Page 123 of Third Offense

My feathers flattened, preparing to take on the enchanted cell, when Gaia stood. Her graceful movements reminded me of Layla, giving me pause as I tilted my head.What?

She neatly folded the damp cloth as she surveyed me, her authority one that made me feel as if it was me trapped inside a cage and not the other way around. An uncanny reversal. One I didn’t quite appreciate.

“Sayir’s minions tracked you to this plane. You were overtaken midair with some sort of gas that knocked you out.” She nodded to Kyril.

Wait.

No. Not Kyril.

To the little blaze demon curled around his neck.

Clyde.I frowned.I haven’t seen him since…

Since the flight.

“Clyde told me everything,” Kyril said mournfully as he scratched the creature’s nose. “He wasn’t affected by the gas and when he realized that I had a bug implanted in my neck, he removed it. But I had to play along.”

Play along?I growled, my wings hardening into razors.Youplayed alongand didn’t think to tell anyone? What the fuck is wrong with you?

I was tempted to slice my way through his cage and show the Noir just what I felt about being left in the dark. Just how I felt about being manipulated. Just how I felt about having Auric takenhere, his scent removed, his existence potentially destroyed.

Because part of me thought he was dead.

A part that I’d ignored.

A part that throbbed with relief now that Auric was alive.My commander is here.

“Only after King Vasilios left, I mean,” Kyril amended. “That’s when Clyde fixed me. But by then, it was too late. I tried to reach him, but the telecommunications were severed.”

Likely story,I thought, narrowing my gaze.

“Iston destroyed the phones and other means of communication,” Queen Gaia added. “He’s been providing daily updates—false updates—to my husband about how busy everyone’s been. It was his excuse for us not calling him. And with how unique this situation is… it seems my husband believed him.”

I shifted my narrowed gaze to her, then glanced at Auric again, pleased to see him breathing.

“Iston had a bug, too,” Kyril commented, his words drifting from his cell to my ears. “But Netiri was replaced by a look-a-like.”

I blinked, then glanced back at him, arching a brow.A look-a-like?

“I don’t know how it happened,” he went on. “But it’s what Clyde told me. Netiri isn’t who we know, and Iston… was bugged.”

My gaze went to the little blaze demon. He puffed smoke at me, the tiny dragon seeming miffed that I hadn’t freed anyone yet.

This could all be another mirage,I told him.A bunch of convenient lies.

He huffed, the sound one that told me I was just being stubborn. And then he looked pointedly around me at Auric.Does he look like a mirage to you?

My eyes narrowed again.Looks can be deceiving.

But the scent…

The scent was all Auric.

“Their plan was to keep everyone calm and fully infiltrate the home for King Vasilios’s return, but Auric…” Kyril trailed off.

Auric wasn’t affected, I finished for him in my mind.Auric saw through it all. Hence the reason he’s here. The purpose of framing him for Ketos’s death.

And Ketos they’d taken down because of his power.