Page 103 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘Mimi always knew it,’ Vasily goes on, but Kade can’t look at him to save his life, can only stare at his best friend, his boss. ‘She was dreaming about him. You see?’

From inside his coat, Vasily pulls out two pieces of paper that he unfolds with reverent care.

Lachlan gasps, touching the one closest to him.

‘Oh my God.’ His voice cracks.

They’re children’s drawings.

The first one shows a grassy landscape with five people standing and waving. Behind them is a city skyline with high-rise buildings and birds and sunshine. Kade recognises one man as Lachlan right away: dark hair, the bodyguard suit, dark eyes. He’s holding the smallest girl, who has dark curls, carries a knife and wears a fox on her back. Mimi has drawn herself hugging him. Beside them is someone with brownish-red hair.

That’s Jules. Mimi’s brother.

That’s me.

Pressure bubbles in Kade’s skull like a sudden migraine, and his sense of balance briefly goes sideways, but Riley slips a supporting arm around his middle. Kade stares at the picture. Jules is drawn looking sad and staring out towards the city. Around him are faint blue waves.

Beside Jules is a woman with jet-black hair and green eyes. Kade knows that it’s Blaire, having met her the other night. Someone else is by her side. Dark hair, no smile, drawn in shades of grey, but with flowers at his feet.

‘That was me,’ Vasily says, touching his own face on the paper.

Kade doesn’t care because he has followed Jules’ gaze to the top of a city building sketched at the furthest edge of the page.

A dark, tall tower.

And on top of that tower is a boy drawn with yellow curls and chains around his wrists.

He’s chained to the tower.

His eyes are blue.

And all around him, the little girl had drawn a wavy rainbow.

‘Riley,’ he whispers, touching the paper as if it could speak.

Kade’s eyes fill with tears and his guts fill with dread and his blood is water, and he is so... fucking stupid, so moronic and trusting and blind.

‘I was trying to tell you in the messages, my friend,’ Vasily says gently, showing Kade a second picture drawn in the same style, but a little more advanced. This picture clearly depicts the Tower of Iron Star, but this time it’s not only the blond boy who is in chains. ‘I have tried many times to tell you everything. I even sent someone to infiltrate, but I lost him.’

Julian is in chains in the drawing.

There is much else to see, but Kade can only stare at that.

‘You’re Jean-Marie?’ Lachlan demands of Riley. ‘You’re his brother?’

Abruptly, Riley gets up and turns away.

Kade can’t tear his gaze from the crumpled but well-cared-for drawing. His body is a machine that’s failing, breaking apart, breaking down.

‘Céliane,’ Vasily goes on when Riley doesn’t answer, ‘kept the secret for long time.’

‘That they’re brothers?’

‘No. Bee knew that always, they both did.’ Vasily takes a breath and holds a pause. ‘The secret was that they lived.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Lachlan says as Kade forces himself to look up at Riley, still silent. ‘Why did she keep that a secret?’

‘Because the misalignment of siblings,’ Vasily says again, his tone gentle, ‘is a hard thing to bear. They did not want the same thing anymore.’