Page 342 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘I didn’t cause—’

‘No, Lachlan,’ she warns, palm raised. ‘I simply cannot hold your hand through more complex explanations until I have had a shower and feel human again. I am coming to stay in the Tower. I know much, and I will share all.’

‘Will you let me read the book?’ Riley asks.

‘I have your page here,’ she reminds him, pulling it out of her refrigerator and handing it over to Kade before also grabbing a few things from inside and placing them in a cooler.

Kade glances down at the page.

In the top right is a roughly drawn kestrel, wings outstretched.

‘Is this it?’ he asks Lachlan, who peers at it and nods.

‘Yeah, that’s it.’

Riley seems unsatisfied. ‘I’d really prefer to read the book.’

‘This is the genuine page.’

‘Even so—’

‘Even so what, Harker? Are you now forced to admit you wanted the book for your own selfish purposes, to try and find a way to break the Death Knot? Just as I thought,’ she declares coldly, sipping water from a green glass bottle. ‘Your brother is a liar, Julian.’

Kade doesn’t care what Riley wanted the book for. He trusts it would have benefited them both. All that matters to him is that he has the page now. He has Lachlan’s ritual.

He knows they can figure this out.

‘What about Vasily?’

‘I am hoping he will come too,’ Blaire tells Lachlan.

‘I didn’t give you or him permission to come.’

‘Harker, your expedition here has led the Resets inside. We are compromised now. That is perhaps not directly your fault,’ Blaire adds, glancing at Lachlan, ‘but you are responsible nonetheless, and knowing how much you want the Front to join your little Accords, I would have thought you’d welcome us with open arms. We are safer together and, as I said, I know much.’

Riley’s mouth twists. ‘Fine.’

‘Good.’ She takes one final look around the place and then sighs. ‘Let’s go, then. No point wasting time on goodbyes.’

‘Did you know Roman was alive?’ Lachlan asks her as they leave, stepping over the goo and the bodies.

‘Vasily and I have known for a while now.’

‘How long?’

‘A year or so.’

‘You didn’t tell me.’

‘I didn’t know how,’ she admits softly. ‘Vasily has been searching desperately for a way to dissolve the Resonyx instantly.’

‘For Roman?’

‘Yes.’

‘Has he found it?’

‘There is no way to achieve what he wants.’