Page 96 of Sunsplitter

His words settled over Fi like a Winter chill. Avroz agreed with her?

Oh. He actuallywashoping to get her killed. Good to know.

And because it was his father, Antal clamped his teeth, but didn’t argue.

For the record, it wasn’t Fi’s idea for Jazst to come with her. He insisted. One grumpy cat was better than five, but she planned to do most of the talking.

They walked the road to the farmhouse. A bird trilled from the wheat field, flashing red wings as it disappeared into the stalks. Jazst acted like Fi didn’t exist. Preferable to speaking.

When they reached the yard, all was quiet. The man had finished chopping wood, but Fi hadn’t seen where he’d gone. Wouldn’t this be an unpleasant surprise, a visit from a stranger and a daeyari? As Fi stepped onto the porch, she made a shooing motion to Jazst, urging him out of sight of the door. He growled but complied.

His tail flicked as he sniffed the air. Fi couldn’t smell whatever he did, but a prickle went down her neck. The house was too quiet.

Fi knocked on the door. No one answered.

“Hello?” she called out in seasonspeak.

She tried the handle. Fi was dismayed to find it open, but she couldn’t back out now, with a daeyari watching. She steeled her nerves and stepped inside.

The house was… normal. Small. Homey. The living room had a bright rug and several amateur watercolor paintings on the wall, opening onto a dim hall with more closed doors. No signs of distress. No immortal monsters lurking in the shadows.

Jazst stalked inside after her. He breathed deep, tail lashing fiercer.

“An aedari has been here,” he hissed. “Recently.”

Well, that wasn’tcomforting. “Wait here. I’ll check the bedrooms.”

Footsteps creaked the porch.

Fi reached for her sword hilt—then froze. The farmer stood in the doorway, dressed in work clothes and hair in a messy bun, eyesverywide. He paid Fi little mind, staring instead at the daeyari in his living room.

“Easy, easy!” Fi held out a hand and put on her best soothing voice. No simple task, with a predator beside her. “We aren’t here to hurt you, we just want to ask a few questions.”

A growl rumbled Jazst’s chest.

He shifted onto the pads of tense feet, claws curled into black sickles as he stared at the man in the doorway.

The man stared back at the daeyari. He, too, shifted his boots to a wider stance.

Another chill raked Fi’s neck. Fear slipped off the man’s face, replaced by something harder. Keener. In the dim light, his dark eyes glinted, a flash of…

Gold.

Syvr had called them…shapeshifters?

Jazst lunged.

The man moved faster—immortal fast. He dodged a snap of teeth, twisted around claws coated with searing red energy. Gold smoldered in his eyes. A brighter flash sparked in his palm as he drew a sword fromnowhere. The sleek blade was fully metal, edge blazing with golden light so bright, Fi had to squint. When Jazst reeled, the man grabbed an antler.

His sword slashed like a vengeful sunbeam.

One clean stroke severed the daeyari’s head.

Jazst’s body slumped to the ground in a heap of claws and limp tail. His head fell separate, antlers clattering the boards, red energy sizzling over severed flesh and bone. Fi staggered backward, too slow to even draw her sword in time. Everything happened so fast.

Then silence.

Black blood pooled across the floor. Burnt ozone coated the air—an immortal body broken, energy sent back to the Void, doomed to reincarnate as a beast. Yet the aedari showed no remorse. He circled his kill. When the corpse lay still, his sword faded back to normal metal.