A loud boom sounded a second later.
When Kira peeked around Finn’s shoulder, it was to find smoke trailing from House Asanth’s fortress.
Isla stared at it in horror.“Why didn’t their barriers activate?”
Feeling sick to her stomach, Kira looked up at Finn.“That was from Roake.”
Their House had just attacked not only the palace but two other Major Houses.
Finn nodded grimly.“I saw it.”
“What do you want to bet that those orbs we found in the Nexus caused this?”Kira asked.
There must have been a replicating feature installed in the event someone discovered their presence before they’d had a chance to do what they were there for.That would explain the delay in the attack and how they’d managed to take over Roake’s offenses.One must have been missed in the search.
Finn tapped his comms, opening a channel to Roake.A second later he shook his head.“Something is blocking the signal.”
“Damn it.”
Disrupting communications was one of the oldest tricks in the book to cause chaos and fear.With Roake unable to warn other Houses of the issues on their ened, it made it more likely for those Houses to retaliate in kind.
Kira was betting the same issues that Kashori and Asanth just experienced with their defensive barriers had infected Roake as well.
She hated to admit it, but whoever had planned this knew what they were doing.
With one attack, they could deal a devastating blow to a majority of the Major Houses.As well as disrupting the already uneasy alliances that currently existed.
There was a pit in the bottom of Kira’s stomach as she watched smoke trailing from the fortresses and city.Once again, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.A bystander in someone else’s tragedy.
Out of the corner of Kira’s eye, she saw Sariah drop back a step, placing herself between them and the room.
Finn noticed too, a subtle tension invading his body.
“Raider,” Kira said in an even voice.
Her friend peered over the balcony to the ground far below.After a moment, he nodded.“It’s doable.”
Kira released the breath she was holding, nodding once.
Now for the bigger problem.
Kira turned her attention to Finn.
Anger flushed his features and his eyes widened as he figured out what she and Raider planned.“No.Absolutely not.”
“It’s the only way.”
Unobtrusively, Raider withdrew a device that looked like two magnets from his pocket.One, he stuck to the balcony railing before nodding at Kira.
“This isn’t what an oshota does,” Finn argued.
“It’s what my oshota does.”
Roake needed them.As heir, she had to remain behind to act as hostage and answer for their crimes, but that didn’t mean Finn was bound to the same rules.
“Jin was right.Danger follows wherever you go,” Raider murmured with a resigned look.
“What does it say about you that you’re always standing right next to me when it shows up?”
