Page 353 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘What things?’

‘Your vengeance ritual, Riley Harker’s time of the month,’ he says with sickly sweet mock-sympathy, ‘and, of course, the Refinement that Master Penhalyx seeks to wield can only be performed on a full moon.’

Blaire says, ‘He means to break the Knot between them, destroy the bubble and come inside the city?’

‘It is a good plan, is it not?’

‘He’d have to kill Harker to achieve it.’

Kade looks away, his head spinning. ‘He could be lying to confuse us.’

‘Make no mistake, tomorrow night your Tower will come under siege and Master Penhalyx will wait until the universe gifts perfect alignment.’

‘We can move you elsewhere,’ Vasily says.

‘I will get free the moment you try it.’

‘Where is your base?’

‘We have no single base.’

‘What about Helixx in uptown Varrow?’

‘We come and go.’

‘For top-ups?’

‘And other things, yes.’

‘Such as?’

Softly, Roman utters, ‘The age is new and full of wonders.’

‘What about Penhalyx himself? Is he healthy? Sick?’

‘Master Penhalyx is not in good health. His host body is failing him. He holds back the rot as if holding back the tide itself,’ Roman tells them. ‘Patience comes at great cost.’

‘He needs a new host?’

‘Desperately.’

‘No, he’s playing us,’ Kade states with grim confidence. ‘There’s no way he’s authorised to tell us this shit. He’s playing us and stalling. I think we have to disregard everything he’s said. We need Riley here. He can tell what’s a lie and what’s real.’

‘Your big brother doesn’t want to be around the one who hurt him,’ Roman sneers joyfully. ‘How fun it is to brutalise you and know he absorbs every single blow. I’ve always wondered what transfers and what doesn’t. Is it just pain and injuries? Or something much worse?’

Lachlan asks, ‘What were your extraction orders?’

‘Once you gave us the way inside the Front’s base, we were sent in to play out a failed extraction and finally give Vasily Sorrenko what he had been desperately searching for. With the Front’s base compromised, it was reasonable to expect you would bring me here intentionally.’

‘But you told us his ritual needs to be done on the full moon, right?’

‘Correct.’

‘Then we’ll just delay him,’ Kade says. ‘Lock everything down. He’ll never get inside.’

Roman smiles. ‘Pride goeth before destruction.’

‘All right, that’s enough,’ Lachlan says, moving towards the door.