Page 71 of Forge the Blade

Alice gave Rei a look that told him she knew more than she was acknowledging. She put her hand on the seat between them but didn’t try to touch him. Instead, she opened up her coat, showing the end of a gun. “We got you,” she said. And for just a moment, a shadow of her brother Sevastyan crossed her features. “So, do you know what we’re doing today?”

Rei nodded. Even that much felt scary. He was acknowledging a civilian, well, a semi-civilian, and it wasn’t for being undercover. Or perhaps it was. Sorta undercover, like when he was with Sevastyan in airports. Except Sevastyan wasn’t there. It had been eleven years since he’d just had a conversation with someone that wasn’t in service of a master or with another slave, or someone he was servicing. It didn’t feel like fresh air. It felt like ice in his lungs.

Alice grinned. “So, have you listened to 5N’s music?”

Rei glanced at the back of Ellisandre’s head, but they weren’t giving him any help. He nodded again.

Alice’s eyes sparkled. “I never listened to them before Damian brought Jun back from South Korea. It’s a whole thing. Kinda messy.” She shrugged. “Don’t worry about all the security. Someone kidnapped Jun, so Richard and Émeric and Damian, all of us, aren’t going to let that happen again.”

“Good.” Rei’s throat tried to close up over the single word.

Alice ’s hand on the seat between them flexed, as if she wanted to touch him. “Anyway, today’s a big deal. Damian—oh, you don’t know who Damian is, do you?”

Rei shook his head.

Up front, Ash snorted. He turned around. “Sathers is scary.”

“Damian Sathers is not scary. And why are you still calling him Sathers?”

“Because he threatened to lock me in prison and throw away the key?” Ash rolled his eyes.

“He was trying to keep you out of prison!” Alice snapped. “You like him. Don’t tell me otherwise.”

Ash shot Alice a complicated, unimpressed, conflicted look. “He knows good food.”

“Anyway.” Alice turned back to Rei. “Damian is Jun’s boyfriend. Jun is the leader of 5N. And Damian lives with my brother Collin. Collin is Émeric and Richard’s. So they all live together, like all five of them. Just think of them as one unit. Kinda.”

Ash turned around in his seat. “Ish, you’re going to confuse any normal sane person.”

“You have a better way of explaining it?” Alice raised both eyebrows.

Ash looked at Rei. “Émeric and Richard are like old, forty something, and rich. Like bossy big rich. I work for Richard. And a long time ago they got Damian, put him through college I think, and eventually they got involved. With stuff. Like a family. But Damian’s not their kid. And then they got Collin last year too. And Collin is with Émeric and Richard. Really with them. Same bedroom, everything. And Damian is with Jun. But still a part of everything with Richard, Émeric, and Collin.”

“And Collin is my brother,” Alice added at the end.

“We call them The Residency,” Ash added. “It’s easier to say.”

“And they call us The Menagerie.” Alice laughed.

Ash rolled his eyes. “And by us, they mean Ellisandre, Linda, Alice, Dana, and me. And Maribel. But Maribel is a dog.”

Rei cleared his throat. “How old are you?” That seemed like what he would have done, years ago. Except, and he flushed under his mask, he wasn’t in South Korea anymore. It was kind of taboo to ask people’s ages in the United States. He parted his lips to take the question back.

“I’m nineteen, almost twenty,” Alice said. “And Ash is in trouble, because he didn’t let anyone know when his birthday was. He’s eighteen.”

“We were busy,” Ash remonstrated.

“Not too busy to sing you happy birthday.” Alice aimed a swat in Ash’s general direction. Ash ducked, but not really. The end of the swat landed and he smirked.

Despite his terror, a tiny bit of a smile tugged on the edge of Rei’s mouth behind his mask. These two were funny. Little bit odd, and probably weird, but nice. Their banter reminded him of training with his chosen brothers when they were young.

Alice turned back to Rei. “So, do you know where we’re going to be today?”

“On set?” Rei answered.

“We’re going to an old abandoned church. It’s beautiful, like an apocalypse.”

“Who said apocalypses were beautiful?” Ash snorted.