If we lived through this fight, I'd ask them. And I needed to go home to find Thief, that fugitive. He'd probably chewed his way into the bag of hamster food by now, and gorged himself.
"Oh,pretty," I breathed when Sang lifted a dagger unlike any I'd seen before from the table. The metal was pink all the way from hilt to tip, there was a fuchsia gem set in an elegant crossguard, and the handle had a big, golden crescent moon curved around it. It hugged my knuckles when I closed my fingers around the knife, my heart beating quick.
"You keep giving me gifts," I said to Sang, the keepers and weapons far away for a moment, even the motion of Mav and Void arming themselves dulled.
"You deserve gifts and pretty things, sweet human," Sang replied in a soft purr, bending over me to rub his face on the top of my head.
"But you said it's your favourite knife," I protested, trying to hand it back.
But Sang wasn't having any of it.
"Itis. That's why I want you to have it. And when we've cut your enemies into lots of little pieces, we can watchSailor Moontogether."
"In our nest?"
"In our nest," he agreed, tilting his head to rub the curve of his horn over my hair. "Don't do anything reckless, Hala. Okay?"
"Okay," I agreed, peering up at him when he straightened, the excitement still glowing in his eyes but his expression serious.
"Come here, Hala," Void called across the room, and I glanced up to see he held his hand out to me, expectant.
I hugged Sang again, the handle of the knife warm in my palm, and approached Void.
Both he and Mav were covered in weapons, and strange, scaled armour coated Mav's tentacles, turning them inky black instead of their usual blue. Two swords poked above Void's shoulders, his jacket discarded somewhere and the sleeves of his tight white shirt rolled up to the elbows. I swallowed when I locked eyes with him, a pulse of arousal going through my lower belly.
His lips flicked up at the corners, even if the hard edge of seriousness didn't shift in his black eyes. I shivered when he lifted my arm, his claws brushing gently over my wrist and forearm.
"What's that?" I asked when he wrapped something thin and silky around my arm. It felt like fabric, but if Void was arming me with it, it was no ordinary material.
He wrapped the same black fabric around my other forearm and said, "Void magic in physical form. The gauntlets form a barrier against all kinds of power. If you see something aimed at you, lift your arms like they're a shield and knock the magic aside."
My eyes went wide, and I nodded. Wow, that was … cool. Really fucking cool. "I've never seen these before," I said, half a question.
Void nodded, running his fingertips from my wrist to my inner elbow, brushing the fragile skin there. "It's a new shield we've been developing. There's a research lab in the heart of the void, and since I am its god, they answer to me."
He didn't miss my little flinch at the wordlab, and his eyes turned from ink to pitch, a full, unyielding dark.
"They will pay for hurting you, brave girl. I vow to you."
I nodded, overwhelmed and afraid. Every minute we took to stock up on weapons made the back of my neck burn; I was waiting for the axe to fall.
I jumped when Void skimmed the edge of my jaw with a knuckle, then bowed over me for a soft, unhurried kiss. My heart beat faster; my fear only amplified.
"Void, I can't—I can't lose anyone else," I whispered, my throat swollen shut.
"And you won't," he promised, laying his forehead against mine. "No more pain, I expressly forbid it."
That made me laugh, even if the sound was strangled. My memories were so close to the surface, the shouts, the blood, the look in Vann's eye…
"We’ll make them pay for what they did to you. All of you," Void said firmly, drawing back but not without kissing my temple and making my next breath shudder out.
"There will be weapons with them," I said, biting my lip and looking at the dagger in my hand, my second gift. "People like me. I don't know everything they can do; all our powers are different, but they're all powerful. What if we can't—"
"We can," he said firmly, not an inch of doubt in his raspy voice.
"You didn't even hear the end of my question," I said, trying to swallow down panic.
In reality, it had been three minutes since Mav and I entered this room, but it felt like an eternity. I could almost feel the keepers breathing down my neck, could feel the hot explosion of pain at the end of the cattle prod set to its highest setting.