Page 36 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)
Lucy
Lucy pondered Agata’s words for a long while after the woman had left. Three sisters that somehow weren’t the Russian witches, and a traitor in their midst? How could she be asked to put so much faith in tea leaves?
Her head was too loud, too many voices offered too many theories, and not one made any sense. What if Agata was right? What if Lilly was right? An even worse worry nibbled on her, filling her with doubt. What if she wasn’t anything special? What if everyone was wrong?
◆◆◆
“She returns to visit us peasants!”Lai chuckled when Lucy finally found their hut. It had only taken her half an hour of wandering the sleeping village in the dark. Judging by how much of his cigarette was left, Lai had just arrived, sitting on the step with one in his hand.
Lucy suddenly recalled the last time–the only time– she had ever seen Lai smoke.
Surely he hadn’t. They’d just got there; how would he have even had the time?
“Hey. Didn’t feel right not being near y’all,”Lucy smiled, slipping into the cottage.
“May I interest you in a drink?”Klein offered.
“No, thank you. I’ve had enough tea to last a lifetime.
No, I–I wanted to apologize.”She frowned and motioned to Lai.
“I was too hard on him. I’m glad he’s here with us.
” Her apology was directed to Klein, not quite ready to say sorry to the arrogant little pain-in-the-ass on the step.
Shewasglad he was there, but Lai was definitely still on her shit list.
“Go on, then.”Lai glanced up at her, making a waving hand motion, urging her to continue. “Make it believable.”
Lucy shook her head, trying not to smile. “I’m sorry I was a bitch. No excuses; I projected my anger with myself onto you. Please, forgive me.”Insincerity dripped from every syllable, her eyes rolling mockingly.
“I will attempt to.”Lai sat up. “No promises, though. An apology without chocolate just doesn’t hit the spot anymore.”
“If I had chocolate, it would’ve been gone by now,”Lucy groaned. Thinking about it made her stomach growl in longing. Next time, she would make sure not to leave the house without a block in her pocket.
“It’s fine. I’ll add it to the list of stuff you owe me.”Lai finished his cigarette and flicked the butt into the night, the last little ember sparking and vanishing as it hit the ground.“Although I believe you still owe me another apology.”
“I do? For what?”
“For the betrayal.”
“Betrayal?”Lucy swallowed hard. “I didn’t betray you. The woman that visited my room said there was a traitor in my group, though.”She frowned, sitting beside him, her elbow connecting with Lai’s ribs.
He winced and returned the gesture, his nudge almost winding her.“Maybe it’s you, since my father knew to come chasing after me.”
“Were you caught because of him?”She frowned, resisting the urge to jab him again. She knew when to back down; his return poke would probably break her ribs.
“Actually, he rescued me, but don’t think you’re off the hook. How are you so bad at keeping secrets?”
“It was either my trustworthiness or your life; it was an easy choice. Besides, Arisknockedme out good before he left. Icouldn’tstop him.”She rubbed the back of her head. It was still sore.
“Well, regardless. My father is no big loss, but my beautiful face? The world will definitely miss that.”
“Plastic surgery is a thing, ifyou’rethat worried about it.
”She smiled at him, feeling a horrible pang of guilt.
Silently, she promised herself that she would never be the first to look away.
It would never have been allowed to happen if she had been there.
“I think it makes you look tough. Maybe people will take you seriously now.”
“Iwant sympathy, not solutions. Let me bask in my misery, woman.”
“Do you want me to kiss it and make it feel better?”Lucy raised an eyebrow. Lai sounded uncannily like his father.
“No.I’mprobably allergic to your kisses, and I know whatyou’vehad in that mouth.”
“I’m sure you’ve had worse in yours,” she scowled, her sympathy evaporating.
“Not gonna lie, my interrogation was a lot more fun.”
She gasped. That confirmed what the smoking had implied.
“You didn’t.”
Lai wiggled his brow, a sly smile on his lips. He allowed Lucy to fill in the blanks, and she did so. Involuntarily. Oh, shedidn’twant to imagine that.
Wait.
“I thought women weren’t your type.” She turned sharply to face him.
“I never said that.”
“You said I wasn’t your type.”
Lai blinked slowly at her, the weird, out-of-sync blink that lizards sometimes did. One eye, then the other.
“I did. I don’t sleep with traitors.”
Lucy groaned and ripped out a handful of the grass growing between the steps, throwing it at Lai. The light greenery barely reached even him.
“It’sfine. Still fucked your dad,”she added when her ammunition failed to wound the man.
“At least I have a dad.”Lai huffed and flicked a single blade of grass back at her.
It hurt. It actually hurt. Lucy looked down at the tiny cut it left on her arm, ready to retaliate, unsure if the pain was physical or fromLai’sretort.
“Children, behave.”Klein sighed, nudging them apart with his foot.“Lucy, do you want to stay with us tonight?”
“How mad do you think the sisters would be if I did?”
“Idon’tknow.”Lai got up with a groan and headed inside, scooping a pile of blankets off the bed and arranging them into a nest on the floor.“Just say you were lonely and scared.I’msureit’llfine.”
“That’snot going to earn me any brownie points. I defeated Aris, remember?I’msupposed to be tough.”
“Idon’tthink they actually believe that,”Klein commented absently as he tidied away the scant dishes.“Let’skeep it civil, enjoy the celebrations, offer any help they need–”
“–And hopefully fly home with a small army of witches,”Lai grinned from his nest.
“Iwonder what business Aris had with them?”Lucy pondered, making herself comfortable on the bed Lai had cleared.
Klein shrugged.“Idon’tknow. The only thing I can think of would be that he unloaded a girl on them, butI’mthe eldest as far as I know, and according to the dates on the paperwork,there’sno way it could be anything like that.
Mother would never have let him. Plus, Lai was born around that time, so unless it was someone he had on the side.
..”The thought was dismissed with a shake of his head.
“No. Hewouldn’t. Our mother was his entire world.
”He sighed.“He’salways had trouble with money.
Given how much of the family collection has been sent to the witches, I assume it was a financial arrangement. ”
“Ryanhad a phrase about not‘selling bitches’.”Lucy frowned.“He said it at the bone pit by thegriffin’snest. Sothere’sno wayhe’ddrop a daughter here and then pay for it , right? Not if a‘bitch’ is valuable. Also, this conversation is really gross.”
“You’renot wrong. Idon’tthink my father has it in him to be so cruel, anyway. His father was a breeder. Father saw the ugliness of it firsthand, and despite how desperate we got, he never sank that low.”
Lucy watched him, rapt with attention. Shedidn’tknow much about that side of the family, morbidly eager to learn more.
“They never sold intact males, either.”Klein looked uncomfortable with the topic, but soldiered on anyway.
“They used to have this horrid rite of passage; as soon as the boys were able to shift, they got one night to get drunk and lie with a woman, thentheywere castrated, forced to turn, and kept in beast-shape until they forgot their humanity entirely. Then, they were sold. They were never sold as people. Just animals, sterilized so that our family could keep its monopoly on monsters.”
“That’shorrible,”Lucy murmured, curling up into a ball on the bed.“Why would anyone want to be a part of that?”
“Why would anyone want to be involved in the slave trade? Why would anyone want to traffic kids? Why would anyone poach and sell endangered animals?”Klein shook his head.
“Money.It’sas simple as that. They used to sell to royal courts for tournaments.
Any time some rich lord was to entertain a king,they’dorder a dragon.
There is a reason why every damned nation in the world has museums full of tapestries of knights slaying dragons and no traces of the spoils and trophies. Once the dragon died...”
Lucy felt a coldness in the pit of her stomach.
Once the dragon died, it was just a dead boy.