Chapter 5 #2
“I hate being stuck in here while everyone is out there working to fix this,” Kira said, a little depressed as she took in her accommodations for the next who knew how long.
Even though it had made sense from a diplomatic standpoint to allow herself to be taken hostage, that knowledge did nothing for the itch under her skin that demanded action. Kira had never been a passive observer. That itch insisted she could be doing more. If only she hadn’t been sidelined.
“Actually—I may have pulled a few strings.”
Shocked, Kira searched Graydon’s face, sure she hadn’t heard that right. “What does that mean?”
“No one told me that incarceration affected one’s hearing,” Pallas drawled, appearing on the cell’s threshold.
“You’re not dumb, little sister. Present circumstances notwithstanding.
” The craziest of her siblings leaned a forearm against the door frame and shook his head in mock disappointment.
“Really—how could you let them take you prisoner? I expected better of you”
“Pallas,” Kira managed through numb lips, sounding every bit as dumb as he’d accused her of being as she took in his presence.
Her brother looked like he’d just come off a three-week bender.
Dark circles under eyes that were a lot more world weary than the last time she’d seen him.
The dangerous edge that had shadowed every interaction was even sharper than before.
He looked like life had chewed him up and spat him back out.
Physically, he was the same as always. His head shaved on both sides.
His hair longer on top. He had a trim beard shadowing his jaw and metal glinted from his eyebrow and the rim of one ear.
The other ear was missing a sizable chunk out of the top.
Like something or someone had taken a massive bite out of it.
Knowing him, that was likely the case.
“Why are you here?” Kira asked, still reeling from the unexpectedness of his presence.
“To save you. Why else?” Alexander eyed the cell with distaste before focusing on Kira. “Hello, little sister. Miss us?”
“No.”
In fact, she wished they’d stayed far, far away. In her experience, nothing ever good came from the forty-three’s involvement.
Alexander adjusted his glasses, pushing them further up his nose. “Don’t sound so grateful.”
“Eat sand and fuck off,” Kira snarled.
If they thought she was naive enough to think they were actually here to save her ass, they had another thing coming.
The forty-three only did what benefited them. They were here because they had an agenda. She was just their excuse.
“Let’s hear it. What do you want?” Kira asked, studying Alexander closely.
Pallas might try to decapitate or otherwise end her existence but Alexander was the one she really had to watch out for. He was the snake in the grass. Lying in wait, hidden and unseen, until he’d already buried his fangs in your thigh.
She’d ended up on the wrong side of his schemes too many times to ever take his presence in stride.
“So suspicious,” Alexander murmured, the faintest glint in his eye that said he found her reaction amusing. “Someone might think you don’t trust me.”
That was because she didn’t.
For as long as Kira had known him, Alexander had gone out of his way to appear nondescript.
He wore clothes that disguised his long, muscular body and hid behind glasses that he didn’t need.
He’d adopted the mild mannered persona of a scholar, content to drift in the background making his plans and manipulating others.
Despite being as much a fighter as Kira.
They’d always gotten along like oil and water. He was the disapproving, judgmental big brother and she was the reckless, rebellious little sister.
“I’m still waiting for an answer as to why you’re here,” Kira said.
Last she’d heard, Alexander was still acting the part of assistant to one of the Haldeel royals.
She wasn’t sure what Pallas had been up to. He’d disappeared after killing their sister Thea.
“They were with me when I got the news about the attack,” Graydon explained.
Kira’s frown grew more pronounced as she eyed Graydon with suspicion. “I wasn’t aware you and the forty-three were in contact.”
“Just some of them.”
The most influential of them, Kira corrected silently.
Alexander was practically his own faction. His opinion held considerable weight.
As for Pallas, he was Ryan’s, the would-be leader of the forty-three, eyes and ears. In some ways, he was Graydon’s counterpart. His position similar enough to that of a Face.
“Why?” Kira asked Alexander.
Why now? After all this time? Why was Ryan and his faction of the forty-three suddenly willing to step out of the shadows and onto the galactic stage?
“We have our reasons.”
Of course they did. Just like those reasons were unlikely to be shared with Kira.
A mocking laugh came from Pallas. “Come now. You can do better than that. Tell our sister the truth.”
Alexander’s sigh was long suffering. “Certain information has come to light.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it for the poor dear.” Pallas bared his teeth at Kira, his eyes cold. “Our dear deceased sister, Thea, wasn’t acting alone in working with the Osiri. There were others.”
“Among the forty-three?”
Pallas’s expression was vicious as his lips twisted. “Do you think we would care otherwise?”
Alexander shot his brother a quelling glance. “There seem to be co-conspirators among the humans and Tuann as well.”
“I’m going to enjoy tearing these traitors apart when I find them,” Pallas crooned with a distant look on his face. Whatever he was imaging made the corners of his lips tip up in a chilling smile. The blood thirst coming off him was stifling in the small cell.
At Kira’s silence, Pallas cut her a sharp look. “What? No pleas for mercy?”
“I guess you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
Some people didn’t deserve mercy.
If any of the forty-three had taken part in Thea’s plans, knowing what was at stake and who her sister was working for, Kira would slit their throats herself. The death she offered them would certainly be far more merciful than anything Pallas had planned.
“My, my, how someone has changed. I guess your incarceration has done you some good,” Pallas drawled.
Kira ignored him to focus on Graydon. “What did they promise you?”
“Does it really matter? We freed you. Be grateful,” Pallas hissed.
“It matters to me,” Kira argued.
Pallas’s eyes narrowed. “Why? Afraid you’re going to owe us now?”
Kira gave him an impatient look. “You’re such an asshole.”
“Takes one to know one.”
Her jaw flexed. “Correction—you’re a juvenile asshole.”
“Again.” Pallas smirked. “It takes one to know one.”
Pallas and Kira glared at each other, neither willing to give ground.
“Enough,” Alexander interrupted with an irritated frown. “Kira, we’ve agreed to provide an introduction to a few of the forty-three.”
Kira snickered. “No, you didn’t.” Her laugh congealed as her gaze traveled from Alexander to Pallas to Graydon, reading their serious expressions. A sticky, icky feeling lodged in her chest. “Wait—you’re serious.”
“To quote a human saying—as a heart attack,” Pallas answered grimly.
Kira stared at them in shock. Time and time again, the forty-three had made their boundaries known. They wanted nothing to do with the Tuann or their former Houses.
Even to save Roake, Kira had never considered using them as a bargaining chip.
Except now, here they were, offering themselves up on a silver platter.
“Why?” Kira asked.
Alexander’s gaze was very serious as it met hers. “It’s time.”
From the way he said it, it was clear he didn’t plan to expand any further than that.
Uncomfortable, Kira glanced at Graydon.
He shook his head at her, telling her to hold the rest of her questions. Reluctantly, she did.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Graydon said. “Roake will need its heir for what’s coming.”
Kira balled up all her fear and uncertainty, tucking them away to be examined at a later time.
With this attack, war was no longer a maybe. It wasn’t a possible future. It was here. Real and inescapable. This wasn’t the time for second guessing or infighting. It was the time to stand firm and unyielding.
Graydon caught her arm when she would have moved toward Pallas and Alexander. “One moment.”
“We’ll give you some privacy,” Alexander said, ever the diplomat when Graydon shot him a look.
“We will?” Pallas asked.
Alexander glared. “Yes. We will.”
There was a frown on Kira’s face and a tight feeling in her stomach as Pallas and Alexander excused themselves.
When the silence dragged on, Kira lifted her chin. “Go on. Say what needs to be said.”
There was obviously something weighing on him.
He’d closed down, emotionally speaking. All those pesky thoughts and feelings tucked back behind the impartial mask he’d worn when they’d first met.
Until right this second, she hadn’t realized how far inside his defenses he’d allowed her to venture. She’d gotten used to being able to read what he was feeling on his face. So much so that it felt jarring to look up and see the emperor’s Face staring back at her.
“There have been allegations made regarding my partiality toward you—and, by extension, Roake,” Graydon stated with all the carefulness of someone trying to defuse a bomb.
“Ah ha.”
“I’ve been ordered to distance myself.”
Kira’s heart was suddenly pounding. Prickles slid under her skin. A wave of heat flushing the back of her neck and arms as she tried to stay calm.
The only thing that kept her from lashing out was the look in Graydon’s eyes. A ferocity and desperation that managed to burn through the detachment he was trying to project.
“Kira—”
That drew a sad, tired smile from her. “It must be serious if you’re using my name.”
Usually, he called her coli. A Tuann term of endearment that was the equivalent of sweetheart for a human. Fully translated, it meant heart’s owner.
“Do what you have to do,” Kira said, taking mercy on Graydon.