“Save my son,”Grant had begged, before parting from him at the end of the mountain shafts. For Dali’s most infamous traitor, Mylis’s father really did seem surprisingly normal.
Unlike the Speaker.
The old bat was weird. The lights and voice mods had been a cool trick, he’d give her that. Her glowing eyes, though—fancy cybernetics, or a reflection from the light strips she’d sewn in her robes? Either way, he wouldn’t have survived the ride over with someone on that kind of power trip. He owed Mira a drink when they made it out of this.
Ifthey made it out of this.
His shoulders hunched, and he rested his elbows on his knees.
“I’m your Heredem, so you do as I tell you.” As the haughty voice burst through the corridor, Zane stiffened. “If I order you to stand aside, you move. Unless you’d like to experience my displeasure?”
“Your Highness, she can’t be down here!”
“Fired,” Selene drawled. “You have an hour to clear out your belongings, or I’ll have you thrown into one of these cells for defying me. Now, is there going to be a problem, or will the rest of you let me through?”
Footsteps scuffled against the stone ground, followed by theclick-click-clickof stilettos. The hem of a dark blue dress swept past the cellbars, and Zane raised his eyes as Selene stopped before his cell, folding her arms over her embroidered gown.
He glared at her.
Turning her nose up at him, Selene glanced to her right, where the guards must’ve been standing. “Take a walk.”
Rushed footsteps scampered away. Selene crooked an imperious finger towards herself, and a slim figure in a mud-stained beige uniform shuffled to her side. Zane’s heart slammed to a halt. The jacket’s hood covered her hair and shadows obscured her face, but that was Kalie’s outfit.
“I’m not sure why you want to see this buffoon,” Selene said, arching a finely-shaped eyebrow, “but you have eight minutes until Carik’s men sweep this hallway. We have to be gone by then. No one will interrupt you.”
With a disdainful sniff, she dropped a rung of clanging keys into Kalie’s hand, slipped something in Kalie’s pocket, and marched away.
A roar thundered down the musty corridor.
“Kalie,” Zane breathed. He slumped against the rusted bars, wincing as pain shot through his ribs. “Did they hurt you?”
Keys jangled as Kalie unlocked the cell door and slipped inside. She pulled it shut, stopping it before it clicked. Zane yanked his hands out of the grooves and tried to reach for her hood, so he could inspect her face, but she stepped past his hands and wrapped him in a hug. A low whine slipped through his clenched teeth. She was a wave of warmth, but his ribsached.
As she pulled back, her eyes widened. “Are you hurt?”
“Little roughed up.”
A deep crease appeared between Kalie’s brows as she seized his injured hand. It was already swelling. Stroking her thumb across his knuckles, she slanted him a look through her eyelashes.
“Can you feel this?”
Surely she didn’t mean to tease, but pretending she did helped him deny anything was wrong. Zane tapped his chin with his other hand. “You know, I’m not sure. Maybe if you do it again…”
“Flirt,” she retorted, but like him, it was weak. She dropped his hand, glanced in her pocket, and led him to the pathetic concrete bed. “What’s going on? Why is Nadar surrendering? I told Mira not to let you do this?—”
“And I told you not to do this!”
She flinched.
Raking a hand through his hair, Zane plopped down next to her. Now wasn’t the time to scream and rant.
The camera was trained on him. Those things had been trash while he was on duty, but he shielded his lips anyway as he whispered in her ear. “Your mother called after you left. Your father won the battle for Etov. I told Nadar and Ryker to stall in negotiations until his fleets get here.”
Kalie’s mouth gaped open, and her hot breath ghosted across his face. “They’re coming?”
Zane nodded, then averted his eyes. It wasn’t his place, and if something went wrong and it was all false hope, it’d be on him.
“What is it? Tell me.”
