Chapter 15
DAVEN
“How many of you were in one cage?” Kylix sat directly across from them in the hover car.
“You already interrogated him,” Daven grumbled. He squeezed Ryneth’s hand until pain sparked up Daven’s arm too. Ever since they’d gotten ready for pickup and left his penthouse, Ryneth hadn’t spoken, clearly too occupied in his own head.
“That was before we understood what happened on that shuttle,” Kylix added, not even turning to him.
“They didn’t expect to find someone like you.
Once you started fighting back, they knew you weren’t ordinary.
And Bekn was on board. He recognized you were a Dariux even before you did. He knew you were leverage.”
Ryneth’s expression hardened. “First I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now I’m valuable?”
“You were always worth protecting,” Kylix said. “The problem is that now they know it too. Perhaps that’s why someone was so intent on buying you.”
“You told him?” Ryneth snapped, looking at Daven.
Daven didn’t blink. “I told him before we left. He needed to know.”
Kylix cocked his head. “Why didn’t you tell us you were in trouble?”
“Who cares why?” Ryneth shot back. “If you want to get rid of me, just say it.”
Kylix blinked. Then his lips twitched. “Is that what you think? Or what you fear?”
Ryneth huffed. “I don’t fear anything. I’m simply stating a fact.”
“Have you already taken a good look at my cousin? He’d turn the entire Velaryn Reach upside down to save you. Do you know what that means, Ryneth?”
Daven’s hand squeezed the smaller one tighter, his rings digging into Ryneth’s clammy skin. He didn’t reply.
“I thought so. Vandor, how far are we?”
“Five minutes.”
“And the other units?”
“They’re already on standby, sir.”
“Good.” Kylix scanned his multi-slate, then lifted his gaze back to Ryneth. “Now. How many?”
“I don’t know,” Ryneth snapped.
Kylix’s brow lifted. “How come you don’t know?”
“Because I was kept alone. I already told you. I caused an accident.”
“Yes. The static,” Kylix said flatly. “I remember. That still doesn’t answer how many.”
Daven tried to imagine what it must have been like for Ryneth. Locked up. Shackled. His static the only thing that had come to his rescue. The thought hit him like a punch to the gut, sharp and ugly.
He should have been there sooner. Should have torn that whole place apart before Ryneth ever had to survive it alone. He’d have burned the world down for him. He’d—
But he had been there. He’d been the one to pull Ryneth’s battered body from that collapsing building.
Then his uncle had handed Ryneth to him, and him alone.
Anger replaced the earlier feeling of sadness.
He was not going to give up this man, who had been in his bed, whose body he had already claimed.
Daven let out a short, disbelieving breath.
“Are you all right?” Ryneth asked softly, squeezing his hand as if he wasn’t the one about to walk into a death trap.
Daven looked at him for a second, almost wanting to laugh. “You’re asking me?”
Ryneth’s mouth twitched. “Just answer the question.”
“No,” Daven said. “You?”
Ryneth just smiled, but his eyes, those silver eyes framed by impossibly long pale lashes, were full of terror.
Yes, Ryneth was terrified. Daven could feel it in the way his static snapped against Daven’s skin, leaving tiny sparks in its wake. And he had every right to be.
“Yure, talk to me.” Kylix kept his gaze on Ryneth as a voice crackled through his multi-slate.
“Head for the south sector,” Yure replied. “There’s still an old steelworks grid. That’s where you go.”
“Are we at the refinery?” Daven looked outside the window. He hadn’t even noticed they’d left the city.
He’d been too caught up in Ryneth. Always Ryneth.
Ryneth looked out through the glass. “So they’re not taking us to the spaceport.”
Kylix smirked. “That would have been too clean for an organization like Concordant. They don’t take the usual routes for take-off.
From where we found you, we already assumed they had other ways of landing.
” He looked around. “The refinery could be another access point, though we still need to prove it. We don’t act on suspicions. ”
“Yeah?” Daven bit out. “If you did, maybe we’d have arrested them already.”
Kylix turned his head slowly. The look he gave Daven was flat enough to cut. “Not now.”
Daven’s jaw flexed. He said nothing.
Ryneth tightened his hand around Daven’s. “So they’re waiting here until they see me.”
Kylix’s gaze stayed on the refinery below. “It seems so.”
Daven’s jaw flexed. “Why?”
Ryneth didn’t look away from the dark structure below. “Does it matter?” His grip tightened once around Daven’s fingers. “I’ll go in. I’ll talk to them. Then we’ll know.”
Yure’s voice crackled through Kylix’s multi-slate. “My breach pinged them. The moment they saw who was with us, the game changed. They know we’re watching. We know they’re moving. No one gets to pretend anymore.”
Below them, the refinery glowed in broken strips of red light. A black shuttle sat in the lower bay, half-shadowed by steel beams, its hull drinking in every trace of light around it.
Ryneth went rigid.
Kylix’s gaze sharpened. “There. That’s our opening.”
Daven’s jaw tightened. “He was supposed to be visible, not exposed.”
Kylix finally looked at Ryneth. “Listen carefully. This is not a negotiation. It’s a test. They want to see if we’ll put you where they can see you.” His voice turned colder. “We do it on our terms.” Then he looked to the others. “Move.”
“And if they move on me?” Ryneth asked.
Kylix’s expression didn’t shift. “Then we move first.”
Something in Daven snapped. Air spilled loose around his boots in a hot, violent gust, sharp enough to rattle the seams of the hovercar.
“Daven,” Kylix barked.
He forced it back with his teeth clenched so hard his jaw hurt. “Just… he doesn’t get touched.”
“I got the point.” Kylix’s mouth twitched. “But if we let that shuttle lift, they’ll scrub the trail the second it clears the ground. After that, we’re blind. We won’t know if they’ll go off-planet or simply land somewhere else on Helion.”
The hovercar doors hissed open.
Cold air flooded in, thick with metal and fuel. The refinery loomed ahead in layered platforms and steel beams, red hazard lights blinking in steady intervals.
Helianth was already outside with the strike team, one hand resting on the roof as he looked toward the refinery.
“There’s movement in the lower bay,” Yure said through the comm.
Kylix stepped out first. “What’s happening next, Yure?”
“Lights just dipped,” Yure replied at once. “They’re shifting to manual mode. The shuttle hatch is open. I see two captives. They’re getting ready to board. You need to move.”
Kylix didn’t move at first. “Earpieces live,” he said quietly. “Continuous feed. Ryneth, if I say drop, you drop. If I say move, you don’t hesitate.”
Ryneth flinched slightly as the comm in his ear clicked live.
“Vandor, rooftop overwatch. Helianth, rear access. No blind angles.”
A soft series of confirmations crackled back.
Kylix finally stepped out into the cold. “We keep him alive, we learn what they want, and if they move first, we end it.”
Daven followed him, pulling Ryneth with him. “This is fucking suicide, and you know it.”
“We have no other option,” Helianth admitted. “This is possibly the only chance we’ll get. We can’t let more crime poison our world.”
“He’s right. Attica is already pushing new compounds through the port districts,” Kylix added grimly. “If we don’t cut the supply soon, the lower ring will drown in it.”
“Careful.” Yure’s voice crackled through Kylix’s multi-slate. “There are two guards outside, moving toward the access ramp. One’s staying near the captives.”
A brief static hissed through the line. Then—
“They’ve acknowledged our presence,” Yure added. “Good Light, they know who’s with you. Keep him covered.”
“Good,” Kylix said calmly. “If they paid that level, they won’t send a runner. Look.”
The tunnel doors slowly started to open. The dark beyond them stayed empty.
Daven’s grip tightened around Ryneth’s hand as he stared into the black.
This was it. If someone had come to claim what they thought they’d bought, this was the moment.
Those monsters had recognized Ryneth. They thought they were hunting. They had no idea what was hunting them back.
Kylix didn’t blink. “Hold formation,” he ordered. “No one fires unless I say.”
Ryneth turned to face Daven, squeezing his hand. “I—”
“They want to see you,” Kylix cut in, voice flat. “Which means they’ll have to come through us first.” His gaze flicked to Ryneth. “You do not fall tonight.”
Then he went back to barking orders like the world wasn’t balanced on a knife edge. Perhaps to him, it wasn’t. All Daven could do was watch Ryneth.
He smiled at Daven, but his eyes were filled with sadness Daven couldn’t place. He’d give good coin to know what was going through Ryneth’s head right now.
“I’ll protect you,” he wanted to say, but didn’t, because the words felt too foreign in his mind. He’d never wanted to protect anyone other than his family.
His obnoxious family, who had just shoved his life into absolute shit.
They were putting Ryneth exactly where Concordant wanted him, and Daven hated that he was letting it happen.
Kylix gave a short nod. “Five minutes. If they don’t show, you come back. If anything turns, we move.”
Daven’s fingers tightened around Ryneth’s hand again. He didn’t want to let go. Not now, not ever.
This whole operation felt like a betrayal before it had even happened.
Ryneth looked at Daven, his expression softening for a heartbeat. “Let me go. Please.”
Daven lifted Ryneth’s hand to his mouth, ignoring the static snapping against his palm, and pressed a slow kiss to his knuckles. He didn't know what to do with him. He wanted to lock him away where no one could touch him, even if Ryneth hated him for it.