While Solal and Amila did a sweep to make sure there were no nasty surprises waiting for them, Kira hurried toward Jin’s room, pausing when she passed the one that she’d assigned to Maksym and Arly.
“What the—” she whispered.
It looked untouched.
Every room they’d passed before this had shown signs of disturbance.Crumpled sheets lying on the ground.Ripped or sometimes torn.Overturned furniture.Breached doors.
Maksym and Arly’s room, on the other hand, was immaculate.The door was untouched.The furniture was in the same state it had been when Kira knocked on their door hours earlier.The sheets were a little rumpled but that could have easily been from someone sleeping on top of them.
There was no sign of a fight having taken place.Not a mark on the walls or a whiff thatkihad been used.
Nothing.
Kira found that strange.Arly may not have been an oshota in name, but she met the standard in every other way.Someone like that wouldn’t have lowered their guard enough to be taken unawares.
Did she let herself be taken?Like Jin?Or was she a traitor working with Belladonna?”
A loud boom made her jump.She forgot her concerns as she realized it had come from Jin’s room.
Talon reached it first, waving her back.
He took one look inside and started laughing.Kira nudged him out of her way.He let her, easily moving aside so she could get a look.
A strangled sound left her when she did.
A visibly unhappy Dylan sat chest deep in a crater.The edges curled away from him like the petals of a flower, looking like something had forced them to explode outward.
The smuggler’s cache that had once been hidden in the floor was no more.
Talon clapped Kira on the shoulder.“Looks like you worried for nothing.The Butcher of Parsy rescued himself.”
Kira considered the crater, wondering how much power was needed to do something like that without also killing yourself.
Those things weren’t built from your average run of the mill materials.All kinds of things went in there.From the newest designer drug.To the latest stolen military tech.The kinds of things that a lot of nefarious people would die to get their hands on.They were built to be sturdy.Nigh indestructible.
Dylan made breaching one look easy.
“Where is he?”Dylan demanded.
“Who?Jin?”Kira asked as Dylan extracted himself from the former cache.
“Yes, Jin.Who else would I mean?”
Kira shrugged off his impatience.“Just checking.”
It had been a stupid question, but that was kind of the point.
Kira didn’t say anything as Dylan’s attention snapped to the doorway.
“Forget your previous orders,” Dylan told Graydon.“Your only mission now is to help me recover the child.”
“Again, with the child business,” Kira grumbled.
“Yes, child,” Dylan snapped.“Because that is what he is.”
“You sure about that?Because thatchilddropped you like a dirty sack of laundry.”
Kira prowled across the room, bumping Dylan aside with her hip so she could crouch at the crater’s edge.
