She did not wait long for Gabbar because she didn’t need to. She spotted him on approach and tracked his movement until he was within an appropriate conversational distance. Valve had been gone a bit longer than she had intended, but the stallion seemed entirely unfazed by this. Perhaps he too had been busy.

“Mmm,” Valve uttered in response with her velvet lips pressed together. “The stars are beginning to align.”

Success was close enough to taste—metallic, like blood in her mouth. El Aran would have to die in front of the Arabians—an example of the power and cunning her kind had displayed for eons. And if Maslakhat’s assertions were true, there would be no one left to hide Yusuf from them. The message she aimed to send would be made abundantly clear—to stand in their way was to die.

She studied Gabbar carefully, searching his expression for anything amiss, her dark eyes glittering like polished stones in the sun. She respected the Arabian for his firmness and his tactical strength, which she had experienced first hand. He was a good partner. However, Valve cannot forget their different goals, nor that El Halin and Iftikhar were close by when she departed.

“Tell me Gabbar,” she spoke again with the slightest edge in her tone, purely to discourage dishonesty. “Have you faired as well in your search?”

It was not a question so much as an opportunity for him to remain on her side.

VALVE
slenderman x black heart machine