“A mistake,” Father whispers, his voice thick with contempt. He gives my sister a look so cruel, she cowers. Her third mistake in under two minutes.
“You’re right, my sweet. A mistake was made.Yours.Youwere on security detail last night.”
“If anyone is responsible, it’s me,” I counter, whipping Father’s gaze to me. I lift my chin and match his challenging stare, grateful Thorne isn’t here to see this. This room can’t take another emotionally volatile person.
“I brought Sawyer Hansley into our home. His actions are mine.”
“Yours.” Father laughs bitterly as he comes toward me, using his height as intimidation. It hasn’t worked since I was a girl.
I nod. “I take full responsibility for the infants.”
“Then you can die with your failed project.”
“Father!” Sister squeaks.
I turn my hardened eyes on her and point toward the door. “Leave.Now.”
She shakes her head, her brow scrunched with concern.Pointlessconcern, as if we’re here for anything more than an old man’s tantrum.
“I will die if that’s what you choose,” I say to Father, my tone controlled. “But it would be a decision made out of reckless anger and one that would cost us future generations… Sawyer Hansley is apest, yes; I will never argue against that. But if you let your prideful temper get in the way of our mission, I wouldn’t want to live to watch my people suffer anyway. My purpose is to serve them. What is yours, Father?”
He rears his hand back while I stand perfectly still, waiting on the blow. It would only prove my point. Prove how weak he is to his emotions. A male issue.
The hit doesn’t come. His eyes soften when he realizes the mistake he was about to make. He lowers his hand while I turn to my sister to address her instead.
“This is the second baby in two weeks that has mysteriously disappeared, and neither time was Sawyer Hansley tracked by our surveillance. Your top priority is to find who’s helping him evade the drones. Everyone with access to the control panel gets monitored. Understood?”
“Yes, Your Grace,” she says without hesitation.
“We already found the traitor,” Father spits, nudging his shoe against the dead woman. The dead seraph…
Ha.
It is not unheard of for a seraph to receive special attention from the Keepers on duty, so it ispossibleFather is correct… But my god, what an inefficient way to go about things. And Hansley has proven to be nothing if not efficient.
He isn’t fucking aseraph.
He’s fucking a keeper.
I don’t bother arguing with Father about this.
“As for Mr. Hansley,” I continue, my eyes pinned on Father. “He will pay for his mistakes when the time is right. In the meantime, he’s too important to kill for a crime as meaningless as rescuing a couple of unfit infants.”
“The police could connect us to the things,” Father says through gritted teeth. “How will you protect our peoplethen?”
“What exactly are the authorities going to say?” I tilt my head. “If it’s a crime to reject an infant, it isn’t in these books you so easily disregard.” I gesture to the pile of tattered literature it’s takendecadesto collect. I wonder if Father would have been so destructive had we met inhisquarters. “As far as I’m aware, this is a common practice for the outside world. The children were left at a hospital. They couldn’t even charge us with carelessness.”
“Are you sure?” My sister asks.
Am Isure?
I am sure of nothing. Ever.
Certainty is the destruction of the wise.
I nod anyway.
“This needs to end,” Father murmurs, though his temper is settling.
