Chapter 29 Kasira #2
Thane sketched a bow, then rose with hungry eyes on Kasira. “Lady Kasira.”
Kasira’s mind spun through options of how to play this.
Thane didn’t know she was responsible for his capture—unless Vera had told him.
But if Vera wanted them to work together, she would have a vested interest in withholding that information.
Which meant Thane would be angry with Kasira for leaving, and pained over Loraya’s death—but not murderous.
She had to get him away from the others and assess the situation as quickly as possible.
Allaster gestured to May. “This is First Mage Airamay Selvera. She’ll be your guide.”
May inclined her head the barest degree. She held none of the warmth she had extended to Kasira her first days here.
“My handler, you mean?” Thane drawled. “At least she’s a pretty face.”
Something not at all like a smile split across May’s lips. “That will be your last inappropriate comment in my presence, Mr. Ryarch, or else I’ll delight in discovering several creative ways by which to permanently end them.”
He made a tsking noise. “Any harm befalls me, and you’ll only make Kalthos’s case of misconduct stronger. You’re stuck with me, love.”
Like a Sylver Cat shaking off the morning frost, Kasira shuddered back into character. “Should we see exactly how badly we can hurt him before that’s true?” She leaned toward May, their ease and proximity a clear message to Thane: He was the outsider here.
“You have my permission to dispose of him if he steps out of line,” Allaster remarked offhandedly. Thane actually paused at that, his eyes narrowing.
“Airamay will show you to your room,” Allaster said, and with that, he signed the letter he had been drafting and vanished with it.
“Lovely fellow.” Thane’s eyes slid across them in a way that made Kasira want to pluck them out. He had never hidden the way he evaluated people. He treated cons like games, played them for fun as much as to win, and that made him dangerous.
Kasira stepped between him and May. “I’ll show him, May. It’ll be quicker.”
May looked reluctant to leave them alone together, but Kasira gave her a reassuring smile, and she relented with a nod. Before May could change her mind, Kasira seized Thane’s arm and teleported them away.
They appeared in the northern rooftop garden, one of four at each of the cardinal points.
It was old, old enough that every fence, statue, and bench had been overgrown with green, resulting in a labyrinth of flowers and vines.
At its center, a sydara vine draped over a now-engulfed trellis, its thick vines spiraling out into thinner ones, each delicate enough to snap and yet easily holding up a thousand tiny flowers, each in pastels of every color—and all decoys, distracting from the rows of snapping spiked mouths underneath.
“Why are you here, Thane?” she demanded against the backdrop of the roaring falls.
“It feels good to hear you say my name again.” His accent was rife with the long vowels of northern Kalthos, and Kasira ached at the familiarity.
She had nothing left of her old life save Loraya’s hairpin, but here was something known, a piece of herself she hadn’t shed, and she was drawn to it more than she wanted to admit.
Only then did Kasira detect the glint in Thane’s eye, and the feeling shattered. Because she knew him down to his marrow, and in that moment, she was certain—he knew she had betrayed him.
She tried to move away, but his knife was already at her throat. Thane might have only been a few years her senior, but he had always been faster than her. Still, she had the magic of the Library now. She could disarm him, vanish into thin air—but she would learn nothing that way.
“I didn’t have a choice.” She let her voice tremble.
His laugh was the grating of gravel in his chest. “Don’t play the coward now, Kas. You simply chose yourself, as you always do.”
Except that wasn’t why he was angry. What really scraped beneath Thane’s skin was that she hadn’t chosen him.
“Do you know what they do with people like me in Belvar?” She didn’t respond.
Thane never wanted an answer to his questions; he just wanted to make you sweat.
“When your crimes amount to a death sentence, your life becomes expendable. They toss you to the beasts for the wealthy’s entertainment.
Win, you live. Lose—well, you were dead already. ”
She’d heard of the beast fights. Knew that when she had given up Thane, he would likely find his way there. She had hoped the beasts would win.
Thane smiled that lupine smile and retracted his knife. “But of course, I can’t kill you. Our mutual freedom relies on your success.”
Kasira darted back, her hand going to her throat, where a thin bead of blood tracked down her skin. “Why did Vera send you?”
“Simple.” Thane flicked her blood from his blade. The sydara vine crept across the stone, smothering the drops, and he eyed the plant with distaste. “Because I know you.”
“So you’re here to keep an eye on me.”
“You know the game, Kas. Always have a back door.” His gaze tracked over the rest of the ancient garden with growing disdain. “I’m the good Ambassador’s contingency plan.”
Which meant Vera didn’t trust her.
She must have seen something that worried her in the portal room last night.
Why else would she rely on another delicate deal with a convicted criminal rather than seed a pawn loyal to her?
Thane was the only person alive who knew Kasira, the real Kasira, well enough to effectively spy on her.
Not to mention he had the skills necessary to infiltrate Amorlin, handle an asset, and play a role.
“What did she promise you?” Kasira asked, but Thane only made a tsking noise of disappointment and shook his head. She had known he wouldn’t answer that one, but she was establishing her groundwork, relearning his patterns. Like the way he couldn’t stand still.
As if on cue, Thane approached the rooftop railing, peering out to the arching falls. Shadows gathered in the corners of his mouth as he muttered, “How far we’ve fallen.”
“You deserve it for what you did to Loraya,” she hissed.
“What I did?” Thane spun back to face her. “Gave her, and you, a home? A family? What do you think happened to all those other orphans I had taken in? Did you think about them when you condemned me?”
No, she hadn’t. She hadn’t thought past anything more than her own survival, her own need to see sunlight again, and a burning desire to ruin the man before her. But she thought about them now, too late. She was always too late.
“You thought Loraya was so perfect. Infallible. You would have done anything for her.” Thane delivered each word like a well-timed blow. “Tell me, Kasira, do you know what a Silas Toad’s skin is coated with?”
“I don’t—”
“Of course not,” he cut in. “You used to tell everyone the story of what Loraya did at the orphanage the night the two of you ran away, never realizing the full extent of the lengths she had gone to, to protect you.”
“What are you talking about?” Thane had always spoken in riddles and halves, his words not quite the truth, but close enough to keep you invested. She knew it, and yet she couldn’t pull herself out.
A smirk split across his lips. “A Silas Toad’s skin is poisonous. One touch, and you asphyxiate in minutes, like that poor priest whose pillow our dear Loraya put it in.”
“She—Loraya wouldn’t—” Kasira sputtered.
This wasn’t the kind of lie Thane would tell; it was too easy for her to verify.
It sent her memory reeling. The Loraya she had known had been so very careful, planning everything out to the tiniest detail to ensure no one got hurt.
She was the one who curbed Kasira’s darker impulses, who kept her grounded.
Had that Loraya ever existed at all?
“They would have shipped you off for heresy, sent you to the Malikinar, or worse.” Thane lifted a casual shoulder, but she could see the resentment simmering underneath.
“Loraya was a cold, hollow bitch playing at life, but she never would have let that happen. You were her precious little Kasira, the light she would save from the darkness. That future you dreamed of together? She only ever did it for you. And how did you repay her? You got her killed!”
“Because of you!” Kasira snarled, and it left her breathless.
These weren’t emotions she had allowed herself to feel in years, but her time at the Library had loosened her hold on them.
She’d had to reveal pieces of herself she’d never wanted to see again, and it had made her vulnerable enough that she trembled as she said, “I was trying to get her away from you.”
“You were trying to keep her for yourself. All you ever thought about was yourself.” Thane’s anger petered out into a settling frost. “It’s the reason I wanted you out of the crew.”
Kasira recoiled. “What?”
“Oh, she didn’t tell you that either? Perhaps she didn’t trust you with everything after all.” He bared his teeth in a feral grin. “You were becoming too obstinate. Refusing to do what I told you. Challenging me in front of the others. I wanted you out, but Loraya convinced me to let you stay.”
All this time, Kasira thought she had been trying to protect Loraya from Thane, but it was Loraya who had been protecting her.
Because people didn’t leave Thane’s crew.
At least, not with their throats intact.
Thane had seen Kasira as a challenge, and Loraya knew that if they ran, he would hunt them down.
Thane leaned back against the railing, spreading his arms along the top. “How ironic it is that our survival now depends on each other once more. I can only hope you’re far less sloppy with me than you were in Ayador. Didn’t I teach you not to leave loose ends?”
A chill descended through Kasira. Morvir. The boy she had left alive. But he had stayed quiet, he had—
“What did you do?”
Disappointment darkened every corner of his face. “What you should have.”
“He was a child!”
“Exactly!” Thane launched off the railing, and she backed away. “And like a child, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and now two people are dead instead of one.”
The boy had told someone. He had told someone, and it had gotten back to Vera, and she’d had them eliminated.
Then she’d denounced Kasira publicly so that anyone who whispered about the imposter Assistant would think her a true cheat and not the Ambassador’s pawn, tallying another mark against Allaster in the process. That was why Vera had done all this.
Because of Kasira.
Thane snorted contemptuously. “You’re soft, Kas. You’ve always been soft.”
Soft. Selfish. It had been so long since she had faced someone who knew all the worst parts of her, and now somehow, she was supposed to work with him. He had unraveled her so easily, even after years apart.
He leaned toward her as he asked, “What will you do now, Kasira, without Loraya here to save you?”
“I don’t need Loraya to run a game,” she snapped. “My next move is already in place.”
“Mm, Vera told me. It’s cruel, even for you.”
Vera had told him her plan? Did she trust him that much, or did he simply have Vera convinced he and Kasira would work together?
Either way, Thane wanted Kasira to know the power he held over her.
That he was in communication with the woman who held both their leashes, and he wouldn’t hesitate to strangle Kasira with them.
He was working an angle of his own, and if she didn’t figure it out before the pieces fell into place, he could ruin everything.
One breath, another, and she sealed away every ounce of the emotions Thane had torn free.
Down, down, down, where they couldn’t get in the way.
She couldn’t afford to let emotions rule her.
She was so very close to getting everything she wanted, and Thane had the power to bring it all crashing down around her.
When she looked at him again, she was not the teenage girl he had manipulated like clay, but a woman who had faced the darkest parts of herself and kindly told them to fuck off. “So what’s your plan?” she demanded. “To follow me around all day? Allaster will grow suspicious.”
“Which is why I’ll also be stirring up resentment among the other mages.”
Allaster expected Thane to be up to something, so up to something he would be—in full view.
That way, Allaster would never suspect to look for something else at play.
But there was something else here, even more than just Thane keeping an eye on her.
Something Kasira was missing. She hated not having all the pieces to the game, but she didn’t have a choice except to keep playing.
She met his gaze as she said, “If you ruin my bargain here, I will kill you.”
“You play your game, Kas, and I’ll play mine.” Thane turned to go. “May the best con artist win.”