Page 53

It was late by the time we’d eaten and walked back to Kara’s apartment.

Iyoni kicked her shoes off, flopped down and pulled out her phone. I watched her for a moment, envious of how easily she took everything in stride without any signs of worry, wishing I could do the same.

Kara sensed my mood, sitting me down and pouring me a glass of wine. “We still have time, and Bruna gave us lots tonight.”

Iyoni set aside her phone, looking my way, steady support in her gaze.

I appreciated the attention, but couldn’t dispel my frustration. I set the glass on the coffee table and stood up to pace. “We have leads to follow, but none of them fit. The best option is Bennett, if his brother is part of Moreau’s organization, but even that feels weak.”

“Farron is getting his information from somewhere,” Kara said, “but the sources Reyes has provided seem like a dead end.”

Iyoni rolled onto her side, propping her head up on her hand. “Maybe Reyes is covering. If he were the saboteur, he wouldn’t want us to know who’s really feeding info to Farron.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She shrugged one shoulder. “Just because someone in Moreau’s organization is feeding info to someone in SPAR—let’s call it Farron, for the sake of argument—it doesn’t mean he’s the saboteur.

He could just be a scapegoat. What if Reyes is using Farron as an avenue for the source to contact?

The details come to Reyes anyway because it’s his team.

They act on it, Farron gets all the credit, but Reyes gets the job done for Moreau. ”

“Damn,” I said, staring at her in dismay. “We can’t rule that out, can we?”

“Not right now, no,” Iyoni confirmed.

I turned to the window, needing the peace I sometimes found in watching the city below. “You’re suggesting Reyes handed us a fictional list to keep us busy and out of the way, while he happily runs the hunt for the mole, knowing no one will ever suspect the hunter.”

“I’m only suggesting it’s a possibility.”

“If you’re right,” Kara said, “I bet he didn’t expected us to work through that list in one evening. We’ll have answers tomorrow.”

“True,” I said. “If we can find these guys.”

“It might yet still be Farron,” Iyoni said. “Reyes might be innocent.”

I stared out into the night. “Either way, it has to be one of them.”

“Why so sure?” Kara asked.

“Because if it isn’t, if it’s someone else entirely, we’re screwed.”

“You’ll feel better with some sleep,” Kara suggested. “It’s late, and it’s been a hell of a day.”

“Right,” Iyoni said. “It’s not every day you watch someone smash a glass wall with a desk.”

“It was kind of hot, though,” Kara added.

“Totally hot.” Iyoni smiled at me.

“What?” I asked, disbelief dripping from the word. “I lost my temper because that bastard Moreau threatened Kara.”

Iyoni nodded. “Hot.”

“I am so ready for bed,” Kara said, chewing her lip as she ran her eyes over me.

I looked from one to the other, utterly failing to grasp female logic. “Are you seriously saying you like it when I lose control and fly into a rage?”

“Not exactly,” Iyoni replied. “More that it’s hot when you’re all, ‘he threatened my girl’”—she adopted a growly tone that sounded nothing like me—“and, ‘I’m going to go all warlock on his ass’.”

“So damn hot,” Kara said in a breathy voice. She pulled her hoodie over her head, throwing it onto the sofa, and shook her hair out. “I’m going to take a shower.” She walked away with a sway to her hips, pulling her T-shirt off as she went, revealing the smoothness of her slender back.

Iyoni watched her leave, then turned to me. “That girl is enamored with you.”

“I know,” I sighed, grimacing as I heard my own conflicted tone.

Iyoni picked up on it too, and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t feel the same way?”

“No, I do,” I said quickly. “It’s just … I’m still not sure how much of it has been influenced by our bond.”

“None of it,” Iyoni replied without hesitation. “Well, I suppose you wouldn’t have got to know her without it, but that’s not what you meant, is it?”

“No, it’s not.” I turned to the window again, watching the car lights far down below. “Your Archon Elaris alluded to the same thing. How come you celestials know so much about the bond?”

“Because we form something similar between Magister and apprentice.” She gave me a smile. “You remember I mentioned the training to become an Arbiter, and the five years ‘in the field’, so to speak?”

“Yeah. You told me if you fail, you die.”

“Exactly. And the only way the Magister who oversees the training can be sure, is by virtue of the bond we form. Otherwise, it would be too subjective, or open to deceit.”

“Makes sense.” I regarded her thoughtfully. “So you already have a bond, then? How does that work with mine?”

“Oh no,” she said dismissively. “You can’t have two bonds. They’d be at odds with one another. My bond with my Magister was terminated as soon as I became an Arbiter in my own right. Don’t worry, Xan, I’m yours alone, now.”

She said it like it was a simple fact, and not a life-long commitment.

“Still strange to me,” I murmured, half to myself. “Neither of you had a choice, yet both of you seem happy with the outcome.”

“From what I gather, Kara wasn’t too happy at first,” she said playfully.

“That’s kind of my point.”

“But she is now, isn’t she?”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

“You guess so?”

“All right. I know she is. She’s made it clear.”

“Then I think you should trust her to be her own … judge .” She smiled at the deliberate choice of word. “She’s her own woman.”

“Is she, though?” I asked. “I thought she was mine.”

“Mmm,” Iyoni said. “And that’s what’s bothering you, isn’t it? Can she really think clearly if she’s yours?”

“Precisely.”

“Well, as someone who is now bonded for the second time in their life, trust me when I tell you she can.” Iyoni waved a hand.

“Oh, if she really didn’t want to be here, she wouldn’t be shy about speaking up.

If she was of the mind for it, I imagine there’s a lot Kara could do to make your life hell between dropping in the occasional ‘yes, master’. ”

I laughed wryly, remembering how she was for the first couple of days. “You’re not wrong there.” I gave her a thoughtful look. “Maybe that’s the most compelling argument yet.”

“I appreciate your hesitancy, and it reflects well on you. But it’s time to set it aside. It’s not about ‘compelling arguments’; it is what it is, and Kara’s shown you that already. You’re just being stubborn.”

I held my hands up in capitulation. “All right, you made your point. I won’t worry about it anymore, and I’ll trust Kara to let me know if there’s any problems.”

“Good. You do that.” Iyoni rolled onto her back and picked up her phone again.

I watched her for a moment. “But what about you?”

“What about me?” she said, not looking away from her phone.

“Don’t play coy. After the little speech you just gave me, you know exactly what I mean.”

“If you were listening to my ‘little speech’, you know it’s not about me, it’s about you.” The corners of her lips curled up, like something amused her. “I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

“Okay …” I said slowly, wondering how much more complicated my life could get. “I think Kara’s right: it’s time to get some sleep.”

“Uh-huh,” Iyoni said, not looking up. “’Cause that’s exactly what she meant.”

I walked out, shaking my head. These two girls were a handful. With all that was going on, it was a wonder they’d managed to distract me—and for that, at least, I was grateful.

I almost missed a step as I realized that may have been their aim in the first place. Certainly, the dour mood that had accompanied me into the apartment had been forgotten somewhere in the banter.

Kara wasn’t in her room, but the door to the en suite was closed. I couldn’t hear the shower running, so figured she’d be out shortly. I stripped down to my boxers and sat on the bed, taking a leaf from Iyoni’s book and pulling out my phone.

The news was, for once, relatively docile—the top articles were on politics and economics, and I had to scroll a way before there was a report of a minor incident between some norms and a supe.

No mention of the searches I knew Firth had already started running.

One editorial piece on the role of ‘our new warlock’ in the supe hierarchy. I didn’t read it.

The en suite door opened and Kara emerged, wearing her kimono as usual. The rip down one side had worsened by several inches.

“I need to buy you a new one of those.”

She smiled, padding over to the bed in bare feet, running her gaze over me as she came. “Don’t worry. I’ll replace it when I get a moment.”

“Well … at least let me pay for it.”

“I don’t think you ripped it. If memory serves, I did.”

“Because I distracted you.”

Her lips quirked in amusement. “We can agree on that,” she said, the words breathy. She climbed up on the bed beside me, the kimono gaping invitingly.

“Fine,” I said, cupping her face. She pressed her cheek into my palm. “Then I’ll pay for it.”

“It’s paid for already, Master,” she said leaning down to brush her lips over mine, then pulling back before I could deepen the kiss.

“Besides, I have lots of money, while you—” She stopped abruptly, eyes tightening, before continuing in a deliberately nonchalant tone.

“Did you and Iyoni talk while I was in the shower?”

“Don’t change the subject,” I said. “You were about to say you were rich and I wasn’t.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said softly, sitting back on her heels beside me on the bed. “What does it matter, anyway? Everything I have is yours. You can have all my money.”

“It’s not even yours, it’s Dacien’s,” I said, feeling my discomfort return swiftly. “Drug money. Blood money.”

Kara looked down, toying with her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry,” she said. “And I’m sorry that I have to be apologizing again.”