Page 37 of This Monster of Mine

Her face lit up with relief upon sighting Sarai. “There you are—” Cisuré’s eyes went flat as Kadra emerged. “Tetrarch Kadra,” she spat. “May I borrow Petitor Sarai if she’s done for the day?”

What inhavïd? Sarai stared. She’d never seen the other girl so furious.

“What business do you have withmyPetitor?” Kadra asked softly.

Her mouth fell open at his emphasis. As thunderclouds gathered on Cisuré’s face, Sarai had the strangest feeling of being the rope in a tug-of-war contest.

“Tetrarch Aelius would like to meet her. With your consent.” Cisuré sounded as though the bit of politesse had cost her a limb.

“Of course.” Kadra barely acknowledged her, eyes still on Sarai. Her pulse jumped when he dipped his head toward her. “Come back in one piece.”

“Naturally,” she muttered, turning to Cisuré. She halted.

All color had drained from the other girl at Kadra’s parting comment. Face pinched and pale, an ugly light roiled in her eyes, looking unnervingly like hatred. Without a word, she gripped Sarai’s wrist and stalked away, pulling her along.

Sarai struggled to keep up. “What, by all the High Elsar, was that about?”

“What do you mean?” Cisuré walked faster.

“You! Spitting at Kadra like he was your sworn enemy. I thought you were terrified of him— Oof!”

Cisuré seized her in a tight hug. “By Temperance, I was so worried! Did he try anything last night? They say he’s ice, but he’s a man …”

Memory returned unbidden of the brush of Kadra’s fingers across her neck when he’d removed her birrus. An uncomfortable heat crawled up Sarai’s cheeks.

“I’m fine. Kadra has no interest in me.”

“It’s just odd.” Cisuré took a cobblestone path going east. “Tetrarch Aelius only asked me this morning to move into the domus by his tower. I’m close by and retain my privacy. Why did Kadra rush you into living with him? It’s not like he wanted a Petitor.”

True.In her determination to enter his stronghold, she hadn’t thought about why he’d invited her there. What part of him tearing down the Tetrarchy required her to stay at Aoran Tower?

She couldn’t ask Cisuré. One mention of Kadra demolishing the Tetrarchy and the other girl would likely have an aneurysm.

Sarai shrugged.“Who can tell what goes through his head?”

“Ugh, who wants to? … So, what’s Aoran Tower like?”

An image flashed in her head of Kadra’s half-open robe, of firm muscles rising and falling with each breath. “It’s nothing special,” she bit out without thinking. “It’s just been a while since …”I’ve felt anything substantial beyond anger. Since—

“Since you’ve seen anything outside Cretus’s tavern, yes?” Cisuré drew her through a series of corridors. Students parted for them, nervously eyeing their robes. “So he doesn’t have any heads on pikes? Hasn’t imposed a curfew?”

“No, and no.” Sarai tossed out the unnecessarily detailed portrait of Kadra’s chest her brain had chosen to capture. For a notoriously private man, he hadn’t laid down any ground rules for how their cohabitation was to work. “What do you know about Kadra? People seem to love him, but you and Harion act like he’ll kill us all.”

Cisuré cast a glance around them before pulling her behind a pillar. “Everyone knows Kadra’s history. They just don’t talk about it openly.”

“Why not?”

“Kadra’s adopted. Rumor says he was a street rat, found in an alley as an adolescent. Probably why he’s always been barbaric.” Her lips formed a moue of distaste. “That tower of his used to belong to Tetrarch Othus, his foster father. The relationship was reportedly quite poor, what with Kadra being Kadra.”

Cato must be Othus’s husband, she realized.No wonder he’d been taking Kadra to task that morning.

Sarai snorted. “So Kadra became Tetrarch via his father pulling strings.”

“If only. Kadra’s a … talented magus,” Cisuré admitted with distaste. “Everyone at the Academiae thought he was slated to be the next Magus Supreme. Instead, he graduated early and began working as an iudex. At fifteen. At first, he followed the letter of the law and rose rapidly through the judiciary. Then it began. The spectacles of violence, the bloodshed.”

“Why would people vote for him?”

“His devotees are as rabid as he is,” Cisuré said darkly. “And here’s something very few know about why that election was called. Four years ago, Tetrarch Othus was found butchered in an alley in his own Quarter—what’s now Kadra’s Quarter. Who do you think got his wealth, his tower, and his seat as Tetrarch?”

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