Page 29 of These Godly Lies
“Come,” he murmurs, fingers threading through her own. “We’ll find somewhere else.”
“No,” Cassius says, cutting in. “Stay.”
The look Khiran shoots him is as sharp as murder. “You tried to influence her.”
“And it didn’t work,” Cassius snaps, hand gesturing to her. “Whatis she?”
Khiran doesn’t answer. Anna watches the muscles in his jaw strain, but there’s something in the way he looks at her… the starting thread of a question he’s too afraid to unravel.
He doesn’t know.
It dawns on her, then. The level of fury in his voice—thereliefwhen he looked in her eyes and she was still herself. Whatever Cassius had been trying to accomplish, whatever magic he attempted to snare her in, Khiran had fully expected him tosucceed.
The Heartsinger. He’s The Heartsinger.
The realization is jarring. His hold on her hand tightens. A warning. Whatever the answer is, it’s for them to figure out and Cassius to wonder.
Only, they don’t take more than two steps before he’s shouting at their backs. “Do you think you’re the only one who opposes him?! The only one who wishes to see him gone?!”
Khiran’s shoulders stiffen, his answer tired. Resigned. “I’m not fighting for a side. I’m fighting tokeep her safe.”
“One doesn’t exclude the other! You wish her to be safe?Destroy the threat.”
Khiran laughs.
Anna finds no joy in the sound. It’s dark and twisting, settling like a cold stone in her gut. Goosebumps prick her skin, a chill tracing up her spine like a caress. There is something desperate flirting at the edge of his voice. She’s afraid to wonder how hopeless the suggestion has to be to inspire such a sound.
Cassius glowers. “It’s possible. If we—”
“Stop,” Khiran says. “Just stop. We’re leaving. Feel free to fight your war without us.”
“Silas is more than a friend to me,” he calls out, voice ringing across the empty courtyard between them. “He has been for centuries. You are not the only one hiding to protect the person you love.”
Anna draws a small breath, her steps faltering, becauseof course he is. The way Silas’ voice dipped lower when he said his name—the unwavering faith that it was true. Then she remembers the night they shared conversation over the fire during those years Khiran adamantly refused to share his secrets with her.
How Silas agreed, to her great disappointment, that she was safer not knowing.
She can tell the exact moment when Khiran realizes they aren’t leaving. The tension in his shoulders shifts, disbelief temporarily smoothing the angry crease in his brow. “Anna,no.”
But theymust. She can feel it, down to her marrow, that staying is the right choice. Thesafestchoice. It screams in her ears like cicadasin a Louisiana summer and, for a moment, she’s back on that creaking front porch with Silas’ words nagging at her heart.
It’s you. You’re the secret.
A secret Silas kept, even when it meant keeping it from perhaps the one person he cares for most.
“I’m not mortal,” she confesses. Khiran’s jaw flexes, as if he’s biting back a curse or six. Anna’s sure she’ll hear them later. “I haven’t been for over eight centuries.”
A moment, no more than a few seconds, of silence. “He stole a peach for you,” Cassius breathes. His focus shifts, landing on Khiran with new understanding. “No wonder you’re running. The First must be furious.”
Khiran doesn’t meet his gaze. “I’m not convinced he knows.”
The wordyethangs between them, ominous and sharp. A blade still sheathed, but there’s the sense that an executioner’s hand is ready on the hilt.
Cassius nods, expression solemn. “I see. Then I vow to do everything in my power to keep it that way.” He makes a sweeping gesture to the grounds behind him. “Please, stay. I apologize for my behavior, but please understand the position I’m in as well. Hard to trust a garden snake when surrounded by vipers.”
Anna gives Khiran’s hand a squeeze. A message of support and perhaps a hint of an apology. “Thank you. I understand.”
Khiran’s expression twists into something dark. “No, youdon’t,” he growls. “He tried topossessyou. You would have been hanging on his every word, love-drunk and stupid. If he asked you to jump, the only question that would break through the magic ishow high.”
