“Please!” Sumi begged. “We just want to help our friend.”
Another shimmer appeared next to Dancer as the soldier turned his cloaking device off to show an unmarked black battlesuit.
Not League, but that didn’t make for something better by a long shot.
The soldier shrugged off his backpack and removed his helm to reveal a man with long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. His dark Ritadarion eyes were ringed with black eyeliner, and he had the mannerisms of someone used to taking lives and saving them.
Sumi swallowed hard. “Syn?”
The Ritadarion scowled at her. “I don’t know you.”
She looked over her shoulder. “Nykyrian? Are you the one holding me?”
Syn opened his pack. “How do you know us?”
“Dancer.”
“Are you Sumi?” That was the voice that had originally threatened them when they stopped.
“Yes.”
He released her immediately and decloaked. He gestured to Bastien, who was fighting against the cuffs that held him. “Is that one Bastien?”
“He is.”
Another man, who was standing beside where Bastien lay on the ground, decloaked. Kneeling down, he uncuffed Bastien’s hands. “Sorry about that.”
Glaring his displeasure, but grateful that the stun blast had been mild, Bastien cursed him and his parentage as he rubbed his wrists.
Amused by the insults, the man pulled off his helmet. His short red hair held the royal harone of the Caronese emperor, and it was a face Bastien knew well, as they’d once gone to school together.
Darling Cruel.
The prick who’d started The Sentella’s war with The League. That meant the still-helmeted man next to Sumi was definitely Nykyrian.
Bastien took a moment to survey the man who was both a living legend and his unknown cousin. Equal in height to Jullien, he was a bit leaner.
But no less badass judging by that I’ll-kick-your-ass-and-mean-it stance that seemed as ingrained as breathing. No wonder Thia didn’t date.
Yeah,thatwould be worse, and even more intimidating than meeting Ember’s father and mother for the first time.
Bastien’s gut knotted atthatfun memory. It was never a good idea to date the daughter of someone trained to kill and hide bodies.
Never mindtwosuch parents. The only thing more frightening than Ember’s father had been her Riot Squad mother, whose reputation for cold-blooded ruthless military prowess was second only to Nykyrian’s.
Sumi ran to Dancer and knelt beside him. “He said they drugged him with something while they held him. He was poisoned two days ago from a Partini blade and he has several injuries from other attacks.”
Damn, Dancer was having a worse time than Bastien was.
Syn gaped in disbelief. “What the hell did you do to him?”
Sumi glared indignantly. “I’ve kept him alive.”
Nykyrian pulled his helmet off and held it under one arm. His white-blond hair was cut stylishly short and slicked back. Like Jullien before he’d gone stralen, he had green, human eyes and his face was covered with scars. A face that was so similar to Aros’s it made Bastien wonder how no one had ever made the connection they were father and son. You’d have to be blind to miss it.
“Where’s my daughter and Darice?”
Sumi jerked her chin toward the mountain range. “They’re hiding near camp, with Illyse. There’s a cave just to the south of the climbing approach.”
