Page 100 of Unbound

"Did he just call me small?"Typhon takes a step forward, his teeth bared as mist rolls from his mouth in waves that quickly chill the room.

Raith's fire panther, Pyrin appears behind him. He's growing faster than most elementals, and he already stands taller than Raith, with his shoulders just above Raith's head. His fiery body is growing more solid, too—less like a shifting cluster of flames that takes the shape of an animal. I still don't think he'd stand a chance against Typhon, but it would be less of a mismatch than I'd expected.

"False. I could eat him in two bites. However, I happen to like Pyrin’s company. He and I like to joke about our foolish humans together. I would prefer not to eat Pyrin."

"We're not eating either of them."

"I know. I would do the eating. You would do the watching."

"Typhon..."

With resignation, he takes a small step back. Raith never flinched, but Pyrin seems to relax slightly as Typhon backs off.

"You need to find time to practice with him in his dragon form,” Raith says.

I glance at Typhon. Despite all his large and scary dragony features, I see an almost comical shifting of his eyes from Raith to me.

"You would demean me with practice exercises?"Typhon rumbles through my mind.

"You want to keep me from dying, don't you?"

Resignation thunders through the tether as Typhon sulks to the corner of the room and sits with straight-backed posture so he looks like an indignant statue.

If only. Statues don't constantly shove their opinions in your mind.

"Careful, angry human."

"Typhon might be willing to do some training exercises with me."

Raith looks past me to the dragon, then nods. "Good."

There's a moment as Raith checks the edge of his sword. The blunted weapons won't cut, but after enough blocks and parries, they can gain chips in their edges that can cause some serious damage. He's always making sure his sword doesn't have any before he'll fight me.

For all his deadly intensity, he's always strangely careful about that sort of thing with me.

"There's something I wanted to ask you," I say suddenly. I wasn't sure if I'd get the nerve to ask him to his face, but now I can tell I won't be able to keep this in. It's not my way. "Serena cornered me after Military Tactics the other day. She said Hollow isn't your real last name, and... I know that. Everyone does. Hollow is a name given to orphans, so why would she tell me it's not your real name? She said it like your original last name was some sort of secret. Something that would reveal who you really are?"

The mention of Serena's threat makes him lift his eyes to me. They're like golden torches partially obscured by the dangling threads of his hair. "I wasn't always a Hollow. Yes. But like you say, it's hardly a revelation. When my family was murdered, my name changed."

There's a cold matter-of-fact quality to his words that makes my chest tighten painfully. "Murdered?"

He hesitates. "Most people who die where I'm from are murdered. War is hell."

"Right," I say.

"He hides something. Press him for answers. Put your blade to his throat and demand them."

"We're not doing that, Typhon. But yes. Raith is always hiding things. He doesn't even deny it."

"When was your last meal?” he asks suddenly. “I know you’ve been skipping them. You’ve got to keep your strength up, Nessa.”

He's changing the subject. It's what he always does when the topic drifts too close to the truth. "Raith... You know everything about me. You know... what I am. You know about Typhon. My heartrate quickens as I force myself to continue. I mean, gods, we kissed, Raith. Even if you're trying very hard to pretend it never happened. It did. And do you really think I'd do that if I was planning to betray you?"

His eyes are hard. "You don't know who I am."

"So fucking tell me!" I don't mean to shout, but my voice echoes in the small room.

"I'm someone you shouldn't get close to. Somebody you shouldn't care about. That's all you need to know."

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