“No threat? Have you gone mad? She’s here. She’s living in Lostwood.”

“Not intentionally. You surmised it yourself—the forest grew around her cabin. She shouldn’t be punished for that.”

“We’re not punishing her, just relocating her. With that face, I’m certain she’ll be able to find a husband in no time. Someone who’ll put a roof over her head and food in her belly.”

Envy burned as hot as a flame within him, and he felt the flesh around his mouth and neck heating up, as though preparing to be called upon. But he’d mastered his Ability a long time ago, and well in his past were the days when emotion caused him to lose control. He took a couple of deep, steadying breaths until the feeling passed.

The smoke from the cabin’s chimney swirled higher, like a beacon.

“We should speak to the Sightless before we do anything.” He knew he was just buying time, but it was his only option at the moment. In the five years that Sinna had been his partner, he’d learned she wasn’t the most patient person.

“Why? They’ll say the same thing. Anyway, we have their full authority to handle minor issues like this. In fact, they’ll laude us for coming to them with a solution rather than a problem. Goddess knows they already have enough of them as it is.”

Everything she was saying made perfect sense and he would usually agree with her, but something, some instinct beyond his interest in the woman’s beauty, was telling him they should wait. “What if she’s a potential new recruit?” he blurted out, not realizing that’s what he’d been thinking until the words left his tongue. He turned, finally meeting Sinna’s eyes.

“Has she shown any signs of an Ability?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Any evidence that she’s consumed godsblood, whether by accident or intentionally?”

“No, of course not, but—”

“Any golden discoloration around her eyes?”

“No, but there’s something different about her, alright?” he blurted out, growing frustrated.

“Like…what?” Sinna said, quirking an eyebrow.

He took a deep breath, looking away. “She spoke to me.”

“Spoke to you?”

“Yes, just before you arrived. She invited me inside for lunch.”

“For lunch?”

“Yes.” He felt foolish just talking about it, but he needed something to change the trajectory of the conversation, and this was all he had.

“You let her see you? Have you gone mad?”

“She didn’t see me.”

He could feel Sinna’s eyes boring into him, but he didn’t meet them. “If she didn’t see you, then how did she know you were there in order to, ahem, invite you to, ahem, lunch?”