know what the hell is going on.
“Yes. She mentioned how I disgraced Lord Giomar. Saying that she needed confirmation but that she knew that it was me,” I report. “I remember... she asked me when I first arrived if I was the one to disgrace the council at Distribution. I told her I wasn’t, but I don’t think she believed me. Do you think she told that bastard about me?”
Zein narrows his eyes in reprimand.
“What? You think he’s a bastard, too,” I murmur, my teeth chattering from everything that just happened.
Zein nods away his expression in a “you’re-not-wrong” fashion. “Your intuition serves you well. I believe that to be the case, also. And after that evening in the dining hall, he most likely gave her permission to kill you on behalf of his reputation.”
I swallow hard. Giomar would do that?
“He would jeopardize relations with his colleague for the sake of hurt pride?” I furrow my eyebrows.
“Do you actually find that surprising, Wavorly? In a Stratocracy driven by power?”
Good point. “I guess you’re right. I suppose I always had a feeling he was heartless.”
Zein shrugs and steps closer to me. “That’s most of the vampires in Cain. We are raised that way.”
My tongue hinges on a particular question as he inspects the places on my neck—where Seriesa grabbed me. His empathy contradicts his statement.
“...You were raised that way, too?”
His eyes find mine for a moment and that’s the only answer he gives.
“Giomar will regret his actions, I will make sure of it. But I will need to file a report with the elders and the council. To let them know I had to kill a servant for intent to interfere with my supply.”
The elders... I’ve heard of them before. Giomar mentioned them at dinner that night, and the book of The Setting Sun... “The Elders oversee the council of five, right? The supreme overlords. Could you not just take the matter with Giomar to them?”
Zein chuckles, “Giomar has probably already told the Elders about you, and my lack of control over your mouth.”
Embarrassed, I grip my robes tightly and shoot my eyes to the corner of the room.
“Involving the Elders would only bring suspicion down upon my regard for you and my competence as a general. Especially since I killed Seriesa myself, prior to awaiting trial. Some things are better left handled in the dark.”
His regard for me?
Something catches my attention through my rampaging thoughts, but do I dare to ask? Why not? “Was killing her worth saving me?”
“...What kind of question is that?”
I cock my head at him. “She’s a vampire. I’m a human. Her life is worth more than mine, allegedly.”
He laughs and eyes me strangely. “My care for you is far too great to risk letting her live,” he says, wrapping an arm loosely around my waist and sending my heart into overdrive.
“You expect me to believe that? How can you possibly care about—”
“Silence,” he whispers. I barely manage to stop, my tongue aching to refute him.
“You would like to think that all us vampires see in humans is blood, but that is not always so. Just like not all humans are as magnanimous as their nature implies.”
I nearly retaliate but think better of it as he continues.
“Could you believe me then, if I told you the truth? Could you accept it because it’s from the lips of a vampire?” His berating tone softens as he leans forward. “That I saved you that night out of senseless compassion?”
My heart skips a beat as his hand runs through my hair, his stormy eyes seeking to captivate mine. And I let them.
I did miss him.
His hand skirts my back and he pulls my body to his.
“Could you accept such a trite answer?” he persists. “That my unexplainable regard for your life has, at some point throughout your stay here, developed into an equally unexplainable desire for your heart?”
My breath won’t come forth as I stand rigid, frozen in time. This has to be wrong.
“Wavorly.” He grabs my chin. “I have a reputation to protect as one of five generals of Cain, as I’m sure you are more than capable of understanding.”
Through blinding confusion, I connect the dots. The reason why I wasn’t chosen at Distribution in front of the crowd… and why Savvy, Katarii, and I were taken to the chariot through the unused corridors. Why he’s kind to me behind closed doors.
His reputation must drive him. It makes sense. Wait, what am I thinking? None of this makes sense!
“But