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“Right. Zaire wasn’t worried about humanity because he was working to get them back. I thought she would be alive when I got there,” I say. “But Atlas is nothing like his father. I think Titian got to my mom before he could.”
Penn looks at me, her brow furrowed. “So you’re saying…”
It’s not the time to get into this, but I’m pretty sure I know what happened to my mother. Titian en’Ganivet happened to her.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“And I was working to get back, but I had to be stealthy,” Zaire says. “Dealing with the humans, making sure that it didn’t seem like we knew anything, that was part of it.”
“You couldn’t just ask Keon?” Penn asks.
Zaire smiles. “That’s not really how a Spymaster relationship works,” he says. “And then I met Layla and all of that stopped mattering.”
“Yeah, about that,” I say, grimacing. “Look at me. Sorry about this.”
Zaire faces me as I punch him in the mouth. I pull it so it’s not too painful. He closes his eyes but he doesn’t even groan. The man takes it like a champ. He’s always been good at that.
“Stay here, Penn,” I say.
“Okay. But if you need help…”
“We know you have our back,” I reply. “I’ll make sure the door is unlocked for you, but…”
“Hopefully you won’t need me,” Penn says. “But I’m ready to fight. Just get in and out. Get my friend back.”
“Yes,” I say. “Of course. Alright. Let’s go.”
The doors to the ship slide open and I grab Zaire’s cuffs to walk him out. “Keep your head down.”
He lowers his gaze and we walk toward the gates of the compound. It’s a sunny, stiflingly hot day, and I don’t know if they’re going to leave us out here. They might. I don’t think they’ll be happy to see me.
We’re only standing there for a few seconds when I hear cogs turning, the modular door sliding open to let us into the compound.
There are two men on the other side of the door, both with weapons. They’re wearing dust masks, but I know them just from a glance at their bodies.
“We didn’t think you’d come back,” the one standing to the right says. Elan is the first one to speak. He’s the younger one, with dark golden skin and a scar across his nose, which he got from fighting a creature off as a child.
“Elan, Darym,” I say. “I can’t say I’m happy to see you.”
Darym laughs, but Elan just glares at me. “The feeling is mutual.”
I shake my head. “The Diavolos should celebrate Corvus en’Diavolo’s return when they see what I have for them,” I say, grabbing Zaire’s handcuffs and pushing him closer to the guards. This is part of the plan, but even just doing it for show feels awful. I know Penn is watching us from the ship, listening to everything on the comms. I hope this doesn’t color the already poor perception she has of me.
“I can’t believe he escaped,” Elan says over Zaire’s shoulder. “He’s a slipperier bastard than you are. But he does know how to pick a woman.”
I can tell Zaire is doing everything in his power not to pick up his head and fight this man.
“We’ll have to see what happens after the baby is born,” Elan continues. “Once we know for sure she can have Gifted children…”
Zaire stiffens, but I push him to his knees. I want to kill these two, too, so I get it. But we can’t blow our cover.
“We didn’t send you out for Zaire, though,” Elan says. “We wanted Atlas. Did you deliver?”
I glare at him, then flash him the shield chip with the Ganivet initials. “Of course I did,” I say. “Now—take me to Layla. I want to see our prisoner.”
They glance at each other. “Aren’t you just going to kill him?”
“Yes,” I say. “But I’m going to do it in front of her.”
