“Because you didn’t have control over what happened to your mother?”

Her teeth and lips knitted together. “I failed me ma.”

“How?”

“By not savin’ her.”

“You think you could’ve taken on a few guards and dozens of villagers who were set on their path?”

“If I’d learned how to use me Ability sooner, then aye, I coulda beaten ’em all.”

“You didn’t even know you had an Ability.”

“But Ma did! An’ she died to keep me secret! She died because o’ me!”

“She died for you, there’s a difference.”

“Don’ change how dead she is, does it? I still cain’t see her, I still cain’t hug her, or laugh with her, or do nuthin’ with her. She’s still gone an’ I’ll never see her agin and I cain’t even show her whut I’m doin’ or learnin’ or becomin’ because I’m all alone now.”

“Yes, you are.”

She almost took off her shoe and threw it at him, her frustration boiling over. “Thanks fer the talk, but I’d best be off to check me traps.”

“Or you could help me.”

She paused, anger still warm beneath the surface of her skin. “An’ why would I do that?”

“How did those night ’shrooms work out for you?”

She closed her eyes, knowing he had her. “Ye already know the answer to that one. Fine, I owe ye. Name yer price.”

“I need you to help me get to Comman Dur. Tonight.”

“The prison? Lemme give ye a geography lesson. That’s miles to the south, almost as far as Dunmire. It’ll take days to git there.”

“I bet you can find a way to make it happen much faster than that.”

“My Ability?” She laughed at the absurdity of the suggestion. “Even if I had anuther bloodheart—which I don’t—an’ I decide to eat aforementioned bloodheart—which, lest ye’ve forgotten, ye jest told me not to do fer at least a week—it’s not like I cain fly. I cain only stop myself from fallin’ an’ levytate a bit. With ye on my back? We’d crash face first back into the dirt.”

“I wasn’t talking about your Ability.”

For the first time since they’d started talking, Perfidy was genuinely puzzled as to his meaning. “Then whut?”

“You sensed her earlier, in the forest. I sensed her, too, but that’s different. Even now, you can feel her, whereas I’ve lost track.”

“Sensed who? Ye don’ mean that big ol’ bloodpanther, do ye? ’Cause I cain’t sense her—how do ye even know it’s a ‘her’ anyway?”

“The same way you do. But you can sense her. You’re just not trying.”

“I am tryin’. Or at least I’m tryin’ to try but it’s kinda hard when ye keep jabberin’ on ’bout it an’, wait a minute, how do ye even know whether I’m tryin’ or—”

He’s right, you know.

She clamped her mouth shut, eyes going wide. The voice hadn’t been Cainan’s, and anyway, his lips had remained closed. The voice was fierce and deep, lustrous and multi-layered. It was also undoubtedly female, laced with a silkiness that women of the night could only hope to achieve, or at least Perfidy assumed.