A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)(44)

“Minutes close, and you still need your rest.”

Tiny goose bumps rise on my arms. I’ve always been aware of my own mortality. That doesn’t make almost dying any easier. I cheated death again. Hades must really not want me. He’s probably afraid I’ll cause as much trouble in the Underworld as I will in Thalyria.

I frown, rubbing the chill from my skin. “He hasn’t told you who he is?”

Selena shakes her head.

“Beta Sinta—the new and improved.” I mean to sound sarcastic, but it doesn’t really come out that way.

Something flickers in her eyes, maybe a flash of annoyance. It’s gone so fast I might have imagined it.

“Definitely improved,” she says. “Especially after I got through with him.”

Worry slams through me. “Was he badly hurt?”

“Do you care?”

I hesitate, alarmed by the intensity of my reaction. “I’m…not sure?”

Selena lets out an elegant snort. “You’re not very convincing. And, no, he wasn’t badly hurt. Cuts and slashes. Some blood loss. Nothing irreparable.”

Relief floods me, but the feeling is short-lived. “Did I bleed?”

“Yes, but I burned the tunic and diluted everything else. Nothing traceable was here for more than a few minutes.”

Selena’s never asked who I’m hiding from or why. She protects me regardless. “Thank you.”

She inclines her head so regally I feel like I should kneel, or bow.

“And the others?” I ask.

“The lanky, dark one was weary but fine. Carver, I believe? And the jolly ax-wielder needed his arm fixed, but he wasn’t too damaged otherwise, a bit like your Beta Sinta.”

My heart has a miniature seizure. “He’s not my Beta Sinta.”

She continues like I haven’t spoken. “And the very handsome Kato nearly lost his leg. It took everything I had left in me after finishing with you to save it.”

Kato of the smiling blue eyes and sunny hair. Of Athena. Of wisdom and war. I can’t believe he almost lost a leg.

“They’re all okay, then?” I grin like an idiot. What is wrong with me?

She rises from her chair, fluid and vaguely shimmering. Her grace is legendary. I’m agile and strong, but I’d rather move like sunbeams on water, like Selena.

“In good health and arguing incessantly with Desma and Aetos. Those two are under the impression the Sintans abducted you.”

She’s asking a question. I owe her an answer. “They did. Sort of.”

Her sculpted lips purse. “Help me understand a ‘sort of’ abduction,” Selena says, pouring me a cup of water.

Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like that.

My throat is parched, so I drink before answering. “He’s Beta Sinta. He said he’d have you all arrested if I didn’t come.”

“And you believed him?”

It’s a loaded question coming from Selena. I nod. After nearly a month with him, I also know he would have done it because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to.

“He needs a powerful Magoi to help him and his precious Alpha sister, Egeria.” Egeria is no Alpha. She sounds more like a buttercup. Beta Sinta on the other hand, he’s Alpha material. Fierce on the battlefield, bloody, focused, ruthless…fair?

“Plus, he had a magic rope.”

Selena laughs, and the sound is like wind chimes on a spring breeze. “You? Caught by a magic rope?”

I flush. “Don’t remind me.”

She clears her throat, taming more laughter, and asks, “Will you help him?”

Selena may not know who I am, but I’m certain she knows what I am—the Kingmaker—even if we’ve never discussed it. “My abilities can be valuable in diplomatic situations,” I say carefully.

“He came here to save you. He looked like he cared.”

I shrug, glancing down. “I’m a weapon he doesn’t want to lose.”

“I think there’s more.”

My eyes snap back up. “Don’t infer something that isn’t there. We’re both monsters.”

Her dark-blue gaze flicks over me, unnerving. “Monsters still mate.”

I choke on my own spit and then cough.

A faint smile curves her lips. “Why didn’t you just escape?”

“The rope.” That stupid, infuriating enchanted rope that led me to make a binding vow to stay with Beta Sinta until his—or my, if it comes first—dying day.

She looks incredulous. “You couldn’t find a way out?”

“It was a bloody good rope!”

Sighing, she drops the subject and reaches for my hand. “Of all the monsters chasing you, Cat, you could have been caught by worse.”

I look away from her. Colorful fabrics hang from the domed ceiling of Selena’s tent. I stare at them, thinking she’s right. I don’t usually like to be touched, but I leave my hand where it is. No one has held my hand in years. Except Beta Sinta. But that was different; he was dragging me around.

“Is that your pearl of wisdom for the day?” I ask.

“No, this is. Listen to your heart. You think it’s black. I don’t know everything you’ve been through, but I know enough to understand that your past filled you with hostility and hate. But you still laugh. You still love, and you protect the people you care about. You’re not who you think you are. You’re better, and you’re more.” Her powerful, fathomless gaze holds mine, and a prickly feeling crawls up my nose toward my eyes. “No matter what you think, your heart is still red and beating.” She squeezes my fingers. “Listen to it.”