“I’m on your team, Kat, and I trust you,” Malachi says, his voice much softer now—or maybe it’s the harsh contrast after my yelling. “If you trust them, then I trust them. Now tell me what’s on your mind. I’m listening.”
I glance over at Cade, and he nods, releasing that antagonistic edge he’s been carrying.
I fill Malachi in on everything—Viridian and the photograph of the woman who looks like she could be my ancestor. I explain how we don’t know if we can trust the Syndicate anymore, and we definitely can’t trust Marco. How everyone might be doing something horrific and calling it something noble.
He doesn’t seem to like that part much, and I can see the conflict in his eyes. I know he genuinely tries to do good work, believes the Syndicate does good work, but he’s not the Syndicate. After a long moment, he agrees that he doesn’t know the full extent of any corruption—especially after last night’s betrayal.
I tell Cade and Aurora about Project Graft and the sickening experiments I read about before the tracker went off. They both look equally disgusted but not entirely surprised, which tells me they’ve suspected darker truths for a while.
“Oh, and I contacted Banks’s spirit yesterday,” I add casually.
Malachi’s head snaps back in my direction. “What? When?”
“When I was here before they drove me back to the ranch. Ineeded to do it, and I may need to do it again because I got some useful information out of him.”
Malachi starts shaking his head. “How do you know you can trust anything he says?”
“It’s a feeling I have,” I insist. “Besides, he’s pissed at Marco and wants vengeance. That kind of anger doesn’t lie.”
The explanation seems to satisfy him, though he still looks uncomfortable.
“Tell him about the map,” Aurora prompts.
Cade gets up and retrieves the folded paper from wherever he stashed it, bringing it back and spreading it out on the table between our plates and coffee mugs.
“These are the three locations he gave us, secret labs the Volkovs are using for their experiments, trafficking, or both. This is the one he said we should start with.” My finger traces to the star positioned in the largest gutter zone north of Viktor’s estate.
“I think we need to get ready to attack it soon,” I say, and Malachi’s eyes go wide.
“Whoa, Kat—attack?” He repeats it like I suggested we blow up a daycare center.
“Yes, attack, spy, infiltrate, whatever you want to call it. But we need to go see what’s happening and put a stop to it.” I cross my arms, meeting his stare head-on.
Malachi exchanges an unreadable look with Cade across the table, some kind of silent male communication passing between them.
“What was that? Why are you looking at him?” I demand, hating being left out of their nonverbal conversation.
“You’re right. We need to investigate this, see what’s going on, see who we can help. My father and uncle need to be stopped.” He looks me over. “But I’m not letting you anywhere near this after everything that’s happened.”
My eyebrows shoot up so fast they practically hit my hairline. “You’re not the boss of me, and I’ve already said you’re not my fucking savior, Malachi. I need to do this. I’m meant to. I can feel it.” The conviction in my voice surprises me. “So train me, study me, put me through Bash’s equipment, whatever you need to do to be okay with this, because it’s happening. I’m going with or without you.”
Instead of getting upset or angry like I expected, he smiles, and it makes me want to reach over and shove him.
“So this was your plan? The three of you were going to attack an underground lab in the largest most-violent gutter zone in the country?” He snickers. “It would be near impossible for the three of you alone to even reach the lab, let alone infiltrate it.”
I bristle at his condescending tone. I think he may be seriously underestimating us.
“Hey, we deserve more credit than that,” Aurora says, starting to stack plates and clear the table.
I don’t want this to escalate into another shouting match, and I’m trying my best not to be irrational or stubborn, so I take a deep breath and force myself to speak calmly.
“I’m going, Malachi, and I want you to come with me. Let’s put together a small team of people we can trust.”
Cade finally chimes in. “I know we can trust Dante. He would be down for something like this.”
Malachi nods thoughtfully. “I trust Bash, but beyond that, I need to think about it. There’s only a small crew left working in the Depths right now, and that’s probably a good thing for us.” He stands, already shifting into planning mode. “Let’s get ready and head down there. We can talk more about a concrete plan when we get there.”
“Great,” I say. Progress feels good, even if it’s baby steps.
