Page 12 of A Realm of Shattered Lies

“Unless you try to eat me,” she says with a shrug. “Then, staying alive much harder. So don’t do that.”

Farin flashes her the kind of grin that makes my stomach flip. “We wouldn’t dream of it, would we, Nox?”

Zora’s eyes flash again with something that I can’t help but hope is recognition at the sound of my name, but if there’s a part of her that remembers anything connected to her original life, she doesn’t mention it.

My sister brings her knife back to her side and stuffs it in a belt that clearly did not belong to her originally. She’s punched an extra hole in the belt so it’ll fit her waist, and now the blade rests exposed at her hip.

“That’s dangerous, to keep your knife there. What happens if you slip and it twists?” Farin asks her.

Zora shoots him a look of acid, one I find immensely satisfying.

“When I stab myself on accident, here is my permission to laugh at me then,” she says, and it’s so much like the Zora I remember, I almost laugh. Almost.

Farin’s eyes linger on my sister a tad too long for my liking. “I’ll remember that. There’s a cave back that way,” he says, pointing into the brush. “It makes for a better shelter than the beach.”

Zora immediately looks wary, and she opens her mouth to say something, but then she clamps it shut and allows a wry grin to overtake her face. She gestures in front of her. “Lead my way.”

She follows us from behind, careful to stay at both of our backs.

“You never told us your name,” I say, examining Zora as she scarfs down the berries I left untouched before my and Farin’s expedition. She’s thinner here than she is back home. Her cheeks are caverns compared to what they usually are. The sullenness of them highlights her cheekbones and makes them look as if they’ll slice anyone who comes near, especially in the light of the fire we’ve lit in the cave. Her hair is different too. In Abra’s shrine, it falls across the emerald dais in waves before cascading to the floor. Here she has it cropped short and messy, barely long enough to cover her pointed ears, as if having it any longer would only get in her way.

“Elini,” she says in between handfuls of berries. “And you are Nox,” she says, nodding at me. She gestures toward Farin. “And you are?”

The grin that warps Farin’s lips has my fingers clenching into a fist.

“Whoever you want me to be,” he says, as easily as one might expect from someone as schooled in manipulation as he is, being Abra’s child.

Zora’s cheeks flush red, leaving me for once grateful for the disgusting hare blood currently sloshing in my stomach. I’ll have to be careful to keep myself satiated around my sister. My hunger is always worse around those whose blood I’ve already tasted. For years, Abra punished me by forcing me to feed on Zora. I’m just waiting for the cravings to kick in, nauseous as it makes me to consider that.

Still, whatever makes blood in this realm taste so vile must also have an appetite-curbing effect, because though I note the smattering of blood across her cheeks, my hunger doesn’t stir.

My irritation, on the other hand, does.

Apparently it’s not enough for Farin to gloat about taking Blaise away from me; he also feels the need to flirt with my sister while he’s at it.

“Your true name will be just fine,” she says evenly, schooling her voice even if she can’t hide her flush.

He tells her, and she tries the name out on her tongue. “Farin,” she says, as if it’s familiar to her. “Kind to meet you, Farin.”

“The pleasure is mine,” he says back, and the curious smile that brushes his features almost makes him look sane. It’s unnerving.

“What landed you on this island?” I ask, hoping to break the smoldering stare between my sister and the male who’d rather see me dead.

“A shipwreck. Same as two of you.”

“Yes, but why were you on a ship?” I ask.

She raises an eyebrow at me. “To sail. Are there other reasons?”

“I think what my companion means is where were you hoping to arrive? I imagine it wasn’t this island,” Farin says.

“Ah. That.” Zora wipes her mouth hesitantly on her tattered sleeve. “I was…” She furrows her brow for a moment before shaking her head. “The word is gone from my head.” Zora makes a starburst motion with her hand before returning to her food.

Farin and I exchange a look, but we don’t press her further.

“And you?” she asks. “You find cave, yet you leave it at night when caves are most useful.”

That question catches me off guard, but Zora’s staring at me, not at Farin, so I can’t let it show on my face.

---