“Maybe we can change her mind. Could use a sharp-shooter.”
Boden ran a hand through frizzed hair. “I’ll speak with my advisory council. See what they think of all this.”
“Soon, Bodie.”
“I know. I will. But… are you sure you want to be a part of that?”
She bristled. “What do you mean?”
He ran a hand through his hair again. Too obvious a tell. Growing a beard had only given Boden more outlet to betray his unease, fingers scratching the scruff.
“If you don’t want to be tangled up in this anymore,” he said. “I understand. I can take over from here.”
Another downside of older Boden: his ability to shift from sweet to infuriating.
“Why?” Fi demanded. She knew why. She always knew why.
“It’s a lot to deal with,” he deflected.
“You think I’m not responsible enough?”
“That’s not true at all, Fi.”
“Thenwhy?”
Her tone was a dagger, sharp but stealthy, not distracting Antal from his conduit wires.
Boden sharpened to parry her. “You have history with this shit. With daeyari.”
“We both have history.”
“You havemorehistory. I don’t want you to feel… overwhelmed.”
“I’ve grown past that.”
“You weren’t past it when I found you seven years ago, running away from every Void-damned thing you could glance at. You aren’t past it now.”
There it was. Even when Fi saw it coming, even wrapped in every defensive bristle, she winced at the hurt they alwaysdanced around, the truth Boden could never just come out and tell her.
She’d run away. She’d left him to deal with their father. He knew what a coward she’d always been, the guilt she’d spent a decade trying to bury.
“I’m fine now.” The lie cut her teeth.
Boden gave her that condescending sigh he ought to have patented at the Thomaskweld trade office. “That’s bullshit, Fi. I saw how spooked you were when you got back from Thomaskweld—I understandwhy, now. But you refused to tell me then.”
“I didn’t want you to worry—”
“So you took it all on yourself?” He huffed, exasperated. “You don’t have to act like nothing on the Planes can shake you. You don’t have to always pretend like—”
A tiny gasp cut him off.
What an odd sound. Too meek to have come from Boden. Not from Fi, obviously. At the transfer hub, Antal stood silent, eyes wide at…
A little girl stood in the doorway, gloved hands tight on the frame, shielded by the wall so only one startled eye and a poof of black hair were visible.
She stared at the daeyari like a nightmare come to life.
“Anisa?” Boden hurried to her.
