Page 212 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

The reminder is unwelcome.

Kade takes a deep breath.

‘Tell me everything.’

‘Everything is a lot,’ Céliane points out, has taken to laying cards once more. They’re tarot cards, from what he can see. Only a handful of nights ago, she had offered to read cards for him and he’d told her later. ‘Why don’t you ask questions first? Then we will bring you up to speed.’

‘That’d be good, thank you,’ he says. Vasily pushes a plate towards him alongside a cup of tea. Kade gives a tiny smile despite himself.

‘Is good,’ Vasily says of the dark rye spread thickly with butter, smoked sausage laid over it and a cold pickle sliced lengthways across the top. ‘I make myself.’

‘Looks great.’

Vasily winks. ‘For your energy.’

Lachlan sighs. ‘Silly.’

‘Oh come on, I am well used to it,’ he scoffs pleasantly. ‘Danya would take us to the kitchens whenever you two would have noisy cuddles. We played radio loud and made fine mess. He showed me how to make this.’

Kade glances at Lachlan, who takes his place where Kade would typically stand, against the wall. He checks to see if any mention of Danya hurts him the way it always seems to, but he’s almost as unreadable as Riley.

‘Darling,’ Céliane says to him. ‘Ask your questions.’

Where to begin?

Thinking hard, Kade reaches for what he knows least about and most needs to understand.

‘What am I?’

It surprises him that Riley answers.

‘You’re a Sway. The government designation is Resonant. Sways are rare because their immune systems are extremely weak in infancy. Those who survive into adolescence become highly resistant to illness and develop accelerated healing. They have a biological affinity with water and can influence human perception, emotion and behaviour by controlling the water in their cells.’

It sounds like something he’s memorised from a textbook.

Maybe he has.

‘OK, so. Like a…’ Kade gestures vaguely. ‘Mermaid?’

‘One adapted to land,’ Vasily allows with a small shrug.

‘I’ve never even been swimming.’

‘You have,’ Lachlan corrects gently. ‘I was there the first time you went in the ocean.’

Vasily’s expression sobers. ‘Sable Key.’

‘Yeah.’

‘A Sway,’ Kade says, shaping the word in this new way for the first time. ‘So, how do I use this power or whatever?’

‘It’s your voice, darling,’ Céliane tells him lightly, but there’s nothing light about the way she’s watching him. ‘You can consciously weaponise it to control humans. Vox. Voice.’

‘When did you find out?’ Kade asks Riley.

Riley doesn’t answer, so Lachlan quietly says, ‘He always knew. He was using your power for his own gain.’

‘Our gain,’ Riley corrects after a beat, ‘but yes, I always knew.’