Page 46

Jon’s eyes drifted down.

The seer held an automatic rifle in his hands.

Jon swallowed, glancing at Maygar before returning his gaze to the strange seer. The male wore a dark green armored vest wrapped around his chest, heavy military-style boots, what looked like a short sword hung through a thick leather belt. The rifle he carried as his primary weapon was an older model than their people used?well, at least since Revik took over the armory?but still looked plenty menacing.

Jon noted the green-tinted organics grown into the darker gray metal. He counted two sidearms strapped to the seer’s hips.

He wasn’t dressed in the black of the Legion of Fire.

He didn’t wear one of those cheesy armbands, either.

In fact, if Jon didn’t know every single seer deployed in their current ground mission by face and by name, he might have thought this guy was one of theirs.

He was handsome. Unusually, strikingly, disarmingly handsome, even compared to Balidor. He was so handsome, Jon highly doubted he could have met him and not remembered that face. His sculpted lips were beautiful even for a seer. Those, combined with high cheekbones and faintly slanted eyes made his harmonious face borderline dramatic. He had a strangely regal look to him, like he’d been born a king or a prince in another life.

He felt… Adhipan.

Definitely infiltrator. Probably highly-ranked.

He had that crystal-clear quality to his light Jon associated with Balidor.

That same frequency of light could also be found on Balidor’s most highly-trained seers, the ones who’d worked and trained in the Pamir since they were children. A lot of Balidor’s Adhipan were even roughly the same age as this mystery seer, which Jon estimated to be in the three hundred to four hundred range.

So yeah?Wreg’s age, more or less.

“Yes,” Maygar muttered, glancing at him.

Jon wasn’t sure which of his thoughts Maygar was responding to, or if it was all of them.

He suspected all of them.

“Yes,” Maygar said again.

Maygar didn’t take his eyes off their mystery guest.

Seeing Maygar’s hands out at his sides instead of gripping his own rifle, Jon put something else together in his head. In fact, the most important detail of this new seer’s presence had entirely escaped Jon’s notice up until now.

The seer was pointing that automatic weapon at him.

“Who are you?” the green-eyed seer asked.

Swallowing, Jon glanced at Maygar.

He could feel Maygar weighing his chances of getting the drop on this mystery seer, and not liking his odds. The seer stood too close to Jon; Maygar worried he’d throw shrapnel into Jon if he tried using the telekinesis to detonate his rifle.

Somewhere in that, Jon felt the even less-comforting thought of Maygar’s, that he probably couldn’t use his telekinesis accurately enough to divert a bullet in midair. Maygar had seen Revik do it, but was less sure of his own ability to pull it off.

Jon also glimpsed Maygar worrying he might have to explain to the rest of them how he’d gotten Jon killed. He squirmed at the idea of telling Revik and Allie even beyond having to tell Wreg, who he guessed would try to kill him.

Clicking under his breath, Jon gave Maygar an irritated look.

He decided to take matters into his own hands.

Fighting his way to his knees, he gritted his teeth, still gripping his side. Once he’d caught hold of the nearest barstool, he used it to haul himself to his feet.

For a few seconds he just stood there, panting and hunched, using the fuzzy, red stool for balance. He aimed his grimace at the strange seer.

“We are people who did not harm you… orstabyou, brother,” he remarked.