I realize, as the door hisses closed behind us, that I’m about to eavesdrop on an unguarded conversation between Barrons and Ryodan. Fascinating. To say I’m all ears is the understatement of the century. I glance down to make sure I’m not dripping, grateful the floor is glass and I’m not leaving indents in carpet that might give me away.
Ryodan is sitting behind his desk toying with a blackhandled, curved black blade that looks ancient. With the exception of the dark knife, the desk is empty. I imagine he had it cleaned more than a few times after Lor’s unexpected tryst last week. The ebony blade is highly polished and reflects the low light as he rolls it between his hands.
He’s dressed as impeccably as ever in tailored dark pants and a crisp pinstriped shirt rolled back at the cuffs, revealing thick, scarred forearms and a silver cuff that matches the one Barrons wears. It reminds me of the one I saw on Jada’s wrist last night, and I wonder absently where she got it. I didn’t get a clear look since it was half covered by her sleeve.
I move forward, taking care to not bump into anything, which is trickier than you think when you can’t see yourself, and inspect him curiously. Though I’d never let him know I think it, Ryodan is hot as hell. If I were visible, I’d never stare this hard. Something about him discourages it. His chiseled features are stonier than usual, his jaw shadowed with stubble. Rather than his urbane businessman self, he seems more a savage mercenary forced to wear a suit. His thick short hair, nearly shaved at the sides, is standing up as if he’s been running his hands through it. Repeatedly. From those small details, I know Ryodan is deeply disturbed.
“No longer pretending to do paperwork,” Barrons mocks.
Ryodan doesn’t bother to glance up. “She sent me a message this morning. Said if I don’t give her Mac, she’s going to demolish Chester’s. You believe that shit. Threatening me. Few weeks ago she was a kid. Now she’s a fucking woman. A grown-up, self-possessed woman with a mind like my blade, cold as ice and on fire at the same time. Dangerous as hell. She was dangerous when she was a kid.”
“I sent a message to the abbey,” Barrons says. “Said if they don’t give me Mac, we’re going to raze the fucking place.”
Ah, so both sides think the other whisked me off somehow. The night must have ended in a hostile standoff. I’m surprised Ryodan didn’t head straight back to the abbey this morning with the Nine, abduct Jada, and lock her in his dungeon.
“You believe they have Mac,” Ryodan says.
“Undecided. One moment I felt her, the next I didn’t. Haven’t felt her since.”
“Worried about her.” It’s a question, though Ryodan’s voice doesn’t rise at the end. I wait expectantly for Barrons’s answer.
“No.”
I bristle. That’s it? A lousy no? Doesn’t he care? Is this what our relationship is going to come down to: me finding out while invisible that I don’t even matter to him?
“She’ll be back,” Barrons says.
“She’s a vessel for the Sinsar Dubh, has virtually unlimited power at her disposal, there for the taking. I’m not certain you or I could resist such temptation.”
He’s not? Shit, shit, shit. That’s it. I’m doomed.
“She managed it once. She’ll do it again. Mac’s got a light inside her that’s inextinguishable.”
I beam, feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof. If Barrons’s faith in me is that unshakable, I can do anything. Then I scowl. If he had so much faith in me, he would have trusted me to handle what happened between us that first day. Eyes narrowed, I flip him the bird.
Ryodan says, “She looked eighteen, nineteen.”
“Physically, I’d put her at twenty,” Barrons says. “Mentally, closer to thirty, in hard war years.”
If they’re talking about Jada aka possibly Dani, I agree with Barrons.
“She’s cold as ice.”
“You used to worry she’d get herself killed before she managed to grow up,” Barrons says. “Moot point now.”
“She’s fucking beautiful.”
Barrons studies him a moment then says, “Old enough for you.”
“That’s not why I watched over her.”
“Bullshit. We all saw the woman she could become. Just didn’t think she’d do it so quickly.”
“I wanted her to have— Ah, fuck, it doesn’t matter.”
“The childhood she missed. It’s gone. Adapt.”
Ryodan smiles faintly. “I loved watching her be young. Cocky. Swaggering around like she was invincible. She was supposed to have years of it.”
“She’s still swaggering. And feeling invincible.”
“She was healing. Until she and Mac fell out. It fucked with her head. I was going to be the concrete pillar that held up the roof while she redecorated her bunker. Give her time to choose who she wanted to be. Thought if I could keep her from having to make any brutal choices for a few years, she’d merge. Let her rebel against me rather than taking on the whole world. That opportunity is gone now.” Ryodan doesn’t say anything for a long moment. When he speaks again his voice is low, rough. “It’s as if my Dani died.”
I catch myself about to suck in an audible shocked breath. I may be unseeable but I’m not unhearable. The grief in his voice made me abruptly aware of my own. If Jada really is Dani, I’ll never again see that gamine grin, those sparkling eyes, listen as she mutilates the English language as only Dani can. The night I chased her through the Silver was goodbye, my last look at the teen I’d grown to love as a sister. He’s right, it is as if my Dani died. The fourteen-year-old is gone, just gone, never coming back.
“When do we abduct her?”
Ryodan carefully places the dark blade on the empty desk and looks up. “We don’t. It won’t work with ‘Jada.’ She’ll only get more remote, harder. Lor’s going to lose it when he sees her. He adored the kid.” He rubs his jaw and for a moment the only sound in the office is the scratch of rough beard against hand. I hold my breath, suddenly acutely aware of every noise my body might make. “Speaking of Lor, how the fuck am I supposed to get him back from being Pri-ya.”
Barrons says, “He’s not Pri-ya.”
“Mac said—”
“She lied,” Barrons says flatly.
Gee, could you rat me out a little quicker, Barrons?
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“There are a few things you didn’t tell me either. You knew Dani had an alter.”
“Mac knows too much,” Ryodan says, changing the subject.
“So does ‘Jada.’ It’s a different world now. Women are different. We evolve. As does our code.”
“Convenient for you. Tell that to Kasteo. Ah, sorry you stupid fuck, you chose the wrong millennium to try to keep the woman you wanted.”
“That’s not why we did what we did and you know it.”
“What I know, brother, is you break every goddamned rule for Mac.”
“Back at you, Ry. Difference is, I’ll help you do it.”
“Lor has never been Pri-ya.” Ryodan shakes his head in disgust. “The princess can’t turn us. Son of a bitch, Mac’s ass is—”
“Mine,” Barrons says flatly. “You will never go there. You have a problem with Mac, you work it out with me. I am her shield, I am her second fucking skin.”
Whuh. I don’t currently need one but it’s kind of a turn-on.
Growling, Ryodan pushes up and is out the door so fast, I freeze, uncertain who to stick with. Then Barrons makes my decision for me by taking off after Ryodan, and I have to run to keep up with them. I scowl down at my shoes. Though my boots have rubber soles, they’re still making noise. Fortunately, so are theirs.
I have no doubt where Ryodan’s going and I’m not missing it.
If Lor thinks this means he doesn’t still owe me a favor, he’s wrong. He got nearly the full two weeks he bargained for.
Barrons ratted him out. Not me.