Charlotte’s face paled as she stared out the window. Nora was getting close.
A heavy knock on the door interrupted them, and Nora’s shoulders sank. Charlotte nearly fell over the couch to answer it. After peering through the eyehole, she threw the door open. “Welcome!”
“Did you even look to see who it was?” Tobin stepped over the threshold, scowling. A brief scan of the room only slightly brightened his features.
“Three-bedroom suite, concierge level, all the room service and amenities we need,” she announced.
“Too many windows,” he muttered as he walked around, inspecting every nook and cranny. “Is Henry back yet?”
“You let him go to a technology store by himself. He may be gone for hours,” Charlotte replied wryly.
“He’d better not be.” Tobin ducked into one of the rooms and emerged again. “This whole plan hinges on him getting the equipment we need to monitor the security systems. We need to set everything up.” He approached Nora with earnest eyes. “Any problems getting here?”
She shrugged. “There were three men I thought might be Tavians, but—”
“What did they look like? What makes you say that?” His words were sharp and rushed but not angry. Even Charlotte stared at her, waiting for her answer.
“They had white hair, but they also were overweight, older, and wore glasses.”
“Glasses.” His shoulders relaxed.
Nora nodded. “Yes, thick ones. The kind that make your eyes look huge.”
“They wouldn’t wear those,” Charlotte said from behind him.
He nodded. “Vision correction is standard in both Nios and Octavius. No guard would wear glasses like that, even in disguise.”
“And if it had been them, I’m sure they would have been communicating with their team. I haven’t picked up any implant traffic,” Charlotte added.
Tobin shrugged before passing Nora to search another room. “That’s also probably true. I think we’re safe.”
Nora sat on the couch. The moment she’d seen their faces, she’d known they weren’t Tavians, but why? Was there more to Charlotte’s revelation? Maybe more of her memories had remained than she’d thought.
Tobin emerged from the room and strode to the windows.
My feelings could be the remnants of memories…
“Well, I’m off for a massage,” Charlotte said, sauntering to the door.
Tobin stopped mid-stride to glower at her. “We’re in hiding, not on vacation!”
“I hiked miles through the mountains in a dress and inadequate footwear. Then I sat for days in an establishment where one could only contemplate the doldrums of the human condition. I need a massage.” She paused and lifted her chin higher. “I would have scheduled one for Nora, too, but I knew you’d object.”
His brown eyes nearly lit on fire. “You’re right.”
Nora couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
The door had almost closed behind Charlotte when Nora caught a glimpse of Tobin’s wound. “Charlotte! Where are those grocery bags you brought in with you?”
Charlotte stepped back into the room with a sour expression. “Dinner will be here shortly. You don’t need to eat any of that.”
“Yes, but I’m pretty sure there was a first aid kit.”
Under the bill of his hat, Tobin raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, right. In the master bedroom.” Charlotte pointed to a door past the kitchen and left.
Nora found the grocery bags, just as Charlotte had said, and fought the urge to jump headlong into the beautiful, fluffy bed. When she returned, Tobin was leaning on the back of the couch. His cheeks were tensed, holding back a smile, but still revealed a set of gorgeous dimples.
That smile…
She would have smacked herself if she could. He’d somehow worked past his anger to protect her, and she felt the urge to complicate that? One stupid move on her part, and he might be out the door.
Smiling as naturally as she could, she pulled out a stool from the kitchen island. “Come on. Let’s clean you up.”
He shook his head, but the smile remained as he did what he was told. Removing the cap gently, she swallowed hard, willing herself not to think about how close he was or that heart-melting smile. His gaze was glued to the floor. She slowly parted his hair, checking his face to make sure she wasn’t causing him any further pain. He never winced, but something about his wide eyes and flexed jaw made it seem like he was holding back a scream.
Something clear glistened from the cut—glass. She gasped.
Tobin launched himself up from the stool, looking around. “What is it?”
Without thinking, she grabbed his shoulders to ease him back down. “No. It’s nothing like that. There’s still glass in the cut!”
“Oh.” He lowered himself onto the stool. Her hands, still on his shoulders, had fit perfectly along his biceps—as if she had done it a million times. His gaze met hers. Her skin tingled as if magnetically attracted. She had to lean back against the pull toward him.
He cleared his throat and dropped his head to allow her to finish with his cut.
I need his help. Don’t complicate this!
She grabbed the tweezers and got to work, but the silence was unbearable. She needed something—anything—to talk about. “Why do all Tavians look the same?”
Tobin, whose eyes had been clamped shut, relaxed a little. “Not all of them look the same, but I know what you mean. You remember how I told you about our ability to manipulate matter? That discovery led to a war within our society.”
The words sounded eager, like he was willing to ramble about the subject all day. “All of the Tavian Seers were killed; the Niotians managed to keep seven of their own alive. Without any Seers, the Tavians were forced to call for a truce, but they weren’t happy about it. They’ve been trying to produce more Seers ever since, and their looks are a consequence of their extensive genetic engineering program. It’s to the point now where Tavians without the white hair and black eyes are considered Variants. They rarely hold any position of power, but there are exceptions.”
“The dark-haired Tavian chasing us,” she said, removing the final speck of glass and pressed gauze over the wound.
“Yes. Jasper Bishop.” He paused. “He’s the only Tavian I would hesitate to directly engage.”
“You mean fight.”
He peeked up at her, searching her eyes. “Yes.”
Those eyes, deep brown with flecks of green. She couldn’t breathe.
Don’t complicate this!
She smiled tightly. “All done.”
Tobin nearly leaped from the chair and strode across the room, running a hand through his hair. “Great. Thanks!”
She stared at him in silence. Yes, he’d been quite clear about his feelings in the beginning, but was she crazy to think there was something more? She felt it—she was sure of it.
His eyes slowly rose to meet hers.
If she didn’t say something, she’d burst. “Tobin, I—”
Something thudded and slid against the door. Before she could ask what had happened, he was already moving. A key slid into the lock, but the door didn’t open. She tripped onto the stool where he had sat just moments before. The lock clicked again. He planted the thick rubber sole of his shoe in front of the door before checking the eye hole.
She held her breath, ready to follow orders for the best escape.
His whole body sank, and he rolled his eyes before opening the door. “What took you so long?”
“This key is defective,” Henry declared.
Tobin grabbed the key. “That’s because you inserted it upside down.”
There was a pause.
“Oh. Well, they should really make them more user-friendly.”
“They need to make hotel key cards more user-friendly?” Tobin asked, his voice quivering with laughter.
“In Nios, my implant is my key. How have civilians relied on this antiquated technology for so l
ong?” Henry huffed. “Just help me get all this stuff inside.” He came through the door dressed from head to toe in cheesy ski-country merchandise, and just like that the electricity in the air moments before disappeared, the certainty she’d felt, gone. Had she imagined it? The way he’d looked at her? What she had felt? She sighed as Henry pulled a luggage cart behind him loaded with large bags.
Tobin pushed the cart from behind. “How long before we’re operational?”
“At least an hour,” Henry replied in his usual flat tone. If he had been looking at Tobin, he would have seen daggers shoot from his eyes. Henry dug through his pockets and pulled out some keys. “As requested, here’s a set of keys for a hunting cabin, and I parked the rental car outside of it as you asked. I hid the all-terrain vehicles in a grove of pine trees about a half a mile from here.”
Nora raised her eyebrows. Tobin had thought of everything.
“Where’s the cabin?”
“Secluded. In the woods about five miles from here.”
“And it’s along the escape route we talked about?”
Henry scowled. “Of course.”
Tobin nodded and put the keys in his pocket before turning to the bags. “Where do we begin?”
“We? Just let me handle this.” Henry grabbed the first bag and moved to the table in the corner. Tobin folded his arms, following Henry with his gaze.
Nora counted at least seven bags before she concluded Henry was absolutely right about needing an hour to set up.
Tobin busied himself with unloading the cart, never looking at her once. She shook her head. She’d gotten carried away in her own emotions and had seen what she’d wanted to see.
She cleaned up the gauze wrappers and grabbed the tweezers. This was why she’d never put herself out there in Minnesota. She was awful at it—not that many opportunities came along. What was she thinking? This was about life and death. Of course he’d be intense about it.
Something sparked, and Charlotte’s words replayed in her mind—It’s not for me to say.
The tweezers nearly fell from her hand. If there was nothing between them, Charlotte wouldn’t have felt the need to hide it. The message was clear: if she wanted to know about her past—about who he was to her—she would need to ask Tobin. She spun around. His gaze flickered to her movement but was quickly diverted back to his work. It didn’t take a Seer to know he didn’t want to talk about it.
But he was someone to her, and she would find out who, even if she had to ask Tobin himself.
Chapter 16
The door latch released, making a familiar metallic click, and it pulled Annabel from a restless sleep. The room was dark and quiet. Had she dreamed it?
Something thudded outside her bedroom door. Jasper had left. He told her he’d be out of the district, chasing Leonora. She sprang up in bed, staring at the door handle. Who could be in her suite at this hour—
Cyrus.
Footsteps moved into the sitting room.
She slipped from her bed, frantically searching for a place to hide, but her heart had already given up. Hiding would only postpone the inevitable. She was cornered. Defenseless.
She crept to the drapes and pulled them around her as the footsteps approached the door. The springs in the handle tensed as it opened.
“Annabel?” Jasper whispered from the door.
Cheeks burning, she shut her eyes tight and wished she could disappear. How could she explain this?
In her half-sleeping state, she had let her fears carry her away. Cyrus wouldn’t try to kill her so soon—not without assurances that Leonora had been captured.
She peered out from her hiding spot. Jasper stood in the middle of her room in his sweats and a dark t-shirt instead of his tactical gear. She didn’t need to see his expression to know she looked crazy.
“Were you hiding?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
“Why?” He took a step toward her.
She shrugged, scanning her periphery—anything to avoid looking at him. Tears swelled—as if she hadn’t cried enough today. “I heard you come in, and I thought…”
He took another step. “Thought what?”
“I thought you might have been Cyrus here to kill me.”
His chest lifted with a deep breath. He took a slow, careful step toward her, then another and another until he was in front of her. “I’m here now,” he whispered. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
She wiped the tears from her cheek. “You can’t protect me when you’re gone, and I thought—”
His hand closed gently around her arm, commanding her full attention. “Even when I’m gone, I’d be here the second you needed me.”
She believed him. Even though he was following Cyrus’s orders, and that those orders would give Cyrus everything he needed to kill her, she believed Jasper would do everything he could to keep her safe. She stared up at him, his eyes unwavering and confident, and she ached to be closer.
Stop.
She blinked and looked away. Her feelings didn’t change the truth. No one could stop Cyrus—Jasper knew that. To follow his orders was to endorse the outcome, and he’d already said he was planning to kill her.
Jasper cleared his throat, rubbing a hand over his face. He turned to leave. “You should try to get some sleep. I’ll be in the next room—”
“Wait.” The word escaped before she could stop it.
He paused and looked over his shoulder.
She twisted her fingers together in front of her. Her mind was such a mess. She couldn’t allow things to go any further between them, but everything felt so much simpler when he was close by—just like it had been in the garden three years ago. She didn’t want him to go.
“Do you ever think about it?” she asked, not daring to look at him. “All that time we spent in the garden? We used to be so close.”
He turned to fully face her. Seconds passed in painstaking silence.
“All the time,” he whispered.
“After everything… It’s just….” She laughed nervously, tripping over the words. “I’m not propositioning you or anything, but would you stay in here tonight? Like before? I know Cyrus won’t come, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Of course.” He slid a hand along her back and guided her to her bed before pulling a chair to her bedside.
Even in the darkness, his dark hair and shirt contrasted with the light walls behind him, reminding her how different he was than everything else in her life, sweet and hopeful, a shelter in a cruel storm. She smiled and snuggled into the covers. Tonight, she was safe. She could sleep, knowing he was here. He wouldn’t be leaving to hunt Leonora.
Her eyes flew open. Why was he here? He wasn’t even in his tactical gear. Was it possible that the pursuit was already over? With Jasper leading the effort, it was definitely possible.
She cleared her throat, trying to sound as casual as possible. “You said you were leaving to command the hunt for Leonora. Did you capture her already?”
He shifted in his chair and shook his head. “The surveillance team lost her.”
Good. Losing Leonora meant more time alive.
But how did she keep managing to evade the full force of the Tavian Guard? Perhaps Annabel had been right all along, and Leonora was still a Seer. “Do you think she can still use her abilities? Is that why she keeps getting away?”
He shrugged. “I doubt it. Her implants were removed upon exile, and the recon team you ordered never detected any contact from the Niotians.”
Warmth bloomed in her cheeks. “How long did you know about the surveillance detail I sent?”
“I’m Head of the Guard. I knew the minute the guards followed your orders.” She could almost see his raised eyebrows in the darkness. Of course he would have known all along.
“Anyway, she may possess a predisposition to sort through the details, but…” He took a deep breath. “Even if she can use her abilities, it would be slow, unfocused, and not as vivid as you if you were
to develop.”
“Me?” She squirmed in her bed and sat up. Every single thing in her life now hinged on the success of Doctor Fry’s work. As much as she despised the procedures themselves, it was the uncertainty that was killing her. She couldn’t move forward. She didn’t know when or where Cyrus would decide he’d waited long enough. She couldn’t take any chances anymore—not even with Jasper. Her eyes wandered over his muscular silhouette.
“Doctor Fry ordered your implant optimized to enhance any Seeing abilities you develop,” he explained. “If you were to See something, a series of images or memories would flash before you and allow you to quickly process the scenarios. Leonora won’t have that—not until she’s equipped with a new implant, anyway.”
Fully optimized, and still she’d had no sign of development. For the first time, she found herself envying Leonora. If Annabel could See—even a little bit—maybe she could figure out a way to escape Cyrus.
“And there’s a lot more to her escape than a possible ability to See,” he continued.
She scooted in her bed to face him. This was new. He wasn’t only answering questions, he was volunteering new information? “Like?”
“If this were a sanctioned Niotian mission, they would have brought her back to Nios immediately; it’s the only place we can’t openly pursue her. And why did she go to a man like Tobin Kalos?”
“You think she’s acting independently of Nios?”
There was a reason why the other Niotian Seers had lived in fortress-like conditions. Leaving Nios had made her an instant target. If she could See, she’d know she wouldn’t last very long on her own.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but that doesn’t matter. I think Kalos is the real problem.”
Annabel frowned as she tried to recall what she knew about him. A Niotian guard who left Nios wouldn’t have many allies. Rejecting the Enlightened Society would make him less than a civilian in most people’s eyes. “How dangerous could he be?”
“He’s not a normal civilian,” Jasper replied. “Rumor has it they allowed him to keep his memories in the hopes he would choose to return on his own. I checked; there’s no record of why he left, which means their council didn’t want an airing of their less virtuous deeds. The only thing that’s clear is that Nios never intended to lose him. His training and abilities are all still very much intact, and he’s using them against us.”
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