Was this pleasant idiot not leading me directly where I needed to be? Closest to Belle’s good men and my mother’s pendant?
Oh, yes. There wasalwaysanother way out. I’d find it even if I had to carve it from the captain’s chest with tooth and blunted nail.
He chucked me beneath the chin. “Don’t worry about the rebels, wildcat. The captain will keep you safe and the front lines will hold against anything the rebels can come up with.”
Not if I hadanythingto do with it. After all, the High Priestess could wield a ring imbued with Elite Ki. She had access to but a fraction of hertruepower, but power she had. In the right hands, a tool like that was not to be trifled with.
The toolIhad in mind, however, contained enough power to match even the Grandmother and had the added benefit of already beingmine.
I turned my focus inward, brushing alongside the cocoon separating me from my parasite, tempted to flex my most powerful muscle before it atrophied and died. Before it became a ghost with no purpose but to moan about what I’d lost.
Instead, I took a breath, summoning the patience of an apex predator.
Ready to strike once, or not at all.
Chapter 20
The walk to the headquarters building was brief, made shorter by the urgency lengthening my strides—with good men just out of sight, and me, bursting with a thing more deadly than even the darkness.
Information.
Even still, when the squat, gray building came into view, my skin was prickly with cold. It had nothing to do with the man lounging at the entrance, hip set against a railing. Arms crossed and inky eyes locked upon my face.
Nothing at all.
“Ah, Miss Tannovic,” the captain said, smirking. “What naughty little tricks did Sasha teach you today, hmm?” The man stopped on the cusp of invading my personal space.
It was all I could donotto look for my mother’s pendant. “Nothing that concerns you, parasite.”
“There are a great many things that concern me, pet. Most every one of them has something to do with you.”
Marco laughed. “Isn’tthatthe truth?”
I smiled, head listing to the left as several dozen heavily armed soldiers trotted by, their footfalls speckling us with mud. Was my pendant there, tucked beneath his shirt? Warmed by his skin and ki both, just waiting for me to claim it?
“This one’s a neat little bundle of crazy,” Marco continued. “And look,” he said, passing the belt binding my wrists to the captain. “A pretty bow, just for you.”
Raising one brow, the captain took the makeshift lead. “Babysitting duty too much for you, soldier?”
“Hey,” Marco said, cupping his hands to light a smoke. “She’s ‘ere, isn’t she? Undamaged, as per your request.” He exhaled, blowing smoke into my face. “But I’m warning you now, old man. I’m putting in for danger pay next week. How are things here?” he asked, flicking his lighter as someone out of sight cursed, shouting for another charge cell. “Rebels making a move?”
For a moment, the captain continued to watch me with narrowed, suspicious eyes. “It would seem they’ve made some advancements with their technology,” he said at last, freeing me from Marco’s belt, his fingers rough against my skin. Hot. “You can see their shields on the horizon, just there.”
I flexed my wrists, picking at the gold even as I stood on tiptoe, peering over his shoulder. There, camped on the other side of a stretch of golden fields scarred black with the discharge of Elite weapons, were a dozen of Alicia’s shields, twinkling blue. The scent of burning ozone teased my nose, and though I couldn’t be certain it was from the rebel’s shields and not the Elite weapons surrounding me, I grinned.
Belle wouldn’t be pleased to see me, certainly, but I knew exactly where the High Priestess was. Andthatwas worth forgiving everything else.
“Clever bastards,” Marco said, dropping a half-smoked cigarette into the mud when something in the distance exploded.
The ensuing shouts for reinforcements lifted the corner of my lips.
Frowning, the captain dragged me back, his sidearm pressing into my hip—and this time, Ididn’tpull away. “How was the infirmary? Any trouble?”
Marco snorted. “Ofcoursethere was trouble! And thanks to your little hell cat, I’m sure you’ll hearallabout it from Jackson first chance he gets.”
Something poisonous lit the captain’s eyes and his grip tightened. “Is that so?”
“You can save the pithy lecture for someone who cares,” I purred.
