Page 60 of The Half King
“Sand melon tastes no better.”
“I don’t care about the taste—”
“Jackrabbit,” Daerick interrupted, tilting his head as if solving an equation. “The second largest Mortara hare. Its flesh is rich in protein, but it hosts a wide variety of parasites such as hook mites and sand lice. You were wise to burn the pelts, Nero.”
The statement had come out of nowhere.
Cerise shared a worried look with Nero, who had already known that Daerick was a Calatris but had clearly just realized that Daerick was afirstbornCalatris. But Daerick’s Claiming Day was still moons away. Why would his curse begin affecting him now?
Daerick blinked and returned to himself, blushing and refusing to look at them. He had always joked about his curse, but now it seemed the joke wasn’t funny anymore.
Cerise drew him into a sideways hug and rested her chin on his shoulder. She thought of Nina’s baby and the countless other Calatris children whose only crime was being born in the wrong order. Despite what she had told her sister, shewouldbreak the curse or die trying.
Daerick peeked up at her. “I don’t suppose you woke up with the Sight today.”
She wished she could tell him yes, but with just over two moons until her Claiming Day, her hope was dwindling. Still, there were special cases—late bloomers like Father Padron. She tried to put on a brave face. “I don’t need the Sight. Who says I have to be an oracle to change the world?”
“You’re not an oracle,” Nero said. “And you never will be. You’reumbra sangi.”
Cerise whipped her gaze to him. “What does that mean—what does any of that mean?”
“I want to know, too,” Daerick agreed. “I think the direct translation ishot blooded, but that’s all I could find out.”
“Fire blood,” Nero corrected. He jutted his chin at her. “You’re a descendent of the goddess. Her life force runs in your veins.”
Cerise sucked in a breath. It sounded like Nero believed in the heretical Triad nonsense that Daerick had told her about—that the Reverend Mother had warned her about. “You can’t be serious.”
“I was surprised, too,” Nero said. “But it was my grandfather who tasted your blood, and he’s never been wrong.”
“Well, he lied, either to you or to me,” Cerise pointed out. “Your grandfather told me my blood wouldn’t speak to him, remember? He said my origins were blank to him, just like my path is blank to Seers.”
“That was the truth.”
“How can it be true?”
Nero pointed back and forth between them. “Because I’mumbra sangi, too, and my grandfather can trace our fire blood back through the ages. But not yours. In your blood, he could taste nothing beyond the flame. That was why he spat it out. Your blood was too rich for him. It could have consumed him if he’d swallowed it.”
A chill puckered Cerise’s flesh, despite the growing heat of the day. She heard the Reverend Mother’s voice echoing from her dreams:He will be sorry. The flame he seeks to dampen will consume him.
“My grandfather is afraid of you,” Nero went on. “He thinks the flame in your blood is too strong for you to control. But I think anyone with your fire would make a good ally. That’s why I agreed to be your guide.” He considered for a moment and then pointed at her. “Have you ever burned your blood before? Set fire to it?”
Cerise wrinkled her forehead at the odd questions. “No.”
“It would burn black if you did,” he said. “What about the clothes you wore last night? You burned them with the others. Did they burn darker than the rest?”
“Not that I noticed,” she said. But none of the blood on her clothes had belonged to her. It had all come from the titan hyena. And besides, she had heard rumors of black flame omens. There were many reasons for an object to burn darker than usual.
“Pay attention next time,” Nero told her. “You’ll see.”
Cerise looked to Daerick with a question in her eyes. None of what Nero had said could possibly be true, could it? Butstars, everything about him contradicted what she’d learned at the temple, every single text that she’d read. The Order had lied to her before. Could this be another one of their lies? Or was Nero the liar in this case? She didn’t trust him, either. After all, he’d tried to sacrifice Blue.
She had to get her Sight. She had to.
Daerick shrugged. “The Triad has never been proven, but it’s never been disproven, either. If you believe that Shiera created all life, it’s not a stretch to believe that she could impregnate a woman.”
“But fire blood is inherited, right?” Cerise asked Nero.
He nodded.
