CHAPTER 4
ZEPHYR
Now
I DON’T THINK I WILL EVER BE ABLE TO FORGET THE MOMENT CENTURION DAVINA LACHLAN ARRIVED IN THE KINGDOM OF KObrA, even if I wish it’d never happened.
I’d been skimming through the thick catalog we’d been handed, only half-engaged, when the meeting room door snapped open.
Two lieutenants strode in first, not a wrinkle in their sand-hued uniforms, the signature Kobrant half-masks covering their noses and mouths firmly in place.
They were followed by the tall, blond silhouette of Centurion Armand Bleuombre.
And then, her.
Centurion Davina Lachlan stepped into the room like she owned it.
Wearing long, fitted pants secured by two intersecting belts, twin holsters empty at her hips.
A white blouse tucked beneath a brown leather vest that framed the curves of her torso, and red curls falling down her back in a wild cascade, pushed back by a matching headband.
And her eyes—those eyes. I knew even then they saw too much.
“Shortly after landing in Kobra, we were led into a meeting room where the High General went straight to the point,” Davina says, dragging me back to the present.
“Which I appreciated. She explained how Dr. Sircelen had been found dead in his house in Kipiramida after suffering a heart attack, and that the city in question was where we’d begin our investigation, alongside the Kobrant emissaries assigned as our counterparts.
” A mask seems to fall over her features as she continues.
“Sergeant Kwabena Yaa and Captain Zephyr Kentar.”
My shoulder blades itch, a shiver trailing down my spine at the way she says my full name. She thinks she’s aware of the power it holds, and she wields it like a scythe.
“We were allegedly given two days to settle in and prepare for the upcoming trip, as well as a much heftier file on the deceased doctor to familiarize ourselves with. We would be provided for during our entire stay in Kobra, which would end the moment we found the missing sap stash.” That tone alone would burn through metal if it was given physical shape.
Such is the acid she infuses the words with.
“We weren’t allowed outside our allocated area in the army’s compound in Kantria unless accompanied by one of our assigned babysitters,” she drawls, referring to me and Kwabena.
I lift an eyebrow. “Much good it did, wouldn’t you say?”
She shrugs as if to say, ‘It’s not my fault you didn’t guard me as well as you should have’.
And in truth, it wasn’t. Tetteh, as High General, should have known better.
Old Gods, I should have known better.
But how could we have?