Neo froze.
It lasted less than a second, but it happened, and that alone annoyed him.
The question had landed too cleanly. His first reaction had not been empty enough, and with Snot's class, that kind of slip was probably worse than saying too much. Lying to someone who could read the changes in a person's blood sounded like the sort of idea that only worked for the people writing stories, not the ones stuck living inside them.
Snot did not move.
He sat across the fire with his hands loose around one knee, watching Neo with none of the pressure Nep had carried around him.
'Strange person.'
Neo glanced toward Alice first.
She was asleep. Properly asleep this time, curled near the roots with borrowed warmth from the fire and enough exhaustion in her body to keep her there. Once he was sure of that, he turned back to Snot and kept his voice low.
"How do you know?"
Snot exhaled softly, as if he had expected the question.
