"You are too late," Losham's voice crackled through the speaker. "I already did."
The blood froze in Kian's veins.
"What do you mean?" The question tore out of him before he could stop himself.
"Who's that?" Losham asked sharply. "Who else is on this call? Lokan, what is this?"
"Doesn't matter," Toven said, reasserting control with another push of compulsion. "Were the booby traps triggered?"
"How do you know about the booby traps?" Suspicion bled through Losham's highly agitated tone.
"Doesn't matter. Answer my question."
"The booby traps were triggered earlier this morning." The manic tone had given way to something hollower. "And that brings me back to your impeccable timing, Lokan. How did you know? Did Father include you in the global alert to all of his sons? Did he forget to remove the traitor from the list?" Another hysterical laugh. "That's not like him, but neither is everything else he's been doing lately."
"Tell me what happened, Losham," Toven commanded.
"The entire section of the basement collapsed. It killed the human crew, and there is a crater in the backyard now. It will take weeks to dig out whatever was buried in there."
Kian couldn't breathe. The room seemed to shrink around him, the walls pressing inward, the air growing thick and heavy. He looked at the others and saw his own devastation reflected in their faces.
"Lokan." Losham's voice crackled through the speaker. "Are you still there?"
"Yes." Lokan's voice was steady despite the anxious expression on his face. "I'm here."
"How did you know about the booby traps? How did you know about the enclosure? Did Father tell you about it?"
Lokan looked at Kian, his eyebrows raised.
Kian shook his head. They couldn't reveal that they had Navuh.
"I have my ways," Lokan said cryptically.
"Your ways." Losham snorted. "Of course. You always had your 'ways,' didn't you?"
Lokan was a weak compeller and a dream walker. Losham knew about Lokan's compulsion ability, but no one on the island knew what Lokan's other paranormal talent was. Still, Losham must have noticed that Lokan had access to information he could not have obtained by regular means and therefore suspected that his brother either had spies everywhere or some additional talents he was keeping secret.
Kian shook his head again, indicating that Lokan shouldn't engage, and then nodded at Toven.
The god leaned toward the phone. "You will always answer calls from this number, Losham. When you see this number, you will find a private place to talk. Say 'yes, I understand.'"
The compulsion was impossible to resist.
"Yes, I understand," Losham repeated, the words coming out flat and automatic. "Can I talk with Lokan now?" That came out more animated.
Lokan looked at Kian, who shook his head. They didn't have time for this now.
"We will talk soon," Lokan said. "That's a promise."
Toven ended the call, and the silence that followed was suffocating.
"Fates," William breathed. "We missed by hours. If we'd moved faster?—"
"Don't," Kian said. "There's no point in playing that game."
But he was playing it himself, running through the timeline in his head, calculating all the moments where a different decision might have changed the outcome. If they'd called Lokan sooner. If William had found the phone faster. If they'd attempted the compulsion as soon as the idea had been born, instead of waiting for morning on the island.
They'd assumed Losham had been asleep.
