“Did it do that last time?”Jin asked.
Kira shook her head.“No.”
On their trip from Ta Da’an to Ta Sa’Riel, they’d stepped through blind.
The only thing Kira could think to explain the difference was that the gate on the other side was an unsanctioned one.
“It’s ready,” Silas announced, looking a lot more exhausted than he had the last time Kira watched him do this.
“About damn time,” Bez snapped before his voice lowered to an angry mutter.“Still can’t believe I’m expected to play nursemaid in a situation like this.What is our House coming to?”
He ordered his companions through the gate with a jerk of the chin.They stalked through, the gate swallowing them one at a time.
“Quite the charming fellow,” Raider murmured, sliding past Kira on his way toward the gate.
Finn blocked him before he could go through.“Me first.”
“By all means.If you want to be first to get your guts scrambled and your brain fried from who knows what, I won’t stop you.”
Chuckling softly to himself, Finn drew his en-blade and stepped through the gate.
Raider took a deep breath and held it for a second.“The things I do for this family.”
Without giving himself time to reconsider, the human charged forward with all the grace of a bull.
“You ready for this?”Kira asked Jin.
He looked nervous.
“Of course,” Jin scoffed.“I do this all the time.”
He’d done this exactly once.Same as her.
“You sure?”
Jin smiled.Or tried to anyway.“Yeah.Totally fine.”
“Okay, after you then.”
Just like she knew he would, Jin responded to the challenge in her voice.He squared his shoulders and bellied up to the gate like he was preparing to jump off a cliff.
“Here I go,” Jin called to Kira.
“I’ll be right behind you,” she assured him.
With one last look up at the gate, Jin held his breath and plunged through.
Dylan went right after him.
Kira caught Roderick’s bicep on his way past.“Liara wouldn’t tell me what you’re after, but I know it’s something.”
Roderick removed his arm from Kira’s grip.“Relax—I’m not here to get in your way.”
“That would be easier to believe if I knew your true purpose.”
“Roake has its secrets.Luatha has its own.”
He had no intention of divulging those secrets, Kira saw.She hadn’t really expected him to.He was as loyal to her cousin as Raider was to her.
