“What happened to you?”
I shrug. “Quick field trip. Courtesy of teleportation-slash-void-collapse. You know. The usual.”
His brows knit together, but before he can say anything, Talon sits up a little, interest sparking.
“You glitched again?”
“Yeah,” I say. “But it was more of a self-defense kind of glitch. Dropped me somewhere inconvenient and left me looking like I crawled out of a swamp.”
I don’t mention Mark. Intentionally.
“Self-defense,” Nathaniel repeats, voice low.
“A cop had her at gunpoint,” Cassian says before I can answer. “The Candy Maker’s place is crawling with cops. They reopened her case.”
Nathaniel’s brow rises. “This morning?”
“Looks like it,” Cassian replies.
“That’s quite the coincidence.”
“Yeah, tell us about it,” I mutter.
Nathaniel inhales slowly, running his tongue over his piercing like he’s tasting the thought. It takes him maybe two seconds to put it all together, what took Cassian and me ten minutes, he gets instantly.
“We need to get to the car impound,” he says. “Clear the evidence.”
No one argues.
“The guy running security there owes me a favor,” Talon says, already getting to his feet. “I’ll ask him to make the car disappear. Permanently.”
“Good,” Nathaniel says. “Do it now. No loose ends.”
Talon cracks his neck and heads for the door, but pauses in the doorway, glancing back over his shoulder.
“Want me to take Little Grim with me?” he asks, voice laced with innuendo. He’s talking to me, not Nathaniel. “You know. For safety.”
Safetyhas double meaning here.
I blink, caught off guard. Not sure how I feel about that. And honestly? I’m not in the mood for another Talon moment. Between him, Cassian, and the wraith, I need a break from being emotionally devoured, or devoured at all.
“No,” Nathaniel answers before I can. “If the wraith comes for anyone, it’ll be her. If it kills you, we’ll manage. If it kills Skye, we’re screwed.”
“Damn, man. Just say you don’t care if I die,” Talon says with a laugh.
“You don’t care either,” Nathaniel shoots back, not even looking up.
Talon just shrugs and walks out.
It leaves a sour twist in my gut. I know Nathaniel’s right, the wraith is probably after me, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch Talon go.
If I still had Pain, I’d send him to watch over Talon. Just to be sure. Just to have something out there with him.
But I can’t anymore.
Pain’s gone.
And I don’t mean the emotional kind. I mean the raven.
