Chapter 6 #2
“I know that, and I will. I just also know that she’s tenacious and tough and she doesn’t want her sister to worry, so she might not tell me the whole truth because she knows that I’ll definitely be telling Kat whatever she tells me, even if she asks me not to.
” She took a breath after speeding through what she hoped was confusing enough to coax out the truth about her former infirmary roommate and grinned as disarmingly as possible.
“Why would she ask you not to say if she knows you’ll tell her sister anyway?”
Huh, not confusing or disarming enough. “Well, I say ask, but I assume she’ll threaten me”—Brioni snickered—“but we both know she’s not actually going to do anything.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure…”
Brioni stuck out her tongue. “No, no—not to me. See, what she’ll say is something like, ‘If you make Kat worry, I’ll make you regret it,’ but what she’ll really mean is for me to sorta soften the truth when I talk to Kat instead of just blurt it all out, which we all know is how I’d do it anyway since that’s just how these things are done.
She tells me she’s fine, but you tell me she’s not, and then I tell Kat a mix of those two things while winking a lot. ”
“That seems unnecessarily complex.”
“Yeah, but where’s the fun in just saying how you feel?”
And without miscommunication, what would any of us have to write about?
Ozirax didn’t look as worn out by the conversation as Brioni had planned, so she squared her shoulders and eyed him.
“Should I have not told you all that because now you’re thinking you just won’t tell me the whole truth either?
Because you should know that since I know that you know all that stuff, I also know that you’ll be more prone to not telling me the truth, so you should probably just forget everything and tell me—really tell me—how Kaly’s doing. ”
Ozirax groaned. “She’s fine.”
“That bad, huh?”
The purple demon gestured stiffly to the training hall indicating the conversation was over, which wasn’t really much of a shame since she wasn’t getting anywhere anyway.
She knew Ozirax had become Kaly’s squad leader, and if anyone could tell Brioni the truth, it would probably be him, but something else seemed to be in the way, and she guessed it might have to do with all the spikes covering his arms.
Ozirax ushered her inside, and she found herself surrounded by tunic-less demons glistening with the evidence of hard physical work.
Her face immediately flushed, and she knew she was redder than the demon woman swinging a giant stick at a straw-filled form that looked like something out of a nightmare.
Her heart sped up from thoughts both lewd and anxious, but thankfully she didn’t see the purple demon she was trying to avoid, and relief settled in.
Kaly looked so much better than when they shared a room in the infirmary.
It had been fun to share a chamber with someone else, even if she was boisterous, loud, and determined to leave.
The worst of her bruises were healed, though she had a few new ones, and her hair was combed into a pretty bronze plait perfect for weaving flowers into.
Not that Kaly would want to hear any of that, but Brioni told her anyway.
Her excitability only dipped when she had to admit that she’d not brought a letter from Kaly’s sister.
She wouldn’t really want one, Kat had said when Brioni offered back at the post. Tell her not to worry about me.
I know she will anyway but…she doesn’t have to.
It wasn’t much to pass on, but it was predictable, so Brioni derailed the meager words by discussing clothes.
It didn’t work: Kaly’s eyes were mismatched in color, but not in the heavy disappointment they carried.
Then Kaly and Ozirax were arguing…or, was that arguing?
Brioni watched the human watch the demon and the demon watch the human back—their words didn’t really matter, but the places their gazes fell and the flexing of their hands sure did.
When Ozirax stormed off, Kaly continued to watch him go with a smoldering intensity that made Brioni’s romantic sixth sense spring to life… Oh. My. Gods.
“Wow. It’s a miracle you get anything done around here.”
Kaly went on to vehemently deny that she and Ozirax were engaging in human-demon relations, but Brioni grinned through the deepening protests because of course Kaly wasn’t going to admit it, which made the silent admittance even louder.
At least they’d gotten off the subject of her sister.
But Brioni had also been standing in the barracks for too long, and the gods’ favor never really lasted.
The closest exit let Brioni out behind the barracks.
The moon was setting on the other side of the huge stone building leaving the empty practice grounds out back covered in long shadows.
It was nice to have a conversation with another human, especially when she was feeling down, even if Kaly hadn’t asked her how she was.
That wasn’t important—everything was such a mess, and clearly she was preoccupied.
Brioni snickered into the quiet: Kaly was definitely smooching Ozirax. Maybe more than smooching. Good thing Aofe made so much contraceptive.
Brioni’s snickering fell away as she traipsed down the barrack’s long length, running a hand over the old mossy stones.
Maybe Stephan would like the taste of these—she could bring him back here and wallow a little more in her admittedly overdramatic despair about all the girls.
Ember was living with another demon from the squad that had rescued them, and he was very nice to look at.
Aofe and Kizros were way too sweet to one another for nothing to be going on, and Rosalind’s hair had been mussed in a very specific post-tumble way when last Brioni dropped off supplies to her.
Bet it’s fun earning the attention of a local.
“There you are.”
By Illustra, not like that!