Page 93 of Obsidian Dream

“By trying to surprise me?Someone needs to teach you better manners.”Khalida looked around.“Have you been waiting for me for long?”

Kade ignored the second question.“Talik said you were good.I wanted to see how good.”

It wasn’t an apology, but it was the closest she was going to get from Kade.The corridor they were standing in was empty.As far as she was aware, no one else was staying at the villa, and she had barely seen the staff.Talik had volunteered to stay behind in the armory and observe if anything else triggered the relic.She had not thought twice about it, had just not wanted to be around Talik’s presence—not when the emotions were still so raw, at least for her.But now, she wasn’t so sure.“And?”

Kade smiled.“I don’t give compliments.”

“Get on with it, Kade.I didn’t take you as the social type.”

Kade glanced around before he took off his glasses.

Pure black eyes, without a hint of white, stared back at her.So dark, they reminded her of a night sky without a hint of stars.It was disconcerting.He had the gaze of an apex predator.

“You can sense it too.”

Taken aback, she wanted to argue, or ask what Kade was alluding to, but she didn’t.“Talik,” she whispered, not wanting to be right.

He nodded.

Khalida clenched the dagger.

“Since the catacombs, his scent has been not quite right.”

She looked around, not wanting to have this conversation in public, not when Talik could accidentally stumble across them.“Follow me.”

Not waiting for Kade’s acknowledgment, she walked back into her room.

Slipping the blades back into their sheaths, she walked toward the center, stopping at the point where she could feel the warmth of the sunbeam on her skin.The dark curtains covered most of the window, but there was a sliver of light peeking through.

“In the mood for redecorating?”Kade nodded at the semi-destroyed dresser.

Wincing, she flicked her hair over her shoulder.“It annoyed me.”

Kade stayed in the shadows, near the door, leaning against the wall.He held his arms loosely by his sides.Khalida couldn’t see any weapons on him, but she wasn’t naïve enough to think he wasn’t armed.

Finally, Kade spoke.“What happened in the catacombs?”

Khalida walked to the window and drew back the thick curtains.She was safe enough that she didn’t care that she’d turned her back toward Kade.Despite her misgivings about hunters in general, Kade wouldn’t attack, not without provocation.“We were ambushed.Talik was stabbed by one of the immortal blades.The gallu must have found it in one of the tombs.But he had no other injuries.No other marks.”

“And you were with him the entire time?”

She shook her head.“I left him alone to find a way out.I came back, and Talik was undisturbed, hadn’t moved.”

“But?”Kade prodded.

Beneath them, the bustling city of Rome lay unaware of the danger that had been imprisoned for thousands of years beneath the city.For the sake of the Atlanteans and humans who called the eternal city home, she hoped it would stay that way.Focusing on the lively streets, she continued, watching Kade through the reflection.“I could scent something different.It was subtle at first, a hint every so often.”She remembered how Talik had come to, demanding she tell him his name.Had that been when it had occurred?She’d been so focused on Talik being awake that she hadn’t paid attention to the specifics.Turning to face Kade, her throat suddenly ran dry.“Do you think Ninhursag has marked him?”

Kade flinched.The first time she had ever observed such a visceral reaction from him.“What makes you think that?”

Turning around, she wrung her hands together and took a deep breath as she stared at the carpet.Maybe Talik’s reaction to her vulnerability had nothing to do with Ninhursag and more to do with that, after five hundred years, he’d finally gotten the goodbye he was looking for.No.When she had first suggested that they never see each other again, she had tasted the vehement refusal that had slammed into Talik.“I offered Talik a peace offering.”

Her damn heart.“A second chance.”

Kade moved from the wall.“And he said no?”

He sounded just as surprised as she had been.She glanced up, but his face was inscrutable.Brushing her hip, she wished she’d had the foresight to be wearing her swords.“What have you sensed?”

“Hints of something that shouldn’t be there.In the catacombs, it was sporadic.I had thought I had imagined it.”Kade scratched his face.“But in the armory, when the sphere started to spin and projected the landscapes, I caught something else, something ancient.”