The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(80)

“Okay.” She nodded. “Honestly, I think I’d be useless closer to the Fallen without you keeping me clear.”

“Exactly. And if Prija is the weapon her brothers think she is, then she could be the one to turn the fight.”

“She’s…”

“What?”

Kyra shook her head. “She’s angry. I can hear her. She’s angry and dark. That’s the only way to describe it. Imagine a black hedge around someone. That’s what Prija feels like right now.”

“Why so angry?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t sound afraid in the least. Just… angry.”

“Does she think… Could she be thinking that her brothers abandoned her?”

“Possibly? I can’t talk to her from a distance, and there’s no guarantee she’s felt my presence or knows I can hear her. She might think she’s been abandoned.”

“Then when she see us, this anger should fly, shouldn’t it? She’ll realize we didn’t leave her.”

Kyra offered him a sad smile. “It doesn’t always work that way. By the time we find her, she may no longer trust her senses. She might not be rational at all. It’s easy to get lost in the darkness.”

“Have you?”

She nodded.

“What pulled you out?”

“Kostas,” she said.

Leo looked at his phone. “Do you want to call him?”

She shook her head. “When we’re safe. When it’s happy news. Not worrying.”

He wasn’t sure it was the right decision, but it was her decision. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

He stood and lifted her in his arms, carrying her to the bed where he laid her down and slid behind her. He took his usual position. One hand under her shirt and flat against her skin. His arm cradling her head. “We need to sleep,” he said, already drifting in the warm afternoon. “It’s less than twelve hours before we attack the compound.”

To Kyra’s credit, she didn’t seem nervous at all. “I’ll stay with you. I’m not foolish.”

“I know.”

She grabbed his hand and put it on her breast. “Love me before we sleep.”

“It won’t be too much?” He’d been careful with her since arriving in Bagan.

“You are never too much.”



Leo crouched in the forest, his dark clothes blending with the deep shadows surrounding him. He listened for the telltale footsteps of the night guard who had already passed by four times now. He was waiting for Rith’s signal.

Arindam’s compound in the hills was comprised of a dozen smaller buildings surrounding a temple with a familiar winged idol at the door. The Fallen lived inside the temple. His men lived and worked in the smaller buildings around it. During the day, much of the activity seemed to revolve around the angel. Women were brought to him. Food was prepared and offered. His sons came and went. Leo and the others had seen them stalking in the city below, but they had done nothing to confront them. They wanted the element of surprise. It was their best weapon against an angel and a superior force.

At night, a dozen guards patrolled the grounds, but none of them seemed particularly alarmed or watchful. Irin presence had not been detected.

A low birdcall sounded in the still air.

Leo nodded and Kyra tucked herself behind him, drawing her knives. The next time the guard passed by, Leo leapt on him, muffling any cry with his hand and stabbing a quick silver dagger into the spine of the Grigori. There would be no survivors here. There were no innocents among these men. They would spare the children and young men if they could, but the grown Grigori could not be allowed to live.

“On the right,” Kyra whispered. “Coming down the path.”

Leo ducked back. The first Grigori was already dissolving.

Kyra whispered, “Leo, there’s another—”

“I know.”

Within moments, the second guard passed by the steps of his friend. Just as he was bending down to examine the dust, Leo leapt again. This time the guard let out one sharp cry before Leo took his life.

“Damn.” He dropped the body and let it dissolve.

“How did you know?” Kyra hissed.

“What?”

“About the second man.” She closed her eyes. “The guards are all gone. I don’t hear any minds but our people along the perimeter.”

“Good.” He wiped off his knife. “I heard you the first time. About the second man.”

She frowned. “I only spoke once.”

“No, I’m sure I heard you twice.” He took her hand and jogged down the path. “Unless I’m reading your mind now.”

“I wasn’t trying to push my thoughts to you,” Kyra said. “I’ve never done that on purpose. Only when I’m searching.”

Something about the accidental intrusion pleased him. “Perhaps it’s because we’re reshon,” he said. Then he thought, Perhaps you’ll be able to hear this.

Her eyes lit, and Leo grinned.

“This is going to be fun,” he said. “And today it will be useful.”

Can you hear this?

“Yes!” he whispered. “More later. For now we need to move.”