Page 78 of Silver & Gold
Seth’s fingers clenched on Raider’s arm and he drew in a harsh breath. Seeming to realize what he was doing, Seth relaxed his grip and soothed the spot.
“And your mother?” Seth asked, still measured.
“He didn’t hurt her, not physically.”
“No—I meant, didn’t she protect you?”
“She had her own troubles. Her own misery. She kept waiting for her lover. My father. But he never came.”
“Who was he?”
“She never said, not to me at least. If she told her husband, I don’t know.”
Seth was silent for a while, but Raider could practically feel him thinking. Then Seth asked, “So how did you end up on the street?”
“He threw me out. He said I was old enough to make it on my own. He was right. I was.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Seth muttered. His arm wrapped around Raider’s torso and held tight.
Raider swallowed a knot in his throat. “Why are you asking?”
Seth took a deep breath and let it out. Like he was readying himself. “Baby … the way your body heals. The way your eye glows sometimes—I mean, you know that it does, right?”
Raider tensed. “I’ve been told that, yeah.”
“Why do you think that is?”
Raider abruptly lost patience. “Why do you think that is, Seth? You obviously have something you want to say—”
“Hey. Easy.” Raider didn’t realize he’d pulled forward until Seth grabbed his shoulder.
Raider twisted to look at Seth. “Just spit it out.”
“This isn’t an accusation. I want to talk to you, but not in that kind of tone. Please. Will you tell me what you know? Because I can tell there’s something.”
Raider untwisted so he didn’t have to look at Seth. “All I know is that something’s wrong with me. Not just the quicksilver. Something deeper. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it. Something … not right.”
“You say that like you think it’s bad.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel good. It’s like I’m always … out of step. Out of place. For some reason, here in Jannat, I don’t feel it the same. Maybe because there aren’t other people around? Except you, and that’s different. Seth, please, whatever you’re trying to say, just say it.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to make things hard. I just needed to know where you were with this before I imposed my own guess. But it’s more than a guess. Raider … I’m pretty sure your father was djinn.”
That took a moment to trickle in. Then, “What?”
“I think that’s why Tarjan started watching you. It began after the scorpions. They’re … well, essentially from what I read, they’re the first guardians of the djinn lands. It was after them that you started seeing Tarjan. And your eye, your real eye, it’s like theirs. And the way you heal—”
Raider got up from the bench and stood looking down at Seth. “You’re saying this like you’re not surprised. Like you knew already.”
Seth sat up. He looked like he was choosing his words carefully. “You know I told you how I talked to Julian? About the quicksilver?”
“What about it?” Raider asked shortly.
“One of the things that came up was something Kahzir wrote. About you. About you not being … human. At least not entirely. That was Kahzir’s speculation as to why you survived what he did to you.”
A shudder went through Raider, his body remembering things that his mind would not allow.
Eyes worried, Seth stood from the couch. Raider turned away and walked to the edge of the overhang, looking down to the frothing white where the waterfall hit the pool. Beside the overhang, a spiral stone staircase led down. Seth came to stand beside him. Raider crossed his arms, not wanting to be touched. Seth seemed to sense that.