Page 118 of Axis of Fire

“Yesterday?” I glanced briefly at Airis. “Don’t you have restrictions on how often you can travel?”

“Tarven is Vuduarus’s representative,” Airis explained. “His limit is much lower. If I need three days before making another transfer to Vuduarus, Tarven only needs six hours.”

“I see.” I nodded as the jeep finally started moving. “Hopefully Tarven also remembered to mention that I’m apparently a potential Harold Moss agent everyone should keep an eye on.”

Airis let out a heavy sigh while Bax shot him a questioning look.

“She has no connection to Harold,” Airis said firmly.

“Oh really?” I arched a brow. “And where exactly did that confidence come from? What if the temple was wrong?”

“You took her to the Temple of Nereida for that?” Lars glanced at Airis through the rearview mirror.

“No way!” Bax burst out laughing, throwing himself dramatically against the seat. “Guys avoid the Temple of Nereida like the plague.”

“Why?” I asked, grateful for anything that distracted me from the irritation simmering beneath my skin.

“At some point, girls started dragging their suitors there to test whether their feelings were genuine,” Bax explained. “After three students died, the entire tradition was officially banned.”

“Oh no.” I pouted dramatically, looking at Airis. “Sounds serious. I should probably report you for violating temple policy.”

I was lying, obviously.

I just wanted to irritate him the way he kept irritating me.

Then Bax’s earlier words finally caught up with me.

“Wait… so the temple really does collapse if someone lies inside it?” I asked, turning my attention back to the guys in front—or more specifically, the backs of their heads.

“Yes,” Lars answered. “But it restores itself four hours later.”

“Interesting.” I nodded, turning toward the window.

“Were any of Moss’s people spotted while I was gone?” Airis asked.

At his words, my lips pressed tightly together.

Angela’s lifeless body flashed through my mind again.

That final, empty look in her eyes.

I understood she hadn’t truly been killed.

Only her body had.

But somehow, that didn’t make any of it easier.

“There was suspicious activity detected in Finland,” Lars said, “but they disappeared before the squad could reach them.”

Finland?

Do they seriously monitor every corner of the planet?

“You have squads stationed in every country?” I asked.

“Every continent,” Lars corrected.

“Then how do you move between countries and cities so quickly? And how do you even detect Moss’s people?”