Page 53 of Loving the Alien Spy

“Did you?” Ryvik’s tone gives nothing away.

“Perhaps it was luck, then, that we ran into each other. I didn’t realize you were courting one of the humans.”

He glances at me with the same self-satisfied expression, like he knows something I don’t and the fact amuses him. “Why would you? It isn’t as though we’ve spoken to each other aside from our few brief interactions. That is, unless you’ve been spying on me? Although, I thought that was more your brother’s area of expertise.”

“Do not remind me of that traitorous keq.” I take a calming breath and lower my voice, glancing around to make sure no one is paying too much attention to us. “I am no spy.”

“It does not sound as though the two of you will be making up anytime soon.” Ryvik chuckles.

“Carrik has been cut out of my life for twenty anums for a reason. There is nothing he could do or say that would ever repair what he has broken.” The real Bannik has made that more than clear.

Warik’s appears in front of us. Ryvik opens the door and gestures for me to enter. It’s not nearly as crowded as it was thefirst night we were here. Sunlight shines through several of the windows. Flecks of dust dance in the light. Warik is behind the bar, where only two patrons sit. He eyes us and nods a welcome but doesn’t stop his task of drying mugs and hanging them from hooks on the wall behind him.

Ryvik and I weave through the establishment until we reach the same table we’d sat at previously. This time, we have privacy. The closest people to us sit four tables away and are in the middle of a game of what appears to be loji mi. A tavern female approaches and takes our order before making her way toward Warik and the bar.

“The last time we met, you said I wasn’t ready for ‘this’.” I might as well get the conversation going.

“Not wasting any time, I see.”

“I am done wasting time. We spent two anums together in the rebel camp, and not once did you give the impression you knew something about my brother and father. Which leads me to assume you only recently acquired this knowledge.”

Ryvik smiles, but it’s cold. Before he can respond, our drinks arrive. We wait until we’ve been served and the female moves on, and then he finally speaks. “Aren’t you the smart one?”

I scoff. “It doesn’t take great intelligence to understand you want me for something. Otherwise, why would you go through all the trouble of ensuring I’m ready for whatever it is you have in mind?”

“Because during our time together with the rebels, I grew fond of you, and I would hate to have to kill you,” Ryvik says easily.

“You say that as though I would make it easy for you.” I smile just as coldly.

We stare intently at each other until the other Bohnari throws his head back in laughter. It takes him more than a tick to get his amusement under control. When he does, he leans over and claps my shoulder. “I have always admired the confidence you are able to manufacture when it’s needed, Bannik.”

I let Ryvik continue to believe whatever he wishes so long as he tells me what in the gods’ names he wants from me. Not wanting to show my hand too much, I gather the tight threads of my patience and wait for him to finally reveal what information he holds. I take a sip of my ale, and he does the same.

The patience I have been well-known for grows thin when Ryvik finally leans in. “I willkill you if I discover you have betrayed us in any way.”

I nod my understanding.

“Your brother carries information we need.”

Us?We?“What information, and who needs it?”

Ryvik tilts and straightens his head in a single gesture. “The information is…sensitive.”

“Sensitive in what way?”

“You’re aware that Mohneek isn’t Janik’s true mother?” He lowers his voice even more. “That he was stolen by her shortly after he was born from the servant who cared for him, as revenge against the king for the death of her biological kit?”

“Of course I know this. The whole planet knows. It was announced after Janik’s blood was tested and it was verified he was the true blood child of the king and queen.”

“Mohneek claims it was King Danik who assaulted her while he was in the throes of the mating fever,” Ryvik says, as if this, too, isn’t common knowledge. He glances around the tavern once more. “Except we know it wasn’t him because he was on Kovari.”

I sigh, bored already with this conversation. “You keep telling me things that almost every single Bohnari knows. It is nothing new.”

Ryvik slowly sits back, and the same self-assured grin appears on his face. “Yes, but do you know who was also reportedly on Kovari as well but, in truth, was not?”

For several beats, I stare at him and try to control not only my shock, but my denial. My breathing remains even when I finally answer. “I suppose you are going to tell me. It certainly wasn’t Carrik. We were less than a single anum old.”

“Your father wasn’t.”