Page 111 of The Silent
“You’re not helpless. You’re operating at full capacity right now. That’s theproblem.”
“Ha!” Her laugh was bitter. “Operating at full capacity. That’s anewone.”
“As long as I’m with you…” His face darkened. “I’m stayingwithyou.”
“ButRithsaid—”
“Rith is not my watcher. He may be leading this mission because he has the right magic, but he’s not my watcher, and he can’t make me abandon my mate in the middle of a battle. I agree with Sura. There’s something on that weaving that Prija needs to see, and I think it has to do with why Arindam’s men took her in the firstplace.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “Honestly, I think I’d be useless closer to the Fallen without you keeping meclear.”
“Exactly. And if Prija is the weapon her brothers think she is, then she could be the one to turn thefight.”
“She’s…”
“What?”
Kyra shook her head. “She’s angry. I can hear her. She’s angry and dark. That’s the only way to describe it. Imagine a black hedge around someone. That’s what Prija feels likerightnow.”
“Why soangry?”
“I don’t know. She doesn’t sound afraid in the least. Just…angry.”
“Does she think… Could she be thinking that her brothersabandonedher?”
“Possibly? I can’t talk to her from a distance, and there’s no guarantee she’s felt my presence or knows I can hear her. She might think she’s beenabandoned.”
“Then when she see us, this anger should fly, shouldn’t it? She’ll realize we didn’tleaveher.”
Kyra offered him a sad smile. “It doesn’t always work that way. By the time we find her, she may no longer trust her senses. She might not be rational at all. It’s easy to get lost in thedarkness.”
“Haveyou?”
Shenodded.
“What pulledyouout?”
“Kostas,”shesaid.
Leo looked at his phone. “Do you want tocallhim?”
She shook her head. “When we’re safe. When it’s happy news. Notworrying.”
He wasn’t sure it was the right decision, but it washerdecision. “Ifyou’resure.”
“I’msure.”
He stood and lifted her in his arms, carrying her to the bed where he laid her down and slid behind her. He took his usual position. One hand under her shirt and flat against her skin. His arm cradling her head. “We need to sleep,” he said, already drifting in the warm afternoon. “It’s less than twelve hours before we attack thecompound.”
To Kyra’s credit, she didn’t seem nervous at all. “I’ll stay with you. I’m notfoolish.”
“Iknow.”
She grabbed his hand and put it on her breast. “Love me before wesleep.”
“It won’t be too much?” He’d been careful with her since arriving inBagan.
“You are nevertoomuch.”
