Dance of Thieves (Dance of Thieves 1)

She balked, but only a little, and it seemed she was happy to have something else to occupy her mind besides what had been lurking there. She rolled onto her side to face me, settling in, comfortable. “Listen carefully,” she said. “I won’t repeat it a dozen times like I did for the hunter.”

“You won’t need to. I’m a good listener.”

She said the words slowly, deliberately, like she was imagining the world behind the picture she painted. I watched her lips as she formed each word, her voice relaxed and soft, once again confident, her golden eyes watching mine, making sure I paid attention and missed nothing.

“My face is full, but also slight,

I pale in the bright of light,

I whisper sweet to the forest owl,

I kiss the air with wolf’s sad howl,

Eyes follow me from sea to sea,

Yet alone in this world … I will ever be.”

I stared at her, swallowed, my thoughts suddenly jumbled.

“Well?” she asked. I knew the answer but I drew it out, offering several wrong answers, making her laugh once. It was the first time I had seen her laugh, genuine, without any pretense, and it filled me with a strange burst of heat.

“The moon,” I finally answered.

Our gazes held, and she seemed to know what I was doing.

“Tell me another one,” I said.

And she did. A dozen more, until her lids grew heavy and she finally fell asleep.

Prepare your hearts,

For we must not only be ready

for the enemy without,

but also the enemy within.

—Song of Jezelia

CHAPTER TWELVE

KAZI

I woke to weight pinning me down. The heat of skin on mine. A hand over my mouth. “Shhh. Don’t move.” Jase’s face hovered next to mine.

I jerked but his weight pushed harder. And then I heard it.

Footsteps.

The crunch of leaves.

A breath.

Jase’s mouth pressed close to my ear. A bare whisper. “Don’t move no matter what.”

Leaves stirred, careless footsteps. Heavy steps that didn’t care about noise.

The sky above us was still dark, just tinged with dawn, the black silhouette of trees barely lacing an outline above us. Jase’s face was a shadow near mine, and his heart pounded against my chest.