Chapter 23 #3
He groaned and started pulling espresso shots. “Your dad doesn’t want to talk. I get the weird sense he wants to both strangle me and also wrap me in bubble wrap in a windowless room so I can’t die before I liberate his boyfriend.”
“He’s a complex individual.”
“Sure. That’s one way to put it.” Tristen finished making his coffee. “I still can’t believe your dad is a fucking councilor.”
“You know you can’t tell anyone, right?”
“He made that abundantly clear to me.” Tristen took a sip of his coffee. “Abundantly clear,” he repeated. “Thoroughly explained. Lots of details on the consequences of noncompliance.”
“I’m sorry. He’s—”
“A complex individual?” Tristen finished for her.
She sighed. “Yeah.”
“I don’t like that he’s involved.” He didn’t pause for her to respond, which was fortunate, because she didn’t know what she would have said.
“He’s a councilor, and it’s right under the Council’s nose that there’s a blackmarket Shaman trafficking ring going on.
But he said he would ‘look into it’ and I actually believe him.
” He shook his head. “I’m not sure if that makes me stupid. ”
“If he said he’ll do it, he will.”
“I think he’d say anything right now to get what he wants.”
“Correction: he would do anything right now to get what he wants, such as ending a Shaman trafficking ring. But he doesn’t have to do anything for what he wants.
You made a bargain with me to free an Avatar, and I’m sure Griff has already told him that.
Given that, if he wasn’t going to do anything, he would have just told you it isn’t his concern. ”
“I think you might be biased on account of parental affection.”
She laughed. “My relationship with him is very new. I love him, but I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses regarding who he is.
He’ll fix it. Not only because he said he will, but because Griff and I will make sure that he does.
” Jevryn had probably agreed to it in the first place simply because he knew Griff and Nyx would badger him about it anyway.
Tristen made a noncommittal sound and opened the fridge. He pulled out a mason jar containing a parfait and held it up. “Can I have this?”
“Considering it wasn’t in there this morning, it’s safe to say the Station made it for you. Spoons are in that drawer.” She pointed. He retrieved a spoon and joined her at the counter. She magnanimously—in her opinion—let him eat half of the parfait before she asked, “Can you really do this?”
He dropped the spoon into the jar with a sigh. “Pretty sure I’m the only one who can.”
“I meant is there a problem? You never cut Loclyn’s Station tie.”
“You mean before you killed him? You know, for someone who was heavily judging me for being on the defensive, you’ve killed more people than I have in the last week.”
“Because I had to. You've voluntarily kept a man in a coma on the brink of death for the last, what? Six years?” she said pointedly.
He shrugged, then went on as if he hadn’t been the one to derail the conversation in the first place.
“Yes, I can do this. The councilors’ ties to the Station are all at a common entry point.
Think of it like…a breaker box. Each councilor has their own breaker.
If I cut Loclyn’s connection, it would flip that breaker off.
But only at this Station. And then the other councilors, because they’re in the same breaker box, would get the alarm, so to speak. ”
“So you could have cut it, but they would have known when it happened, and that it was specific to Earth’s Station because that’s the only connection he would lose?”
Tristen nodded. “You didn’t want any of the other councilors’ ties cut because you didn’t want them to know something was going on here.
I was trying to see if there was a way to bypass the alarm.
Then you ended up killing him, which is good, because I don’t think there is a way to circumvent that particular issue. ”
“Will they know once you separate me and Griff?”
He shook his head. “They don’t get feedback from the Station itself. They’d probably go mad if they did, they’re tied to so many. What they can feel, if they pay attention, is the actual councilor ties to the Station.”
“The breaker box,” Nyx supplied.
“More like the wires to it. So if I cut them, they’re going to feel them go dead. They won’t know exactly what’s going on, but they will know something is going on.”
And they would come to investigate. Not via the ley lines, because they wouldn't have control to enter the Station anymore, but they could portal to Earth without issue. If Kaliaris was willing to wait…but they weren’t.
“It can’t be helped,” she said. “You and I need to talk to the Station.” Because while she wasn’t going to make Kaliaris wait until she had her plans neatly in place for the rest of the Stations, she was going to make them wait a few days before she let Tristen cut the councilor tethers.
Because once that happened, Kaliaris would go into the Harvester.
She would need to pack up her entire life, to figure out where she was going to stay.
She would need to come to terms with the things that were kept here that would disappear when Kaliaris was gone.
The reality of it crashed into her like a tidal wave, and she closed her eyes against it. She didn’t want to lose her home. She didn’t want to lose Kaliaris. She had Morgen and Evra and Kaden who all needed somewhere to stay. Grif, too, if he chose to stay with them instead of Jevryn.
Jevryn. He would probably let them stay with him, but his home was entirely isolated. No one could come and go from it without him or Nyx portaling everyone around.
Calista. Calista would take her in, wouldn’t they?
“Uh, Nyx?” Tristen said.
Her eyes flew open. “What?”
“I said how do we talk to the Station?”
“I’ll take you. But I have something I have to do first. I’ll comet get you from your room when I’m done. Don’t go into the library.” She did not need him talking to Jevryn and her father ruining everything with his demanding attitude at the final moment. “In fact, don’t do anything without me.”
She pushed her chair back.
“Am I allowed to breathe without your permission?”
“Don’t be a smartass.” She exited the cafe, running upstairs before she could change her mind about where she was going. She hit a closed door and stopped in front of it.
You don’t have to do this now, part of her whispered. It won’t be gone today.
But it would be gone soon, likely in a matter of days. She was on borrowed time. She’d always been on borrowed time, but there was so little of it left, now. She couldn’t keep putting this off.
Taking a deep breath, Nyx pushed the door open and stepped into Seth’s room.