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“By warlord rules, sure,” she shrugs. “He took me from my home. He kept me in his house. And he made me the mother of his child.”
I’m struck by how simply she puts it, when it was obviously traumatic. I don’t know how she could survive that and still be sitting here on this sunny veranda, sippingincarnetwith me.
“I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “I didn’t know.”
“It isn’t your fault no one told you,” she says. “And besides, it’s fine. After all, Titian is dead, and I’m sitting here with my two most loyal men as first and second in command of the Ganivet Family. Sitting here with the future of our Family, drinking in the sun.”
She gives me a wan smile, then looks back at Atlas with that same look of affection. And that’s when I realize Marina en’Ganivet would fit right in with the First Wave.
Because she already has her dark veil.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
?
PENN
In Solis, I was guarded at all hours of the day and required to stay in the Compound most of the time. Here in Joya, however, I’m allowed to go where I please, as long as I stay within the villa’s walls.
So I’m still in a cage, just a bigger one.
And thatdefinitelymeans this place is well-monitored by cameras and bots.
With any change of scenery during a mission, the first thing you need to do is case the joint, so I tell Atlas I’m going for a walk. He doesn’t even tell me I need to be watched; this is a place where he feels secure, and I have to assume that means he’s got other kinds of eyes on me. I set off from the pavilion a little tipsy from theincarnet, and I skirt the opposite side of the lake first, breathing in the fresh mountain air and the breeze off the ocean.
This feels like a hideaway—or maybe a nest, concealed as it is in the tall mountains and looking down on the valley and the ocean beyond. Escape won’t be easy when it comes down to making our exit. It’s a sheer drop-off from the villa toward the village, at least a hundred feet, with a waterfall spilling over the edge of the lake. If I were on vacation, I could appreciate this place’s beauty, but as it is…
Nah. Maybe I appreciate its beauty anyway.
I’m wearing some lace-up sandals, and they aren’t suitable for hiking, but I find a couple spots where I think I’d like to go for a walk later. It might not be an escape route, but at the very least I’ll be able to clear my head. For now, I stay at the glass railing on the edge of the lake, the wind whipping through my hair and lifting it in a platinum cloud around my head. A big gust sweeps over me, obscuring my vision with my own locks for a second.
When they settle again, Corvus stands beside me.
He’s dressed in the same guard’s uniform as usual: high-necked, all black, with a sleek double-breasted jacket. His white hair is shaggy and hangs over his eyes as he stands at the railing, looking down into the valley with me.
“We can’t be heard here,” he says under his breath. “It’s a dead spot with the wind.”
I glance around with all the subtlety of a hand grenade, kicking myself for it. Fuck it; I’m drunk. Any weird behavior that raises questions, and I’ll just pass it off on theincarnet.
“Did you know he planned to bring me here?” I ask.
Corvus doesn’t look at me. “No,” he says. “This will make things…considerably more difficult.”
“Do you think he did it on purpose?”
Corvus shrugs slightly. “Perhaps. I know for certain that he doesn’t trust you; and I’m starting to think he may not trustmeeither.”
“Why do you say that?” I ask.
“Because,” he replies, “his second-in-command is trying to fuck me.”
I play it off like it’s nothing, even though I know for a fact that Keon is smarter than he seems. I don’t know who I’m going to side with here yet: Keon or Corvus. I need to keep my options open.
If Keon doesn’t throw a wrench in my plans, that is. He has to be toying with me, with Corvus, or with us both.
“Is he onto you?” I ask.
“Do you have a reason to think he might be?” Corvus shoots back. “You two seem to have gotten awfully close.”
