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I understood the secrecy—I was the leader of the malefics and I had no business being in this territory. Ada had badgered her uncle for weeks before Triaten had agreed she needed answers about her lineage.
Me coming with her had been the sticking point.
I wasn’t going to let Ada do this alone, without me, for I was petrified about what she would find out. If it was bad and I wasn’t with her…I wasn’t willing to leave that moment to chance, were it to come to fruition.
Triaten had finally relented on my presence. Something I didn’t think was ever going to happen, for the fact that Triaten had allowed me this far into the inner sanctum would get him flayed alive by the other panthenite elders if they knew I was here.
Hell, maybe they already did know I was here. It wasn’t beyond me that this could be one elaborate setup and a swarm of warriors was already surrounding me with blades poised to sink into my flesh.
The town wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’d had a number of moles through the town during the years, but I’d never quite got the sense of how low-key the town was. Simple. A stark contrast to the show of wealth the heads of the main malefic families liked to maintain. Our castles and mansions and villas. Greed driving so much of my kind.
Not that the panthenites were immune to greed. They just didn’t show off the spoils of riches like malefics liked to do.
At the rear of a tall, block-wide building that looked to be a hotel, we stalked in the darkness to a side door along the alley and slipped into the building.
Concrete walls surrounded us, and Triaten—still silent—led us deep into the building and then up some nondescript stairs in a concrete stairwell. Ada was in front of me, sandwiched between me and Triaten. I could tell we were in the area of the hotel that had no cameras, no acknowledgement that it even existed, for I could smell the blood of malefics, humans, and panthenites in the air.
It didn’t matter who you were. If you wronged the panthenites, they held no hesitation in making you pay. Brutally.
One of the traits I actually admired in the species.
Up several flights of stairs and Triaten opened a door. We stepped out into an elegant hallway in what looked like an expensive hotel.
I kept my head down. With the cap covering my head all the way past my eyebrows, there wouldn’t be an angle a camera could catch where I could be recognized.
Triaten stopped, opening a door on his left, and he stepped into it. We followed.
A completely dark room, and I could feel the air was tight inside of it, so it was small. My eyes hadn’t adjusted completely, but there was another person in the dark room I could smell, feel—not human, but not exactly malefic or panthenite either.
Holding his phone low, Triaten flipped it on, illuminating our faces.
It was a tight space—doors on either side of us. A vestibule of sorts separating us from a room beyond.
What in the hell?
I looked to the fourth face stepping closer to the ring of us.
Skye.
The malefic-panthenite that could control time—or at least slices of it.
“Skye,” I said, inclining my head toward her.
“Damen.” Her eyes searched the shadows on my face. “I’m not sure if it is a good thing to see you or not. I wasn’t aware you were part of this. It seems Tri has some explaining to do.” Her glare shifted to Triaten.
“We’ll get to that later, Skye,” Triaten said before she could go on.
“You’re Skye?TheSkye?” Ada asked, her eyes wide.
There weren’t many in either one of our species that didn’t know about Skye. She was a half-breed that could control time and she’d been pivotal in saving Venetia from my deranged brothers years ago. Pivotal in saving the entire western seaboard of North America from breaking off of the mainland and slipping into the ocean.
A formidable being, to say the least.
Skye glanced at Ada, embarrassment crinkling the edges of her eyes. “I don’t know about beingthatSkye. But yes, I am probably the Skye you’re thinking of.”
Ada stepped closer to Skye, the glow of Triaten’s phone lighting up the excitement on her face. “I have always wanted to meet you. Uncle Tri has told me so much about you and Uncle Aiden.”
Skye’s head jerked back. “You’re related to Aiden?”
