Power twisted under her hold, and beneath all his disorder, a memory emerged. A recent one. He hadn’t just replayed it—he’d turned it over repeatedly like a fracture he kept circling because he still hadn’t found where it began. She latched onto it.
He tried to stop her, but Audrey felt it.
This was the moment everything went wrong for Ryker.
29
She dove into the memory buried in Ryker’s mind—and it snapped into brilliant clarity around her.
Kat, Nikos, and Ryker stood tense in a white room drenched in clinical light, firelight stuttering over the fine lines of Ryker’s face. The place reeked slightly of sterilizer layered over old smoke. It was the kind of space where decisions were made that no one survived.
“When did you get back?” Kat asked.
Ryker didn’t turn to face his Number Three. His hands were steepled as he stared at the burning pits, jaw set, every line of his body rejecting her presence.
“Last night. You think I’d wait for this conversation?”
Kat scoffed. “You’d rather rot in your library drinking than admit you run a war.”
He ignored her, a silent verdict that insulted more deeply than words. That, more than anything, revealed the pecking order to Audrey.
“Tell me about Earth,” he said. “Where is Mihail? Where is Sophia?”
Not how are they? Not what happened? Just—where?
“Sophia is dead,” Kat said. “He let Audrey kill her.”
Ryker went unnaturally rigid. “He did what?” he uttered softly enough to tremble the glass.
Kat shrugged. “She was unstable. Hunters swarmed us. Mihail stayed as a distraction. He thought Audrey was worth Sophia’s life.”
Ryker glared. “If Mihail saved the wrong daughter, this all changes. She’s worthless to us. If she were a gold triad, I’d know.”
A gold triad: rare assets wars were built around. Weapons the Aggregate hunted and empires feared.
“She’s an empath and a telepath. That’s it.”
Nikos snorted. “Don’t underestimate her. Perfect ass, violent streak. Stabbed Nassar. Almost gutted Basir.”
Ryker’s jaw flexed. “I’ve seen her ass,” he growled. “Say one more thing about it, and I’ll rip out your?—”
Kat slapped her hand on the table. “Enough.”
The room grew silent—not at Kat’s words, but because Ryker allowed it.
“Mihail saved her for a reason,” Kat said. “We need to test her.”
“We’re not testing her,” Ryker snapped.
“And your reservations?”
Ryker laughed harshly. “You expect me to change everything for a liability because Mihail had a hallucination? No.”
“Mihail believed in her,” Nikos said. “He got captured to save her.”
“And he was right,” Kat said. “So, what do we do with Audrey?”
Everyone watched as Ryker’s mind worked through the options. “Lock her up,” Ryker said at last. “Let him deal with her after we rescue him. Where is he, by the way?”
