“We’re letting him roam freely now?” Cato demands with a scoff.
I hold my hand up to silence him. “Excuse me?” I ask Xeni once I get past the shock of seeing him standing there.
He’s infuriatingly calm as he gestures at the notes spread across the table. “Gideon and I may not be each other’s biggest fans, but hewashelping me. He had a chance to turn me in and didn’t do it, and he’ll recognize me. You need to get into the prison, and I have a uniform and an ID. It makes sense.”
He turns to Ego. “How many guards transport the supplies?”
“Uhhhh...” Ego drags out the sound as her eyes bounce between me and Xeni.
“Absolutely not,” I interrupt. “That’s not an option.”
Xeni doesn’t even look at me as he stares at Ego. “How many?” he asks again.
Ego closes her slack mouth and references her notes.
I shake my head with a flare of temper. “Ego, don’t you—”
“Two,” she says, raising her voice to speak over me. “They gather outside the distribution center and drive in. Different workers every time.”
“Two is manageable,” Xeni says with a nod. “If I catch one before they make it to the truck and…convincethem to go somewhere else, it wouldn’t be hard to take their place.”
Sakane opens his mouth, but Ego turns to him with a glare. “If you even mention mind worms, I’m going to hide fish bones in your curtain rods so your room smells like death.”
“Rude,” he mutters, crossing his arms and reclining in his seat.
Xeni glances at him in mild amusement before focusing on Ego once more, refusing to look in my direction. “He’s not wrong, though. There’s a chance I’d have to use my powers to make it work.”
“Does it hurt them?” Ego asks.
Cato snorts and shakes his head.
“No,” Xeni says, glancing at Cato. “It can give someone a headache if it’s too intense, but there’s no lasting damage.”
“Unless you tell them to gouge their own eye out,” Cato mutters.
Xeni stares at the floor as everyone else looks between them. “Yeah, there is that,” he agrees quietly.
“Why are we still talking about this?” I ask. “This isn’t a valid plan. You don’t exactly blend in, and they’re already looking for you.”
Xeni finally meets my eyes. “I’ll be fine,” he insists.
I climb from my chair and slam my palms onto the table. Everyone else in the room jumps, but Xeni just stares at me with that cautious wariness.
“You aren’tgoing,” I snarl, my voice rising to a near shout.
“It makes the most sense,” he says, keeping his face neutral. “No one here can get inside the prison as easily as I can, and you said—”
“Isaidwe wouldn’t risk our people to save him,” I remind him.
“And you won’t,” Xeni says quietly as his gaze falls to the ground again. “Your people won’t be at risk. They’ll be safe here.”
“Stop that,” I grit as everyone in the room shifts uncomfortably.
His eye moves up to mine with a hint of his usual rebellious fire shimmering inside it, but I’m too mad to appreciate the spark.
“Why are you doing this?” I demand.
Xeni holds my gaze for a stretch before nodding towards Cato. “I probably owe Big Red over there for threatening to send him out the window.”
