He couldn’t trust anyone. Words were lies, never to be believed. He knew how the world really worked. Promises were false. Selfishness was the only truth. Everyone was only working to make themselves happy, in everything that they did. Even if she didn’t run crying to Gabriel about finding him, it would be for some ulterior motive that he could only guess at. His presence would be revealed sooner or later anyway.
He almost intended it, or he wouldn’t be lurking so close to Inferni’s borders. The world was wide and vast and he could go anywhere, but he was drawn here. Kaena was here. “I needed to find something,” he said, which wasn’t completely false. He’d found Eterne, and he’d found the coyote of his father’s blood. “I found it,” he said, his face slowly breaking into a purely wicked expression—something sinister, and something impure.