Daivad led Jac to the edge of camp, to a tree growing crookedly out of the side of a hill and dripping with vines. He pulled a fistful of leafy vines back to reveal a cave opening among the enormous roots. Jac hesitated a moment just before the ground sloped down, and she sent Daivad a look that said she didn’t trust him, even if Nyxabella did. Then, with pride nudging her chin up a bit, she stepped past him. Down here the air was just as damp as in the forest above, but it was much cooler and scented with silt and stone. 

Daivad hated it down here. The fact that he’d carved out the cave himself didn’t change that. 

He did his best to use his own body to block her view of the infirmary and the few sleeping figures in the cots there as they passed, but her golden eyes snagged on a child, dangling her legs over the edge of her cot, a hacking cough jerking at her little shoulders.

Daivad, careful not to touch Jac because he was sure that wouldn’t end well, hurried her on to his least favorite part of the entire camp. 

It was a dark, cramped room, and lighting the glowstones did nothing to improve Daivad’s comfort here. It was just a private part of the infirmary, the heavy wooden door didn’t even have a lock on it, but Daivad felt like he couldn’t move in here. He’d brought Jac to this room because it was the only part of camp outside of the actual village that offered much privacy, and if he didn’t want camp-wide panic on his hands, he certainly needed to keep things private. He’d already been too careless while questioning Nyxabella, and he didn’t know what Jac had said to Tobei and Ben. But if it spread that people connected to the crown had found them…

One problem at a time.

Daivad forced himself to close the door behind them, even though it made his skin crawl. When he turned, Jac was already seated on a cot, hands folded on top of her crossed legs, looking up at him like a challenge. Daivad kicked one of the wooden stools toward the center of the room and sat. 

After a brief staring contest, Daivad asked, “How do you know her?” and jerked his head toward the door behind him. 

Jac gave the slow, lazy blink of a dozing lioness and said nothing.

Already, Daivad was frustrated. This was why he delegated this shit to Tobei, usually. Daivad won battles, not arguments. But Tobei hadn’t been able to stop Jac from smashing up his camp—and besides, he’d seen the way Tobei looked at her. Sticking them in a room together would end productive only for Tobei, not Daivad.

Daivad asked himself, what would Tobei do?

And immediately shook himself from the thought that followed.

So he fell back on what he knew. “Name a reason I shouldn’t kill you.”

Those lazy eyes lit up. The lioness had spotted prey. “Even if I had one, I’d keep it clutched just for the pleasure of watching you try.”

“You and your friend,” he added.

Jac bristled, but after a beat said, “Belle can handle herself.” 

There was the telltale stutter of her heartbeat. She was lying, maybe even to herself. He pushed. “Not against me and my people.”

She said nothing, just lifted her chin.

“I have people to protect,” Daivad said. “And now there’s two strangers in my camp who stink of Broken Earth.” The name his “family” had given to the castle they’d cut into the side of the mountain and the city they’d built around it. His claim was only half true—Nyxabella had only traces of those scents on her, and Jac smelled only of sweat and ale, but he knew they’d come here together. 

The claim did the trick. Her lip curled.

“I’ll need one hell of a reason to let you two leave breathing.”

A few seconds ticked by before she said, “Talk to Belle.”

“I’m talking to you,” he said. “Filling my questions with answers is a start. How do you know her?”

For a minute, she just stared at him, jaw clenched. Then, to his surprise, she smiled. 

She uncrossed her legs with a bit of flourish and reached over to the rough table against one wall and dragged it between them. Then she planted her elbow, offered her hand, and said, “You win, I’ll fill up every empty question you got.”