Page 63

There were people and vehicles everywhere, blocking each other from getting out of or into the huge parking lot. Cops and Fleet soldiers were fighting to achieve order, some directing traffic, others assisting injured or panicking civilians.

Dallas was standing on her tiptoes, craning her neck to see around the crowds. Loren had no idea what she was peering so intently at?—

Until a pair of magnificent white wings, broad shoulders, and a head of windswept copper hair caught her attention.

“Dad?” Dallas blurted. When the man standing several meters away didn’t turn, too busy speaking with another Fleet soldier, she took a step forward. Froze before she could get too close, her gloved hands balling into fists.“Dad!”Gods, she was so brave for shouting at him while he was busy working. That was the number one rule you didn’t break in the Bright household.

Roark turned around.

Loren had spent almost her whole life—apart from when Roark traveled for work—under the same roof as this man, so she knew what to expect from him in almost any scenario. But tonight, she could say with absolute certainty that this was the first time she had ever seen Roark so utterly blindsided.

He stood there, taking in their group as if he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing.

When his amber eyes settled upon Loren, her stomach tumbled under the attention—attention he rarely gave to either of his daughters.

“Loren?” His question sounded as shocked as his face looked.

“Hi,” she said, the word a shaky whisper. She wasn’t sure why she was reacting this way—Roark had never opened up to her enough for either of them to show much emotion to the other. But that raw look on his face…it rendered her speechless. Made her feel things she had never felt around him before. And made her wonder if she had ever truly understood or seen him for who he really was.

Of course she hadn’t. Of course she hadn’t, because he had never shown her. The Roark she knew was the Red Baron—that was all. The hard-ass General of the Fleet Army. Father only by title—never by action.

Dallas came up to Loren’s left. “What are you doing here?” she asked him, snowflakes settling in her burnished copper hair.

His features shifted into the neutral mask he usually wore. “It’s my job, Dallas. It’s what I do.” There was the Roark they all knew.

His eyes flashed to Darien. When he spoke, his tone was slightly gravelly. “It worked.” A question—not a statement like he was making it sound.

Darien stepped up behind Loren. When his arms came around her from behind, wrapping around her like a hug, she realized she was shivering. “It worked,” he said hoarsely, his hands rubbing her upper arms to warm them.

Since their argument in the healthcare supply room, they had barely talked or made eye contact. But while they were both upset with each other, arguably equally, Darien wasn’t letting this stop him from caring for her. She suddenly felt much warmer, and she knew his chiseled body pressing against hers was only partly responsible for that.

Three soldiers came up to Roark in need of instruction, giving them the chance to figure out their own plan of action.

“Where did you park?” Darien asked the group, angling both himself and Loren toward the others. It was so cold, she mightas well be standing here naked. Her suit was doing nothing to warm her.

“Lot B,” Max responded. “It isn’t far.”

“Someone should grab the truck and pull it around while the rest of us wait here,” Darien said, his deep voice a rumble against Loren’s back. “I want to have a word with Roark, soon as he has a minute.”

As if he heard them, the Red Baron gestured for Darien to join him nearby.

Darien let go of her, his hand brushing against her lower back. She took the gesture—the wordless request—for what it was and crossed the short space to Roark, Darien forever shadowing her, while the others stayed put. Listening, Loren would bet.

“I’d wager that you know more about what happened here last night than I do,” Roark began, speaking quietly.

“Well replica,” Darien said. “The imperator set a trap for us by taking someone we know hostage, and we walked right into it. He was keeping the replica in the tunnels below Caliginous on Silverway.”

Roark’s eyes darted to Loren, the silver rings around his pupils glinting as he arrived at the same conclusion Darien was about to voice.

“He planted the replica there so when Loren was using the Reverse Chamber the channels funneled her magic down the chamber and into the bomb.” Darien added with disgust, “Fucking clever, I gotta hand it to him.” Sothatwas how the bastard had done it.

Roark lifted his chin, a muscle working in his jaw. “And where is the imperator now?”

“You want my best guess? Far enough away that there was no chance he’d be hit by the blast, but he’ll most likely be coming back sooner than later to search for the real Well.”

Loren said quietly, “I told him it was in the Void. I lied to protect its real location, but I swear I didn’t know anything bad was going to happen, I didn’t know he was going to blow up the city and hurt all these people—” The last word got caught as her throat shut.

Darien pressed his hand against her lower back in comfort. She leaned into his touch and breathed in deeply, focusing on touch, sight, sound, smell.