Page 32 of Tamhas

Stop that, I silently urged my dragon. Now’s not the time for that.

He was having none of it..

I couldn’t give in. Not yet. Not until she understood. It wouldn’t be fair to her if I took her unawares, bound us together forever without her knowing everything there was to know.

Not to mention the fact that there were things I wanted to know as well. Too many unanswered questions.

“May I sit?” I asked, gesturing to the foot of the cot.

“It’s yours, isn’t it?” She stood rather than share the cot with me.

I could understand that, even if I didn’t like it much.

Keira walked back and forth in front of me, from one set of bars to the other. “Why did you come? What do you want to know that I haven’t already told you?”

“I want to know who you are.”

“You know that,” she hissed, shooting me a filthy look. I had to remind myself of what she’d reportedly done to three full-grown dragons outside the cave. I was in a cell with this woman. She was no dainty, fragile thing.

With that in mind, I chose my words carefully in spite of my dragon’s protests. “I know what you’ve told me. Surely, there’s something else you never shared.”

“Such as?”

“Such as your heritage,” I suggested. “Who your parents are. Your siblings. Aunts, grandmothers. Do you know anything about your lineage?”

She raised an eyebrow, appraising me. “I see. You believe I’m one of these priestesses Alan was talking about.”

“I only want to know what you know about your lineage. That’s all.”

Her jaw tightened, and she blew out a gust of air through her flared nostrils. Frustration seeped from her every pore, it seemed. “I wish I could tell you. I truly do.”

My heart sank even as the dragon reared in my head. “Are you truly this stubborn? Or are you just daft? Do you not understand that I’m trying to help you?” How could she remain so immovable? She was in a cell! How much worse did it need to get before she began to cooperate?

“Do you not understand what I’m trying to say?” she whispered through clenched teeth. She stopped her pacing, coming to a halt in front of me. “I was orphaned as an infant. I know nothing about my lineage, as you put it. No grandparents, aunts, siblings. Nothing. I have no past.”

Ahhh…

The dragon was pleased with this, because it added to the truth of her claims. If she didn’t know…

“There are no records?”

She shrugged. “How would I know?”

“You never tried to find—”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, so stop asking questions about it. You’ll never understand.” She turned away, hands gripping the bars tight enough that her knuckles stood out in stark prominence.

“I’m sorry. You’re right, I have no idea. I suppose the myth that orphaned children always wish to find their families is just that. A myth.”

She nodded slowly. “It isn’t that I didn’t want to, though,” she explained in a choked whisper. “I did want to. For a long time.”

When she looked over her shoulder, I noticed a tear running down her cheek. Even in near-darkness, it sparkled like a diamond. “Do you know what I do when I’m not fighting? I find people for a living. I work as a private investigator and bounty hunter. I’m damned good at it, too.”

“I’m sure you are.” She would be good at anything, as special as she was.

“But I’ve never found them. Don’t you get it? Never. Not a shred of evidence that I even had parents.” She pushed away from the bars, rubbing her hands together as she continued pacing. “I mean, look at you. You live with what I’m guessing is an extended family—I mean, you all look similar, and you all…”

She stopped and swallowed hard.

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