CHAPTER 44
ZEPHYR
Two days ago
THEATERS WOULD HAVE FOUGHT FOR ME, had they been privy to my performance.
It was the performance of my godsdamned life, and I’d had more than my fair share of those.
It took every shred of control to smooth the shock surging through me, to wear a mask of mild disappointment while inside me, chaos howled.
It was impossible.
The cave was completely and utterly empty. No sap. No crates. No trace of what I knew—without a shadow of doubt—had been here less than a day ago.
“Another dead end,” Davina said in a clipped tone.
I barely heard her. My pulse thundered too loudly in my ears.
Where the hell was everything?
And at once, I knew. Like a blade sliding into place, the answer clicked. It was her.
This was the reason why she’d been selected for this mission, despite her youth. What made her so valuable, so ruthless. It was how she’d slipped from her room in Kantria, and in Kairis, and probably many other times I didn’t even know of.
Just as I didn’t know when. With me watching her so closely, and after last night . . .
Movement caught my eye, drawing my gaze to her as Centurion Davina Lachlan drifted further into the chamber. Her hair burnt down her back, catching slivers of light from the cave’s natural skylights. When she looked up at them, it was almost thoughtful, her pace deliberate and precise.
And there it was. By now, I knew the rhythm of her movements as well as I knew my own voice. I’d memorized every step, every pause, every glance. And right now . . . something was off.
She was doing something there and then. Right in front of my godsdamned eyes.
But what?
I turned my back to her, feigning interest in the far wall, masking the tension seizing my shoulders as I mentally combed through every instance I’d seen her use her abilities.
She’d phased through the blades in Kan’s pyramid, and through the mountain wall in Keftara, and she’d found so many hidden compartments through vibing the walls in Sircelen’s estates.
Neither could explain this. Neither would have allowed for her to move or conceal what I knew to be hidden in this cave. Not without leaving a trace.
Thoughts fired through my mind, each possibility discarded as quickly as it came. There was no logical explanation.
Nothing I could think of explained how the space before me was empty.
Which left me with one question.
What in the Old Gods’ name is going on?