Page 112 of The Eye of the Fifth
‘Shit,’ Kawai finished.
‘Ignore them, Jak,’ Kyra said, kicking Kawai under the table. ‘Thisisa drinking game and you got these idiots to drink. I’d say that was a successful round.’
Jak’s smile grew. ‘See! I knew what I was doing. Boony, it’s your turn.’
‘Alright,’ Boony said, placing his tankard in front of him and leaning forward slightly. ‘I have never killed someone.’
They all froze.
Jak’s eyes darted from each of their faces to the next. Kyra wasn’t keen to admit her past to them, even if every life she’d ever taken had kept her alive-
‘What a way to keep it light, Boon,’ Kawai murmured, then slowly raised his tankard to his lips.
She peered at him, and he looked right back. Challenge waited on his face. As though he expected her to run away.
But then she drank too.
‘By the Four,’ Jak whispered.
Half-jokingly, Boony said, ‘Should we be worried?’
‘No,’ Kawai chuckled. ‘I’m willing to bet half of Droria has some sort of blood on their hands.’ His gaze found Kyra’s again, a curious tenderness to his golden-brown eyes now. ‘Who was yours?’
She never remembered any of their names. Just their faces. Each and every one of them, seven years worth of kills. Countless faces. ‘I… used to be a fighter,’ she began, trying to ignore the surge of excitement deep in her soul as the monster purred, as if remembering how each kill had felt.
Kyra swallowed her revulsion at its sickening jubilance at the mention of death. She took a big swig of ale. ‘The reason I am alive is because I never lost a fight.’
After a stunned moment, Jak murmured, ‘How many?’
‘Does it matter?’ she retorted defensively, a little harsher than she intended. ‘Avaldale isn’t kind to the fae… I did what I had to do to survive.’
‘We’re not judging you, Kyra,’ Kawai said sincerely, but then his mouth twitched. ‘I am a little more scared of you now, though.’
‘Youshould be,’ Kyra said. ‘You can hold your own when we spar, but if we were fighting to kill, you’d be dead quicker than you last in bed.’
Boony snorted and ale shot out of his nose. Jak howled with laughter as Boony hastily wiped it away, and the tension significantly lifted.
Kawai frowned at her, though a little smirk was playing on his lips. After three tankards of ale, Kyra had to force her lustful, wandering eyes not to linger on his mouth. ‘And how wouldyouknow about that?’
‘Lucky guess,’ Kyra said lightly. Playfully.
‘A pretty accurate guess, I’m sure,’ Boony muttered under his breath, now fully recovered, and Jak cackled even harder next to him.
‘Okay, my turn,’ Kyra said, sitting up a little straighter and welcoming the slight, tipsy sway in her body. ‘I’ve never been with a woman. Or female.’
Laughing, Kawai clinked his tankard against Boony’s then Jak’s. ‘You’re missing out, Kyra.’
‘Am I?’
‘Would you try it?’
Kyra’s smile grew under Kawai’s burning gaze. ‘Of course. Why would I limit myself to just half of the population?’
Boony stuck his reddening face in his tankard. For a man in his mid-thirties, he was particularly prudish.
‘You know, I’ve always thought that,’ Jak chimed thoughtfully, his speech now a little slurred. ‘My father believed a man should be with a woman and a woman should be with a man. But he didn’t know that the first person I ever kissed was the fishmonger’s son that lived next door.’ He gave a mischievous chuckle, hiccoughed, then took a long sip of ale. ‘I don’t think my old man would like that if he knew. But I sure enjoyed it.’
The game continued in that manner, the confessions becoming dirtier and far more exciting. Rosary would have been extremely drunk had she been playing; there wasn’t much she hadn’t seen or done.
