‘Do you want to talk to him about it?’ Kyan asked.
The fantasy disappeared, as if painted over.
‘I keep meaning to, but’ – she shook her head – ‘so much is at risk. So much has changed so quickly. Part of me needs to know. But …’
‘It could change your relationship. And that’s one of the only things in your life that’s a fact. That you were supposed to be able to trust.’
‘Yes.’ She glanced up.
He had felt that, too: with the Wake breaking his trust, betraying his protective impulses and turning them into some divine grab for power. Not to mention discovering so much of his past wasn’t as lost to time as he’d suspected.
She took a breath, recalibrating. Right now, they just needed the torc, no matter the cost, and there were two ways to do it.
Influence the thief, or tell him the truth.
‘I don’t think we can risk telling him,’ she said.
Kyan watched her for a long moment, then looked out over the skyline. ‘No. But he left that card for a reason. He wanted to be knownas the one that stole it. If we can guarantee that people will know that, perhaps that’s all he’d want. The acclaim. Look at this place. Helikespeople to know what he can do. But …’
He didn’t risk saying the other option aloud. That if the thief didn’t let them buy or have it, they’d have to Influence him. There was too much at stake.
‘All right, we’ll give them five more minutes.’
After finishing her drink, they stalked back inside.
Nicole knocked on the office door swiftly, before pushing it open.
The sight froze her in place.
‘D-Dad?’
Her father stood over the thief, his eyes wholly black, a smothering, dark power saturating the room.
‘Nicole,’ he breathed.
The thief slumped to the desk, unconscious.
The colour of her father’s eyes reformed, swirling back to that familiar grey-blue as they shot to Kyan.
‘Ronan,’ Kyan greeted warily, quickly closing the door behind them, his body tense, as if making sure her father wasn’t a threat.
Because a Seer’s eyes didn’t do that.
‘I’ve got the key,’ her father said. ‘The safe is in here.’
Worry curled in her stomach. Justhowhad her father got that information? ‘Is he …’
There was no kill scent, only a strange mix of acrid fear and a champagne-like surprise prickling her tongue.
‘He’s fine, but we’ll need to move fast,’ her father said. ‘I’m pretty sure he’ll have set some warning with his security about how long people can be in here.’
Nicole snapped back into action as her father reached around the desk to a button below, and pressed it. The painting behind slid over the face of the bookshelves either side and revealed a corridor lined with more artwork and a monstrous silver safe at the end.
Nicole strode over and went to step inside when her bodyshifted.
A gasp tore from her. Kyan gripped her arm, scanning the hallway. There was a creature in there somewhere that must be guarding the vault. But nothing was visible. The feeling swelled and banked, her body growing hot and cold, her Empyreal prowling in confusion.
It wasn’t just the scent of one deadly creature, but many.
