Chapter 27
Calm Before the Storm
HARPER
‘So we’ve marked all the possible hideouts where Maria could be, as per Harper’s instructions.
’ Kiran turns to Tia’s projector, pulling up a Singapore map scattered with red crosses.
‘And we’re working with police to have people do reconnaissance accordingly.
In the meantime, Harper, I brought material from our lawyers. ’
He grabs a pile of documents from a table and hobbles over to me, laying contracts and forms out. His IV protests sadly with the movement, trying to stop him from working and failing miserably.
In the corner of my eye, I see Tia watching carefully for my reaction, but I school my face. No one said anything about lawyers, though maybe I don’t mind having people look out for me like this.
‘We need to protect you,’ Kiran says. ‘When the public inevitably find out who you are, we have to be prepared.’
‘Will you guys have to arrest me?’ I force it to come out flippant, but it’s quieter than I expect. I blame it on the flu. Tia doesn’t look convinced.
‘No.’ Kiran hands me a pen, his eyes serious. ‘Not if we can help it.’
The reminder rings in my head through the day, and it’s warm and loving. Later, in bed, as Tia busies herself with looking over resumes for Sentinels again, I watch idly.
‘You know I love you, right?’ Tia says suddenly, drawing me out of my thoughts.
A feverish flush brushes the high of her cheeks.
She looks like an angel, albeit sickly and pen-wielding – she’s been marking each resume with her comments, but so far I only see Xs.
‘I just realized we were all caught up in . . . everything last night when we said it, and we had . . . well . . . I wanted to say it now. When it’s quieter. I still love you.’
‘You can say we had sex.’ Lounging in the bed beside her, I prop myself up on an elbow, my chest tightening with shyness and my face flashing with heat. ‘I still love you too.’
Tia’s lips twitch up for a second before she goes back to working.
Somewhere in the world, there’s another shoe waiting to drop. What if we can’t find Maria? How am I going to balance living with the Sentinels and being Raven now that everyone’s cards are on the table?
It takes me all day to work up the courage, but suddenly it’s eleven p.m. and before Tia announces she’s going to sleep, I edge out of the bed, drawing her attention.
‘Something I need to do,’ I justify, knowing how inadequate it is.
Her brows knit and she doesn’t ask, even though I see her mouth work over the question.
I’m familiar with this hospital because both Nagas and Foxes default to the same one when we’re injured post-fight, and I’ve been here to check on too many Foxes in the middle of the night.
Many of the staff themselves are descendants – the hospital director is a powered Fox in hiding from the government.
Today, the hospital corridors close to a point around me, my vision narrowed into a single goal, my feet inconsequentially quiet. No one will see me coming. Visiting hours ended a long time ago, but the security is nothing against my illusion magic.
When I burst into the ward, Avyaan stands by the hospital bed of the Naga I stabbed. The victim has been tucked into a blanket up to her armpits, her face ashy but calm in sleep, though it’s hard to parse much in the dim light of the room.
Avyaan whips around. His hand flies to his side, where I know he’s hiding a dagger he must’ve slipped past the hospital staff. I know it because I did the same.
The moment he registers me, he scowls. ‘What are you doing here?’
I itch for my own blade. ‘I have a deal for you.’
Reluctance works tension into his jaw, but he jerks his chin to gesture us out of the ward.
We end up in a playground not far from the hospital. Past midnight, there’s no one else to witness us, and we’re far from any nearby CCTV, reducing chances of surveillance.
‘Five minutes,’ Avyaan says. He drops himself heavily onto a chain swing. ‘Or the Foxes and the Nagas are done. I’m serious, Harper. Between Maria trying to cut some shady deal with us, and her taking off with a few Nagas, and you hurting my clan members? I’m so close to cutting our ties.’
I stay silent. I didn’t intend to come here for apologies, and I wouldn’t mean one anyway, not when I did it all for Tia.
Still, I leave a moment for us to sit in his grievance.
When I think it’s acceptable to begin, I say, ‘Maria ran away with the moonstones. If we don’t find her, neither you nor my clan will have them. ’
Avyaan sniffs. ‘Some of my clan members followed her, but I lost track of them. They’re working together, probably.’
I stub my shoe against the ground, kicking rubber loose from the ground as I sway in my swing. ‘So we’re both shit leaders.’
‘Don’t lump me with yourself, traitor.’ Avyaan kicks a rock across the playground. ‘The supplements from the new moonstone have been really helping our kids, you know. We need it.’
‘I know. Us, too.’ I close my eyes, take a deep breath as I lean backwards.
‘Look, the Sentinels are trying to draw Maria out. They want the moonstones so they won’t be used for bombs; and we all need the moonstones as supplements.
So I’m thinking we have a common goal here in finding Maria.
’ I spin in my swing, allowing the chains above me to twist until they hit maximum strain and I concede to torque.
When my swing slows to face Avyaan, he’s looking at me strangely. ‘Why should we work with the Sentinels?’
‘Like I said, common goal. I want you to come in for a meeting with them – I’ll make them sign agreements that they won’t arrest you – and you should speak to them.
You don’t have to work with them if it doesn’t go well.
But I think we’re all after something similar, and I want you to hear them out.
’ The Nagas, Foxes and the Sentinels have been long divided by their different approach to our moonstone supply, but if I can convince them to set aside their feud, it’ll up our chances of getting both the moonstones and Maria.
‘How’s Lune?’ Avyaan asks suddenly.
I startle before remembering that news of her recovery was in the papers today. What do you want with her? I restrain myself from bristling. ‘She’s fine.’
Avyaan stands. I prepare myself to stop him from leaving, but he holds out a hand. ‘Bring her and only her here, tomorrow midnight. I’ll have Nagas on standby if the Sentinels so much as hint that they’ll arrest me.’
I take his hand. ‘They won’t.’
Avyaan cocks his head. ‘Are you their spokesperson now, Raven? What are you, Fox leader or Sentinel?’
Before I can respond, he withdraws his hand and leaves me with his question.
It lingers in the humid night air.
TIA
For all of Harper’s stumbling explanation about her history with the Naga leader, I don’t see what she saw in him. Probably in part because I’m Harper’s girlfriend, and in part because I’m a lesbian.
Maybe also in part because he hasn’t stopped glaring at me since he arrived.
Harper gestures for us to sit by the swings as she stands between us, and I’m struck by how deeply silly the three of us look. The agreement I drafted with Kiran this afternoon juts from my tote bag, and I hand it over to Avyaan. ‘As requested.’
Up close, he’s far leaner than I expected, his shoulders narrow but his arm rippled with muscle. He switches a phone torch on to read the agreement, his eyes lingering on my, Kiran’s and Niko’s signatures at the end.
He switches the light off, plunging the three of us into darkness. ‘So what do you want from us?’
‘We all want the moonstones,’ I say, rehearsed. His hostility jabs at me, but we have to be civil if we want this to happen. ‘The Sentinels are willing to expend our resources to catch Maria, but we don’t know where she is. Do you have any information?’
‘I’ve pulled together a group of Nagas to track her movements and figure out where she’s led the rogue Nagas and Foxes.’ Avyaan folds the contract into his pocket. ‘We have an idea to draw her out, but I’m not working with you unless you give us seventy per cent of the moonstones we retrieve.’
I don’t need to catch Harper’s warning gaze to know my face twists with a scowl. ‘No deal. You know that’s a ridiculous number, and we still need to surrender the moonstones for the lunar plants.’
Avyaan’s gaze flashes with anger, the swing squeaking under his weight as he tenses. ‘So you’ll hand the moonstones back over to the government? When they’re the ones who gave them to Ferrix in the first place?’
Harper settles a hand on my shoulder before I can speak, squeezing me lightly. ‘What if we only hand some over to the government?’
I whip around to stare at Harper. ‘What?’
‘One main aim is to keep the moonstones away from the government. The other main aim is to keep some moonstones for descendant kids. We can surrender some to the government as a decoy, but the rest? All we need is for someone to keep the rest of the moonstones safe. Not Fox, not Naga, not government.’ Harper tilts her head towards me as she speaks, and my brain struggles to catch up.
Avyaan’s gaze squints. ‘So you think the Sentinels are a neutral third party.’
‘We can be,’ I say. ‘We can pledge to keep most of the moonstones between us, if you help us catch Maria.’
Avyaan leans back in his swing and unfolds his arms. ‘You’ll write a contract that says that the moonstones stay between us only.
But if you try to cut us off from the moonstones, or give them all to the government, then the Nagas will be after both the Sentinels and the Foxes.
’ He directs the last part at Harper, who takes it stoically.
I quell the urge to hold her hand as she nods.
HARPER
Once the contract is signed, we lay the trap immediately. Avyaan sends out a mass message that the Nagas are planning a huge protest near Marina Bay to get back at the Sentinels. With any luck, Maria will come running.