Neutral reset.
‘Can we talk somewhere else?I’m fucking freezing.’
Kade debates it, knows they can’t stay in here.
You’re gonna have to handle him,that’s what Riley said.
It’s so fucking flimsy, but the only thing stopping Lachlan Tanner from killingeveryoneis… Kade.They can’t gas him, drown him, shoot him.
‘Are you gonna cause trouble?’
‘No, that was always your domain,’ Lachlan says with a strange smile, waiting.Kade has a feeling Lachlan thinks he’s being polite.
TheVIIin the moon on his chest has become aVI.
‘All right.Let’s go outside.’
?
Behind the front face of the Tower there’s a narrow strip of hidden ground Kade sometimes disappears into when he needs space.This chunk of outdoors is almost completely swallowed by the surrounding woodland, thick old trees pressing close enough to block most of the light. Thorned undergrowth walls the clearing in on three sides, dense enough to discourage anyone wandering through by accident, but Kade knows all the ways through and knows where to stop, too.It isn’t much out here.Just a small hollow of half-wild ground tucked behind the concrete high rise that he helped build into a fortress.
From the upper floors, the clearing barely exists at all beneath the canopy and Kade likes that.He can be alone, see the sky, breathe the air.
The sun is just starting to rise as they walk through into a narrow woodland clearing with Lachlan, who’s still shirtless and barefoot heedless of thorns, nettles or sharp stones.
His ruined boots are still in the Watch.
The situation is surreal, but walking through the trees, crunchy ground beneath his boots, Kade can adjust to almost anything.
‘You’re staring at me.’
‘Force of habit.’
‘Because you were my bodyguard,’ Kade says, mostly to remind himself.He doesn’t believe it, but he likes to keep Lachlan’s version of events clear.‘Right?’
‘It was my job to have eyes on you whenever we shared space.’
‘You said you could prove it.Was the picture all you had?’
‘There are no public photographs of you online anywhere.He kept you both very well hidden.If I got into the Estate, maybe I could get more.’
‘The Penhalyx Estate?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It burned down years ago.’
Lachlan shrugs.‘Not all of it.’
They walk in for a while longer, navigating the thin, treacherous trail Kade himself has worn down in these woods.He feels dark grey eyes trained on his every movement.‘Talk to me then.This is what you wanted.’
‘What Iwanted,’ Lachlan says, ‘was to kill everyone who played a part in what happened to you and Mimi.’
‘You must have loved her very much.’
‘I still do, every day.’
‘What about him?Jules.’
