the cab, she waved. “If you don’t hurry, someone will take them, and we’ll be left to fight for spots until the next stop.”
The shadows lingering around my frame receded. She hadn’t broken her word. Hadn’t tried to escape.
Calem was the first to snap out of it, his wicked grin spreading a mile wide. “Smart thinking.”
“It will be several hours before we reach Eastrend. Make yourself comfortable.” Kost shot Calem a stern glare when he dropped into the seat right beside Leena, stretched both arms to the ceiling, then draped one behind her head and the other across the empty space beside him. My fingers twitched, a high-pitched whine groaning from the bowels of the train as steam covered the windows. “But not too comfortable.”
Calem grinned. “You’re the boss, Kost.”
* * *
A quiet giggle broke my peaceful sleep, sparking something light in my chest. Without moving, I slid my eyes open. The cab had since emptied as the train barreled farther south, leaving only a slumbering couple huddled together at the far end of the car. Kost had moved to a row ahead of me, his back pressed firmly against the windowpane with his legs stretched out before him. Nose-deep in a book, he hadn’t noticed I’d woken. Calem snored from a few rows up: mouth open and neck craned at an impossible angle as his head jostled between window and headrest. Ozias…
Another small laugh. A carefree grin graced Leena’s face, and she mumbled something to Ozias while cupping her hands. It was impossible not to smile as I watched her, entirely enraptured, and I wasn’t the only one. A groaning, invisible door signified the opening of the beast realm, and Ozias brought his forehead in close, squinted eyes deciphering something in her palms.
“She’s cute, isn’t she?” Leena cooed, and a miniscule monkey leaped from her hands and landed on Ozias’s cotton work shirt. A snaking tail longer than his torso curled behind her. Leena tossed a furtive look at the sleeping couple before giving a quick nod. “Hold out your hand.”
Palm flat, he gestured toward the creature. Tawny in color with three blue eyes and hands too big for her body, the creature gripped one of his thick fingers and hoisted herself up. A soft clucking bubbled from her throat, and Ozias beamed. “You think she likes me?”
I snorted softly to myself, but Leena pressed her elbows to her thighs, dipping her face to meet the monkey’s. “Of course. Her name is Tila. She’s a Dosha, a D-Class beast. She’s immune to any poison and can detect whether food is safe for consumption. She’s also incredibly nimble, as you might imagine.”
Tila cocked her head before suddenly launching herself onto the handrail above them. A tacky slime oozed from her fingertips. A tremor of concern tugged at Leena’s brows, and she glanced again at the couple. Beasts weren’t illegal, but their rarity drew attention.
Leena extended her hand and tickled Tila’s underbelly. “C’mon, get down from there.” Her voice was soft and tender, and the warmth in my chest hinted briefly at longing. The kind of emotion that came with true connection to another person. Comfort. Happiness.
“The pores in the pads along her fingers exude the world’s strongest adhesive. They accept their Charmer by gluing themselves to the Charmer’s side.” Leena waited as Tila unstuck herself and crawled over her jacket before nestling into the crook of her neck.
Ozias placed a gentle finger on the beast’s head. “Thank you for sharing her with me. How many beasts do you have?”
Leena’s smile widened. She was more alive, more intriguing with every second she spoke of her beasts, and it was too much. She couldn’t be anything more than a mark. Not when she’d threatened my second-in-command. Spilled Kost’s blood. That thought pushed away the whispers of warmth, and I settled back into my chair.
Leena happily sighed. “I have a lot of little guys like this. When Charmers first start out, they can only tame E-Class beasts, and so on and so forth as their abilities develop and they climb the ranks. In Hireath, many creatures naturally flock to the surrounding meadows. We very much have a symbiotic relationship.”
“Hireath?”
Silence weighed down our cab, punctured only by a poorly masked inhale from Leena. It was as if the word broke her. As if she hadn’t realized she’d even said it until Ozias repeated it back to her.
A wistful kind of sadness played across her features. It was something I knew well. I’d gone through