Page 10

“I really hope you can trust this woman,” Elliott whispered.

His voice was tense again, any charismatic pretty-boy act all but vanished.

“Or we’re about to be fucked.” He cast a nervous glance over his shoulder at the one—and only—exit to the room which now had two guards standing shoulder to shoulder, blocking passage.

The room was filled with a dozen people, both old faces Niko recognized and new ones he didn’t.

Some were people he’d once called good friends.

Others were business acquaintances he’d seen come and go in passing.

All of them may as well be strangers now.

Niko swallowed. He hoped the same thing as Elliott.

He’d thought he could rely on Baouban, though, and it hadn’t led him anywhere good.

He’d known he probably couldn’t rely on Aleksi, but even then, some deeply buried glimmer of hope remained, stubborn and resilient, up until the man had predictably pulled a gun on him.

If Lady Death turned on him too, he truly had nowhere else to go and no one left to turn to anymore.

“Have a seat,” Death said as she stood beside the largest and most comfortable-looking chair at the head of the table.

The guards moved to line the walls of the room, silently standing alert.

Everyone else present stayed standing as well, keeping as much distance as possible from the conference table.

Some bowed their heads together and murmured, while most stayed quiet.

Every eye was on Elliott and Niko now. They both glanced at each other warily, neither seeming too keen on the idea of sitting.

“It’s not a request,” Death said.

Niko acquiesced, pulling out a chair that faced the door midway down the table.

He sank slowly into it. It creaked beneath his weight, the sound scratching against the quiet tension of the room.

Something caught his eye through the doorway behind the guards—a glimpse of pale, pearlescent white, ethereal as a specter. Yalsa.

She peered at Elliott with sharp, lustrous eyes half-hidden behind a softly glimmering, sheer veil.

Niko had always been a little wary of her; the Quwa-quay woman seemed far too clever for her own good and had a particularly ruthless nature to her.

She’d never spoken with Niko much, either, having kept a distance—even when he’d been around often and on great terms with Lady Death.

A moment later, Yalsa slipped from view, but Niko could feel her still. He knew she was still there, lurking just out of sight, listening just on the other side of the wall, a silken shadow.

It wasn’t just Lady Death they had to place their trust in. It was every other person who lived with and worked under her in this compound.

That realization made this all the more intimidating.

Elliott followed suit and settled into a chair beside him to his left, placing himself between Niko and Lady Death, despite clearly being terrified she was going to try something.

A brief flash of memory—Elliott putting himself between Niko and a line of Galapol agents when everything had gone wrong at the Starlight Awards—made something mournful and raw stick in Niko’s throat.

Elliott sat tall and rigid, unmoving in his seat.

The discomfort emanating from him was almost palpable to Niko, but he knew it would be imperceptible to almost anyone else in the room—Elliott did a respectful job of keeping his own expression stoic.

Niko fought the urge to reach out and take his hand beneath the table.

Death sat last, satisfied that they were cooperative, it seemed, and leaned back in her chair, regarding Niko with a sour expression. She folded her hands over her waist.

“I heard about Baouban,” she said.

“Mmh,” Niko grunted.

“It’s unfortunate. But not surprising. No one is your friend anymore, Niko.” She’d switched away from his black market name, and back to his given one. “You’re worth more than anyone’s goodwill now.”

Sweat trickled down the back of his neck. “Even you?”

She eyed him for a long moment, tilting her head in thought.

Chandelier light glinted off the polished onyx of her rings.

Niko didn’t remember her being fond of jewelry before.

“You shouldn’t have come here. And you shouldn’t have trusted anyone, given your…

uniquely lucrative situation now. Not anyone. Not even me.”

Niko tensed. They needed to find a way out. Fast. He’d been wrong, had made a mistake—

“You’re taking stupid, blind risks. Those are rookie mistakes,” she continued, “that you should have grown out of a long time ago. You made yourself vulnerable by coming to Dainna. But I don’t care a lick about your bounty. I care that you said you wanted to repay the favor that you owed me.”

He nodded, trying to will his wild and anxious heart to calm as it hammered against his ribcage. He put an armored hand on the table. “I do. I’m here to do that now. Anything you need.”

Death leaned forward across the table, staring right into him. Her chair creaked as she did. “It’s been years. What took you so long?”

Niko swallowed and cast a flickering glance around.

The sweat that he’d felt on his neck before now covered his entire body.

Adrenaline clawed through his veins. He was about to share a fatal vulnerability with a room full of underworld crime syndicate members.

A vulnerability that could cost him dearly.

He’d cut off contact with them all a long time ago, simply dropping off the map.

Not to mention, money had begun rewriting almost every relationship he’d once had, it seemed.

He’d been extending his hand to a lot of people lately. He knew it was a matter of time before it got bitten again, and hard. Death had warned him that he shouldn’t trust her. But Niko decided to, anyway.

“I—I got injured badly on that final hunt. It wasn’t good.

I shattered my spine in several places and broke my legs.

It was so bad, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to hunt again.

” He tried to keep it vague, to walk the tightrope of honesty while also protecting the fact that without the aid of the suit, he still couldn’t walk.

Nor would he ever. “I was down for the count. And it left me ashamed, because I did it all to myself. I threw myself away to get him. Just to make sure he didn’t make it out either.

“I was in a pretty dark place. So, I hid away. I was a mess. I should have contacted you. I should have contacted a lot of people. It was wrong to vanish like I did. I never meant to leave your favor unpaid. It’s not how I ever wanted to end things with you.”

Death looked at him for a long while in silence, gauging what he’d told her, before finally giving a slow nod. Niko sagged in relief at realizing she’d accepted the truth of his revelation.

“And now you’re finally back to hunting?” she asked.

“I—uh—well, kind of—”

“Kind of?”

“He was hunting me,” Elliott cut in. Niko looked at him, nervous all over again. Elliott and rules didn’t seem to get along well. He could feel all eyes in the room turning toward the blond man now.

“Interesting. Yet you don’t seem to be in handcuffs,” Death said.

“Actually, he’s the one I got handcuffs on—”

“ Elliott ,” Niko said, nearly choking. He flushed as he glanced around, then cleared his throat. To his surprise, some of the oppressive, harsh mood broke, though. A few people chuckled and a smile cracked across even Death’s severe face.

“Elliott Kestrel isn’t who the media has made him out to be,” Niko continued.

“That’s why we came to you, actually. Other than repaying this favor and finally making things even between us.

I… I have to ask you for help again. I know the audacity behind that.

I wouldn’t bother you with this if it wasn’t this important.

It’s bigger than me. It involves the entire galaxy. ”

“Go on,” Death said.

“What Elliott is doing isn’t just senseless violence, like the news has been portraying. There’s a—” He searched for the right word. “A cabal out there called Honeybliss. A network.”

“I’ve heard that name uttered before in the worst parts of town,” Lady Death said. “But never enough to know much more than that.”

“Right. A lot of the galaxy’s elites are a part of it.

Kings, politicians, celebrities. He showed me all of it.

The same people who by daylight contribute to peace talks and charity funds are engaging in trafficking in the dark.

They buy people and torture and rape and kill them.

Just… because they can get away with doing it.

They’re beyond legal consequence at this point.

Galapol won’t touch it, because even they’re scared shitless of them. ”

Death eyed Niko, then turned her gaze on Elliott, sweeping him up and down. “I want to hear the rest of this from you.”

Elliott cleared his throat. “...Honeybliss has existed in some form for decades. At least. Maybe more, but it gets hard to tell after a certain point. Since the earliest data I could find on them and connect together, they’ve been responsible for thousands disappearing across the galaxy every year.

They have so much collective money and influence that it all just gets swept under the rug, like Niko said.

They pay people to keep it invisible to the public eye.

Hackers, assassins. Smear campaigns. People who will rewrite and ruin public records.

Any method, so long as it keeps the silence.

“You won’t find it anywhere now, no matter how hard you look.

They used to share videos and photographs between each other on the dark web, but it’s not even there anymore.

They’ve scrubbed it all clean. But I researched them a few years back and compiled a collection of all their dirty little grotesque deeds before they had the chance to delete it all. ”

“So, it’s a massive problem. But why come to me about this?”