Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles Trilogy #1)(52)

Aaru chuckled, both aloud and by drumming his fingers in a quiet-code laugh. ::Narrow it down, curious fr—::

He didn’t finish the last word, and suddenly that was what I most wanted to know about. But he’d stopped his sentence for a reason, so I chose another question. ::Are you close with your family?:: It seemed like he must be, and I’d always wondered what that was like.

::They are everything to me. When we escape, I will return to them.::

And leave me. It shouldn’t have surprised me, or stung, because we’d known each other only eighteen days. He had to help the people he loved, and I had to rescue the dragons before the Algotti Empire got hold of them.

Still, the thought of losing him opened a deep loneliness inside of me. I’d been wrong earlier, when I’d thought I was on my own, because at this moment, I had Aaru. He’d wanted to escape all along, while I’d been content with mere survival while waiting to be rescued. I’d thought my release was imminent and there was no reason to act.

But I could not wait for change. I had to make change.

Aaru opened my hand, trailing his fingers from the hollow of my wrist to my palm. ::What are you thinking?::

::I’m going to help you see your family again.::

His breathing hitched, and the way his fingers grazed mine felt like a smile. ::How do we begin?::





CHAPTER SIXTEEN




THE NEXT DAY, I STOPPED EATING DINNER.

Well, mostly. I ate just enough to convince the guards and other prisoners that I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but then I pulled out strips of silk I’d torn from the remnants of my dress, and wrapped bread and fruit and slabs of fried meat. Everything went into my pockets and down my shirt.

“What are you doing?” Tirta hissed as I took my tray to her window. “You’re going to get in trouble again.”

“The Book of Love says to ensure our neighbors have enough to eat, and my neighbors are in need. If I can help, I should.”

“Is it Gerel?” Her frown said she disapproved.

“If I try hard enough, she will like me.” Surely Tirta could understand. This was a basic Daminan need: without friends, without love, we could not be whole. I might not have had the divine gifts that made people want to like me, but that didn’t mean the desire wasn’t there. “But also for the boy in the cell next to mine.”

Tirta’s eyes widened. “Do they mean that much to you?”

If I told her how much I wanted to escape, and about my alliance with Aaru, she’d protest. Instead, I whispered, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t.” And, because she was Tirta and she was kind, she slipped a small container of water through the window. It wasn’t much—a few swallows at best—but I could give it to Gerel; Aaru had his cup.

“Fancy!” Altan roared from the far side of the mess hall, and I sucked in my stomach as far as I could, as though I stood a chance at hiding all the food stashed inside my shirt.

His eyes narrowed, but if he noticed the bulge, he didn’t mention it. Instead, he escorted me back to the first level without speaking. Or, rather, with the sort of expectant quiet that hinted he was waiting for me to speak first.

In the anteroom, he paused before opening the cellblock door. We stood alone in a small room, me with a bundle of contraband food stuffed into my shirt, and him with his arms crossed over his chest. “This is your chance to tell me what else you know.”

My heart thrummed in my chest. Last time he’d confronted me outside the cellblock, he’d left me in the dark.

“I don’t know anything.” The words came breathy. Scared.

He sighed and opened the door. Voices threaded through the hall, bringing a slight measure of relief. “All right,” Altan said. “Have it your way.” Finally, I was deposited in my cell, along with the dark sense that he had something terrible in mind.

As soon as he was gone, I divided the food into three even parcels, then took the first one under the bed. “Aaru.”

He was already there. ::Mira,:: he tapped, and then switched to speech. “I have questions.”

“About?” A thread of worry spun through me. Had he figured out my identity?

“How dragons make fire.”

Oh. Now that I was happy to answer. “Take this. Then I’ll tell you more than you ever wanted to know.” I pressed the package of food through the hole.

A moment later, he peeled open the layers of silk. “Mira.”

I waited.

“This is too much.”

“It’s not nearly enough.” When I slipped my hand through the hole to his side, flashes of last night played through my mind. The way his skin had heated under my fingers, the quickness of his breath, but mostly the in-between moments, when we’d finished discussing a topic and hadn’t yet found a new one. I should have pulled my hand away. Or he should have. But neither of us did.

And now, his hand breezed over mine again. ::You need to eat too.::

::I should have been bringing food for you all along. I get plenty, and allies share resources.:: I scooted out from under the bed before he could protest further. “Gerel, I hope you’re good at catching.”

“Keep it.” She crossed her arms. “After we were moved out, Aaru told me about your alliance, but alliances with you are too dangerous. It’s not worth the risk.”