“Perhaps.”
Gus scoffed lightly.“Liar.”
Now that they’d reached this point, there was only one way forward.
Death.
Hers or theirs.
If that was the case, Gus preferred to keep her pride.Such as it was.
Cleo drifted forward, the ferns at her feet seeming to cling briefly to the cloth of her pants before their leaves bent and then ripped.“You only have yourself to blame for this.”
“How so?”Gus asked, looking back and forth between the two.
Mars’s expression was placid as he acted the part of a bystander.
“We may have been able to overlook your status as the master’s favored pet, but you’re weak.And that’s something I just can’t abide,” Cleo announced.
Gus gave her an incredulous look.“You’re jealous of the attention I received from Esara?Is that what you’re saying?”
She’d always known her siblings were crazy but not this level of crazy.If she could have, she would have gladly let Cleo take her place.Being Esara’s pet wasn’t worthy of envy.It had been a burden.An invisible yoke, ripping away pieces of Gus’s soul one after another.
To hear someone wishing that it was them was surreal.
And insulting.Don’t forget insulting.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Pityrodia Augustensis,” Mars said impatiently.
Under her hood, where he couldn’t see, Gus widened her eyes.“What else am I supposed to think after a statement like that?”
Cleo glanced at Mars.“She’s stalling.Get on with it.”
Gus almost snorted out loud.Of course she was.Did Cleo actually think Gus was looking forward to this?
Hardly.
Not for the reasons Cleo probably assumed, though.
Gus wasn’t waiting for salvation.For someone to swoop in and rescue her from her dastardly siblings.She’d learned early that no one was coming.Not for her anyway.She was on her own.Just like always.
No, she had much different reasons for dragging out this encounter.
First and foremost was that she was recording their conversation for when Ryan and Kira came after her later.
A little insurance package on her part.
And in the event that the worst should happen and she didn’t survive, it made her ridiculously happy to know that a copy of this entire conversation would be forwarded to their message drops by one of her lieutenants.
Cleo and Mars’s attempt to frame her would not work.They would fail.Theyhadfailed.All because they classified her as weak.
Gus liked the sound of that.They’d get what they had coming.One way or another.Even if she had to use someone else’s hand to exact the retribution that should have been hers.
Mars’s eyes took on an otherworldly white glow that announced the presence of the nasty little ability Esara had fused into his very bones.Something that snipped away at his life’s essence a little more with each use.“On account of our history, we’re willing to give you a chance.Hand over the Tuann and the child and we will let you go.”
“Again, with the lying,” Gus hissed.
That was the second time.She wouldn’t let there be another.
