Page 83 of Guiding Desire

Whenever she got like that, she reminded him of his mother. They had the same black hair, Senlas’s hair, but both had a little darker skin, eyes a darker blue. Still, the family resemblance was there.

“Auntie. Is there a reason to risk me clobbering you?”

She gestured toward Orrey. “You. You have a name?”

“Orrey Acton.”

“Pleased. You’ll call me Maro if you must, Auntie if you want to be nice. Have you considered fixing that temper of Yaran’s?”

“Ah, Yaran?”

“It’s my middle name. I prefer Senlas.”

Maro tapped her foot. “Yaran suits you better.” She gestured at him. “In all the dramas, when the Guardian rushes to save their Conduit, they get dressed first. Orrey, we will get acquainted. Yaran, show this man you own clothes that make you halfway desirable.”

“I should get dressed as well,” Orrey said, pressing against Senlas’s side.

“Nonsense. You look fine in that. Come on, I brought breakfast. I heard so much about you, and none of it from my nephew. I’m eager to hear what your impressions are of him.”

Senlas gently pushed Orrey forward. “I’ll join you in a bit. Auntie, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. We had a lot happen. Don’t blame him for it.”

Maro crossed her arms. “Why would I? I’m blaming you. It’s why I didn’t get you a custard filled bun.” She turned to Orrey. “They’re his favorite, but he’d never tell anyone that.”

“I’ll…keep that secret,” Orrey said, glancing at Senlas.

Then he followed after Maro, who looked very satisfied with that.

Senlas was going to make it a very quick shower.

Senlasdidn’tbotherdryinghis hair, just ran his fingers through it while he walked back into his bedroom. He sighed.

He hasn’t run back here, so Maro hasn’t done her worst,Senlas thought and picked up yesterday’s pants to find his screen in the pocket. He called Col while picking out his clothes, beginning with a nice pair of underwear.

“Something best be on fire,” Col said, his voice rough.

“Something is,” Senlas said.

Going by the rustling on the other end, Coldis was sitting up in bed. Senlas found a pair of form-fitting pants he hoped Orrey would enjoy on him.

“Go,” Col said.

Senlas told Col everything he and Orrey had overheard last night, giving verbatim what he could. Col hated anything that was imperfectly summarized, and he’d forced them all to train their recall.

“Alesa. Guardian fucking Alesa,” Col said. He sounded like he wanted to take a bite out of Alesa in the literal sense. “He wants our team gone, but he wants to keep me around. That fucker. Like I would fuck him. I wouldn’t if he went into overload, that self-absorbed, boisterous piece of refuse.”

“I don’t see the issue with me and why he wants to move up whatever he and that person planned. Any idea who he and that other person might be working with?”

Col was silent on the other end. Then he said, “Senny, I am in pain over here, hungover and sharing my bed with Taros, who is useless in the mornings to begin with. Forgive me if my reasoning skills aren’t as sharp as you know and love them. But the only reason he has to be upset with S-classers is when one he really doesn’t like imprinted. Because when you do that, you get to weigh in on policies such as they concern all Guardians and all Conduits to a much greater degree, though that begs the question why it upsets him. Wait. Wait, let me check something.”

While Col did whatever Col did, Senlas looked back and forth between a tight shirt and one that was more airy. He frowned but went with the tighter one, deciding he could just leave most of it unbuttoned.

Col cleared his throat. “Did you know that the Agri Team increased its number of Conduits by over two hundred percent over the past twenty-one months?”

“I knew they were recruiting lots of people, and lots of people were excited about it. Your point?”

“None yet. Suspicions though. I need to look into this, and I need to pull more data. You.” Someone groaned. “Stop that. This isn’t your bed to begin with. I need you to get conscious and alert. Senny, no one goes anywhere alone. Can you and Orrey get here?”

“Maro just stormed the apartment, pissed off no one told her about Orrey.”