Deidre Knight - Gods of Midnight 01 by Red Fire

Author:Red Fire
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Shay stood, waiting. Watching him expectantly. Her question should have been an easy one: What and who was he, precisely? He’d already offered enough hints. Revealing the full truth was only one more step beyond. Yet the less she understood the odds in this battle—what they really meant to her and for him, for their future, too—the better.

“It’s only fair that you tell me,” she offered, her voice surprisingly gentle and patient.

“If I do that … if I confess it all …” Ajax raised his heavy arms out to his sides, gesturing to his full warrior’s body. “The demons might use that knowledge against you. Might try to get to me by using you. The less you know, Shay, the better.”

“My brothers have tried that maneuver on me my whole life, the protection routine. My mother, too, plus my dad, when he was still alive. You’ve brought me into this battle, so I need answers.”

“I saved you twice,” he reminded her, letting his arms fall back to his sides. “I never wanted you in this fight.”

“You of all people realize that ignorance has almost gotten me killed twice.” She held her hands out in frus tration, groaning. “If you were just gonna shelter me, then why in the world did you tell my brothers that it’s time to train me?”

“So you wouldn’t be unprotected,” he admitted roughly. “Because you do have a mighty calling, a role to fill as a huntress—just not in my current battle with Elblas.”

“But I was already part of it somehow, wasn’t I?” That thought had been nagging at her for the past minutes, a little kernel of an idea that had begun to bloom into full life the longer he refused to tell her the truth of what he was. Who he was.

He said nothing at all.

“Then who is Elblas to you?” she persisted. “That should be safe territory. Why does he despise you so much—and what was he talking about the other night in Bonaventure, what he said about your wife?”

He growled, baring his teeth. “I don’t talk about Narkissa.”

“Sable obviously does,” she snapped. “At least, if she’s the woman Sable was referring to.”

“You want to know about my wife?” Ajax hurled the words at her like an accusation, glaring. “You’re daring to ask about her? Oh, sweet mortal, you don’t know how dangerous that ground is.”

She wasn’t going to let his obvious pain or his theatrics daunt her. She kept her voice low and quiet. “Narkissa? That was her name?”

He didn’t answer, not the way she thought he would; his reply defied usual human speech. Almost as if in slow motion, he tossed his head back and released a piercing, shrill cry—an eerie sound that trespassed somewhere in those dark borderlands between beast and man.

Ajax pounded a fist against his breast, releasing a second agonized screech—one that was wrought with such loneliness and heartbreak, it instantly caused tears to fill Shay’s eyes. She’d spent a lifetime on land surrounded by all sorts of wild creatures … not to mention living with her two warrior brothers.

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