Page 211 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

✴

The Council Room sits at the centre of the ground floor; round, windowless and sealed inside a second skin of concrete.

There’s no head seat, but Riley usually sits in the same place.

Most times Kade’s been in there, he’s stood off to the side.

During meetings that took place in the early days before the Accords, he was Riley’s bodyguard in the most traditional sense of the word.

Lachlan leads the way. Kade doesn’t ask how; he’ll have mapped the place back to front by now.

For the time being, I’m team Iron Star.

Kade tries not to think of the number two on his chest.

The lost day he spent recovering from Riley’s near death.

Lachlan holds the door open for him and Kade goes first.

An immense black table dominates the old apartment-block bones, an eight-pointed star scratched by years of guns, glasses and angry hands.

Céliane, Vasily and Riley have positioned themselves at careful distances around the circular table. Céliane is sitting on the table, legs crossed, laying cards out. Riley is standing beside it, seems to have been pacing when Kade comes inside. Only Vasily is sitting on a chair, books in front of him, tea and sandwiches on the table.

All three of them stare while Lachlan closes the door.

Céliane smiles. ‘Ah, te voilà, mon cœur.’

‘C’est bon de te voir,’ Kade greets, drags up a smile through jagged nerves. Riley isn’t staring at him. His blue eyes are fixed on Lachlan.

Unreadable.

Unknowable.

Unhappy.

‘Thank you for joining us.’ He looks at Kade. ‘Did he fill you in?’

Vasily tries to swallow a laugh, but it becomes a snort.

Lachlan clears his throat breezily, pulls out a chair for Kade to sit.

The four of them make up loose corners of the earth.

‘About some things, yeah.’ Nowhere near enough, but Kade isn’t exactly eager to be thrown out to sea again with miles of new information he can’t process.

Part of him just wants to go back upstairs.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Um. Fine. OK.’ Kade sighs. ‘Devastated about Luca.’

‘If worst comes to worst, Céliane has a few potential interventions to help with his reconstructive surgery.’

‘You have?’

She says, ‘Your friend will fully recover, I promise.’

‘Your friend who was, at one point, my friend,’ Vasily reminds Kade.