The Tiger at Midnight (The Tiger at Midnight Trilogy #1)(24)

With a quick swipe, Esha unleashed two metal traps on the branches Kunal had been reaching for. As they fell, they shaved off the branches, leaving clean stumps of wood behind. He stared at them and then her in disbelief, his mouth agape.

“Monkey traps. I just saved your arms, probably your life as well,” she said. He shook his head. “I’m a trader. I can spot illegal traps. Monkey fur is prized up north, and earns a pretty coin. They’re set up everywhere nowadays with the market the way it is.”

She hadn’t meant to save his life; she’d been acting on instinct, having lost a fellow rebel to a trap during a mission. Having a dead soldier on her hands might have been easier than one who was looking at her the way he was now, with those piercing amber eyes. But they also shone with gratitude, and that could maybe buy her some time.

“I’m surprised you soldiers don’t know about them,” she finished.

Esha began to ease herself off Kunal, flushing as she realized she had thrown herself against him to hold him back. He caught her arm, his fingers like embers against her cool skin, and helped them both into more comfortable sitting positions. Dots of green dust painted her arms where his hands had held her.

“I hate to admit it, but we’ve never been trained to spot these things. We don’t spend a lot of time in the Tej, or any forest, especially when the king is on a campaign. The other men say it’s because the Tej terrifies him,” Kunal said. His shock at the snares seemed to have loosened his tongue. Esha didn’t mind. It was giving her information she could store away for a future mission. “Thank you, I mean. You saved me,” he said.

Esha nodded, unable to do anything else in the face of his sudden warmth. The earlier mistrust had disappeared from his face and while it should have made Esha feel jubilant, it instead made her stomach swirl in confusion.

She wasn’t honorable. She had acted on instinct. Tricks and lies were her entire life. What kind of Viper would she be without them?

A dead one.

She drew her breath back into her body and stood a little straighter. “You’re very welcome. Least I could do after you saved me twice,” she said, adding a lightness to her voice that she didn’t feel. She was glad she could still play this role, this easygoing trader girl.

It was surprisingly nice to pretend.

The night around them had become unyielding despite the soft illumination of the rain forest, the buzz of cicadas, and the musty scent of the soil below. They needed to make camp for the night, and to her chagrin, she realized she didn’t mind the idea of having someone watch her back for once.

She watched him as he removed the rest of his armor with more care. Streaks of green dust and moss danced along his neck, forearms, and sides. She realized she was staring and looked away sharply.

“We can’t light a fire up here.”

That was obvious, but she nodded and rubbed her hands together.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. The words drew Esha’s gaze to his face. She tensed as the tiger shrieked again, though it was quieter this time. Kunal shifted as well, but hid it with a cough.

“About what?” She genuinely didn’t know.

“Lost, chased by a tiger, stuck in a tree with me. No proper fire. A rough day for a lady.”

Esha laughed at that.

“I’m not a lady, and I’ve had much worse,” she said. If only he knew. She realized she had let her mask slip, but decided to let it go. It made sense that a trader would know the hardships of travel. “It wasn’t as if I was going to be camping on a soft wool-covered bed if I hadn’t run into you. I’d still be trying to escape a tiger—just alone.”

“You’ve had worse than this? I’d like to hear that story,” he said, smiling. She gave him a look that said he would have to get to know her much better to get that story out of her.

She had too many stories to count from her role as the Viper these past five years.

The glory, the tall tales, the power. Some days, the days where she felt like she had to keep everything nestled in her chest, where she was alone, again, on another long mission, she would trade it all for a genuine word that she could trust. A sliver of a real relationship with someone who saw her as a girl of seventeen, almost eighteen—a girl who, in a normal life, would already have been betrothed or apprenticed by now.

A girl who should have had her parents by her side, who should’ve still been daydreaming about the embroidered gold on her wedding sari and scheming about how to sneak a scroll from the library. Whose hands should’ve been covered in sugar from milk sweets rather than blood from a grown man.

The world was a danger to her as the Viper. And as such, she kept the world at a distance. She tried to ignore the pit in her stomach as she realized she might have to keep Harun and her team at a distance until she discovered more about the general’s killer.

She wanted to believe they were loyal, but . . .

“Are you tired?” He broke the silence, mistaking her sudden quietness.

“No, not really. The excitement of everything over the past day should have me snoring like a babe, but instead my mind is racing,” she said, easing back into the crook of the wide branch, trying to get comfortable.

“That’s normal.” She glanced up at him as he spoke, noticing the way the green light created a halo around him as he settled on the opposite branch, his body sprawled in an uncomfortable position. “I can never sleep well the night before a battle, or even before a normal scouting trip.” He looked at her as if deciding whether to say more.