67. Rorax
Rorax slid her hand down his arm and entwined her fingers into his, giving them a tight squeeze. She hoped he didn’t break her wrist for touching him without permission.
She was shocked. Shocked.
Ayres, Lieutenant Jackass, who had threatened to kill her almost every day since they’d met, was here. Standing in her room. Looking for her because she hadn’t shown up to practice. Defending her.
He was here because he had been worried about her.
If she didn’t know better, she might have been tempted to walk across the room to her window to see if the sky was on fire, or maybe falling. Or that hell had frozen.
Ayres had finally looked down at her, and she almost sagged in relief as his irises faded from their bright red color to silver. She could reason with silver.
He took one look at the marks around her collarbone, and his eyes had instantly started glowing red like glittering rubies, and his power pulsated through the room, strong enough for even her to feel. She knew that if she didn’t explain to him who Karan was quickly, Karan would be a lifeless corpse on her floor in seconds.
Jia slid past Ayres to close the door behind him, and his eyebrows shot up a millimeter, as if almost shocked to see her. He looked back to Karan, then to Kiniera and back as if surprised that Jia and Kiniera hadn’t killed Karan themselves in her defense.
“What’s going on?”
“Just a little top-secret House of Ice meeting, Lieutenant. Nothing special,” Jia quipped, her voice sickly sweet as she brushed past him to get back to her spot on the side of Rorax’s bed.
“It’s none of his business.” Karan lifted himself out of his chair to come and stand toe to toe with Ayres even though Ayres was nearly six inches taller than Karan and twice as burly. A spike of red reentered Ayres’s irises, so Rorax squeezed his hand a little tighter. She threw Karan a dirty look. “Karan, step back,” she ordered, scowling until Karan shuffled back at a few inches.
Then she turned up at Ayres. “Sahana is alive. Karan is here looking for clues. We’re going to see if we can help him find her.”
The red abated. She could see that he had a million questions rolling around in his head, but he gave her a simple jerky nod. Rorax pointed to the now empty armchair by the fireplace. “Take a seat.”
Ayres prowled around Karan, giving him a look that promised violence, before sinking into the open armchair across from where Kiniera sat in its twin.
“As I was saying,” Kiniera drawled, eyeing Ayres before looking up at Karan. “Rorax is going to send a letter to the King and to Eshaal. I’m going to send one to the Queen, and Jia will be reaching out to the contact in Lyondrea. See if the contact, by some miracle, knows where Sahana is and if she’s still alive. Until then, Karan, as I’ve told you, we do not have any answers for you. We presumed that she had fallen alongside Volla.”
Jia stiffened next to Rorax. “Can you give us any more information? Any more leads to where she is?” Jia asked, looking down at the floor. “When Volla was still alive, I could feel her. Feel where she was generally through the bond.”
Karan’s hands curled up into fists. “No,” he spat. “I already told you. I can’t feel her. It feels empty, but not . . . not like . . .” He ran his hand through his hair.
“Not like she’s been ripped out of your chest?” Jia didn’t look up from the floor, her voice flat and dead.
Karan deflated with a long sigh. “No, not like that.”
Rorax and Kiniera shared a brief look.
“She must be in a Lyondrea prison,” Ayres grumbled.
Rorax turned her attention to the lieutenant. “Ayres, where did the Guardian find the Hunter? Where can we find him, and is it possible to hire him?”
Ayres nodded. “You can hire him, anyone can for the right price. I don’t know where he is . . . He came to her when he felt her power crumbling. I’ll ask her when she returns from Valitlinn.”
Karan shot him a grateful look, but Ayres kept his eyes locked on Rorax. “If Sahana is in a Lyondrean prison . . . It’s not good. They line the walls with power dampening wards, which is probably why you can’t acutely feel her. It’s poisonous to the Gifted over time. You need to prepare yourself for the worst. At the least, prepare yourself that you might not recognize the woman you find. If you even do find her.”
Karan snarled. “I will find her. I will.”
They all heard what Karan didn’t say. He’d either find her, or he’d die trying.