Page 132 of Voidwalker
“Darling.” Astrid cooed, a brush of breath in Fi’s ear and a nostalgic song that raked down her spine. “You’re always running off too soon. Forgetting important things.”
Cruelty. Fi stiffened as Astrid snaked an arm around her waist, that easy fit that came to them so long ago. The same warmth of Astrid’s body seeping into Fi’s bones. Yet wrapped at her side like the snares of an old vine, Astrid felt different. Harder. Sharper.
Something cold pressed the small of Fi’s back. The hilt of an energy dagger, concealed in Astrid’s affectionate palm.
The ticket inspector backed off, caught off guard by the vavriter, staring rudely at the twin points of Astrid’s antlers. For his sake, Fi kept her grin.
“And yet you always seem to find your way back to me,” she said, mirroring Astrid’s sugary tone. The words were razors on her tongue.
“You must have gotten turned around.” Astrid pressed the dagger hilt to Fi’s spine. “Our seat’s back the other way.”
“Of course. Silly me.”
“Apologies,” she told the inspector. “I’ll keep a closer eye on her.”
He let them go, less concerned with their wanderings so long as they kept to the cheap section of the train. Astrid led Fi down the aisle with a hand too intimate on her back, into the rear passenger car.
They’d played games like this before. One time at a traveling fair, they’d come together beneath garlands of purple peatberry and string lights, spent the night pretending they didn’t know each other. Astrid had slipped sweet whispers into Fi’s ear as they competed for carnival prizes. Slipped hands into daring places. When no one was looking, they’d snuck away into the back room of the distillery. Fi sank her mouth between Astrid’s legs and made her moan until she’d confessed to loving her.
A dagger hilt to the spine had never been a part of the act.
“Good to see you again, Fi,” Astrid whispered, thorns on every word. “Always getting yourself into trouble.”
“I seem to recallyoubeing the one who always got us in trouble,” Fi hissed back.
“Sure, Fi. I got us grounded. I got us yelled at. I got you thatscar down your thigh, the one across your knuckles.” Astrid hardened. “Yousent me to a daeyari.”
Fi couldn’t argue that.
They passed through the last passenger section, into the privacy of a cargo car. Fi scanned the darkness for Antal, but he must have moved on.
“How did you find me?” Fi asked.
Astrid punched her in the jaw.
The blow sent Fi staggering. She caught herself against a crate, fighting dizziness and an ache through her teeth. Copper bloomed on her gums. She spit blood, then Astrid had her by the coat collar, shoved her to the wall. Cold metal rattled Fi’s back.
“It was the strangest thing,” Astrid said. “A Voidwalker working for the rail line ran an inspection yesterday. He reported several new Curtains had appeared. On the tracks, no less.”
Fi hissed a curse. The rail company employed a small army of Voidwalkers—one of the more boring career options she’d considered after running away from home—but they typically worked at the stations, guiding passengers on and off the Plane. To have caught one out on line inspection was rotten luck.
Astrid’s eyes were black in the dark, a glint as she surveyed the rest of the train car. “Where’s the daeyari?”
“What daeyari?”
Astrid had her dagger out in a flash. No longer a bare hilt. A blade of mauve vavriter energy pressed Fi’s throat, casting cruel shadows across the crates.
“Oh, Fi.” Astrid spoke honeyed words as her dagger seared Fi’s neck. “We’ve been apart a long time. Don’t assume you still know how to push my buttons.”
Was it the harsh light, making Astrid’s face look so foreign? The shadows under her eyes were too deep. Her lips were toorough, chapped, marred by the silver slip of a new scar on her chin. Fi had spent so long trying to bury this guilt, fleeing rather than facing the phantom holding her by the throat.
Fi did this to them. Fi was the coward who ran and never came back.
But.
A creeping, kindlingbuthad been burrowing in her skull ever since Cardigan’s villa. Cardigan, who had a Voidwalker all along. One who could cut Curtains. Astrid must have known. But she’d still cornered Fi in Thomaskweld to make her a part of this.
Fi had abandoned Astrid, left her on her own for a decade,butFi had every reason to believe Astrid would survive. In return, Astrid had put Fi in mortal danger. Multiple times.
