Chapter 18
Eighteen
A month later
Gus perused the bare bones room from her seat at the makeshift table.
As hideouts went, she found this one rather lacking. There were few amenities. Just a bed. Its mattress bare. Not even a blanket to curl up with.
It was all rather depressing if you asked her.
You’d think given how much effort went into creating a secret room in the basement of a bombed out building that her sister would at least make it comfortable. But no, that apparently hadn’t been a concern.
At least there was a table and chairs, Gus allowed.
The only thing that Cleo appeared to have put effort into was the state of the art weapon safe in the corner.
It didn’t make sense to Gus, but then, a lot of the things her siblings did continued to be a mystery.
Cleo’s choice in safe house locations was spot on, however.
The dead zone on Paxus was a place almost no one ever visited. Partially because of the rumors that Tsavitee continued to be spotted in the area. Every once in a while, the local militia rolled through and wiped out whatever they found.
These days it wasn’t much but enough to keep the riff raff from returning.
Knowing it could be a while before her sister returned from her errand, Gus brewed herself a cup of masala chai with the supplies she’d brought. She found the ritual soothing considering the difficult task that lay ahead of her.
It had taken weeks to track Cleo down and now her hunt was finally nearing its completion. All that was left to do was to wait for her prey to step into the trap she’d laid for her.
It could be hours or days. But eventually Cleo would return to this place.
There was nowhere else she could go now that Roake and half the Tuann empire was hunting her. Gus didn’t think anybody expected Roake’s Overlord to make public the forty-three’s involvement in these matters, but now that he had, Cleo was left without a lot of options.
Those that remained of the forty-three—the so called twenty-nine—had turned their backs on her.
And her little rebellion—from what Gus had heard, it was dead in the water.
Outwardly, at least.
Cleo had been disavowed and cut loose. Anyone who might have aided her before was laying low.
This was the end of the line for Cleo.
Hearing something, Gus partially lowered her teacup and listened.
Ah.
Show time.
The door opened a few moments later.
Cleo looked visibly taken aback upon spotting Gus seated at the table. “How did you get in here?”
“I came alone. No one is with me. I promise,” Gus assured her, noting the way Cleo scanned the room in search of others. She gestured at the chair across from her. “Would you care to take a seat? I think it’s time we had a little chat. I brewed masala chai.”
In hopes of allaying her sister’s concerns, Gus picked up the teapot and poured her a cup.
After a moment’s consideration, Cleo let the door slam closed behind her. “Sure, why not?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Gus watched Cleo saunter across the room to take a seat across from her.
“It’s pretty stupid of you to come here,” Cleo said, studying her.
“Oh? How so?”
A flicker of impatience settled in the back of Cleo’s eyes. “I made no secret of what I thought of you the last time we met.”
Gus swirled her tea around the cup, staring into the liquid as if it held all the answers in the universe. “Yes, you were quite forthcoming.”
“Did Ryan send you?”
“In a matter of speaking,” Gus allowed after a moment’s thought.
She was sure if he’d been able to locate her, he would have issued an order along those lines. As it was, she’d been doing her best to avoid him and the rest of the forty-three. Excuse her, twenty-nine. She still hadn’t gotten used to the name change.
“He must not like you as much as I thought if he sent you after me.”
“Why is that?” Gus asked.
“He has to know you’re no match for me. He threw you away. Just like he did Thea.”
Gus placed her teacup down a little harder than necessary. Since their encounter on Titan, she’d done a little digging and now knew what happened between their other sister and Pallas. “Thea worked with the Osiri against our own. She threw herself away.”
“She recognized the inevitability of rebelling against gods.”
“Is that how you see them? As gods?”
“That’s what they are,” Cleo said.
Gus regarded her pityingly. “They’re not gods, Cleo. They’re devils and they can die.”
Cleo’s laugh held an air of exhaustion. “Oh, well. What you think doesn’t really matter. You’ll be dead soon.”
Poor Cleo. She really didn’t get it.
“I’m afraid it’s not going to be that easy,” Gus murmured.
There was a lack of comprehension in Cleo’s gaze as her eyes darted toward the tea that she had yet to touch.
“The poison was never in the tea,” Gus kindly informed her.
Gus had nothing but time while waiting for Cleo’s arrival. Enough to fill the room with the deadly poison emanating from her skin. From the moment her sister opened the door, she was a dead woman walking.
Cleo tried to get up, but her legs refused to respond.
Gus nodded at the understanding she could see dawning. “Now, you’re getting it.”
“How?” Cleo gritted out as she lost sensation in her torso and listed forward.
Gus rose to catch her sister, gently lowering her head to the table. “Do you really think Esara would have spared his pet from his experiments?”
Hardly. He’d saved the worst for Gus.
“I was his pet not because I was weak, but because he considered me his greatest accomplishment.”
A delicate flower. Easily damaged. Easily broken. Yet oh so deadly in the right circumstances.
Esara had been fascinated by that dichotomy. He’d gone to considerable lengths to amplify her inherent abilities. Until he’d made her into something closer to a flower. One whose spores and pollen killed everything around it.
“Co-co-ward.”
“Yes, you’re right. I am a coward.” Gus stroked Cleo’s head in sympathy. “That’s why I am alive, and you are dead."
Gus bore vigil as her sister’s breaths slowed.
Then stopped. When she was certain Cleo was dead, she headed to the weapon cache, breaking in to see what information she could gather about Cleo’s potential cohorts and their ultimate plan.
Gus doubted Titan was the end. There would be another plot.
This time she needed to stay in front of it.
All thought ground to a halt as she saw what was waiting for her inside.
A single white flower.
Etai Ama.
Osiri for eternal agony. The deadliest plant in the universe. A plant so rare that Gus had only ever seen it once. In a place of honor in Esara’s lab.
Even with her general level of immunity to most poisons, Gus had to be careful not to touch its stem or petals with her bare hands. Covering her hand with her sleeve, she lifted the flower carefully from the stack of paper it was lying on top of.
It was real, Gus determined after close study.
Twirling it in her hand, she gave her sister’s corpse a thoughtful glance. “Just what were you up to, former sister of mine?”