wake up, I’m fucking starving. I’ve never been so hungry in my life. Ugh. I would straight up murder someone for a cheeseburger right about now. My stomach growls as I open my eyes and blink at my surroundings.
“Faith?” A low voice murmurs.
I turn my head, and I’m relieved that it’s tiring to do so, but it doesn’t feel like so much effort that I want to just go back to sleep. I look over at Solat. His jaw is covered in a scruffy almost-beard that wasn’t there before and there are rings under his eyes. At my side in the bed, Yulenna sleeps, curled up in a blanket.
“I’m so damn hungry,” I whisper.
Solat grins, his mouth crooked, and reaches over to a nearby table. It’s full of dried meat and a couple pieces of fruit, next to a waterskin. I’m guessing that’s his meal, but he takes the plate and offers it to me. “Do you want broth?”
“Nope.” I grab at one piece of fruit and eat it, bitter rind and all. Then I grab another, and another, and I’m shoveling food into my starving mouth, washing it down with his waterskin. I’ve never been so ravenous, and I know it’s because of the bond. I have to eat twice as much as a normal person to fuel my body now that I’m tied to Aron, and I’m guessing I’ve been unable to eat for a long, long time.
“You might want to slow down. You’ll make yourself sick,” he cautions.
I might—I’ve been sick before, but this time it’s different. Somehow, I know the food will stay down. My body is craving this and it’s different than when it was in the desert. Right now there’s a bottomless pit inside me that needs to be filled. Even as I polish off the last bit of meat, I’m still starving. I still need more. It’s like a drop in the bucket. I drink the last of the water from his skin and lick the top. “I need some more.”
“You…do?” He looks shocked. “You just ate all my rations for the day.”
He doesn’t get it. None of them do except Aron.
Aron.
My mind flutters with vague memories of him. Of Aron’s nearness even when I was sick. Of him being in my bed and holding me against his chest, rocking me. Taking care of me. Brushing my hair back and caressing my face. Speaking in a low voice of endless things I don’t remember, just that he was speaking, as if he knew I needed something to focus on to bring me back. That he needed to be with me.
My heart squeezes with affection, but he’s not anywhere to be seen. “Where’s Aron?”
Yulenna sighs and turns over in bed, oblivious.
Solat watches her closely for a bit too long and then looks over at me. “Last I saw him, he was arguing with one of the spider gods.”
I swallow hard. “Spider gods, huh?”
“One of the three Spidae, Lords of Fate.” His mouth flattens and he doesn’t look thrilled. “We are at their mercy here in the tower.”
I’m not afraid. Aron wouldn’t put me in danger. I just need to know what’s going on. What he’s found out from the Spidae. What happened back there on the lake. I get to my feet and nearly collapse again. My legs feel as unsteady as a newborn foal’s.
Solat is immediately at my side, holding me up. “You’re supposed to stay in bed, Faith. I’m to watch over both of you, protect you with my life.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Anything. Everything.”
“I thought we were safe here?”
“I do not think there is a safe place anywhere in this world,” Solat says, the words so solemn and ominous I’m surprised they came from him. He’s the lighthearted one.
For the first time, I look around at my surroundings. “Are these bad guys?” I ask hesitantly. Because this doesn’t look like the home of the “good guys.” It’s a stronghold of sorts, but not like any I’ve ever been in before. Aventine was dirt and soldiers and crowded, clustered buildings. Katharn was hovels on top of hovels atop the bones of what had once been a magnificent city. Novoro was an opulent keep in the mountains, with rock and stone everywhere.
This is…almost blank. It’s like there’s no personality in these walls. They’re stone, but such a smooth, unnatural pattern of bland gray that for a moment I think I’m looking at an optical illusion and not stonework. The walls are perfectly symmetrical, without