He said as much to Zaira as they took an hour out to de-stress with hand-to-hand combat in a quiet corner of the valley. Spinning out with a kick that tapped his ribs without causing harm, she said, “Your instincts are usually right on things like this.”
Avoiding a blow that would’ve connected with her jaw if he hadn’t pulled it, she tried to get in under his guard, got a shoulder tap for her trouble. “Clever.”
“I wouldn’t want you to think me easy prey.”
Zaira knew that was ludicrous. “Never . . . unless it’s in bed.”
Molten heat in his gaze. “What shall we try tonight?”
She sent him an image.
Barely avoiding what would’ve been a mock-killing blow, he shot her an image in answer. She stumbled, then narrowed her eyes. If you ever want me to do that, you have to do what I suggested.
Deal.
She pointed an accusatory finger. You wanted both anyway. The faint smile on his face gave him away.
So did I, she admitted before she went at him, no playing now.
He held his own, both of them breathing hard by the time they called a halt. “Where are you headed?”
“Miane called,” Zaira said, the break over and her mind on a little girl who probably didn’t understand why she was locked up, why her mommy hadn’t come for her. “Olivia’s memory wasn’t as shot as we initially thought—she remembers being with her daughter, so they were both held at the same place.”
It eased some of the raw fury in Zaira to have it confirmed that at least Persephone hadn’t been alone the entire time she and her mother had been held captive. “I’ve been invited to one of BlackSea’s floating cities to sit down with Olivia and Miane to see if we can narrow down the location.”
Aden ran a hand through his hair. “The alpha wants an Arrow in the mix.”
Nodding, Zaira said, “She knows we have access and contacts closed to BlackSea.” And vice versa. “I better get going. The meet is in fifteen and I need to shower—Vasic’s offered to do the transport.”
“Have they promised not to shoot him this time?”
The darkness inside Zaira flickered with what might have been laughter. “According to Miane, as long as he doesn’t return uninvited, he’ll leave without holes in his body.”
Aden suddenly frowned. “Did Vasic attempt to lock onto Persephone’s face using the extra photographs Miane was able to locate?”
“Yes.” Over and over. “But the images were all from months before her abduction. Children grow too fast.” Vasic couldn’t lock on to the one-year-old girl because she no longer existed.
“But if Olivia’s memories are coming back,” Aden said, “then she may have an image inside her head. See if you can get that out.”
Zaira nodded. “I will.” The only problem was that Olivia was changeling, with the attendant natural shields. “I have to go.” Sliding her hand over Aden’s cheek, she pressed her lips to his, the kiss soft. A promise to return and a gift she took with her as she walked once more into the darkness, the rage inside her black lava that became blood in her veins as she sat down in front of a broken woman whose mate was dead and whose baby was in the hands of monsters.
“They’ll kill her,” Olivia whispered, rocking back and forth in a room inside a city that moved with the sway of the waves. “They’ll kill my poor, sweet girl. Mama’s here, Mama’s here, that’s what I always told her after they took us to that place. Mama’s here.” Sobs rocked her frame, horror in her eyes as she looked up. “Where is she?” She grabbed at Zaira’s hand. “Where’s my baby?”
Chapter 69
BLAKE WASN’T AN idiot; he understood he was a threat. That was why he came three hours early to the rendezvous location and set up a hidden surveillance post. The individual who arrived at the spot at the exact time they’d agreed upon immediately eliminated his concerns.
Walking out onto the pathway hidden in a mostly forgotten part of Central Park, he said, “I didn’t expect you to turn up yourself.” Their being seen together could bring down his reluctant ally’s entire house of cards.
“When something needs to be done, it’s better to do it yourself.” A glance at a sleek silver timepiece that, until then, had been hidden under the battered gray sleeve of the hooded sweatshirt that his “savior” wore with the hood pulled up, mirrored sunglasses obscuring a highly recognizable face. “You’re ready?”
“Yes.” Amin’s team was breathing down his neck. Blake had known, walking into the park, that if he had to walk back out, he was dead. “I’m pretty sure the squad’s surrounded the park within a one-block radius.”
“No matter.” Hands shoved into the sweatshirt’s large front pocket in the way of young humans and changelings, his ally began to move. “I have a vehicle parked in a bay used by maintenance crews. It has the city markings and we can take it directly to the heliport.”
Planning and intelligence, Blake thought. Perhaps a little too much planning. “I’ll drive.” He wasn’t about to be driven to the slaughter.
“Suit yourself.”
“You realize I could be an asset?”
“Of course I do. Why else would I be here?”
Because he’d threatened blackmail. Blake didn’t speak the words aloud and, well aware he was with someone as dangerous as an Arrow, watched for guns, for injectors, for lethal backup. The one thing he didn’t watch for was his own arrogance. He thought he was safe behind the wheel of the vehicle. He never felt the toxin that entered through the skin of his palms when he put them on the steering wheel.