Her head tilted. There were many responses she could have given him. Defenses. Excuses. Reasons why she'd chosen that route instead of another.
None of them mattered—because he was right. She hadn't been sure she could take both of them on at once. Not without possibly sacrificing Devon.
“I plan to keep an eye on you,” he told her in warning. “Never forget that.”
Kira stiffened, internally cursing. He remembered.
Wren moved toward the door, saying over his shoulder, "We ship out in a week; I expect to see you there. It seems the Haldeel have called a quorum. You and the others who passed will be part of a delegation handpicked by the emperor."
Jin rose behind her as Wren disappeared into her room. "Care to explain what that was about."
Kira scrubbed a hand over her face before facing the ocean again. "Not particularly."
"But you're gonna anyway," Jin sang.
Kira's head dropped. "I may have implied the daughter he lost in the Sorrowing is still alive."
Jin dipped. Long moments passed before he said, "I see I missed a few things after my spawn was incapacitated."
Kira grunted. That was an understatement.
"What are you going to do?" he asked. "You know what the group will do if they find out you're sharing secrets."
Kira had made certain promises. Promises she'd broken for Wren. The rest wouldn't be happy if they learned about it.
"I’m well aware of all the ways this could go wrong,” Kira said, resigned.
She was playing a dangerous game, with stakes she no longer felt certain she wanted to pay.
After several minutes, Jin floated to the railing next to her. "The Haldeel. Their territory was where Odin said Elise was last seen, wasn’t it?"
Kira’s lips curved. "And Wren just handed us the perfect excuse to go investigate."
Jin chuckled as he swung toward her door. "There's something I found that I think warrants investigating."
Kira stretched and stepped away from the railing. "I was starting to feel a little cooped up now that you mention it."
*
Hours later, Kira crouched in the shadow of the fortress, watching the perimeter wall, Jin a dark shape beside her.
Sneaking out without Finn discovering and following hadn’t been easy. Luckily for Kira, her new quarters came with a balcony, handy for escaping undetected from an oshota who had a habit of staking out her front door.
"Wait for it. Wait for it."
Kira tensed.
"Now," Jin said.
She raced forward as Jin lit up the wall with red tracer dots, showing the safest places for her to ascend. She scaled it in seconds, up and over before anyone had a chance to see her.
She landed softly on the other side, wincing as her ankles protested the long fall.
Jin lowered beside her. "Well, that was a little easier than I thought."
Kira glanced at the wall. Maybe a little too easy. "Getting back into the fortress when we’re done with this little escapade will be harder."
The defenses were geared to keep people out, not in, after all.
