Page 127 of Heir

Sirsha shook her head. “I’m not going to bind her, Quil. I’m going to kill her. For Loli.”

She’d decided it days ago, after yet another night when she dreamt of her friend, crawling like a wounded animal along the spongy ground of the Thafwan jungle, a cavity in her chest as she looked desperately for hearts to revive her own.

But it wasn’t just Loli’s death that made Sirsha want to finish this creature. It was the dead she’d seen in Navium, Jibaut, the Thafwan countryside. It was the way the creature targeted the young and strong. The way she seemed to relish the act of murder.

The wind blew Sirsha’s hair into her face, and she shoved it back impatiently. She’d lost her hairpins at the cabin and had been tempted to cut off her hair a dozen times since.

“Perimeter guard is rubbish,” Quil observed. The camp was gray in the near-dark, lamps and fires slowly flickering to life. “Too many entrances to count and only half of them are being watched.”

“Are you complaining about our enemy’s lax fortifications?”

Quil frowned. “It’s odd that they were able to take the Empire when they don’t know the basics of entrenching an army.”

“They’ve conquered this land.” Sirsha thought of the cratered Thafwan villages and scattered bodies they’d seen as they traversed the countryside. “They don’t have a strict watch because they don’t think they need one. Besides”—she nodded to a Sail spinning up into the clouds—“that’stheir perimeter watch.”

“Either they really are the worst-run army in history, or this is a trap,” Quil said, with such calm certainty that Sirsha almost looked behind her, expecting Kegari to be closing in.

“Does it change our plan?”

“We need more than one path out.”

“Speak for yourself, prince. I’ve mapped out four. And”—she gave him an appraising look—“I’d wager half my money that you’ve mapped out double that. What has you so nervous?”

Quil’s jaw was set as he surveyed the camp again before fixing his cat eyes on Sirsha. “I know you have to kill or capture that monster down there to satisfy the oath to Elias,” he said. “But J’yan told me if someone else kills her, your blood oath dissolves. It’s the payment you don’t get.”

Sirsha regarded him askance. “I need the payment, prince.”

“You think you can do this alone,” Quil said, and Sirsha didn’t bother contradicting him because he’d give her sad eyes for lying. “Let R’zwana and J’yan help you.”

“J’yan will get me in, and R’z—”

“I’m talking about the killing, Sirsh,” Quil said. “Don’t go in there alone because of the money. If Elias doesn’t fulfill your payment, I will. I’ll give you double. Triple. Whatever you want. Just—don’t face her alone.”

“Must be nice to have so much money that you can—”

He lifted a hand to her face with such tenderness that she fell silent. Her eyes stung because that was not at all how someone should look at you if your relationship was meaningless, and now their oath coin was burning,damnhim—

“Please, Sirsha.” Skies, she loved how he said her name. “Care about yourself as much as you care about those you love. As much as—as we care about you.”

Behind them, R’zwana chuffed like a horse. “Are we going down there?” she asked. “Or shall we say goodbye for three hours?”

Quil shot her a glare and rose. Sirsha grabbed his hand, driven by a sudden fear that she wouldn’t see him again.You’ll have to part eventually,she reminded herself.He’s not for you. Nor you for him.Her skin went cold at the thought.

She stopped herself from saying something she would regret. “Don’t die, prince.” Her voice sounded harsher than she’d meant it to.

His dimple flashed as he brought her wrist to his lips in a swift kiss that she wished didn’t light her every nerve ending on fire. Then he was gone, disappearing through the grasses and into the maw of the enemy.

Sirsha turned to her sister, irritated that Quil had figured out her intention: to give R’z the slip and kill the monster alone.

But now, because she was a fool with a soft spot for broad-shouldered Martials with talented lips, Sirsha had to rethink her plan.

“Where is the killer?” R’zwana asked. “You haven’t said, and I’m starting to suspect you don’t want me to know.”

“You’re losing your magic,” Sirsha said, because she needed something to hold over her sister. R’z turned on J’yan, practically frothing at the mouth.

“Don’t growl at him,” Sirsha said. “I figured it out on my own.”

“Listen to her, R’z, for once in your life,” J’yan said. “She’s not the enemy.”

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