Page 88 of The Inheritance

“What’s in it?” Leo asked.

She finally gave him a flat look. “Don’t worry about it.”

Leo blinked.

She looked directly at Elias. “Do you keep your promises, McFeron?”

“Yes.”

She studied him for a long moment.

“I gave London a second chance,” he told her. “The buck stops with me. I made an error in judgement. Two, actually. Everything that happened to you in that breach is the result of my mistakes. I can’t bring the dead back to life, but you are not dead. Tell me what I can do for you.”

She was still watching him with that disconcerting focus. He finally identified what it reminded him of. He’d met intelligent monsters in the breaches. That was exactly how they looked at him before deciding the best way to strike.

“You could’ve requested assistance from the DDC,” he said. “You didn’t. You want something from us.”

Adaline tossed one leg over the other. “The DDC knows I’m alive. In about thirty minutes, they will descend on this site to take me into custody under the pretense of medical care. They will expect a full report. This can go one of two ways. I can tell them that Cold Chaos betrayed me, left me to die, and then delayed entering the gate, hoping the creatures of the breach would finish their dirty work. Or I can make you look like heroes, who rescued me against impossible odds.”

“What will it cost me?” he asked.

“London must never enter another breach.”

“We cannot guarantee that,” Leo said.

“What he means is that it’s not within our power,” Elias explained. “The law shields him from being tried for murder for his conduct within the breach. They leave other punishments to our discretion.”

“So what can you do?”

“We can Sontag him,” Leo said.

“We can fire him and revoke his combat certification with a Sontag code,” Elias explained. “It means that there will be a code by his name in the international Talent database that states that he killed his team members to save himself.”

“The code is named after Steven Sontag, the man who murdered his team members and fed their bodies to monsters to buy himself time to escape.” Jackson added. “No legitimate guild will hire him after that. Nobody wants to go into the breach with a killer who’ll stab you in the back.”

“That doesn’t mean that he can’t get hired by some desperate minor operation,” Elias said. “But I can guarantee you that he will never work for any guild above third level.”

“And it will follow him to the civilian employment market,” Leo said. “Talent standing is factored into the background checks.”

Elias could tell she wanted more. He watched her mull it over.

“Good enough,” Adaline said.

Practicality won.

“What else?” he asked.

“Bear stays with me.”

“No,” Leo said.

He knew exactly why Leo wanted the dog. Something happened to Bear in the breach, something that made her what she was now, and his XO was desperate to find out what it was.

Adaline turned toward Leo and stared at him. The dog at her feet rose, looking at Leo as well. It was like they were in sync. She would kill them all to keep this dog. Elias knew it but he wanted to see what she would do.

“That dog is the property of Cold Chaos,” Leo said.

Adaline leaned forward. It was a tiny movement.