Page 75
Despite the early hour, it was already busy inside the kitchen. Two guards stood by the window, one of them that asshole Vandor. Behind the stove, Aviel stirred something in a pan, and Moargan was lounging at the bar, looking bored.
His eyes turned sharp when he caught sight of Ryneth. “Good to see you again. And in one piece after last night’s excitement.”
“Moargan,” Cyprian chided. The younger man sat half-hidden behind a large white paper, charcoal in one hand, coffee in the other. He smiled as they walked in.
Moargan snatched the coffee out of his hand and took a sip. “What? I was just being—”
“A jerk. But that’s okay.” Daven took a bite from a fresh tigano and moaned. “Now, this is what we came for. The rest I can ignore. I was fucking starving.”
Aviel gave him a toothy grin. “You look ravaged. Bet you guys had a busy night after you got home.”
“We—”
Before he could finish, Ryneth snapped, “That’s none of your business.”
Aviel whistled low. “Feisty. I like it.”
“Here. Have some breakfast.” Holding out the rest of the bun, Daven forced it inside Ryneth’s mouth when the other man refused to take a bite. “There. Good?”
Ryneth’s eyes flashed when he was forced to chew. Daven made sure he saw him dragging his gaze over his face down to his throat, catching the moment his Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Damn system is fucking frustrating,” Yure grumbled from the other side of the kitchen where he sat behind two computer screens.
“I don’t get you.” Daven turned to look over his shoulder. “You’ve got a full mansion at your disposal, and you decide to build your office in the fucking kitchen?”
Yure didn’t look up. “I just sit where everyone else is. This work’s already lonely enough. Did you sleep, Ryneth, after last night?”
“Yeah,” Ryneth mumbled, but he stared absentmindedly into his cup.
Was he thinking about last night? About the first time Daven had fucked him?
“Well, I didn’t,” Helianth admitted. “I can’t stop thinking about that tunnel. Or how the hell Concordant vanished right after.”
Yure didn’t look up from his screens. “They didn’t vanish. Luminary tracked them at a safe distance after they cleared the tunnel, but the ship rewrote its trail once it hit open sky.”
Daven frowned. “So they’re still somewhere over Helion.”
“Most likely,” Yure said. “We just don’t know where.”
Daven’s hand closed around Ryneth’s thigh under the table. “Then why the fuck was he out there?” he snapped. “Kylix called us in the middle of the night because Concordant would only talk if Ryneth was there. We knew they’d wipe their trail the second they left. So why the fuck did we let them go anyway?”
Moargan leaned back against the counter. “Because Father let it stand.”
That landed hard enough to silence the kitchen for a beat.
“What?” Daven snapped.
“They came to negotiate,” Helianth said. “And they delivered. The chip gives us enough to start cutting Attica out of Helion tonight. Father made the call to honor the departure.”
Yure flicked a screen aside. “They still scrubbed their trail the second they hit open sky, so we lost the ship.”
Daven stared at the screens. “And now we don’t know where they are.”
“No,” Helianth said. “But they’re still in our skies, and they’re authorized to return if they choose.”
Daven’s mouth hardened. “After all that?”
Helianth’s expression turned grim. “They still have five Helion civilians, and they gave their word they’ll stay alive as long as we don’t interfere. Which we won’t,” Helianth said. “But that doesn’t mean we stop looking. Yure’s team is still trying to relocate the ship while the rest of Luminary moves on Attica.”
