What had crawled up her backside since the last time they’d talked? “We have nothingbutfuture. We’re immortals. We have forever to figure a way around the obstacles our parents accidentally put in our way. Theywantedus together.Iwant us together.” He stared at her, willing her to show him more than that dead gaze. “Doyoustill want us together?”
The question hit a nerve, if the tiny muscle that jumped in her neck was any indication, but her words held no emotion for him. “You have time to wait, but I must produce an heir—”
“Not right this minute,” he muttered.
“—to ensure the future of our tribe,” she finished. “You want to know what the Tribunal said? That Evalle is not to contact you or anyone else. As for doing your duty, you should be working harder to find the traitor.”
First she rags him about the Alterants shifting and now the traitor? She was just pissing him off. He didn’t need anyone to remind him of his duties. “Weareworking to find the traitor.”
“Doing what?”
“You know what, Brina. You want a rundown of everything we’ve been up to for the past three months?”
“I want to know the identity of the traitor.”
“We all do.” Tzader clamped his jaw tight enough to crack the bones. He and Quinn had gotten close several times in the past couple years, but they had come up empty. They’d spent any free minute searching for the individual who had more than once put Beladors in danger through information that only a Belador should have known. Brina had been kept abreast of all this. “I obviously don’t have a name yet, but—”
“But you have time to devote to one Alterant? What about the rest of our tribe, Tzader? We cannot afford to overlook the safety of the entire tribe foroneAlterant.”
“Now wait a minute.” He had never put Evalle’s interest ahead of other Beladors.
“What about O’Meary?”
“Last I checked, Larsen is still dead,” Tzader said more clipped than he’d like, but what was going on with her? Why was she asking about that traitor?
“He’s not the only O’Meary.”
It took Tzader a minute to follow her abrupt switch to talking about the current O’Meary generation. “What about Conlan O’Meary? He’s shown us no reason to suspect him. What are you saying?”
“That when there are two Beladors in a family like that there’s a strong connection between father and son.”
“Larsen O’Meary abandoned Conlan when the kid was seventeen, or did you forget why we brought Conlan in early to train?” What the devil? Larsen had been the Belador traitor who’d lured Brina’s father, her brothers and Tzader’s father to their deaths at the hands of the Medb Coven. O’Meary’s son Conlan had been born with Belador powers and a few unusual gifts.
Larsen had supposedly died in battle, but Tzader doubted a traitor would actually step into danger, so he speculated that the Medb had killed him once they’d been done with him.
Tzader put his personal issue with Brina’s attitude aside and got down to business, since that seemed to be all she wanted from him today. “Conlan has proven himself to be trustworthy and an asset.”
“Then he should be willing to have his mind probed for buried memories or a connection to his da. Macha wants results, and so do I.”
“What do you expect to find from having a druid probe his mind when Conlan hardly even knew his father?”
Brina’s gaze belonged to everything but him. She said, “I’m not talking of using a druid. Have Quinn do the probe. We know Quinn can tap anything Conlan’s father might have sent telepathically to him . . . or mightstillbe sending him.”
“Still? You think Larsen is alive?”
“I would have expected you to consider that possibility, since we’ve never seen a body.”
“But we did have a druid search for Larsen’s spirit. The druid said the spirit was no longer functioning in a body in the human world.”
“All the more reason to have Quinn probe Conlan for any repressed memories that may aid us in our search or information deep in his subconscious that might be shielded from the young man’s consciousness. I don’t like to do this either, Tzader, but we need to find out if Larsen is truly dead and, if so, Quinn can reach out from Conlan to tap Larsen’s spirit.”
“To go that deep would risk harming ConlanandQuinn if Quinn runs into something unexpected in Conlan’s subconscious mind . . . like a trap.”
Brina lifted her hands to her waist, heat searing her gaze. “First you defend Conlan as a loyal follower, then you suggest hecouldbe a threat. Which will it be?”
He had no reason to suspect the young man. “I just disagree with putting Quinn or Conlan through this without being convinced it’s necessary.”
Brina crossed her arms and really looked at him this time, but not with love in her eyes. “You come here asking for information on the Alterant who has me spending more time at Tribunal meetings than taking care of Belador business, but you hesitate to pursue a danger to the Beladors . . . and me?”
