“Aw, c’mon. Throw me a bone here. If I’m going to risk dying beneath the claws of one of their ilk, I’d sure like to know what the deal is.” I eyed him. “Surely it isn’t because the Jontari were killing all the summoners?”
Rhyzkahl gave a derisive snort. “The summoners who perished were either careless and lost control of the vortex and bindings, or were reckless enough to summon a creature far beyond their abilities to control.” He e
yed me right back. “Such as an imperator.”
“Subtle.”
He crouched and resumed pulling up vines. His face was a cool mask, but he flung the vines away with more force.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Quite perceptive of you.”
“Fine. Keep your little secrets.” I didn’t mind him having that little win since it was a warmup to my real purpose. I folded into a cross-legged sit—away from any not-so-accidental dirt spatters. “I like Janice,” I said casually. “She’s smart and open-minded and doesn’t take shit.”
The tension cording his shoulders eased slightly. “I enjoy her company.”
“And she clearly enjoys yours, too.” I plucked a blade of grass and wound it between my fingers. “I can’t imagine how lonely you lords must have been when the ways were closed during those years after the cataclysm.”
“Centuries,” he said, and only the barest hitch in his voice revealed that I’d brushed a nerve. He shifted to the inner circumference of his orbit and began pinching dead blooms from clumps of yellow flowers. “It is no secret that we qaztahl enjoy the . . . endlessly entertaining presence of humans in the demon realm.” His tone became lofty, as if to imply human company was akin to watching kittens play. “Your species’ antics are an interesting diversion.”
Smartass replies crowded forward, but rising to his bait wouldn’t serve my purpose. “Would it really be so terrible to admit that you’ve occasionally had feelings for a human?”
He fell silent for several heartbeats, though his deft fingers continued to remove spent blooms. “There have been humans whose company I enjoyed more than others,” he said. Grudgingly.
I suppressed a grin of victory.
But Rhyzkahl shocked me by adding, “Elinor was dear to me.” He turned and met my eyes. “But this you know already.”
A flush crept up my neck, even though I hadn’t spied on his intimate moments with Elinor on purpose.
“Through the millennia, I have held fondness for others as well,” he said.
“What about Tessa?” I asked with a bared-teeth smile. “Were you fond of her, or was she just a casual fuck?”
Rhyzkahl went still.
“Surely you remember my aunt,” I growled. “Yeah, I know you slept with her a couple of decades before you seduced, used, and tortured me.” Damn it. I clamped my mouth shut and slammed a lid on the flood of condemnation that threatened to escape. “What’s done is done. Just tell me. What was she to you?”
Rhyzkahl returned to culling flowers. “I was fond of Tessa Pazhel—as a student and a bedmate.” A smile briefly touched his eyes. “At times Janice reminds me of her, with her spirited conversation and equally spirited bedding.” He frowned and flicked a bug from a leaf. “My realm grew lonelier when Tessa chose to return to Earth and . . .” His frown deepened.
Aha! I leaned forward. “Why did she leave?”
His shoulders lifted in a careless shrug. “To return to Earth,” he repeated.
A pat and simple reply. And too much like the programmed responses given by people who’d been manipulated.
“But why?” I pressed. “What was her explanation?”
“She decided—” Uncertainty flitted across his face. “No, she . . .” Still crouched, he jerked around to face me, muscles rigid. He’d surely manipulated enough humans to know what it meant when there was a wrinkle in an otherwise smooth memory. A glitch in the matrix.
He didn’t speak a word, but I felt him pleading, urging me to tell him.
What to say? I did not want to cause another vicious headache. The last one had been triggered by Rhyzkahl’s thoughts of his own parentage. I had to assume the info about the lords’ own kids would be protected as well. “Too much sun will give you a headache.” I nudged my head toward the grove tree. “How about taking a break in the shade?”
Without a word, Rhyzkahl stood, strode to the tree, and rested his back against it. I followed at a more leisurely pace to give time for the tree-calm to take effect. By the time I reached him, his features were relaxed, and the tension gone from his stance.
“She returned to Earth because she was pregnant,” I said. “Tessa told me that she was living in Japan and had a fling with some American guy and that the baby was stillborn.” I paused. “But it wasn’t.”