PROMISE

CHAPTER 7

"Chocolate," Lilith said in a voice that was anything but impressed.

Hain cursed again. He'd forgotten their safe word–the thing they'd agreed to say so as to let the other know they were alright.

"Such language!" Lilith feigned shock. "I hope you don't say your prayers with that mouth."

"I do lots of things with this mouth." Hain rose from the street and pushed back his black hair from his face. "Prayers, not so much."

"Well, speaking as a Lady of the Court, I don't approve. And I doubt the honest Faithful in the Sepulcher would either."

"Says the person lurking in a shadowy alley in the middle of the night."

"I wasn't lurking," she said with mock outrage. "I was waiting like any other Lady for her friend to come scurrying out of the sewers."

Hain snorted a laugh. "She said, still lurking in the shadows."

Lilith let out an exasperated sound and stepped into the light where Hain could see her. Chestnut hair framed her heart-shaped face, and her icy blue eyes reflected the firelight lapping against the cobblestone. She wore her hair shorter than most women in the haven–the ruddy brown just long enough to kiss the limp cowl about her shoulders. A leather jerkin the color of dried blood fit tight over a black wool shirt hugging her frame. Soft leather boots reached halfway up her shins, and black wool leggings bound the rest of her lean legs. On one thigh, the fire-blackened hilt of a dagger blended perfectly with the leggings.

Armed, and armored as always, Hain thought. And definitely not a Court Lady.

She leaned casually against one of the houses flanking the alley. "Better?"

"Not if you're still trying to sell the whole 'Lady' bit," Hain said, crossing the street. "Unless razor sharp daggers are this season's accessory at Court. I can't imagine those go over well with the Faithful at mass though."

She blew through her lips in a rude sound. "What makes you think I went to the mass?"

"I figured Sam would have dragged you along."

It was true. His royal cousin never gave up on trying to turn both Hain and Lilith to the Faith. He never seemed to account for the rest of the Faithful's open revulsion at his and Lilith's continued existence. As though being a royal bastard and a Cat demon girl was a crime in and of itself.

Lilith pushed off the building and folded her arms over her chest. As she did it, the sleeve of her shirt crept up her wrists and bared a word in the script tattooed down one forearm.

Hain made a point of keeping his eyes from the ink. Even after all the time they'd known each other, Lilith still got touchy when she caught him looking. He didn't know what it meant, or who'd put the mark on her, but she'd left no ambiguity about her unwillingness to discuss it.

"I told him I wasn't going," she said.

Hain didn't hide his surprise. "And of course he understood completely."

"He understood after I explained that I feel like I can't ever let my guard down around those people. Every time I come near them they act as though I'm going to sprout horns and start devouring babies."

"Babies?" Hain said. "That's ridiculous. I mean, at most you could only eat one baby in a sitting. Any more than that and you'd make yourself sick."

"You know what I mean," she said, looking darkly at him. "One bad word from the Bishop and the whole lot is likely to go all stabby on me."

Hain could have laughed if the Faithful's opinion on her wasn't such a pain in their lives. Lilith was skilled in a fight, but since she was different–because she was from such a feared and unknown place as the Godless–the Faithful had assumed she must be a monster hiding in a girl's form.