expect it to be quite so soft and—
“Oh!” Linh and the woman with him clearly had not expected to find them entwined. Cero broke the kiss, chest heaving.
“I’m sorry,” Linh said. “I—I didn’t realize. We’ll come back—”
Almost before the door closed, Karinna pulled away, breathing heavily, nearly leaning down and kissing him again before she remembered.
The mission. You did it, Veturia. You know what he is.
Triumph coursed through her and, at all the expressions that must have moved across her face, Cero looked utterly confused.
Guilt flooded her. This isn’t right, a tiny voice said.
Then he shouldn’t have hidden his identity, Karinna snarled back.
She slapped him. “That’s for reading my mind,” she hissed, and slapped him again. “That’s for not telling me you could.”
“What are you talking about?” Cero sputtered. “I don’t—I can’t—”
“You can windsmith—that I knew,” Karinna said.
“And when you healed my ankle and Abzi’s paw—I realized you could bloodsmith, too.
That it must have been you who healed Aiz when my brother tried to kill you both.
But I wasn’t sure about the last. Not until now.
You can read thoughts. Not easily—perhaps not even willingly.
But you can. Which makes you a mindsmither. ”
Panic flooded his gaze, something Karinna did not expect.
“No,” Cero said. “No—that’s not—I’m not—”
“But you are, Cero,” she whispered. “You can mindsmith, bloodsmith, and windsmith. The only Kegari who can truly do all three. Which means that Aiz isn’t the real Tel Ilessi. You are.”