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“Thank you very much, Merrick,” said Cael with nauseating satisfaction in his voice. “And well done on your capture of the traitors. When may we expect your arrival?”
“Tell him nine days,” I said. In reality, we were probably only six days from Cambria, but the longer we could stave off suspicion, the better.
“We are approximately nine days from the city, sir,” said Cait.
“Nine days?” asked Cael. “But it’s already been three since you left Tramore.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, “but we have been delayed by low winds.”
“Very well,” he growled. “Keep the prisoners well-contained—and be prepared for lies and false accusations.”
I shook my head in fury. If I did try to incriminate Cael, I was beginning to see it wouldn’t do any good. My word would never hold weight against the First Immortal.
“Of course, Immortal Ruskin,” said Cait. “May Irvine continuously hold you in good favor.”
“And you, as well,” he said. “I look forward to your arrival. Are you . . . in anyone’s presence, at the moment?”
I frowned. Was he suspicious? His voice didn’t sound like it, but the words . . .
“No, sir,” said Cait. “I’m alone.”
“Well, in that case,” said Cael, his voice warming, “I most eagerly await your arrival, Fiona.”
My jaw fell open. I didn’t think Cael would ever speak this way, especially not to an Enforcer. Then my stomach dropped as the full impact hit me. If he felt this way about her, how would he react when he discovered she was dead?
Cait stared at me. “What do I say?”
I threw my hands in the air. “Don’t ask me!”
Her mouth pursed in disgust, but she pressed the button, her voice deepening. “As do I.”
There was a delay before he answered with a laugh. “That’s all you have to say?”
Cait wrinkled her nose. “I can’t do this,” she told me. “I have no idea what she would’ve said to him!”
A shuffle caught my attention. Dunn had come up on deck.
“There’s your excuse,” I said.
Cait looked relieved before pressing the button. “Enforcer Dunn is in my vicinity, sir. Would you like to speak with him?”
“Oh . . . thank you, but that won’t be necessary.” Cael’s tone flipped back to his regular impatience. “Good day, Enforcers.”
I took the radio, clutching it to my stomach. I already couldn’t get the image out of my head of Merrick’s bloody body lying on the deck. Now she had a first name and, apparently,a lover or something like it. I couldn’t imagine Cael having the time or charms to make this happen, but then again, he had often gone absent for hours while he was an Enforcer. I just never thought he had the capacity for caring, let alone romance. I buried my face in my hands and tried not to feel for him, tried not to picture the tragedy, but the ache inside only got worse the longer it sat there.
Cait’s eyes were sympathetic. “It’s not your fault she’s dead. You saw that monster of a weapon. She would’ve killed them all if they didn’t get her first.”
Dunn lurked at a slight distance, and I knew he was listening.
“I may not have pulled the trigger, but my actions led to this. Everything I did while trying to make the world better has only made it worse. The best thing I could’ve possibly done was nothing at all!” I tried to keep my voice down, but tears burned my eyes. Guilt, my all-too-familiar companion, raged, but now it was compounded with the belief that I deserved every bit of it. “Maybe I’m destined to destroy everything I touch.”
“I’m out of prison and I found Lachlan again because of you. That’s pretty damn significant to me.”
“And then, thanks to me, you got captured and separated from him again.”
“The Enforcers found me first,” she said. “You could just as easily be blaming me right now. Yes, Mara, you’ve made mistakes, but these mistakes have led to good things, too. As I keep trying to tell you, good deeds aren’t all good—but the flip side is that maybe no mistake is one hundred percent bad, either. Perfection doesn’t exist, Mara, so just let it go.”
“But I’msofar from perfect,” I said. “I don’t think I can ever trust my own judgment again.”
