What Comes Before

[Oriena]

She rolled her eyes. “Look at you being all chivalrous. So fucking touchy.”

Nox liked the sound of his own voice, and Oriena let him talk; just picked out the things she needed from the rest of the verbal shit. The name imparted twisted somewhere deep, and maybe her expression flickered with it, but if so the emotion wasn’t hers.

“I’ll wait here while you go and get it, then,” she said. Nox stressed the magnanimity of his offering the information for free, but it wasn’t the way this worked. For a moment her stormy gaze contemplated him, like the coin tossed random in her head as to whether she saw co-conspirator or victim. Then her attention turned to Rafael, and she finally addressed him. “And since your boyfriend is so keen for us to talk, you can keep me company in the meantime.”