James smiled—small, unsurprised. “Yes. Dale was a good man. A decent one. But more than anything, he was a pawn.” His voice didn’t waver. “I had some of my Offensives and Jackson—who I trust more than anyone—abduct him from the Diamond City. Then I ‘found’ him. ‘Saved’ him. Played the hero I’ve never really been.”
Emma’s expression didn’t crack, but I saw it—the flicker of realization, the quick calculations running through her mind.
James took a slow breath, letting his words settle. “It got me the Board’s vote. Earned me the support of the United Chiefs. Which swung the Council in my favor. Within months, I went from First Offensive to Leader.” He leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to track and find the LiaPrisms. But it hasn’t been easy.”
Emma’s brows pulled together. “And what about the Humanborns? How will you find them if you’re destroying the only thing that reveals them to us?”
I leaned in slightly. “We’re keeping one for ourselves. Expanding its range in secret. We hope it will be enough.”
Emma stilled. Silence stretched between us, taut and heavy. Then she lifted her gaze to James, her voice quieter now. “Your haze. It’s cerulean. Does that have anything to do with this?”
James blinked, caught off guard for the first time. She never missed a thing.
He nodded. “Yes. After seeing what the future held, stopping it became my life’s mission—and my translation simply adapted. It’s rare, but it happens. My haze shifted, taking on the light of a blue portal. A constant reminder of the choice I made.” He exhaled slowly. “Before that, it was a darker shade of gray.”
Emma’s brows drew together. “Is there any specific reason it would change color?”
James shook his head. “We never found out. Every magus has a unique shade of a certain color haze. It's as identifying as a fingerprint. Yellow often points to healing. A shade of blue, usually signals ambition. Red, like yours, always means enormous power. The darker the shade, the greater the strength.”
He paused, then added quietly, “My former gray one... It reflected more of who I was, morally speaking. Personally, I think the mission started to overflow my character—and somehow, the color changed.”
“And no one noticed?”
James shrugged, leaning back with an easy arrogance that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Oh, they noticed.” A smirk ghosted his lips. “They just weren’t stupid enough to ask.”
Emma sat up straighter, arms crossing, her expression unreadable.
I watched her.
James did too.
So did Caden.
She was processing.
We didn’t break the silence, and neither did she.
Some truths don’t need to be rushed.
As Emma sat silent, taking in everything James had thrown at her, I watched the way her fingers curled into her palms, the slight twitch in her jaw—the only real tells that she was processing instead of reacting. James, on the other hand, looked like a man bracing for a storm, his leg bouncing, breath uneven.
When Emma finally looked up at him, her expression had changed. It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t relief. It was more like a fragile tension, living somewhere between hope and hurt.
James exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for years. “Ihadto keep it a secret, even from you,” he said, voice hoarse, guilt woven into every syllable.
Emma gave him a deliberate nod, but it wasn’t forgiveness. “We will talk later about it,” she said, and I spotted the way her fingers flexed again. “For now, I understand why you did. It wasn’t only yours to share.”
She leaned in, her gaze darkening. “But James—swear to me there’s nothing more. Swear to me this is it. The last thing you’ve ever kept from me. Because if there’s even one more secret—one more lie—we’re done. There’s trust, and then there’s…whatever this is.”
James nodded too fast. Too eager. “Yes. I promise. No more lies,” he said, the words tripping over each other in his rush to get them out. I spotted the flicker in his expression, the one Emma didn’t see.
He was lying. Maybe not fully. Maybe not intentionally. But lying, all the same.
Huh.
I wondered about what.
Emma then turned to me, her focus still sharp as a blade. “So. Part two of your plan. I’m guessing that’s where I came in?”
