Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Kit
Home sweet home.
The words had scarcely crossed my mind when a gust of damp wind hurled frigid raindrops into my face. Ah, Vancouver. Such a fickle mistress.
Following Darius, Robin, and Lienna, I continued down the steps to the tarmac, my backpack on my shoulders and Darius’s duffel bag in one hand.
We weren’t disembarking at Vancouver International Airport, where a reported force of thirty SI agents was waiting for us.
Instead, Darius had instructed our pilot to divert our flight at the last possible moment.
We’d enjoyed a hyperventilation-inducing turn out of YVR’s airspace to fly twenty kilometers south to a smaller airport in Delta.
The sky was dark, the hangars and runways illuminated by harsh lights that were pupil-stabbing after so many hours in the pleasant mood lighting of the jet’s interior.
Contributing to the retinal attack were the headlights of a pair of SUVs parked near the hangars.
The silhouettes of two people waited for us just in front of the vehicles.
It was a modest welcoming committee for the world’s most wanted mythic, but I was totally okay with that.
A grin pulled at my lips, widening as we drew close enough that I could make out Captain Blythe’s blond waves, stern expression, and militantly straight posture. Her sharp gaze whipped across us, lingering for a second longer on Darius.
Beside her stood Vinny. A little thinner than I remembered and his face more gaunt, but his neat mohawk was the same as always. His grin, as wide as mine, was less familiar.
“Cargo shorts,” I declared before anyone could utter a greeting. “Not even cargo pants, but cargo shorts. In December.”
Vinny glanced down at his exposed shins, then looked back at me, his grin slipping into an annoyed twist. “Really, Kit? That’s the first thing—”
“I’m so relieved that cargo-shorts-Vincent is back.” While he was still stammering in confusion, I set the duffel bag on the ground and pulled him into a hug. “You told me you could save my life with the miscellany in your pockets—and it turns out you’re really good at saving lives, Vinny.”
“I—what—oh,” he muttered, reciprocating the hug.
I very briefly considered reality-warping said cargo shorts into black slacks just to see his reaction, but I resisted the impulse. Instead, I let Lienna take my spot to give Vinny her own heartfelt embrace and turned to my former captain.
Blythe, however, was looking at Darius, the document bag hanging almost casually from his hand.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her gaze upon her ex-fiancé with such a lack of obvious loathing before.
I wouldn’t call her expression adoring, forgiving, or even warm.
It was more like cautious consideration.
Maybe a hint of relief that he was all in one piece and not six feet south of ground level.
Even with a clean shirt hiding his wounds, he still had the look of a man missing a liter or two of blood, and that might’ve won him a touch more leniency.
If I were Darius, I’d take that as a big win.
She turned to me. “Welcome back, Kit. You’re just in time to deal with this colossal mess.”
“We’ll have even more fun once Griva arrives, but I’m blaming that on him.” I pointed my thumb at Darius.
Robin, who was hovering awkwardly on his other side, winced as though feeling some of the blame ricocheting onto her.
“The rescue team led by your guildeds will begin their operation shortly,” Blythe told Darius. “Everyone else is evacuating civilians from the neighborhoods surrounding the PNE grounds. We have every combat-capable mythic involved, but I fear we’re still outmatched.”
“Have you put out the call for help?” Darius asked.
Blythe’s lips thinned. “Yes, but it’s a lot to ask on short notice. We shouldn’t count on outside help.”
Glancing at Lienna, I knew she felt the same ominous chill I did, and it had nothing to do with the fitful December rainstorm.
Blythe looked back at me. “Are you two still going on an excursion? Darius said we’ll need you to defeat Griva and Kade, though he hasn’t explained why.”
She shot him a glare with the last part. Now there was the familiar Blythe-Darius energy. I was happy to let Darius regale the captain with his newfound knowledge of archmythics without me.
“Yep,” I said brightly. “Speaking of which, we should skedaddle before the SI hordes figure out which airport we landed at.”
Vinny, living up to the legacy of his lower-body garment, pulled a set of car keys from one of his many pockets and started to offer them to me, but Blythe raised a hand to stop him.
“One more thing,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the vehicles.
Ah. I’d been hoping that particular thing might wait until later. I glanced at the second SUV. I couldn’t see anything through the tinted glass, but it didn’t matter. I’d already identified the mind lurking in the backseat.
Blythe leveled her full attention on Lienna, who stiffened slightly. “Lienna, about a week ago—”
The SUV’s back passenger door flew open and a dark figure climbed out. Deputy Captain Shen of the Los Angeles precinct hastened toward us, his gaze fixed on Lienna.
“What is he doing here?” Lienna demanded. “He’s with the Consilium!”
I narrowed my eyes at her father, swapping back and forth between telepathy and empathy. I was picking up some interesting brainwaves.
“Is he?” I asked.
Lienna shot me a disbelieving, almost betrayed look.
Blythe huffed in annoyance. “Mr. Shen, I told you to wait in the vehicle.”
Shen held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, his attention still locked on his daughter. “Please let me speak. Let me explain.”
Lienna’s jaw clenched. I didn’t reach for her or touch her; I knew she wouldn’t want to show any perceived weakness to the enemy, including receiving comfort and support from her loved ones.
Instead, I slipped a telepathic thought her way. I think there may be more going on with your dad than him being a Consilium stooge.
But he sold us out, she thought back to me. I can’t trust a word he says.
What if I tell you if he lies? I offered.
Lienna clenched and unclenched her hands, then gave a jerky nod. “We can talk. For a minute.”
Blythe and Darius both gave me searching looks.
I replied with an “I’ve got this” look.
Vinny grabbed Darius’s duffel bag from the ground beside me, and he, Darius, Blythe, and Robin moved toward the second SUV.
Shen ventured a few steps closer, his eyes sweeping over Lienna’s face again and again, as though he’d thought he would never see her again.
“Li-li,” he whispered.
“Start talking,” she ordered. “You can begin with how you betrayed me and Kit to the Consilium in Barcelona.”
“I didn’t betray you. Not intentionally.
” He straightened his shoulders, a move that had probably been more impactful before his second battle with cancer.
“It started three weeks after you disappeared from New York. They broke into our home and left a note on our kitchen table. They wanted information on your whereabouts.”
Was that little episode of home invasion when they’d stolen Lienna’s keychain?
“You told me on the phone that no one suspicious had been inside the house,” Lienna accused.
“By that point, I finally understood what you were up against. I didn’t want to distract you with worries about your mother and me.
” He shook his head slowly. “I’m not saying it was the right decision, but I didn’t know what to do.
They repeatedly threatened your mother and me, but we refused to cooperate. ”
Lienna listened in silence. A frown had replaced her suspicious scowl.
“Then they put that bounty on you,” Shen said, “and they told me that if I gave them Kit Morris’s location, they would remove the bounty and let you live.”
Oh shit. So that’s why the Consilium had taken so long to post a bounty on Lienna. They’d been waiting until they could leverage it.
“When I realized you were in Barcelona, I told them nothing. Instead, I went to get you myself.” Fury and regret deepened the lines in his face. “I suspect now that they were watching me more closely than I knew.”
Lienna glanced at me, her eyes wide and questioning.
I slipped my hand into hers and squeezed gently. As far as I could tell, he was being truthful.
“I didn’t understand the scope of their power and their reach,” he admitted. “I was discreet, but not discreet enough. They must have guessed why I was suddenly traveling to Barcelona.”
And Kade would’ve guessed I was tracking down either the grimoire or the astrolabe. Instead of trying to chase me through the city, he’d set his ambush and waited for me to walk into it.
“It was only after you refused to come with me that I realized …” Shen’s voice cracked, and he swallowed.
“I realized how deeply I’d broken your trust. I realized that because I’d violated my professional ethics by taking bribes, you believed me capable of crossing any ethical or moral line. And why wouldn’t you?”
Lienna said nothing. Behind Shen, Vinny and Robin were loading bags into the second SUV while Blythe and Darius stood near the driver’s side door.
“I’m sorry, Li-li,” Shen said softly, taking a step closer. “I was trying to protect you.”
Again, she didn’t respond.
I gave her hand another squeeze and nudged her telepathically. Lienna?
She glanced at me, a storm of emotion in her eyes.
What am I supposed to say to that? she asked, directing the thought at me.
Well, I replied gently, you could start with how you feel.
She frowned.
If you don’t tell him how you feel, you two will stay stuck in this spot forever. Figuratively, I mean, I added. You won’t be physically stuck, though I do have the power to meld his shoes to the tarmac if you want me—
She rolled her eyes, and I ceased my telepathic rambling. Her shoulders shifted as she inhaled deeply, and she focused on her father.
“You’re right.” The words came out a bit awkward and abrupt, but she kept going.
“I do—I did believe that you were capable of crossing any moral line. It wasn’t just the bribes.
It was what you did when I found out—the way you made me feel like I had to keep it all a secret to protect Mom.
It was emotional manipulation. It was cruel, and it—it really hurt me. ”
That was an understatement, and her father knew it.
“Lienna,” he said hoarsely. “I swear to do everything I can to earn your trust and forgiveness.”
She nodded, a faint shimmer of tears in her eyes. Sliding her hand from mine, she stepped forward. The hope pulling at her father’s features as they embraced was heart-wrenching.
A moment later, Lienna returned to my side, and we walked over to the vehicles where the others waited.
Blythe tossed a set of keys to Lienna. “When will you be back?”
Closing her fingers tightly around the keys, Lienna arched her eyebrows at me.
I gave the captain a casual shrug. “Before the apocalypse commences.”