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He didn’t lose his head totally.

He knew this part of the platform had minimal surveillance, from the specs he’d studied on the carrier. Even so, his eyes searched for additional surveillance briefly, any changes to the landscape from the specs he had memorized.

Then he looked for bodies, human or seer.

Once he knew the area was clear, he grabbed the other seer’s arm. He stopped him in mid-stride, even as Dalejem had been aiming his feet to bring them closer to the yellow line warning them off the train’s tracks, and back into the line of the cameras.

Revik lowered his mouth, until he was speaking directly into the other’s ear.

“What thefuckdid you just do?” He ground his jaw to fall silent, barely keeping his light under control, or his voice. “What if they knock her out? Or drug her?”

He didn’t add the rest of what he was thinking.

Meaning the list of other things they might do to his wife.

Dalejem looked up at him, his light exuding calm. He held up a cautioning hand, even as his eyes did a perfunctory scan of the platform, as well.

“Relax, brother. Your light will be protected. Relax?”

“Maybe you’d better not fuckingcallme that right now, brother,” Revik said, lower, glancing around their immediate environment. “And I don’t give a damn about my light! Do you really think that’s my primary concern right now?”

He paused in his words, seeing a small group of workers descending onto the platform in the distance, walking down a recessed set of stairs. They were far away from where Revik and Dalejem stood?too far to hear any of their words, or even see what they were doing clearly. They definitely wouldn’t be able to make out their facial expressions with any accuracy, especially if they were human, but Revik fought to control himself anyway.

Luckily, it was early enough yet?or late enough?that any major shift changes remained a few hours off. Revik and Dalejem stood more or less alone on the north end of the platform. Even so, Revik released the other male’s arm, right before he stepped closer to him.

“You just let them take my wife to a slave auction, brother,” he said, cold. “I’ve killed people for less than that.”

Dalejem barely flinched. His light remained reassuring, calming. “Brother, we are going there now. Do not worry. I beg you.”

At Revik’s silence, Dalejem looked up. He winced as he took in Revik’s expression, watching his eyes cautiously.

Revik stepped back from the green-eyed seer as an effort of will.

He ignored the flush of pain he felt there, too.

“…The auction is where our target will be,” Dalejem added, his voice even more subdued. “Surli tells me Dontan never misses the auctions, brother. Never. And he never fails to bid on the interesting merchandise, if any happens to be available. With any luck, he will buy her, and we will have a means of tracking him… as well as locating his List seers… when we follow him to extract your wife.”

Hesitating, Dalejem continued to gauge Revik’s face.

Ignoring the worry he felt whisper around the other male’saleimi, Revik muttered, “With any luck, the guy who probably works for Shadow will buy my wife.” He glared at the other male. “Perfect. That’s a flawless plan, Dalejem. What couldpossiblyfucking go wrong?”

“Brother, you must calm yourself,” Dalejem said. “Please.”

“He wants my wifedead.What part of that don’t you understand?”

Dalejem winced, but shook his head.

“I must remind you, brother,” he said. “We do not know this Dontan’s precise affiliations. All we know is that he’s kept the List seers alive so far, which is the opposite of what Shadow’s other agents have been doing.” Speaking slightly louder to be heard over Revik’s angry clicking, Dalejem added, “It also points to a potentially different motive than what you fear. In theory.”

Revik’s scowl only deepened more.

When he didn’t speak, Dalejem clicked again, softer.

“Brother, this is not outside the parameters of this exercise. We can adjust to this. Wewilladjust to this. It might even simplify things for us, to have one of our own on the auction block. At the very least, it will save us time in tracking this person.”

At Revik’s colder look, Dalejem shook his head.

“She knew this was a possibility,” he said, quieter. “You saw how she dressed. She brought it up in several of the planning meetings, that she might need to visit the slave auctions first hand. Or did you suppose she meant those words in some other way?”