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Grief and anger swam through his eyes. “Yes. They used and enslaved their own children. They were charged by the main body of the Ekiri to rebalance the worlds, and we were their fucking tools, able to manipulate the core potency that they couldn’t tolerate. They stripped our memories and crippled our abilities to keep us from rebelling.”
“I’m so sorry.” Then, because that felt insufficient, I took his hand and added in demon, “Tah sesekur di lahn.” I hold sorrow for you.
“Dak lahn,” he murmured and didn’t pull away. After a moment he took a deeper breath and managed a light smile. “There was something about Xharbek, too. Did you pick up on that?”
“Some,” I said. “There’s still a lot to unpack that I haven’t processed yet. But I got that Zack thinks part of why Xharbek went off the deep end was because he didn’t have a kid.”
Szerain nodded. “He was picked to stay on as the overseer for that very reason, but it bit him in the ass. The Ekiri are all connected, and it’s that parental link to the offspring that helps the other demahnk-Ekiri stay relatively sane, despite the rakkuhr poisoning.”
“The bond Xharbek made with you after Rho did his planetary tree thing wasn’t as effective for him as a true ptarl-parental bond.”
“Yes, though he lasted a lot longer than he would have without it,” he said.
We fell into an easy silence. Voices drifted down the hallway from the kitchen, over a background of soft classical music. Jill and Ashava. Happy.
It was lovely, yet I couldn’t relax and enjoy it. Instead I struggled to grasp a concept that had been floating just beyond my reach this entire time. The more I focused on it, the more it evaded me.
Fine. I didn’t want that stupid ol’ concept anyway. There were plenty of other interesting things for me to waste brain space on. Opal pods. Missing kittens. A young girl’s musical laugh. My desperate need for a shower.
The concept wandered into my head and made itself comfortable. Not all of it, and there was plenty I still couldn’t get a handle on it, but it was enough.
“The Ekiri are returning,” I said before it could slip away again.
“Ah. I’ve been trying to tease that out.” Szerain’s brows drew together. “That was the ticking clock that drove Xharbek to his fi
nal rash actions. They’re coming back to reassess the situation.”
“What does that mean for the rest of the demahnk?” I asked. “Or, for that matter, the lords, demons, and humanity?”
“It’s an unknown that we have yet to face.”
I offered him a crooked smile. “Around here, that’s a typical Monday.”
Szerain chuckled then quickly dispelled the privacy sigil as Giovanni rushed in, bearing a laptop and a worried expression.
“Kara, you must view this news clip of import.” Giovanni placed the laptop on the coffee table and clicked play on the video.
The clip was a fairly mundane report that showed Senator Olson speaking to an elementary school auditorium full of parents and press about his education initiative.
I was about to ask Giovanni why he’d brought this to me when the camera panned over a cluster of smiling first and second graders sitting cross-legged on the stage.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. The view was brief, but it was enough. Kadir crouched in the midst of the children, his hands on the shoulders of the boy and girl on either side of him. He leaned over and spoke in the girl’s ear, eliciting a giggle from her. Behind the group stood Pellini, wearing a men-in-black suit and sunglasses. Right beside him was Paul Ortiz, fingers moving rapidly over a tablet screen.
I exchanged a telling look with Szerain. What the hell was Lord Creepy playing at?
Giovanni stopped the playback. “I recognized Lord Kadir and thought you needed to see.”
“You’re right. I did. Good catch.” Kadir’s hand on shoulder thing was an unpleasant echo of Xharbek and Ilana’s position when influencing Mzatal. Or maybe I was reading too much into it. Surely Pellini and Paul wouldn’t go along with anything potentially harmful to the kids. But damn. Time to add “Keep tabs on sneaky lord” to my to-do list. “Thanks, Giovanni. Could you please leave the laptop? I’d like to have another look at the video in a few.”
Proud of his discovery, he headed back toward the war room with a spring in his step.
“Thoughts?” I asked Szerain.
He shook his head slowly. “Kadir has always been an enigma, impossible to predict apart from his fastidious potency management . . . and his sadistic predilections.”
Knight’s sphere rocked, putting a stop to my speculations. “Is it time?” I asked, scrambling to my feet.
Szerain placed a hand on the surface then pulled it away. “This one’s ready.”
