She examined the dark granite walls. Then the steel cases of supplies stacked to one side. When she looked at the dwindling fire, she followed the thread of smoke toward the mouth of the cave.

“Yeah,” Perry said. “That’s the way out. But you’re not leaving yet.”

She turned to him, her gaze catching on his Markings. “What do you want from me, Savage?”

“Is that what you call us?”

“You’re murderers. Diseased. Cannibals.” She flung the words at him like curses. “I’ve heard the stories.”

Perry crossed his arms. She lived under a rock. What did she know about anything? “Guess we’re well-named, Mole.”

She watched him with a look of disgust. Then she touched her throat with a skitty hand. “I need water. Is there water?”

He took his leather waterskin from his satchel and held it up.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Water.”

“It looks like an animal.”

“It used to be.” The pouch protecting the bottle inside was made of goat hide.

“It looks filthy,” she said.

Perry unstopped the cork and drank deeply. “Tastes fine.” He shook it so the water sloshed around. “Lose your thirst?”

The girl snatched it from his hand, darted back to her spot. She shut her eyes and drank. When she was done, he raised a hand. “Keep it.” No way he’d drink from it now.

“Why were you out in the open?” he asked.

“Why should I tell you?”

“I saved your life. Twice, by my count.”

She sat forward. “You’re wrong! I’m here because of you. Guess who they think let you in?”

That surprised him. He shifted his back on the cool rock, wondering what had happened after he’d left her that night. It didn’t matter. He’d done what he could. Now there was only Talon to think of.

Perry slid his knife from the sheath at his hip. He checked the edge of the blade with his thumb, turning it so it caught the firelight. “I don’t have time to waste, Mole. Don’t think it would take much to make you talk.”

“You don’t scare me with that.”

Perry inhaled deeply. Her lie was acrid and sharp, bringing a bitter taste to his mouth. She wasn’t scared. She was terrified.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“Your scent.”

Her lower lip quivered. “You drink from a rabbit and you think I smell?”

Perry knew what was coming when she started laughing. He caught the shift in the air like the drag of a dark tide. She wouldn’t be laughing for long.

He went outside and sat on a smooth boulder. It was a gray dusk, pulling a cold night in its wake. He sat and breathed and tried not to imagine Talon sobbing for his home like the girl in the cave.

Chapter 13 - Aria

Chapter 13
ARIA