We rose from the sofa and Erik pulled me into a hug.
“You have always had a good heart beneath it all,” he whispered. Letting me go, Erik disappeared from in front of me.
Forgetting the reason I came into the break room, I walked out and took the lift to the ninth floor.
A good heart? I wasn’t sure I could agree with Erik on that part. It was a corrupted organ that sat inside my chest, infested with chaos that it pumped through my veins. It cared in its own way about a select few, but good might have been a stretch.
I lurked outside the lab on Larkin's floor, drawing a few cautious glances, but couldn’t see her inside.
“Why am I not surprised that you’re stalking my lab?” Larkin’s reflection appeared in the glass and I turned to greet her.
“Erik tells me often that I like to revel in the misery of others,” I shot back.
“He told you.”
“I found him sobbing.”
Larkin’s stony expression softened, and she hung her head. “He never wanted us to get married in the first place. I should have listened to him.”
“Why would you? You had a shot at the top and you took it. Never regret ambition.”
“Look at how it ended.”
“I hear it was Hunter who requested it.”
“You really are the most awful being I have the misfortune of knowing,” she spat. “What did you expect to find? Did you think I’d be crying my eyes out at being tossed aside for the likes of Mabel?” She said her name with such distaste that I laughed.
“So, he is replacing you?”
“Probably. Not that I give a fuck. If she’s stupid enough to take up with Hunter, that’s on her. I’ve done my best to warn her against the beast, but the deluded fantasist thinks I’m jealous. Jealous? He was my husband.”
“You’ve wanted out for a while,” I said, realising that the glimmer of unhappiness we all saw ran deeper.
“Longer than any of you know,” she said, running a hand through her hair. “I’m finally free and I have Quentin to thank for that.”
My mood darkened instantly. “Quentin? What does she have to do with this?”
Larkin tensed. “Because of her, Hunter is losing the plot, and it’s obviously forced his hand with certain decisions.”
It was a plausible explanation, but it didn’t sit right with me. Larkin rarely thanked anyone. She’d been vile towards her since we’d stepped foot on Earth.
“Have you spoken to her?” I asked, unable to curb my suspicions.
Quen had mentioned nothing. From what I could recall, there wasn’t a time where they were alone together. Not that it meant anything. Keeping tabs on Quen would be easier if she had a collar and a bell sometimes.
“Why would I?” Larkin snapped, but she couldn’t meet my eye.
“You took her gift.” The words came out quiet, but there was a dangerous edge to them. “She was in a state when I found her at Ig and Elva’s party. She wouldn’t let go of me.”
“If you didn’t want someone clingy—"
“You took her gift from her,” I hissed through my teeth.
Larkin finally looked me in the eye. “She offered it to me and, as you just said, I won’t regret ambition. I wanted out, and she gave me a way.”
“You had no right! Quentin doesn’t understand everything properly. You voted to kill her, but you still took what you could from her.”
“She offered!”
