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The dates line up. She and Cecily met at school a few years ago. They became best friends.
“Immediately. That’s what Kenna said.”
Dixon shifted on his perch. Are we going to interview the people on this list?
“Eventually. The problem with interviewing people is that we’ll tip our hand the second we start. The oracle children are far too intertwined with one another not to spread gossip.”
Then everyone already knows we visited the basement. We’re not just outsiders anymore. We’re here for a purpose.
“True. Even Connell’s militia can’t be trusted to keep quiet.”
How did you keep the highborn in the dark when you worked jobs for your father?
“You remember how it was, Dixon. The highborn don’t trust one another, and they certainly don’t speak with one another freely. A great deal of intel is passed through spies. I merely took command of a few key spies and bribed them into working for me.”
Money?
“Secrets, Dixon. Controlling secrets is far more powerful than coin.”
I forget sometimes how lonely a highborn compound can be. How dangerous.
Lila’s gaze flicked to Dixon. “Some families are more dangerous than others.”
He shrugged.
“Tristan honestly believes that you miss that place. That you’d rather be there than with him. He doesn’t understand—he might never understand—what you actually miss.”
What is that?
“The lack of pressure. No one forces us to chat about our feelings. No one demands we make choices or declarations within our relationships. It’s all actively discouraged. You live alone in a sea of your relations, and you never have a real conversation about anything. It is a shallow existence, everyone always needling one another into a disadvantage during the smallest of interactions. Your allies might become your enemies tomorrow. Do not give them ammunition they may use. They trained us young, didn’t they?”
He nodded.
“The differences between the compounds have not gone unnoticed.”
You like it here.
“I’d lose my mind within a week. I don’t think I could adjust.”
Liar. You’re thinking about accepting Connell’s offer after you find the mole.
“If I find the mole. Or moles.”
You will.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don’t always find the culprit before time runs out. When I fail, people get hurt.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“Nothing.”
That didn’t sound like nothing. He laid his arm on her back. Something’s going on with you lately. I don’t know what it is, but it’s more than Tristan and Katia, more than your father and Shaw, too.
Lila looked up. She could tell him about La Roux. She could tell him about the baby, too.
After all, it might be his niece or nephew in her belly.
He might even be excited at the idea.
