And if he did something while she was gone to get himself in trouble, she had no idea how she’d be able to get him out of here.
‘It does,’ Nicole said again. ‘It matters to me. Your worth isn’t tied to how well you protect others, Kyan. Everyone deserves to live a life of their choosing, to be safe. You’re a good person; you’re worthy of lov—’
Love.
Herlove.
Her heart was racing, and she knew he could feel it, hear it.
But it looked like his heart was breaking in his eyes. ‘Mo ghrá—’
‘Where’s the girl?’ barked someone from the next room.
‘I’ll find out what they know,’ Kyan said, eyes clearing with a new kind of fierceness. ‘I have a meeting with one of the heads of the Wake. If I find out who it is, I’ll know exactly who we’re working with.’
I’ll get you out of here, his gaze promised.
He touched her hand briefly then dipped back out. The strength of her emotions as she watched him go near tore her insides to shreds.
The moment she was alone, nerves rushed in like a riptide.
Nicole wound his bracelet around her wrist and changed into her new things, unnerved to find the tactical gear fit like a glove, her palms tingling with cold sweat.
She hesitated over her own clothes; what to do with them.
There was a large bin to the side of the room, as if encouraging her to dispose of a part of herself – the one connection she had to her family and a symbol of actually being able to leave this place once she’d completed the mission.
Nicole kept hold of the clothes as she turned off the water, then caught her reflection in the line of mirrors above the sinks and braided her hair slowly, wishing Kyan could have done it.
Dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothes. And a new flicker of determination that crooned to the huntress within. She couldn’t use her Empyrean power with this mission, but she could use its attributes: its calm, its senses. She just needed to embody them more. No smothering.
She’d need every tool she possessed to figure out how to get around this.
When she came back out, Kyan was boot-to-boot with one of the Empyreals that had dragged them into the Wake.
‘She’s untrained,’ he was saying. ‘She can’t kill without her powers. I should take the mission—’
‘She’ll do what they’ve told her to do.’
‘You’d risk her being spotted and possibly exposing us?’
‘That’s why she’ll be using a knife,’ they said with an unamused smile. ‘That way, if she gets caught, it looks just like a violent human attack and not a supernatural one.’
One of the techs handed her a knife.
Light danced down its violent silver blade, the handle thick and black.
Her fingers tightened around it as her eyes flickered up at the commanding Empyreal.
‘Where’s my jacket?’
Kyan grabbed it off the tech, who promptly busied themselves back at their console.
The other Empyreal smirked and swaggered into the tech room, discussing something with some of the staff.
Nicole sheathed the knife into the thigh pocket of her new, form-fitting trousers and took the jacket. Her body bumped Kyan’s for a moment. And in his eyes – everything.
Everything and more.
