The only thing that kept her from exploding now was the fact that Zara had chosen all four of the remaining recruits instead of sending them right back to hell. But gratitude only went so far.

  Roni met the eyes of the Vox again, forced herself not to flinch, and dredged up a smile. “Well, then, I’d like to meet the last member of my squad if that’s allowed.” She nodded toward the Vox, gratified by Zara’s warm smile in return.

  * * *

  “Veronique Bisset, this is the Vox Feram. The Vox already knows who you are,” Zara said, gesturing between them.

  Roni seemed a bit unnerved by that, but everyone found the Vox disquieting at first.

  “They can’t know me like you can,” the Vox said in Zara’s mind, and their many voices sounded pleased. They chose who they were bonded to, after all. “Please tell her I said hello.”

  “They say hello.”

  Roni blinked. “Um, hi,” she said, first to Zara and then to the Vox. She gave Zara a careful, slightly doubtful smile. “Is it saying anything else?”

  Zara rolled her eyes, used to this reaction, too. “Them. And I’m not having an auditory hallucination. The Vox communicates telepathically with their chosen partner.”

  Roni nodded slowly, and she seemed to be trying to keep her expression pleasant, but her smile seemed a touch artificial, and her eyes still flashed with doubt.

  “Don’t worry,” Zara said. “Everyone has the same thoughts upon meeting the Vox. That’s why I don’t mind telling my squad about them, even though the Vox’s existence is a secret outside of the army. I doubt anyone would believe you if you rambled about a living metal bird that only talks in one person’s head.”

  Now Roni’s smile seemed a bit more genuine. “That is a hard sell, yeah. And it’s…sorry, they’re alive?”

  Zara’s estimation went up a notch. She usually had to correct pronoun usage two or three times where the Vox was concerned. She nodded. “Much older than you or me and not subject to the same deficiencies, but alive, yes.”

  “Deficiencies?”

  “They don’t need to eat or sleep. They don’t feel the need to seek out company.”

  “Thank the gods,” the Vox said.

  Roni’s head tilted. “I rather like those deficiencies. Particularly the company one.”

  Gods and devils, was she flirting again? Granted, the thought wasn’t as stomach-turning as Zara usually found it, but this wasn’t the time or place, and she didn’t know how to respond, and now her mind was sliding down unanticipated tracks, and—

  “Easy,” the Vox said. “She might have been simply stating a fact.”

  With a deep breath, Zara thanked the Vox as she held on to that thought, stopping her mind from wandering too far.

  Roni was watching her with wide eyes. In fear?

  “You have been quiet for longer than necessary,” the Vox said.

  Ah. “Um, yes,” Zara said. She looked to the Vox again, desperate for some way to get this conversation back where it belonged. “The Vox can shift into any bird.” The Vox graciously picked up on her invitation, and with a flutter of metal, they turned from a hawk to a horned owl.

  Roni took a step back, her mouth open. “I knew they’d gotten smaller than the first time I saw them.” Her face lit up with unmistakable joy. “That’s amazing.”

  Zara felt a bit of heat in her cheeks, as if she had received the praise, but she was only happy someone else recognized how incredible the Vox was.

  They soaked up the compliment. “I am amazing, yes.” They inched a little closer along the branch. “She can touch if she wishes.”

  Zara passed that on, and Roni extended a careful finger, staying clear of the beak and stroking the feathers atop the Vox’s head before she withdrew with a shudder. “Beautiful but so cold.” Her gaze flicked to Zara, as if she was afraid this statement would be accepted badly.

  With a wave, Zara dismissed the comment. It was nothing more than truth.

  Roni nodded at the chain wrapped around Zara’s hand, over her cloth glove but with the jewel resting against her bare wrist. “And that glove? Do you only wear it when the Vox is around?”

  Interesting. She was very observant, but in this instance, Zara wasn’t sure if that was a mark in her favor. Learning surface details about the Vox was one thing, but when it came to how to operate them, well, that should stay between the two of them. “It’s time we were moving again.” She gestured for Roni to fall back with the other specialists.

  “When we were just getting acquainted?” Roni asked. She winced a little as if her mouth had run off with her again.

  Zara glared, but her stomach twisted at the thought of them truly getting to know each other, of maybe being alone together. She shuddered and shook her head, fighting the urge to lash out harder than she needed to. “That’s enough of that, Bisset. Back in line.” Zara turned away and nodded at Finn to bark everyone else into order.

  The Vox resumed a smaller shape and perched on her shoulder as Zara began leading them down a game trail once more. She tried to keep her focus where it belonged: their location and the distance they’d have to march before they angled northwest and began the gradual uphill journey. But her attention kept drifting to Roni’s reactions, to her mention of company, and how Zara’s mind had wandered, and her body tingled in ways she was unaccustomed to.

  “She was talking about you,” the Vox said, thankfully interrupting her thoughts.

  “About becoming acquainted? I know.”

  “With the beautiful and cold remark.”

  Zara frowned and went back over the conversation. “But she touched you.”

  “Then looked at you.”

  “But…” That made no sense. She was a hell of a lot warmer than the Vox just because of the blood flowing through her veins.

  The Vox chuckled. “Personality-wise.”

  Hmm. That hurt a little. She wasn’t cold. She just didn’t like any feelings that got in the way of the job. She was cautious and thought things through. Just because she didn’t go around spewing emotions like lava didn’t mean—

  Zara shook her head again and grumbled, speaking even softer than before. “This is why I didn’t want to bring her along. She is a distraction. I shouldn’t care what she thinks of me.”

  “You should have sent her back to prison, then.”

  “No, not if it’s the death sentence she claims, and I may not be an expert on feelings, but I know fear when I see it.” And why couldn’t Roni be grateful and leave it at that? She could become a loyal, valuable specialist, go through basic training when they returned to Sarras, and then she could rejoin Zara’s squad with a rank of her own, and they’d have some much-needed distance.

  If not that, Roni could start a romance with one of the other squad members, and then Zara could resign herself to that fact and get on with her life.

  Or be so envious she ground her teeth to powder.

  “I know you’re not cold,” the Vox said, their many voices softer, too. “But not everyone gets to see inside your head. Would it be so bad if you and she—”

  “Yes,” Zara said, a little too loudly. She cleared her throat. She couldn’t see any relationship of that kind as more than a distraction, one even more dangerous than the small amount she felt now. The feelings, the sensations she imagined, they’d all be new. If Adella and Gisele were to be believed, she’d be swept away and turn into a moony, sighing creature like they sometimes did.

  Gods, what a repulsive thought.

  “Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way,” the Vox said. “You operate in unique ways, think in ways others sometimes find strange. I can’t help but think you’d find a unique way of being romantically involved, too.”

  True. She didn’t do many things the same way Adella and Gisele did. She often did them better, though they became quite snotty when she pointed that out. But what would it be like…

  No, that didn’t matter, not now, not when she had a mission to complete.

  She forced herself to think about small details, a coping mechanism from her younger days. She felt the cold and compared it to another winter mission she’d undertaken. The frost wasn’t seeping through her boots like the snowdrifts of last time, but the wind was stronger now, forcing her to hide her chin in her cloak. Crunching footfalls provided the only sound in the forest, and the trail was hard to determine with even a keen eye.

  Thus distracted, Zara kept Roni out of her thoughts until they reached their first campsite. Then she was free to stand back and observe while the others set up tents, gathered firewood, and prepared the evening meal. With the Vox beside her, Zara tried to find fault with Roni, forcing herself to be hypercritical in order to stop…whatever it was happening inside her. If she discovered all of Roni’s faults—and no doubt there were many—this early in their association, Zara could more easily brush off any feelings as if they were stray cobwebs.

  But Roni seemed to be performing all her tasks adequately. And what was more, both the old and new members of the squad seemed to like her. Finn even gave her the occasional compliment, a rare jewel, though those were still embedded in sarcasm. Indeed, as everyone gathered to eat, some seemed to gravitate toward Roni, and she told a story that had them all laughing.

  Zara frowned as a cord of jealousy wound through her. She’d never known that easy familiarity, had never drawn anyone into her presence the way Roni did. Neither her squad nor her family sought her company like that.

  “She’s a flash in the pan,” the Vox said. “New and exciting. They’ll soon become used to her and so will you, and any power she has over all of you will fade.”

  “You were drawn to her, too. You even let her touch you.”

  “And that didn’t make you jealous. So why should this?”

  Zara didn’t have an answer, but she couldn’t stop the feelings that seemed determined to haunt her. Finn brought her a share of the dinner but only stayed long enough to ask if she had everything she needed before going back to the others as Roni began another tale.

  “So go join them,” the Vox said, but they didn’t sound particularly enthused by their own suggestion.

  Zara could relate. She didn’t like gatherings. Though she understood most jokes, she didn’t find them funny, and that usually made her stand out for the wrong reasons. She’d never had a knack for being the life of the party.

  “Is that something you want?” the Vox asked, their voices hesitant, doubtful, as if a greater decision rested on her choice.

  “No.” But just for a moment, she wondered what it would be like.

  She snorted a laugh. Well, all she’d have to do was meet a group of people just like her, and then she could find out. Though a group of Zaras wouldn’t have to tell stories and laugh loudly. They’d be comfortable sharing silences.

  The Vox made a noise of agreement, and Zara retired to her tent to bask in her own quiet.

  If her mind would shut the hell up for the night.

  Chapter Eleven

  After spending the night shivering in a tent in the middle of nowhere, Roni was ready for the horses to appear out of thin air so she could ride back to civilization, sore ass be damned. But the squad only walked deeper into forested nowhere and would continue to do so until they neared the Firellian part of rocky and forested nowhere, where anyone they encountered was likely to kill them.

  And as every creaking branch or gust of wind had reminded Roni the night before, someone was out to kill her now, no waiting for the border required. At least when they were marching and she was cold and tired and miserable, she didn’t fear death so much as long for it. If Hacha had appeared in one of her miserable moments, she might even have cheered.

  As if summoned by her dark thoughts, something whistled out of the trunks and dense bracken, the rush of air tingling Roni’s cheek like a butterfly kiss. She looked behind her. Tati dabbed at a streaming cut on her cheek, staining her fingertips red.

  Roni frowned. “What was—”

  “Archers! Get down,” Finn cried from the rear of the column.

  Roni’s meager training kicked in, and she dove for the underbrush, her cloak and pack catching on the spiny leaves like little fingers. Fear coursed through her in tingling waves. Gods, she hadn’t meant it; she didn’t want to die. She clamped her teeth shut on an apology to no one and forced herself to think. She was not some green kid committing their first burglary. She could handle herself. Several arrows whistled out of the trees. The rest of the squad had scattered from the trail, except for Tati, who still stared at the blood as if she’d never seen anything like it.

  “Tati,” Roni said, a high-pitched whisper. “Get over here.”

  Tati looked in her direction. She seemed confused, almost astounded.

  “Gods,” Roni said. “Move your ass, Tati.” Damn it all to hell, she was going to get killed. Roni couldn’t just lie there. “Fuck.” Her stomach heaved, but she prepared to leap on Tati and probably vomit at the same time.

  A cry came from ahead, and she whipped her head in that direction, straining to see through the branches. People were darting through the trees like sparrows, and metal clanged amidst cries of pain.

  Fighting. Her squad was fighting.

  Shit. She had to help. And maybe get shot. “Fuck it all, then.” With fear twisting inside her, she drew her truncheon and clambered from the brush. She couldn’t spare everyone from Hacha only to let them be killed by some random bastards in the woods. She started for Tati, who still stood frozen on the path.

  A figure in dark leather armor came for Tati from the other side of the trail.

  Roni shouted through her fear to get the newcomer’s attention. A war cry like a dying cow drowned her out, and Leo leaped from the woods. He charged the newcomer, who sidestepped his clumsy lunge and shoved, sending Leo’s spindly body flying into a snarl of brambles.

  Tati started as if waking, and she drew her saber so quickly, it seemed to appear in her hand. She came at the newcomer with frenzied strokes. Roni tried to remember her combat training, but she’d been getting into scraps since she was a child, and no one needed to teach her how to fight dirty.

  When the newcomer struck back at Tati, putting their weight forward, Roni crept up behind them and bashed the side of their knee. They howled and crumpled backward, kneeling, and Tati buried her blade in their neck.

  The sounds of combat faded, and Roni stared at the newly made corpse. A gout of blood obscured their features. She’d never really seen what they’d looked like alive. She shifted her stare to Tati, who also watched the body with wide eyes, her face blanching to the color of old parchment. Roni had seen death, but she’d never…participated in making it.

  A cry from behind made her turn. More of the squad was fighting ahead. Right, they weren’t done yet. Claudia pointed at someone and yelled. Roni glanced around wildly and saw someone half-hidden in the trees with an arrow pointed in her direction.

  “Oh.” No time for fear. She’d never outrun—

  Something fell on the archer with a metallic shriek that rattled through Roni’s head and brought her terror back in a rush. She tried to decipher what was happening, but the parts of her that weren’t screaming in terror were yelling at her to move. She grabbed Tati’s arm and hauled her into the trees.

  “Archers, archers,” Roni managed as she scanned for more.

  “Where?”

  “Don’t know.” She had to find them, to warn everyone. She crashed through the brush toward the downed archer in time to see a golden eagle tearing their throat out.

  The Vox glanced up at her before leaping into the air and taking wing. The light glinted off their bloodstained beak, their gore-covered claws and wings. How could she have ever thought to steal this flying collection of blades? She followed their progress back to the path and saw them alight above Zara, who scanned the battlefield in all directions, saber in hand.

  “Sound off,” Zara called.

  As the squad began calling out their names, Roni took a deep breath and realized the fight was over. Seconds had gone by, but they were etched in her memory like hours. Shaky and jumbled, she couldn’t manage her name until Tati said hers, then prodded Roni’s shoulder.

  “Bis…Bisset,” Roni said.

  “You okay?” Tati asked.

  “I might throw up.”

  Tati nodded. “Aim into the trees.” With one more grimace at the corpse, she started back to the path.

  Ernesto circulated among them, checking for injuries, but Tati’s cheek was the worst among cuts and bruises. She sat on the ground with a bandage pressed hard against her face. Once he’d been freed from the brambles, Leo rested beside her, his helmet off and his forehead leaning on her shoulder.

  Roni stood beside them, feeling adrift. They hadn’t covered the aftermath of battle in her hurried training, and that thought added anger to her growing ball of emotions. She couldn’t keep her eyes away from the spot where the Vox had torn that archer to pieces.

  “Bisset,” Zara barked.

  Roni felt her feet leave the ground before she even realized she’d leaped. She staggered, her hand going to her truncheon even as her mind screamed that the fight was over.

  And that attacking Zara would be a grave mistake.

  As if she could pull that off. Zara grabbed Roni’s arm and her opposite shoulder and stepped into her space so quickly, Roni was hypnotized by the light smattering of freckles across her nose. Her dark eyes were calm and beautiful and had the world under control.

  Roni relaxed in her grip even before she spoke.

  “Veronique,” Zara said softly but without a hint of softness. “The fight’s done. Get a grip. You’re fine. We’re fine.”

  Roni nodded, comforted in a strange way. “Y…yes, serrah.”

  “Right.” She stepped back quickly. “Go help Cortez search those bodies.”