Bound by Forever (True Immortality 3)

She flicked him a surprised look, then her brows puckered as if she’d just realized what she’d conveyed. “Not me and my brother. Just me. Thank goodness.”

“What happened?”

She didn’t answer.

A sting grew hot in his chest. Kiyo ignored it and they strode in silence, following the signs for the dining room. It turned out to be buffet-style service, the food less than appealing. Yet it was food, so it would do. There were only a few other hotel guests in the room.

They separated while they filled their plates and then Kiyo spotted Niamh at a table for two in the corner, far away from anyone else.

He sat down, noting for someone who wasn’t hungry, she’d piled her plate almost as high as he had. Kiyo raised an eyebrow.

She flashed him a quick, sheepish grin. “I got hungry when I saw the food.”

Amusement eased his earlier irritation and his lips twitched around a forkful of deli meat.

“I went into hiding for a while,” Niamh said abruptly. At his obvious confusion, she continued, “You asked what happened. With the going-hungry thing.”

He was silent but nodded for her to go on.

Niamh shrugged. “I disappeared off the map a few months ago. I disappeared even from myself. Does that make sense?”

Yeah, that made total sense to him. Kiyo nodded again.

“I don’t even remember how I got to the room or when or …” Her lovely eyes were dark and hollow with an emotion he recognized.

Grief.

This was about her brother.

“I don’t know how long I was there exactly. I estimate about ten days or so.” Her rueful smile was limp, joyless. “I felt the hunger pains, but it was the cramps from dehydration that pulled me out of the black hole. I knew I wouldn’t die … but I also didn’t know it would hurt so much.” She gave him a considering look. “It didn’t last. By the time I pushed myself to my feet to get out of that room, the pain started to dissipate. And I felt strangely stronger but hard. Brittle. Like I was made of stone.” Her eyes rounded with shock, like she hadn’t meant to give that much away. She dropped her gaze to her plate. “Anyway, I stepped out of the room into an apartment I didn’t recognize, into a city I didn’t know. Turned out I was in Hamburg. I don’t even remember getting there from Munich …”

Kiyo studied her as she got lost in her memories. What she said, about the hunger and dehydration pains eventually disappearing, her body growing stronger for it, reminded him of what she’d said about her kindness being her greatest gift. Maybe it was generally her human emotions they had to be thankful for. It sounded like her human habits were what kept her from becoming fully fae.

Her gaze lifted to meet his again and the hair on the back of his neck rose with awareness.

“You’ve known hunger, too, haven’t you?”

How the hell did she know that?

He looked down at his plate and stabbed his fork through half a boiled egg. “I’ve known many things,” he answered evasively.

Kiyo felt Niamh’s annoyance, and perhaps hurt, without even looking at her.

She didn’t ask him any more questions.

In fact, she didn’t talk for the rest of the meal.

And considering Kiyo liked the quiet, it unnerved him that he missed the sound of her gentle voice with its lilting Irish accent.

The silence stretched between them as they finished their meal and then as they walked back to their rooms. As they strolled into the lobby, the girl behind the desk flagged them down.

“This arrived for you.” She gestured to a large duffle bag.

“Bran,” Kiyo muttered, taking up the bag.

Niamh thanked the girl and they strode upstairs. They seemed to have come to an unspoken agreement that using the elevator was a bad idea for two people who didn’t want to find themselves cornered.

Gesturing for Niamh to follow him into his room, he threw the bag on the bed and unzipped it. Inside were two new passports, more cash than Kiyo knew what to do with, a couple of pairs of jeans and shirts, clean underwear and bras for Niamh as well as jeans and tees and underwear for him.

“These will fit perfectly,” she said, holding the jeans against her body. Her eyes flickered to the bras and twinkled with amusement. “How did he know?”

Kiyo ripped his attention from the new bras to the dark jeans and black tees Bran had put in the bag for him. He grunted in acknowledgment, realizing they’d fit him perfectly too. There were even black hair ties, and he knew they were for him. He was no longer surprised by Bran’s unnerving accuracy and efficiency.

And, as if on cue, a cell rang inside the bag.

Kiyo dug through it and noted the flash of silver at the bottom.