Gods, he’d been such a bastard. How had she ever allowed herself to think for one minute that she loved him? Who could ever love such a selfish prick?

A tear slid down her cheek as the pain of her past sank its claws into her heart. Sumi wiped it away before Thia saw it. There was no need in thinking about the life she’d had before. She was an assassin now. Her marriage was to The League alone. And at least it wouldn’t be too many more years of torture. She was already over the average life expectancy of an assassin. Sooner more likely than later, someone, probably Hauk, would kill her before she got them.

That was her life. The best she could hope for was to save her daughter from the same fate.

Clearing her throat, she brought the topic back to Fain. “Where’s Hauk’s brother now?”

Thia stroked the lorina’s head as it napped on her leg. “He lives as an Outcast and nomad. Sometimes in human zones. Sometimes Andarion, even though it’s dangerous. He never stays in one place too long.”

“So he’s healthy?”

Pausing her hand midstroke, Thia pinned her with a gimlet stare. “You’re showing a lot of interest in Fain. Should I ask why?”

There was no missing the underlying threat in those words. She better assuage the girl’s suspicions or she’d be meeting with a bad accident soon. “Curious is all. Sorry. I ask questions when I’m nervous. I rather stumbled into all of your lives. I’m just trying to get my bearings.”

Thia seemed to accept that. “I know the feeling. It took me awhile to acclimate to all of them myself. Especially Uncle Hauk.” A nostalgic smile tugged at her lips. “The first time I met him, I thought he was going to cut my heart out and eat it, and I ran screaming down the hallway.”

“Why would you think that?”

She raked a less-than-flattering look over Sumi’s body. “You do that now and you’re a trained assassin who’s a lot closer to his height than I was or am. Not to mention that whole wide-as-a-house thing he has going for him… It’s extremely off-putting, especially when you’re a kid. That male can palm a twenty-pound bowling ball. Seriously. I’ve seen him do it.”

Illyse rose suddenly and hissed.

Before either of them could move, the lorina launched herself into the darkness. Thia shot to her feet and pulled her blaster out.

“Relax, Thee, it’s just me.” With Illyse by his side, Hauk slowly made his way into the circle of firelight, carrying a giant beast over his shoulder.

Sumi’s eyes widened at the size of the creature while Thia holstered her weapon. “When you hunt, you don’t play around, do you?”