Page 167 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

As a test, I throw my talent out and ask for the relics, but nothing answers me.Strange.A vague image of a flute appears in my mind, but no direction, nothing about its whereabouts.

I don’t tell Caryan though. Not now, not here. Not when my freedom depends on it.

Not as that strange echo of a smile, like a ghost, brushes his lips again.

He says, “They won’t ask as nicely as I do.”

Again, I wonder why he does—ask so nicely. I saw what he did to Sarynx so easily. What he would have done to those fauns had I not intervened. What he did, and probably isstilldoing, to the Nefarian warrior in some dark torture chamber.

“You said the blight is the outcome of the war. So—whatisthe outcome of the war?”

“It depends. As I said, I do not believe much in prophecies.”

“That’s not an answer,” I whisper.

Shadows rip from his strong shoulders, teeming around his head and body and wrists, curling over the floor between us.

“What happens if you find the relics with my help? And what happens if you don’t?”

He stills as he watches me. His eyes again go black like the space between planets. The space that eats stars and worlds and universes. They seem to drink all the light from the room, like his shadows. Drink life itself.

“And here I was, thinking that I’ve already established that the second option is obsolete,” he says, unbearably gentle as he comes for me.

I stumble backwards, banging into the kitchen chair behind me.

“But you might need some more convincing.”

“Were you the same way with my mother? Is this why she ran from you?” The words tumble out of me. Too sharp to veil my fear underneath. “Did you threaten to torture her too if she didn’t help you?”

He pauses briefly, surprised. “No. I didn’t. Your mother didn’t have any of your talents.”

“Why… why did she run from you then?” My voice breaks as Ibrace myself for his answer. My blood runs cold like water when none comes. “What? Too cruel to tell me?”

“Perhaps,” he admits, but his voice is suddenly rough. His shadows, hovering.

“Tell me anyway,” I say, holding my ground.

He turns his head away, as if considering. Then he says, “Your mother ran and hid, not only from me, but from a lot of other people as well.”

I instinctively retreat another step, and this time he doesn’t follow me. “Why?”

He frowns. “Because of you.”

“Because of Kalleandara’s prophecy. Because of my talents.”

“Yes.”

“But Sarynx…” I make myself say her name, although my ribs feel too tight to suck down another breath. “Sarynx said my mother had been hiding in the human world from you.Becauseof you.”

My heart almost stops when he says, “It is true.”

“Why?” I scowl at him when he says nothing. “Tellme,” I push.

Nothing could have prepared me for his next words. “Because she wanted to sell you.”

“What? To who?”

“To a few powerful people. Kings and queens.”

---