Page 101 of Sunsplitter

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have pounced on you when you came home. I hadn’t seen you in so long, and I thought maybe after all this time, things between us could be… notgood, I guess. Maybe that’s too much to hope for. But better than this.”

Antal heard the familiar notes in Ixli’s voice. Just an old ache, just a life that would never be. He no longer missed those intimate moments with her.

But he missed his friend.

Antal had told Fionamara that he’d lost connection to other daeyari, felt their absence like a hole in his chest. He didn’t miss the politics, or his father’s fangs. He did miss the gentle brushes of his mother’s tail. The way Syvr laughed at a good story. The gleam of Ixli’s eyes when she found a worthy challenge.

Forgiveness wasn’t easy. Not in this place that had skewered him every time he showed vulnerable flesh.

But this wound between them had happened so long ago. And Ixli was trying to mend it. He could try to make that count for something.

“You were marvelous,” he said. “Against that aedari.”

Ixli scoffed. “Not good enough.”

“Youare good enough. You are now. You were fifty years ago. Avroz is wrong.”

Her tail flicked, wary. “He’s your father.”

“Which is how I know he’s wrong.”

That was another thing that had grown out of their parting:Antal’s deepening distrust for his father. Avroz had brought them together. He’d encouraged Antal during their courtship. How Ixli must have seemed the perfect match: a respectable daeyari, a partner Avroz could control. Better that they’d separated, even if Antal had suffered for it.

He’d never wanted Ixli to suffer. Even in the aftermath, she’d remained dutiful, proud. No signs of Avroz tightening his leash.

Antal should have known better.

He slipped his tail across the stones, a testing brush against Ixli’s. For now, it was the best he could offer.

“We’ll get you that aedari,” he promised. “You deserve those bands.”

Ixli was, as always, a proud beast. It took a long moment of her staring at him, searching for the hidden fangs, before her gaze softened. A longer moment of disbelief, questions simmering behind her furrowed brow.

At last, she relented, twining the tip of her tail with his.

“Why are you here, Antal?” Ixli said. “You never cared about aedari hunting.”

“For the Daey Celva.” The easiest answer.

“You stopped caring about that, too.”

Antal laughed. Of course, she knew that better than anyone. Honesty, then? “For my territory. My people. I promised to keep them safe.”

Ixli considered. When she looked away, pink sunset glowed against her eyes. “Your human seemed angry.”

“She has a name,” Antal said.

“She’s brave.” Ixli spoke firm. No derision.

“She is.” He sighed. “That’s the problem.”

They were gone.

Fi scanned the fields, every tree line, but they were gone. The aedari. Ixli. Antal. She considered Voidwalking, but that was far too slow, could only take her somewhere she’d been before. She couldn’t flit anywhere in sight like a daeyari. By now, Antal could be anywhere.

He’d left her behind.

Hadn’t she proven to him, time and again, that she was strong enough?