“Never mind,” Lev said.“I guess Mauldrene does want us to go see her.”
“We’ve got no idea where she’s leading us,” Moncho said.
“Fair.”Lev sounded way too chipper.
Alobaz grunted.“Doesn’t matter what Mauldrene wants.Doesn’t matter what any of you want.I’m going to see her.Alone.You’re wasting your time following me around.You’re not going in with me.”
He took a left off the landing, having no idea if it would lead him where he wanted to go.None of this looked familiar.Or rather, the problem was that it all looked familiar.Too much of the same.
There was no escaping Mauldrene’s shadows, was there?Not until Junot let him go.
“Bad idea,” said Night.
“That’s right,” Lev said.“It’s a really bad idea.”
Alobaz spun on them.Zi and Lev piled into him.Moncho and Ed ran into them.
Alobaz threw his hands in the air.Even that tugged on his wound.“By the scorching Ethers!You will back off and you will respect my wishes.Now, that’s an order.”He used his command voice, the one every soldier in his father’s armies obeyed immediately—save the Bazrian pains-in-his-ass.
Only Skeet blinked owlishly at him, glancing skittishly at the shadows engulfing them.
“Uh … are you sure you don’t want me there to incapacitate her?”
“No.I don’t need you.”Alobaz had already said this.His friends had convinced him otherwise.
Skeet only nodded, turned on his heel, and retreated in the opposite direction.Where it would deliver him, Alobaz had no idea, and made a mental note to dispatch someone later to confirm he’d arrived safely at his quarters.
Night carved a path through the others to reach Alobaz.
“We protect.Each other.”He placed a big hand on his shoulder.That, too, hurt.“You.”
When the armies under his command were witness, Alobaz didn’t allow himself to show favor to his friends, though there was no preventing rumors of the tightly bonded Bazrian Seven.Skeet was different.He’d seen Alobaz at his most vulnerable, and the man was better than most at keeping confidences.
But now that even Skeet was gone, Alobaz relaxed, and didn’t shrug off Night’s touch.
“I know, bud, I know.But you guys’ve gotta stop treating me any differently than normal.Nothing’s changed.”
For several beats, none of them answered.Their disbelieving expressions were saying plenty though.
“You were in the middle of dying,” Ed said.“And you were more worried about saving her than yourself.”
“That’s not true,” Alobaz said.“I didn’t want to die.”
A remarkable feat, really, that it was true.After how he failed Arabella, and worse, Carina, it had taken most of a century for Alobaz to even consider living for himself again.
“Not wanting to die and getting in the way of those trying to save you aren’t the same thing.”
Alobaztsked.“I wasn’t going to die, you all know that.That’s not how it works for us.”
“Sure.But what would we have done without you if you’d gone so far that it’d take you years, shit, maybe even a decade, to recover enough to fight with us again?”
“Coulda been more,” Lev added.“Coulda been lots more.You were almost past the point of sucky return for real, bro.”
Alobaz frowned at him.Why did he keep Lev around again?In that moment, he was struggling to remember.
“You almost left us at Junot’s mercy,” Ed said.“And even knowing what was going to happen to us if you were out of commission for years, you put her first.”
“Aw, it wasn’t like that, Ed,” Alobaz said.“As you all keep insisting on pointing out, I was dying.Or as close to dying as we get, anyway.”
