Page 73 of Kingdoms of Night

Tue-Rah? Whatever that was, it couldn’t have brought him here to work with this Idalno. Not unless it had a sick sense of humor. No force for good would intend him to do anything with anyone. Ever.

He took in the entirety of the village as he circled once more, committing everything he could to memory. A big, round grassy circle lay to the right of the tower, with a large ornamental fountain. A swan sculpture figured at its center, and it had probably been beautiful once, the jewel of this village square. But the fountain’s condition matched the rest of the town, deeply cracked, dry, with piles of rubble littering its perimeter.

Judging by an especially large pile of ash and burnt wood, someone had camped here recently. Several someones based on the other piles.

No trace of Annette.

No traces of wolves, boars, or lynxes, at least. No fat rabbits or deer either. Not even a mouse or a salamander. Just the gentle wind whistling lightly over the clay.

“Lalko!” Idalno shouted from the far corner, her hands cupped around her mouth. “Lalko, come out now and bring your new friend. I promise I’m not mad.”

Yes, she was. Even he could tell that.

“What is your little girl’s name again, Kopo? Annette?” She cupped her hands around her mouth again and called out Annette’s name.

His breath caught. He jerked his chin back.

“Come on. We need to find them before nightfall. Who knows what lives in a place like this? Probably something dangerous.”

We?He shook his head and widened the distance between them, striding to the opposite corner.

She was right about one thing: Something dangerous was here—it was him. This other missing child, Lalko, counted on Idalno finding her, and she couldn’t do that if she was maimed or killed by an out-of-control werewolf. He needed to put as much distance between them as he could, and opposite corners on the clock tower’s roof wasn’t nearly enough.

She took a few steps toward him, and he was already backed into the corner. “Did I offend you somehow? I really didn’t mean to. If there is something I’ve done wrong, just tell me. Please. We need to find our girls. I’ll help you find Annette, too. Then we can go our separate ways. But we weren’t brought together by chance.”

As she took another step closer, his heart thudded in his chest and he shook his head.

He jumped up onto the wall behind him, and when she reached out a hand toward him, he stepped off.

CHAPTERFIVE

IDALNO

Idalno balled up her fists as she glared after him. Had he really just walked off the edge of the clock tower to get away from her? What an infuriating man! Were all handsome men this way?

Probably. The handsomer they were, the more ridiculous and difficult they got to be. If her intuition hadn’t clearly told her that this man would help her find Lalko, she’d have walked off. Neither the Tue-Rah nor the Creator brought people together accidentally. Why did he not realize that?

Kopo struck the ground hard, his boots sending up a faint cloud of dust from the small patchy grass he landed on. If he’d landed on the bricks, he’d probably be limping.

Well, if he thought he could get away from her by walking off a clock tower, he had another thing coming.

Chances were good that his daughter and her cousin had found each other and gone off to play. She’d done the same herself at that age, no matter how much her aunts and uncles had warned her against trusting anyone outside the family. Little girls made friends easily. Especially with other little girls. Being friends with boys was harder unless you were willing to throw punches and get a little bloody. Then everyone grew up.

She narrowed her eyes at him from the rooftop as he strode away.

Maybe not everything had changed.

“Hey, Kopo! You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” She swung her leg over the crenel, dug her fingers into the grooves of the ledge, and started climbing down. The building had looked so smooth from a distance, but there were regular grooves and cracks that made her descent easy. The dusty clay scraped against her hands and tickled her nose, the dry earthy taste coating her tongue.

He glanced back over his shoulder, then scowled before shaking his head and hurrying away, taking an eastward path.

What a blood beetle. Probably a shifter, if her personal attraction and his gruffness were any signs. Only people who regularly ripped themselves apart to become other beings seemed capable of this level of antagonism so naturally.

She continued down, choosing her holds with confidence. If the Tue-Rah had brought them though, had the girls wandered through by accident? Or had they been taken as well? It didn’t feel right. Actually, when she’d been taken here, the light that transported her hadn’t felt like the Tue-Rah. But—what else could it be? Were there other sentient light-based travel forms that carried people?

She slid down the rest of the way and landed easily. Kopo had vanished down the path by the time she looked up.

Her foot caught on a bit of rubble. It clanked and rolled. A teapot?

---