The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,66
several former throwaways who'd managed to achieve positions of power within the Trateri ranks. It was enough to prove the concept.
Seeing he'd made his point, Caden pushed off the side of the wagon, hitting it with his closed fist. "Stay close to the Kyren tonight."
"Why?"
He arched an eyebrow, his expression slightly cruel. "Because I said so. That should be enough."
"You know someone is going to have a witty response for that someday," Eva called after him.
"Glad to see you've finally gotten over your fear of me," he returned.
She glared at his back, shouting, "I wasn't afraid." Seeing others in the company look over at her, Eva muttered to herself, "I was cautious. There's a difference."
There was the faintest echo of laughter in her mind as Sebastian moved out from under her, toppling Eva ungracefully to the floor.
She popped up, her braid sliding forward over her shoulder. "Rude."
Sebastian's tale flicked, hitting her in the face. She sputtered, pushing it away as that same laughter echoed in her mind. She froze, staring at him.
Was that laughter his?
Forgetting the prank he'd just played on her, Eva pushed herself to her feet as she pondered the impossibility of what she was considering. Or maybe it wasn't so impossible.
After all, Ajari seemed to be able to communicate with Sebastian. Perhaps it was through his thoughts. How else had he known Sebastian had chosen her as the intermediary?
She might have dismissed the thought except for all the other strange things that seemed to happen in this land.
When the impossible became your daily reality, nothing seemed out of reach.
"Can you do that again?" Eva asked Sebastian. Excitement buzzed in her veins. To be able to hear him, to speak with him and others like him, she could think of no other piece of magic she'd rather have.
One ear turned toward her as he looked over his shoulder at her. His expression was innocent. Or as innocent as a creature with teeth meant to rip and rend could be.
No laughter was forthcoming. There was no voice to be heard. Just the silence of her own mind.
"Never mind," she said, feeling the slightest sting of disappointment. "My head was in the clouds."
He flicked his ear at her again and then stomped a foot and lifted his lips to expose his teeth. It was their signal for hunger.
"You ate two hours ago. How can you be hungry again?" she asked, leaving the question of the laughter in her head for another time.
She got another face full of tail for that comment.
"Fine, you win," she told him. "I should refuse you since you're getting a bit of a belly, but I don't feel like riding with a hungry, grumpy Kyren all afternoon."
A hungry Kyren made for an unpredictable companion. Eva could already hear the laughter of everyone if she ended up as the meal for the very creature she was supposed to protect.
*
Eva unlatched Sebastian and stepped back as he stretched his wings, first one and then the other.
When he was done, she stepped close and ran her hands along them, testing for any tender spots or wounds she might have missed the last dozen times she'd done this.
Sebastian patiently waited, keeping her in view as she moved along the wings. He knew the routine by now. The first couple times they'd done this Eva had received a few bruises when he fought or jerked out of the way when she touched something sensitive.
With one last pat she left the wings to feel along his legs.
She hadn’t finished before he got impatient and launched into the sky, circling high overhead. Eva stepped out of the wagon, not paying attention as she watched Sebastian’s antics and nearly bumping into Jason as a result. She stopped right before she ran him over.
Like her, he was preoccupied with staring at the Kyren above them, the same wonder that she’d felt written all over his features. The sight made her like him just a little bit.
Noticing her, his expression closed down.
And there he was. The pain in her ass.
"You speak to him like he's one of us," Jason said abruptly.
Eva moved past him.
Jason paced beside her, not so easily thwarted. "Why is that?"
He rounded her and stopped in front of her, leaving Eva no choice but to stop too. It was that or run him over.
"Do you really want to know or are you going to stay locked up in your own narrow view?" Eva finally asked.