Page 69 of Red Demon

“Yeah.” She pulled down some herbs from the shelf. “Waiting for me to be done with you. I told her I wanted to keep a man from dying. She said more people died because I stayed. And more keep dying every day until I join her.”

“So, she’s threatening you?” I needed more information, someone to kill.

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “She already doesn’t like you, don’t make it worse.”

“Why doesn’t she like me?”

“Might have been that time you tried to kill me.” She pushed her hair out of her face.

Faruhar hummed as she washed the herbs in the sink, then laid them out to dry. We’d reached a dead end in the conversation—unless I thought of something.

“I have a brother. Someone I’m pretty sure you haven’t killed,” I said, adding the word ‘yet’ in my head. I wouldn’t give her his name, but… “I miss him.”

She cocked her head at me. “You said you had no kin to help you.”

“He can’t help me,” I said. “He’s a soldier. I don’t even know where he is stationed right now.”

“If he’s fighting for the empire, you can look that up.” She pulled out twine from a cabinet.

“I thought about that. If I walk to another town’s temple and tell them everything I’ve seen, they’ll either quarantine or arrest me until they sort this all out. I’m Chaeten; Asri are dead.” I sighed.

She went to her larger leather bag and started digging. “There’s a military field station a couple of kilometers from here. They’ll have a terminal. Bria can help us get in.”

My heart skipped a beat. I’d get to meet the sister, and find Ash. It seemed too good to be true.

“Wouldn’t we need … Z’har credentials?”

She stopped rummaging and met my gaze, amusement simmering in her cat green eyes. “Yeah.” She produced a key card from the bag, several key-cards to choose from, in fact.

“How did you get all those?”

“The dead don’t need them.”

I clenched my jaw. “I guess I know better than to ask how they died,” I said, out loud, like an idiot.

“Good,” she said, her voice clipped. “Get yourself ready while I hang these herbs.”

I stared at her. “Get ready, how?”

“Take off the splint and leave the knee wrapped. Your legs are well enough to stand on.” She raised an eyebrow when I stared open-mouthed. “You didn’t know?”

I knew, but I’d been trying to hide my fast healing as best I could, pretending the bones ached more than they did, hoping to have more time to untangle her secrets. “I didn’t know.”

There were, indeed, many stairs to get out to the surface, and no railing. But Faruhar found me a sturdy enough stick to suffice as a cane, and we took one irregular step at a time together on the ancient stonework. I studied those stairs, the mossy engraving on the dark walls once there was sufficient light to grow it—anything but her arm on mine as we walked.

We ventured out into the drizzle, and I broke away. But the forest path was slick underfoot, and my leg throbbed with each step. Faruhar stayed close, offering a steady arm whenever I stumbled, and I felt her gaze on me even when the terrain was easy.

There was no sign of her sister, but I decided I’d let her be the one to bring that up.

About an hour later, we reached the field station, a small concrete box of a building half-hidden by overgrown brush. Lichen clung to the walls, and the solar generator on the roof sat at a precarious angle.

“Are you sure it’s still functional?” I asked.

“No.” She pulled out the first keycard from her bag and held it against a black square by the door. “If it’s not, we’ll try another. They’re other little booths in the woods for emergencies, further away.”

The first metallic card did nothing. Tossing it on the ground, she tried the second. A little LED flashed green beside the door.

With a push, the door creaked open, revealing a dark interior until we stepped inside.