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Dalejem himself looked pissed off, which I could understand.

He glared at me, which I understood a lot less, right before he glared at Revik.

“Don’t do me any favors, brother,” he said, aiming that at Revik, too.

Revik’s jaw hardened, but he only shrugged, his eyes returning to the window. His light exuded indifference, despite the irritation I felt from him. “You can fuck him all you want later, Jem. But I’d rather if you didn’t do it in here.”

On Revik’s other side, Jax snickered a little.

That time, the anger I felt off Dalejem was almost a tangible force.

It was intense enough that I winced, shielding my light. Again, I looked up at Revik, wondering what the hell happened between the two of them while I was gone.

Revik kissed my temple, murmuring, “I’ll tell you later. It’s nothing. Promise.”

When I glanced over though, Dalejem looked even more furious.

His eyes focused on Revik like he wanted to hit him. Or maybe I felt that in his light?or both, I’m not sure. I couldn’t use my own light to scan him like I might have normally, but I couldn’t help thinking that was probably for the best.

I was still watching Dalejem warily, trying to figure out what his problem was, when Terian broke out in a happy chuckle, looking between the three of us like he was having the time of his life.

He pointed at Dalejem, about to say something, but Revik cut him off.

“Shut up, Terry.” He gave him a warning look. “Don’t.”

Terry grinned wider, but didn’t argue.

Instead, he leaned back on the leather seat, bouncing a little as he grinned and stared out the window. Watching him, I couldn’t help thinking he looked like a ten-year-old human.

Rolling his eyes, Revik grunted, giving me what looked like a real smile, maybe for the first time. In the same set of seconds, however, as we met eyes, I found myself reminded of where we were, and the depth of the risk we were taking with this.

Not only with our own lives?with Lily’s.

Revik must have felt some of that, because his smile faded.

He leaned closer, kissing me on the mouth.

“Lily needs to be free, too, wife,” he reminded me softly, putting his mouth by my ear after he ended the kiss. “We all do. You do, too.”

I nodded, my throat tightening at his words.

She did need to be free. We all did?but Lily, especially.

Which meant we needed Feigran.

The limousine began to slow.

A harder shield fell down over my light, more of a game face than what I’d worn on the ride over. I reminded myself we were deep inside a Dreng construct?even as it struck me that I kept needing to remind myself of that fact.

More than anything else, that subtlety of the construct’s threads made it dangerous in my eyes. My light normalized it quickly?unnervingly quickly, especially when I related that fact to Revik and some of the others who’d spent years, even decades, in that light.

I felt a wash of gratitude Wreg wasn’t here, or Raddi, Neela, or Jorag.

Terian’s people opened the back doors to the limousine, politely offering us hands, which all of us ignored with the exception of Terian himself. He caught hold of one of those white gloves and bounded out gleefully ahead of us.

I knew we couldn’t trust Terian, no matter what we felt on his light.

I’d felt real sincerity there. Revik had, too. But Terry was such an enigma, he might think he was helping us by handing us over to Menlim to be reprogrammed. There was no way to assume his goals for this “alliance” would end well for any of us.