Page 9 of Forge the Blade

“He was the first one to train me,” Ellisandre said. “After he discovered he might be able to pass me off as a male heir, that’s all he wanted. He went from someone who was never around to spending all his time with us. My mother hated it. She liked it when he was overseas and never there. He taught me a lot, or sent me to teachers. Cut my hair, bought me suits, made me change the way I talked, made me change schools. He wanted a son, even if he had to carve me into one. But then I started to realize what he was up to. He took me abroad, into meetings, introducing me to his family and friends. He wanted me to follow his footsteps in the family business. It wasn’t a life I wanted.” Ellisandre swirled the hot chocolate around in the thermos. There was only one person to whom they’d ever told the next part of the story.

“I went to British intelligence. But they didn’t arrest him. They offered me a place. My father wasn’t enough. They wanted the people above him. I agreed. Summer camps turned into an excuse to disappear and train in everything. The things I’m teaching you. They arranged for me to win special educational trips or go on exchanges to get me out of school without raising my parents’ suspicions. In the end, it came down to me.”

Alice studied Ellisandre’s face, her eyes soft with acceptance. “Sometimes it just comes down to us.”

Ellisandre smiled a smile that wasn’t happy and wasn’t sad, just knowing. If anyone understood, it would be Alice.

Sometimes it came down to being in a place and in a time and then you had a decision. And that decision changed everything.

And then you walked the world and no one else knew that everything had changed. Because the coin had another side, the one where nothing had changed. And both were true. Every time.

Ellisandre clinked their thermos against Alice’s. Together they watched the smoke rise up into the sky, erasing the evidence of a change.

Sevastyan

Sevastyan kept his eyes forward the entire time his half-sister blithely drove him through the downtown area. He gave a grunt of goodbye and stepped out, then let out a sigh of relief. He’d always thought it would be Collin he might meet, having lived in the same building with him for weeks, but Alice had been harder, in a way. Her smile was bright and she had a spark that made him want to stare and figure out how she’d come from fifty percent of the same genetic material as he had. He limped up the stairs into the building and took the lift to the floor where the Bolthole was located.

His biometrics let him in. He took off his shoes and ghosted his way to the bedroom. Rei was asleep, one arm wrapped around Lisa’s waist. Lisa was sitting up, gun in his lap, his arm around Rei.

“It’s you.” Lisa set the gun to the side.

Sevastyan grunted softly.

“I’m waking him up every hour,” Lisa waved his phone, showing a timer. “He’s answering all the questions fine.

Sevastyan sank down on a padded stool and leaned against the dresser. The wound in his side was burning. His muscles hurt. Even thinking was taking effort. Loading so many bodies and breaking apart furniture had taken a toll.

Lisa sighed. “Come lie down.” He motioned to the side of the bed by Rei. In seeking Lisa’s comfort, Rei had completely migrated from one side of the mattress to the other.

“I can sleep on the couch.”

Lisa scowled. “Rei needs you.”

“Did he . . .”

Lisa shook his head. “He just . . . went away. I couldn’t get him to talk.”

“He’s never killed anyone before.”

Lisa said nothing. Sevastyan rubbed his face. There was something the other man wasn’t saying, but he couldn’t wrap his brain around any way to get it out of him. “Did you report to Alexi?”

“No. I figured you’d want to have a say in that.”

“Yeah.” Sevastyan rubbed his eyes. This was where he was supposed to say something strategic and certain and . . .

. . . he had nothing.

“Come to bed,” Lisa said. “I won’t kill you in your sleep.”

“That’s less inviting than you might think.”

“Oh?” Lisa raised an eyebrow.

Sevastyan stood and started stripping off layers, moving carefully around the bandaging on his side. “If you kill me, I won’t have to wake up.”

Lisa almost cracked a smile. Or maybe he did, and the bruising and swelling on his face was just suppressing his expression. “If I kill you, then I have to take care of Rei on my own. Suck it up.”

Sevastyan lowered himself to the mattress and pulled the covers over his shoulders. Every part of him felt closer to eighty than thirty. “I don’t think I can suck you off right now. Rei’s in the way.” Sevastyan put a hand on Rei’s hip and closed his eyes.