Terror filled her small, thin face.
Zaira didn’t know what to do, so she did what she’d always wanted someone to do for her as a child. She gathered that thin, scared body into her arms and said, “You’re safe. No one will hurt you anymore.” Her eyes met Vasic’s.
There was no need for any further words.
He teleported them directly to the floating city where they’d been guests less than three days prior. Guns clicked around them as slanting rain plastered their hair and clothing to their bodies, but then there was a cry to get Miane and Olivia, running feet on the city that swayed slightly with the motion of the crashing, storm-lashed sea.
Zaira was startled when thin arms locked tight around her neck, Persephone’s heart racing fast. “Shh,” she whispered. “You’re home. Mommy’s coming.”
“Mommy?” the child whispered, and then she said, “Mommy!” in a thin but joyous shout, having glimpsed Olivia racing toward her.
Passing over her precious burden to the crying woman, who covered her child’s face in kisses, she was about to tell Miane about the other hostages when Olivia ran to the edge of the platform on which they stood and jumped straight into the cold, crashing water. Zaira moved instinctively to go after her but Miane got in her way.
“The child needs to shift,” the alpha reminded her. “She needs the sea more than food, more than rest, more than anything aside from her mother.”
Eyes wide, Zaira went to the edge of the platform and looked down. Aden, I can’t describe it, she said in wonder, barely able to glimpse the truth below the crashing foam of the waves. There’s a glow, streamers of the softest, most beautiful light. I don’t know what they shifted into, but they’re extraordinarily beautiful. Like glimpses of a dream.
Stepping away reluctantly when the lights faded, as if going into the deep, she turned to Miane. “We’ve found two more of your people. They’ll need you.”
• • •
ADEN was still in surgery when she and Vasic returned to the now clean infirmary corridor, both of them having taken two minutes to change into dry clothes because Ivy had pointed out that their getting sick right now wouldn’t help Aden. The empath had been at the valley when they returned to give Cristabel and the others a quick update.
By then, Vasic had already teleported Miane’s people to the floating city, trusting her word that she’d share any useful data the captives remembered, while Mica was debriefing the scientist. He was in much better condition than the others they’d rescued—probably because his captors intended to use him long-term—and made it clear he’d be happy to talk once he’d had a chance to shower.
The CEO was in a black cell deep in Central Command.
“Do you need to go and further question the CEO?” she asked Vasic. As a human, the CEO had weak shields, though a Psy had clearly bolstered them somewhat. Still, they’d been easy enough to dismantle without causing damage. As a result, Zaira was cataloguing his memories and secrets even as she sat waiting for Aden to wake up.
“No,” Vasic said. “He has no time-sensitive data and the two of us can give orders from here as we come across useful information from our deep scan of his mind.” The teleporter stood with her in silence for over twenty minutes before saying, “Aden was here two months ago with Ivy.”
“Your arm?”
“He stayed with Ivy throughout. She says that without him, she might have gone mad.”
Zaira stared down the corridor. She wasn’t like Ivy, wasn’t comfortable with many people, rarely made connections. But Vasic was Aden’s best friend and even when she’d seen him as a competitor for Aden’s attention, she’d also always seen the loyal friend who’d stood by Aden through everything, and whom Aden would trust with all that mattered most to him.
Including Zaira.
“I can’t lose him.” Her every breath hurt, her chest was so tight. “He’s a better person than anyone I’ve ever met, ever heard about. We need him. I need him.” He made her feel as if she was all right exactly as she was, as if there was nothing wrong with her.
“Aden has a single deep flaw.”
The only reason Zaira didn’t turn on Vasic in violence for daring to say that was that she knew he’d never disparage Aden. “A flaw?”
“He has no capacity to care for himself,” Vasic said. “He believes everyone else is more important and that’s what makes him a great leader. But he needs someone to watch over him, to make sure he doesn’t lose himself in his responsibilities.”
“I know.” Aden was her priority, her everything.
“Zaira.”
She met Vasic’s gaze ten minutes after they’d last spoken. “What?” It was a single angry word. If Aden died, she would find the door to the afterlife and drag him back out. How dare he think to leave her?
“Drink this.” Vasic handed her an energy drink. “Aden will forgive neither one of us if he wakes to find you weak and exhausted.”
She gulped down the drink, got up, began pacing, the rage creature angry and sad and scared. So scared. “How did he learn what he could do?” she asked just to fill her mind with something else. “What the mirror could do?”
She’d meant to ask him a hundred times, but somehow they’d never spoken of it. “He told me about Walker, how Walker taught him to shield.” She paused. “Does Walker know?” That Aden was wounded, fighting for his life. “Aden would want him to know.”