“Trust me,” Ruhn growled, “he’s more skilled than you know.”
“I don’t think he was lying, either,” Hunt admitted.
Bryce rubbed at her neck—then straightened. “Any chance that Dusk’s Truth is somehow related to the Lightfall squadron?”
Tharion arched a brow. “Why?”
Hunt picked up her thread immediately. “Lightfall. Also known as dusk.”
“And Project Thurr … thunder god … Could it be related to the thunderbirds?” Bryce went on.
“You think it involved some kind of intel about Pippa’s Lightfall squadron?” Ruhn asked.
“It seemed to be some sort of groundbreaking info,” Tharion said. “And Thurr … It could have had something to do with the thunderbird stuff. Sofie sounded afraid of the Asteri’s wrath in her reply to Danika … Maybe it was because she was afraid of them knowing she had the gift.”
“These are all hypotheticals,” Hunt said. “And big stretches. But they might lead somewhere. Sofie and Danika were certainly well aware of the threats posed by both Lightfall and the Asteri.”
Ithan said, “Can we go back to how the Prince of the Chasm was sitting on my lap?”
“You’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Hunt said, chuckling darkly. “Be glad you weren’t here for the first summoning.”
Bryce elbowed him. “I really do have to return to work.”
Ruhn asked, “You don’t think we should go to the Bone Quarter to look for Emile and Sofie?”
Bryce winced. “I’m not going to the Bone Quarter to look for anyone unless we’re absolutely certain that they’re there.”
“Agreed,” Tharion said. “It’s too dangerous to go on a whim. We’ll keep investigating. Maybe Danika meant something else by weary souls.”
Bryce nodded. “None of us talks to anyone else. I think we all know we’re going to be roasted on a spit if this leaks.”
“One word from Cormac and we’re dead,” Ruhn said gravely.
“One word from us,” Hunt countered, “and he’s dead.” He jerked his chin at Bryce. She finally met his stare, finding only razor-sharp calculation there. “Grab a gun.”
Bryce scowled. “Absolutely not.” She gestured to her tight dress. “Where would I hide it?”
“Then take the sword.” He pointed to her bedroom hallway. “Use it as some sort of accessory. If anyone can pull it off, you can.”
Bryce couldn’t help her glance at Ithan. It gave away everything.
“You never gave Danika’s sword back after the attack this spring?” the wolf asked a shade quietly.
“Sabine can fight me for it,” Bryce said, and ignored Hunt’s order to take the blade from its resting place in her closet. Bryce twisted the knob. “Let’s take the day. Agree not to fuck each other over on this, pray Cormac isn’t a lying sack of shit, and then reconvene tomorrow night.”
“Done,” Tharion said.
Bryce stepped into the hall, Hunt on her heels, and heard Ithan sigh behind her. “This was not how I expected my day to go,” the wolf muttered to Tharion before ratcheting up the volume on the TV.
Same, Bryce thought, and shut the door.
Hunt’s head spun as he and Bryce rode the elevator down to the apartment lobby. He’d been free for a few glorious months, only to wind up right back on the cusp of another rebellion.
The same war, Aidas had claimed. Just by a different name, with a different army. Hunt’s hands slicked with sweat. He’d seen how this war turned out. Felt its cost for centuries.
He said to Bryce, unable to stop the trembling that now overtook him, the sense that the elevator walls were pushing in, “I don’t know what to do.”
She leaned against the rail. “Me neither.”
They waited until they were out on the street, keeping their voices down, before Hunt continued, words falling out of his mouth, “This isn’t something we can jump into for the Hel of it.” He couldn’t get a breath down. “I’ve seen wrecked mech-suits with their human pilots hanging out of the cockpit, organs dangling. I’ve seen wolves as strong as Ithan ripped in two. I’ve seen angels decimate battlefields without setting foot on the ground.” He shuddered, picturing Bryce among all that. “I … Fuck.”
She looped her arm through his, and he leaned into her warmth, finding himself frozen despite the hot day. “This sounds more like … spying than battle-fighting or whatever.”
“I’d rather die on the battlefield than in one of the Hind’s interrogation rooms.” I’d rather you die on a battlefield than in her hands. Hunt swallowed. “Sofie was lucky that the Hind dumped her and was done with it.” He halted at an alley, tugging Bryce into its shadows with him.
He let himself look at her face: pale enough that her freckles stood out, eyes wide. Scared. The scent hit him a moment later.
“We were never going to be allowed to live like normal people,” Bryce breathed, and Hunt ran a hand through her hair, savoring the silken strands. “Trouble was always going to come find us.”
He knew she was right. They weren’t the sort of people who could live ordinary lives. Hunt fought past the shaking in his bones, the roaring in his mind.
She lifted a hand, and her warm palm cupped his cheek. He leaned into her touch, reining in a purr as her thumb brushed over his cheekbone. “You really don’t think Cormac is luring us into a trap with this claim that Sofie knew some vital intel—the bait being that Danika was involved in some way?”
“It’s possible,” Hunt admitted. “But there was clearly a connection between Danika and Sofie—the emails prove it. And Cormac seemed pretty damned shocked to learn that Sofie was potentially alive. I think he believed the intel on the Asteri had died with Sofie. I wouldn’t blame him for wondering if it could be in play once more.”
“You think there’s any chance Sofie told Emile before they were separated?”
Hunt shrugged. “They were in Kavalla together—she might have found an opportunity to tell him. And if he doesn’t have the intel, and Sofie is alive, he might know where Sofie is headed right now. That makes Emile a pretty valuable asset. For everyone.”
Bryce began counting on her fingers. “So we’ve got Ophion, Tharion, and Cormac all wanting to find him.”
“If you want to find him, too, Bryce, then we need to navigate carefully. Consider if we really want to get involved at all.”
Her mouth twisted to the side. “If there’s a chance that we could discover what Sofie knew, what Danika guessed—separate from Cormac, from this shit with that Pippa woman and whatever the River Queen wants—I think that intel is worth the risk.”
“But why? So we can keep the Asteri from fucking with us about Micah and Sandriel?”
“Yeah. When I met up with Fury this morning, she mentioned that Danika knew something dangerous about her, so Fury learned something big about Danika in return.” Hunt didn’t get the chance to ask what exactly that was before Bryce said, “Why not apply the same thinking to this? The Asteri know something dangerous about me. About you.” That they’d killed two Archangels. “I want to even the playing field a bit.” Hunt could have sworn her expression was one he’d glimpsed on the Autumn King’s face as she went on, “So we’ll learn something vital about them. We’ll take steps to ensure that if they fuck with us, the information will leak to the broader world.”