Page 31 of This Dark Descent
Oh, how wrong she’d been.
Her throat tightened, the words digging like claws in her chest. “They took him away. It was the last time I ever saw him.”
Ari bowed her head. “He died in battle.”
It wasn’t a question, so Mikira didn’t respond. She only turned her face up to the sky until the threat of tears receded.
“I understand why you’re so angry,” Ari said quietly. “The people of my town were terrified of being conscripted. We’d already lost our home to Enderlain and its war; we didn’t want to lose our lives too.”
Mikira couldn’t imagine how that felt, to be asked to fight in the very army that had once killed your people. Probably a bit like being forced to work for the man who murdered your son. Her heart clenched, and not for the first time, she wished that her sisters were there, if only because before them, she was only ever strong.
“I am sorry about your brother, Mikira.” Ari’s gentle tone broke her from her reverie. “But Damien is not Rezek, and we need him. We don’t have to trust each other, but we have to work together.”
Mikira wiped the rain from her face. “You have something relying on this too?” She’d just assumed that Ari was an enchanter employed by House Adair, her only stake in the game the payment that came with enchanting the horse.
Ari’s expression shuttered, and she turned away. “No, not like that.”
It was a lie, Mikira was sure of it, but Ari looked one step away from bolting, so she didn’t press. “We need each other too, Ari,” she said instead. “We’re two small fish in a bay of sharks, and if we don’t protect each other, we’ll get devoured.”
Ari looked back at her. “What are you asking of me?”
What was she asking? She didn’t know Ari any more than Reid or Damien. She’d spent every day of the last two weeks with them and yet it felt like there were oceans between them. But after today, Ari knew more about her than anyone had in a very, very long time, and there was something comforting about that.
In the end, she only shrugged and said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a friend.”
The word had a strange effect on Ari. Her eyes grew wide with alarm, her lips parting to silently repeat it.
Worried she’d gone too far, Mikira backtracked. “How about just partners, then? You watch my back, I’ll watch yours.”
“Partners,” Ari said softly, then nodded. “I’d like that.”
When Mikira smiled, Ari did too.
THE RANCH WASquiet when Mikira returned late that afternoon. She ought to have spent the rest of the day training with Reid, but the rain had picked up even more, and she wasn’t sure if she could face him or Damien again so soon without pressing for answers. It bothered her not knowing exactly what she was involved in, but she couldn’t risk her position with Damien.
“How did we end up here?” she asked Iri, leading him into the barn to brush him down. Her father never would have made a deal like this. Theirfamily did things right. Or at least, they used to. Before doing what was right cost them everything and the only way Mikira could see to protect her family was to make the rules bend in her favor for once.
She leaned her forehead against Iri’s, her fingers pressing into his black coat. “Lochlyn would know what to do,” she whispered, and Iri nickered softly at the name. She gave herself to the count of three to focus on the silence, on the warmth of Iri and the scent of hay in the air, before she returned to the house.
She was kicking her muddy boots off in the foyer when Ailene’s voice echoed from the kitchen, “Ow, Nelda! Thathurts.”
“Don’t be a baby.”
“I am not—ow!”
Mikira crossed through the sitting room adjacent to the kitchen and stilled in the doorway. Ailene was sitting at the round kitchen table, her head tilted back and her nose plugged with two strips of bloody cloth. Nelda hovered over her, dabbing at a small cut on her cheek, her latest book tucked into her apron pocket.
They spotted Mikira’s horrified look at the same time. “What happened?” she demanded.
Ailene gave her a sheepish grin. “This is nothing. You should see the other guy.”
“She got in a fight with Era Keene.” Nelda rinsed her cloth in a bowl of water on the table.
Mikira pressed a hand to her head. “I thought youlikedEra Keene?”
“I did,” Ailene replied. “Until he said you were going to lose the Illinir because our enchants were shit—”
“Language.”
