With the conversation wrapped, Kiera rested her head back on my shoulder, intertwining our fingers in my lap. It wasn’t long before she drifted off to sleep, her soft snores providing a steady rhythm that calmed my racing thoughts.
My parents, my purpose, The Oracle’s secrets: those were all questions that could wait until we saw what lay on the other end of this plane ride. But the idea that Kiera wanted to know what I was going through, wanted to help me, was shifting my brain chemistry.
I knew what it was to belong, to be needed, to be valuable, and even to be loved: Spencer and Dom had provided that when my family refused to.
But I wasn’t sure I’d ever been seen quite like this. Not until the sweet angel sleeping on my shoulder arrived.
And for all of her care, she only asked one thing in return: that I let her in, that I let her see me. I’d always hated opening up. It made me feel weak, burdensome. But against all logic, Kiera saw being there for me as a privilege.
It was a hard truth to swallow. But for Kiera, I would try.
88
KIERA
I must have driftedto sleep at some point. My body was jolted awake by the rattle of the private charter jet racing down the tarmac and coming to a gentle stop.
“How long was I out?” I sucked in a deep breath as I blinked the grogginess from my eyes.
Leo smiled back at me. “Just a few minutes, darlin’.”
As soon as the stairs were rolled up to the plane, Dom rose from her white leather seat. “Let’s not waste time.”
She’d been grumpy the entire trip, not interested in playing Go Fish or Rummy. Crossing her arms across the aisle, she stared out the window for the last six hours.
Leo and Spencer grabbed their backpacks from the overhead compartments. Throwing my duffel bag over her shoulder, Leo winked as she walked toward the latch.
I followed behind them as the crew guided us out of the jet and onto the tarmac where a black Cadillac waited for us. A woman in a suit stood next to it, her hands folded over her crotch as she greeted Dom, passing off the keys.
A warm, humid air hit my face as I took a breath of the fresh air. We were somewhere North, somewhere the dew collected on the ground in early Spring.
The trunk was already popped, making it easy for Leo and Spencer to chuck our bags in. None of us had any idea how long this mission would take. But I knew that whoever this lawyer was had gotten these instructions from my father over a decade ago. And they’d been in hiding ever since.
They would likely be hostile to newcomers, and aware that interested parties would be looking for them.
Either way, we packed for every possibility.
Dom hopped into the driver’s seat in one easy motion as Leo took shotgun and Spencer slid in next to me. Some time between my arrival and now it had become our usual order.
The car zipped off the tarmac and onto a service road that led us to a highway. Every sign I saw was for I-405N. And every distance marker lowered the miles to Seattle.
Washington State. Far from Zeus.
I leaned back in my seat — a city was less scary. There would be people everywhere. As unfamiliar as Washington was, I knew being alone in the woods anywhere was dangerous. After all, these three bikers had managed to hide me away in their mansion for months now.
Following the highway north, we stayed like that for a good half hour before Dom veered us off onto a smaller interstate, and in the opposite direction of the Seattle skyline. The route quickly turned from apartment buildings to suburbs.
But that went even faster than the city had. The vibrant greens of Spring were in full bloom here, the heavy rains welcoming new buds on every tree as they mixed with the evergreens that stuck around all year.
The houses grew farther and farther from the road as a pit formed in my stomach.
“So, no Women’s Hockey for us.” Leo cleared her throat, trying to cut the tension in the car. As we followed signs for Route 2 and Baring Mountain, we all knew that our situation was growing more precarious by the second.
The quiet part, the one none of us would say outloud, was how easy it would be for The Oracle to disappear us out here. It was something I’d been thinking about for weeks as we waited for the location of our meeting.
Were they preparing a local chapter to deal with us?
Anything was possible, and everything was a risk.
