"Tell them, Blue," Raider instructed.
Her silence made Raider go still.
"Blue?"
She looked up at him, the guilt in her face making ice slide through his veins.
No.
"I can't," Blue whispered.
Raider stumbled back, feeling like he'd taken a physical blow. "You betrayed the Curs?"
She was why Elise was taken?
"Our family?" Raider asked, a fine trembling invading his limbs.
The moment felt surreal. Like something out of a nightmare. Of all the people Jace could have named as the traitor responsible for giving away their position on Rothchild, Blue wasn't on the list.
She knows about Elena, a part of him whispered.
Raider shut that voice down. The thought of what Blue could do with that information if she really was the traitor too awful to contemplate.
"What age would she have been then? Twelve?" Raider asked. "Do you really think a child would have the resources to be the Tsavitee's ally?"
Jace's face held sympathy. "Only if she was fully human."
Raider froze.
"What do we really know about her past?" Jace continued. "Kira discovered her hiding out in a dumpster."
"I know. I was there, remember?" Raider spat.
"A normal child couldn't have survived that invasion. It's not outside the realm of possibility that they planted her for you to find."
"That's not true," Blue shouted.
"Settle down," Grace ordered. "Or the MPs will use force."
The unfriendly faces of the men and women around Blue made it clear they wouldn't have a problem with that.
"Raider, I didn't betray anyone," Blue pleaded urgently.
"The guilt on your face earlier says otherwise," Grace taunted.
Blue acted like the other woman hadn't spoken. "Yes, the transmissions might have been mine."
Grace let out an amazed laugh, sending the other woman a look like she thought Blue was stupid.
Blue was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them.
"Walker knew about them," Blue continued. "He helped me set them up. There's no way the Tsavitee cracked them. We were careful to disguise their source. The only information they sent out was a handshake. To let me know you were safe and alive. That's it."
"Convenient, isn't it? That the only person who could confirm your story is also dead," Grace drawled.
"I'm not lying," Blue shouted, losing her temper.
Her eyes pleaded with Raider to believe her.
