Markos cleared his throat. “You said you were there. Eight years ago.”
Nikos straightened. “What do you mean ‘there’? You can’t be talking—” His voice had a rough edge of disbelief as he realized what Markos was saying. “It was a war zone. There’s no way she could have been there. She would’ve been, what… fourteen?”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t the only one,” Markos reminded him.
His gaze flicked to Kiki. She stiffened, her arms crossing tightly over her chest. Her mouth pursed. Her eyes darkened. She looked suddenly younger, fragile—but not weak.
“Her name is Brie— Look, I don’t have time to explain everything,” she said, her voice quiet but strained. “All you need to know is that you’re both in danger. We need to get out of here as soon as possible,” she said.
That hit Nikos like a slap. “Danger from whom?”
Kiki looked at him, and something in her expression unraveled him. Not fear. Grief. She looked like someone who’d spent her life running and was exhausted from always being two steps ahead.
“I wasn’t the only one with… abilities,” she said. “There was a boy—his name is Eric. He had a gift for finding people. For tracking. If they’re looking for you, he’ll find you.”
Jim spoke up from the kitchen, his usual snark stripped away. “How do you know they’re after Nikos?”
Kiki hesitated, then said, “I overheard them. I thought they were only after Nikos, but I discovered they plan to kidnap you both. I knew where to be because… because I saw them take you, in a vision.” She turned to Nikos fully now. “That’s what happened earlier… when I—when I took the memory of our kiss.”
Nikos’s stomachdropped.
“How many of them?” he asked, his voice tight.
“Four men. Waiting in the parking garage. I recognized the address as a swanky apartment building in the upper East Side. I saw them ambush your bodyguards. They killed them and drugged you, Nikos. You were wearing the same clothes as you are now, so I knew,” she drew in a shuddering breath before she continued, “They would use you to get information out of your brother. That’s how they work.”
“Who is ‘they’?” Markos asked.
Kiki twisted her hands together, studying the group staring at her. “The Founders… they have a lot more than four men, Nikos. They were the ones behind Markos’s capture. They were the ones who killed my mother and locked Eric, Brie, and me away.”
His blood iced over.
Markos was silent as a tomb, his eyes blazing.
Nikos ran a hand down his face. “You put yourself in danger to confirm the vision.”
She looked at him askance with amusement. “No, I intended to kill them. I don’t have any reason to doubt my vision. But I left when I heard Eric’s voice,” she replied. “I-I’m pretty sure he didn’t sense me.”
Nikos frowned. “Why do they want Markos? I don’t get it. Why now?”
Kiki didn’t answer at first. Why would the Founders suddenly be interested in Markos after all these years? The answer was so obvious, she almost slapped herself in the head.
Instead, she turned—slowly, deliberately—and looked at Markos. The tension snapped like a wire pulled too tight.
Markos avoided their eyes. His shoulders bunched. His lips flattened into a tight line.
“Markos,” Nikos said, a warning in his voice.
Kiki reached out, gently placing her fingers on Markos’s arm. “Tell them.”
Markos stared at her touch, then let out a harsh, angry breath and stood up, walking a few feet away before turning back.
“I’ve been talking to Brie,” he said flatly.
The room dropped into silence.
“How long?” Kiki asked, her eyes narrowed.
“She reached out to me a few weeks ago.”
