New Years Treat

Happy New Years!

Echoes of Insurrection

Chapter One

“Nothing is ever really truly gone.”

In rest, Elise’s features held a peaceful repose that had been missing for as long as Kira could remember. Gone were the sorrow and pain that had been chiseled into each line of her face.

She looked young. Shockingly so.

It was a reminder that in terms of age Elise was seen as barely entering adulthood among the Tuann, a race who could live thousands of years. To them, the one hundred or so years that Elise had existed in this universe was a mere drop in the bucket. Not even worth mentioning. 

It had been five months since Kira found Elise comatose. Five months of one medical test after another, each one as useless as the last.

Physically, Elise was fine. A perfect picture of health. Outwardly, at least.

She just wouldn’t wake up.

And therein lay the problem.

As a method of last resort, the healers of House Roake had decided to take drastic measures. Their idea—to place Elise in stasis and inter her with Roake’s other sleepers in a chamber right off its Nexus. The House’s seat of power. A place where the planet’s Mea’Ave, its soul, was closest to the surface.

Roake’s healers hoped the ki-rich environment it offered would promote Elise’s natural healing abilities.

Kira prayed they were right. Even with all that Elise had done, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye quite yet.

Elise needed to survive. For that, she needed this place and Roake.

In preparation, Elise had been dressed in a dark blue body suit that would monitor her life signs in her prolonged slumber. It and the stasis cylinder that looked disturbingly like a glass coffin would keep her alive and provide all essential nutrients while ensuring minimal muscle atrophy.

Not including Elise’s stasis pod, there were twelve coffins in total. All already submerged in the deep, glowing azure pool. Their occupants highly trusted members of Roake who’d fallen in service to the House. With injuries so extensive that their healers had been forced to turn to this method of last resort. 

It was considered an honor to be interred in this chamber. Something a criminal like Elise normally never could have aspired to.

Kira had her uncle to thank for this grace. Just one more debt in a whole slew of them. 

If she wasn’t careful, there would come a time when her debts outweighed her ability to repay them.

He’d own her.

Her loyalty.

Her life.

Maybe he already did.

A quiet voice pierced the hush. “Heir, the others have arrived.”

Kira looked up to find one of the oshota tasked with guarding the sleepers observing her from a few feet away. A surprising amount of empathy in his features. As if he understood the pain and struggle of saying goodbye to someone who was still alive.

Kira’s already straight back got even straighter. “Thank you. Could you give me just one more moment?”

The oshota bowed his head respectfully. “Of course, Heir.”

He faded away, giving her privacy to do what she’d come here to do.

With a weary sigh, Kira set a hand on the glass, wishing it was Elise’s cheek she was touching. “Sweet dreams, Sunshine.”

God, she hoped they were sweet.

The chamber doors parted with a dull groan that echoed in the large space.

A girl appeared on the threshold. She was young. Only about eleven or twelve. Her features bore a resemblance to Elise’s and her hair was the same golden blond. Though much curlier and shorter, only touching the tops of her shoulders. Her pointed ears poked through the locks.

There were dark circles under her eyes that hinted at nightmares and sleepless nights. She’d lost weight in the last few weeks.

Kira never thought she’d say it but she missed the rascal who had more courage than sense. The fearless girl who leapt without thinking, trusting everything to work itself out by the time she landed.

Swallowing hard, Elena rubbed her hands up and down her thighs. For all that she tried to compose herself, her expression betrayed her nerves.

The man behind her touched her shoulder, saying something. The girl looked up and nodded before entering the chamber with reluctant steps.

The three behind her followed.

“Auntie,” Elena rasped.

Kira held out an arm.

Her niece made a raw sound right before she bolted into Kira’s side. Kira rocked back on her heels, catching her balance almost instantly. Throughout, she never lost hold of Elena. Even as the girl’s shoulders started to shake uncontrollably.

The back of Kira’s eyes pricked as Elena muffled her sobs against Kira’s shirt. She didn’t tell the girl not to cry or that tears never solved anything. That was how Kira had grown up. Never crying. Never grieving those lost. She hadn’t had a choice. Weakness often meant death.

Elena deserved better. If there was ever a time for mourning, it was now.

Kira held her niece close as she met Raider’s gaze above Elena’s head.

The human looked wrecked. Exhausted and heartsick. Not just because of the child burrowing into Kira’s side but also for the woman lying comatose in her glass coffin.

Like Elena, there was evidence around his eyes that he wasn’t sleeping.

There was a barely visible scar that ran along his jaw and creases in the middle of his forehead and around his mouth from the permanent scowl that had taken up residence on his face.

He’d gone quiet since their return from the Tsavitee planet. Scary silent in a way that meant trouble.

Last time Kira had seen him like this was when they’d lost their squad at Rothchild. He’d been savage in his grief and fury. In both word and deed. Their relationship hadn’t survived the fall out.

Kira hoped history wouldn’t repeat itself.

Raider needed to hold himself together. For Elena’s sake if for no other reason.

Elena’s tear clogged voice came from Kira’s side. “How long did they say she had to stay in there?”

Kira looked down at the girl, smoothing Elena’s curls away from her face. “They don’t know.”

Elena pulled back to look up at Kira with a pleading expression. “But she’ll be alright?”

Kira didn’t know how to answer that. Elena counted on her for guidance. Deceiving her, even with good intentions, felt wrong.

If the worst should happen and Elise’s condition became permanent, that lie could damage the trust they had built between them.

“Yes,” Raider interjected with a hard look of warning for Kira.

She remained quiet.

As Elena’s father, this was his decision to make. Even if she didn’t approve. Life had taught her that sugar might help bad news go down easier but in the long term it only disguised the bitter taste of reality.

Kira gave the two waiting nearby a grave nod. “Wren. Auralyn.”

Elise’s father and aunt murmured quiet greetings as they took their place beside them. Both wore the dark blue synth armor that proclaimed their status as oshota. They stood at attention as Kira signaled that they were ready.

The floor under Elise’s coffin lowered. Water lapped at its sides, climbing inch by inch until it was swallowed entirely.

Elena leaned her head against Kira’s side. “This is my fault, isn’t it?”

Horrified, Kira’s gaze snapped to her niece. “Don’t ever say that. Parents protect their children. Always.”

Elena’s head dipped, her shoulders sagging.

Kira stifled the rest of the words she wanted to say. It was no surprise that her niece blamed herself for what happened to Elise. Guilt was an old, familiar friend of Kira’s. Hearing that something wasn’t your fault was different than actually believing it. Elena had to come to terms with the situation in her own way. All Kira and Raider could do was be there to support and guide her while she did.

With that in mind, Kira crouched, bringing herself to eye level with her niece. She waited patiently until Elena was looking at her before continuing. “Elise did what she was supposed to. What any parent would do in a situation like that. The same thing I would have done if I’d been there.”

In a way, this was a good thing. It meant there was hope for Elise. That something of the friend she knew still remained. That the Tsavitee and their masters hadn’t completely perverted her mind.

Kira took Elena’s hand, holding it in hers. “As long as she’s breathing, there’s hope. That’s all that matters.”

Raider grunted in agreement. “We won’t give up on her.”

His gaze met Kira’s in silent promise. If it took decades or centuries, they would continue searching. Whatever it took to wake her up.

Kira broke eye contact to look at her niece. “You got that?”

Shadows and doubt still lingered at the back of Elena’s eyes, but Kira was relieved to see that there were fewer than there had been before.

“Yes, Auntie,” Elena whispered.

Kira squeezed Elena’s hand in reassurance before rising to cast one last regretful look at Elise’s watery resting place.

This isn’t the end, Sunshine, Kira whispered silently. The words as much for Elise as for herself. They’d come back from the impossible before. They could again. She refused to let this be a permanent goodbye.

Elena leaned her head against Kira’s side. “What happens now?”

“We wait for her to wake up,” Wren rumbled.

Despite his expressionless face, there was no hiding the depth of grief and turmoil wracking him.

Wren was in hell.

Kira didn’t know how to help him. The long lost daughter he’d just found was deep in a coma from which they didn’t know when—or if—she’d ever wake.

That was a head fuck if there ever was one.

Yet, he was still standing. A source of strength and support not only for his granddaughter but Kira as well.

Next to him, Auralyn stood at rigid attention. The boredom that normally characterized her expression absent. For once, she looked fully present. Focused. And a little angry.

Sensing Kira’s gaze, Auralyn glanced at her.

They stared at each other for several seconds before Auralyn dipped her chin. Almost as if she was making a silent vow. The content of which Kira wasn’t privy too.

In the next moment, Auralyn looked away, leaving Kira to wonder if she’d just imagined it. She studied the woman with white blond hair, her gaze wandering over features that held a strong resemblance to Elise and Elena, noting the missing right arm.

Auralyn hadn’t let the injury slow her down. She was just as fierce. Just as deadly.

A crushing silence descended as they each grieved in their own way.

Kira endured as long as she could before she couldn’t take it anymore. “I’ll give you privacy to finish saying your goodbyes.”

Retreat was cowardly, but her heart hadn’t quite gotten the memo that this wasn’t a forever goodbye. Everything felt far too final. As if this was a funeral in truth.

All that was missing was the requiem for the dead that she’d sung more times than she could count and the bottle of alcohol that they’d use to toast the departed.

She needed out of here. Distance and time to get her head on straight.

On her way out, Kira nodded at the pair of oshota standing guard in the sleeper’s chamber, finding reassurance in the knowledge that Elise and the others would have company during their long rest. Roake remembered them and stood in eternal protection. Until the sleepers were finally ready to rejoin the world.

No matter how long it took.

Her first breath upon exiting felt like a relief. The weight on her shoulders eased slightly. She felt lighter. Steadier already.

This must be what closure feels like.

Noticing the dark haired Tuann facing away from her, Kira frowned. “Finn, you alright?”

At her question, her oshota glanced back at her. “I thought I heard something.”

Finn made room as Kira joined him on the Nexus’s edge.

The chamber that served as Roake’s seat of power was massive, reaching several stories high. Sheets of water fell from above in several places, creating waterfalls that veiled large sections of the room, turning it into something of a labyrinth. More confusing were those waterfalls that fell upward, defying gravity to climb back toward the ceiling as if drawn to something up there. Throughout a complex geometric pattern was carved on the floor via narrow channels filled with trickling water.

At the center of it all sat a pedestal. To reach it, anyone wishing control of the House’s defenses and offenses would have to first walk through the thin sheet of liquid surrounding it.

A more difficult prospect than it seemed. Even from this distance, Kira could feel the immense power radiating off the Nexus’s water. The molars in the back of her mouth fairly tingled from the buzz it was giving off. She didn’t have to experience it for herself to know that one droplet from the waterfall’s spray would cause an immense surge of ki that could damage an untrained Tuann’s mind and body.

Harlow told her it would be like stepping into a lava field. Blistering hot and painful. Her mind would want to break, but she wouldn’t be able to let it.

It was the final trial Roake’s heir had to overcome before assuming the mantle of Overlord.

Defensively, the place was a nightmare. Filled with so many blind spots that someone could launch an ambush from.

Kira supposed that was the point. Anyone trying to infiltrate this place was playing fast and loose with their lives. If Roake’s Nexus didn’t kill them, its oshota would.

“I don’t hear anything,” Kira said.

She was surprised Finn had.

The stone walls turned the Nexus into a giant echo chamber. The falling water a dull roar that was made worse by the relentless buzz the Mea’Ave was giving off.

It was disorienting.

The fleeting reflections she kept glimpsing out of the corner of her eye didn’t help. The water telling her truth and lies. Promising the universe’s secrets. Everything that would break an undisciplined mind.

“Want to check it out?” Kira offered, seeing Finn’s preoccupation.

“If you don’t mind.”

“It’s better than dwelling.”

She’d take anything over the cloying sense of grief and guilt that had marked the last few months.

“It gets better with time,” Finn promised.

Kira gave him a jerky shrug, not really wanting to talk about it. “Let’s get this over with.”

Right as she said that, Raider stepped out of the chamber behind them as if summoned. “What are we doing?”

“Finn heard something. We’re going to check it out.”

Raider’s gaze swung toward the oshota. “A strange something or a suspicious something?”

“Aren’t those pretty much the same thing?” Finn asked.

Raider wagged a finger at him. “You’d think so, but they’re not. The first almost always results in something harmless. The second holds the promise of danger.”

“He’s hoping for danger,” Kira mock whispered as she stepped over the first water channel.

Raider’s snort held humor. “Like you aren’t.”

“True,” Kira admitted.

She wouldn’t mind something to take her mind off things. Nothing too serious. Just a little excitement to distract her from the ever present weight of sorrow and regret that she felt in her chest.

Discomfort showed on Raider’s face as he got too close to one of the waterfalls. “Damn, that stings.”

“You could always stay behind,” Kira tossed at him, peering through the curtains of water before giving up with a shake of her head after a few minutes.

It was useless. All she could see were vague shapes and shadows.

From the frustrated look on Finn’s face as he examined their surroundings, he wasn’t faring much better.

“Hey, now, there’s no need for insults,” Raider griped as they worked their way counterclockwise through the chamber.

Finn suppressed a smile as they rounded a waterfall, working their way toward the pedestal and the small pool of water around it.

“I heard a rumor that Talon has keeva and that human whiskey you said you adored standing by for our arrival when we’re done here,” Finn informed him, naming the other oshota that Kira had just recently accepted into her service.

She still wasn’t quite sure how that happened. One oshota—two, if you counted Raider—and her uncle did—was more than enough for her.

Blackmail, however, proved to be a powerful motivator.

“Good. Because I could use a drink. I feel like I just attended a funeral,” Raider said, his forehead furrowing as he leaned to get a better look into a portion of the chamber that had been out of their line of sight from their original position.

“Count me out. I promised to visit Jin after this,” Kira said.

He’d wanted to be here but circumstances and the over protective nature of those around him had made that impossible.

Raider looked over at her. “Speaking of—how is the Tin Can adjusting to his new body?”

“You’re going to need to think of a new insult,” Kira informed him.

Jin was flesh and blood now.

When the J1N drone that had acted as his container for so long was irreparably damaged in battle, she’d been forced to transfer his consciousness to a new vessel. One that held an unexpected resemblance to his original body.

Kira still wasn’t sure how that was possible. She and Jin had gone to pretty extensive lengths to destroy all genetic samples that had been taken from them during their time in captivity as children.

There should have been no possibility of a clone.

The alternative, however, was even less likely. That the Tsavitee’s masters had somehow recovered the original and kept it in stasis for decades. Unageing and unchanging.

It was a mystery that plagued Kira and kept her up some nights.

If little cloned Jins were running around, chances were there might be Kira-clones out there too.

Now that was a disturbing thought.

“He’ll always be a Tin Can to me,” Raider drawled.

“Do me a favor—wait until I’m in the room when you tell him that.”

Kira would love to witness the resulting explosion.

They fell quiet, each lost in their own thoughts as they moved closer to the center of the room and the pedestal waiting there.

“I think I know what Finn heard,” Raider called in a low, grim tone.

She looked over to find him crouched next to the body of an oshota. The Tuann had been attacked by some type of weapon Kira didn’t recognize. The skin of his face was scorched. Parts of it charred and black. The synth armor had been melted to his body on his torso and his chest was half caved in like he’d taken some type of blast.

Raider rose as he and Kira scanned their surroundings.

“There!” Raider said, spotting the perpetrator first.

He pointed at a murky figure on the other side of the curtain of water. The person’s features were entirely obscured. All Kira caught was an impression of size. Large. Bulky. Maybe wearing synth armor.

Finn raced past her just as the person threw something into the water. Kira heard the plonk and saw the ripples of water.

The person took off as Finn plowed through the waterfall in pursuit.

“Shit,” Kira cursed, wanting to follow but knowing her first priority was to remove whatever it was that they’d thrown into the Nexus’s water. She didn’t know what it would do, but she doubted it was good. “Wren! Auralyn!” Kira screamed.

Raider was ahead of her, already plunging his hand into the narrow channel to fish out the foreign object in there.

“Almost there,” Raider crooned, his face a mask of concentration despite the pain he had to be experiencing. “Gotcha!”

Frowning, Raider lifted his hand out of the channel, the skin bright red and blistered, as he held up a transparent orb the size of an eyeball.

Kira swatted him upside the head. “Are you an idiot? Why would you stick your hand in that?”

Mea’Ave save her from humans with death wishes. 

Raider acted like he barely noticed her love tap as he handed the orb to Kira. “What do you think this is?”

She cradled the orb in her hand. What she’d taken as transparent actually had swirls of green deep inside, their intensity growing for a second before fading.

Seeing Raider start to lean over the channel again, Kira jerked him back. “Stop that.”

“There are more.”

Kira’s gaze followed where he was pointing. The water glinted. Swirls of green and red playing peek-a-boo in its depths.

Once again Raider’s hand crept toward the water. Kira slapped it away. “I’ll do it. Just stay there.”

She swore he was worse than Elena sometimes.

Kneeling, Kira stuck her hand into the water. It was like dipping her hand into a pool of pure electricity. She gritted her teeth as the planet’s soul crashed into her mind. Tingling followed by numb burning climbed from the tips of her finger, to her wrist, all the way up to her elbow.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

This hurt.

Hurriedly, Kira fished the two orbs out of the water, tossing them onto the floor next to her.

“Finally.” Kira yanked her hand out of the water, cradling it in her lap. “I never want to do that again.”

Like Raider’s, the skin was bright red and blistered.

“Should have used your non-dominant hand,” Raider mused.

Kira fixed him with a flat stare.

He shrugged and held up the hand he’d used to reach into the channel. It was his left. His non-dominant left. “I’m just saying.”

Kira shoved him away with her shoulder as Wren and Auralyn appeared between the waterfalls.

“What happened?” Wren demanded, spotting the oshota lying next to them.

“Someone attacked the guards and threw these into the Nexus’s water,” Kira explained, showing him the orbs. “Finn went after them alone.”

That knowledge sat like a stone in her stomach. It was obvious from the dead oshota’s presence and the fact no other oshota except Wren and Auralyn responded to her shout that something bad was going on.

Someone who could take out the oshota guarding Roake’s heart was dangerous. Finn shouldn’t have gone without backup.

And yes, Kira knew how hypocritical that sounded coming from her.

“Go,” Wren ordered. “We’ll handle things here.”

That was what Kira was hoping to hear.

She didn’t wait as Raider handed the three orbs they’d collected to Auralyn.

“We’re pretty sure there are others. You might want to get them out before they do anything,” Raider called as he hurried to catch up with Kira.

She was already half way to the exit. Unlike Finn, she didn’t take the shortcut of plunging through the waterfalls, choosing to take the longer path instead.

Raider caught up to her just as she reached the hallway outside. “Do you know where they went?”

Kira paused before nodding to a hallway off to her right. “This way.”

If she was trying to evade an oshota’s pursuit, she’d choose the most direct path out of the Fortress of the Vigilant.

“I hope you’re right,” Raider murmured.

“I am.”

She hoped.

They moved quickly, not pausing to admire the simplistic beauty of its design as she usually would. Much like the people who called it home, the fortress was cold and standoffish at first glance, but there was a protective warmth and sense of safety layered beneath its austere surface. In the time since she’d called it home, Kira had come to appreciate its unique charm. Particularly those qualities involving offense and defense.

Before long, they caught a glimpse of Finn on the stairs below.  

“Where’d they go?” Kira called.

Finn looked up, his chest working as he caught his breath. “I lost him.”

“Damn,” Kira whispered.

That was disappointing.

“The Overlord is messaging me,” Finn said.

He activated his comms so they could hear.

Harlow’s terse voice filled the air. “Wren has informed me of the situation. We have eyes on the perpetrator. He’s on the avenue and heading to the palace. Find him and bring him here.”

Finn glanced up at Kira. “Acknowledged, Overlord.”

Harlow’s side cut out.

“We should hurry. He has quite the head start,” Kira said, jogging down the stairs with Raider at her side.

Finn took the lead and soon they were leaving the fortress behind. The brisk air tossed Kira’s hair over her eyes. Stuck somewhere between curly and wavy, Kira’s hair was always unruly but never more so than when it had a bit of length, and it had gotten longer in the months since arriving on Ta Sa’Riel. It now reached past her shoulder blades.

The red that was one shade off burgundy was something she and her uncle had in common. A family trait.

Her eyes came from her mother’s people. House Luatha. A gray purple that leaned one way or the other depending on the light and Kira’s mood. Today they matched the overcast sky. The clouds pregnant with a precipitation Kira hoped would hold off until they reached shelter.

Thankfully, there was nowhere to hide on the straight stretch of elevated road that ended at the palace. No cover or obstructions that might conceal a person’s presence.

Finn nodded at a distant figure. “There.”

The three of them broke into another jog. This one faster than before.

Before too long, the aptly named Shining Palace at the city’s heart loomed in front of them. It shimmered even under gray skies. A rocky coastline framed the city to her left. A wild, untamed forest protected the rest of its borders.

Kira was barely breathing hard as they reached the palace’s entrance.

“Where are the guards?” Raider called as they slowed to a walk. “You don’t think they were taken out like Roake’s oshota, do you?”

“I hope not,” Kira muttered.

There were no signs of struggle. Then again, that didn’t mean much since there hadn’t been any in the Nexus either.

Finn scanned the entrance. “I don’t sense any oshota nearby.”

“Let’s continue then,” Kira suggested uneasily.

 Technically, Roake’s authority stopped at this entrance. Anything past this point was the emperor’s responsibility. Everything she did from here on out would be scrutinized later. Any mistake she made would be leveraged against not just her but Roake as well.

A smart person would have turned back. They would have found a way to hand the problem off to the emperor’s people and then wiped their hands of the whole affair.

Kira couldn’t do that. It was Roake’s oshota who had died. Their Nexus that had been breached.

Her uncle wanted the perpetrator brought before him. She planned to follow that order.

Finn and Raider flanked her as they proceeded into the palace with caution. Empty, echoing halls greeted their passage. Several minutes ticked by before they finally encountered the oshota they’d been expecting outside.

Three of them. Just standing in the middle of the hallway as if Kira and the other two were expected.

 “What are you doing here? This wing is restricted,” the oshota that looked to be in charge asked.

Finn’s response was a lot more polite than Kira’s would have been. “Our apologies for the intrusion. We think someone we were tracking came this way.”

The oshota looked them over, making no attempt to disguise his skepticism. “An intruder?”

“We believe so,” Finn admitted.

You’d think being told there was a possible intruder in the palace that the oshota would launch into action. But, no. They seemed to take the news with an alarming lack of concern.

There was something about their presence that kept poking at Kira. Something beyond their disregard for a potential threat. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Well, he didn’t come through here,” the oshota declared.

“That doesn’t mean he’s not in the palace somewhere. He could have taken a different route,” Raider offered.

One of the oshota’s companions curled her lip at her friend. “Someone would have noticed.”

“Would they?” Kira shot back. “Because you’re the first oshota we’ve come across.”

Something she found suspicious in light of everything that had happened.

The oshota nudged each other, chuckling as they shot Kira covert looks that said “get a look at Roake’s paranoid heir”.

Noticing them, Finn’s jaw clenched, his gaze turning icy.

“Okay. Okay,” the leader said, quelling his subordinates with a glance before smiling at Kira and the others. “We understand. We’ll handle things from here.”

“I don’t think you understand how dangerous this person is,” Finn protested.

The oshota’s face turned hard. “I said—we’ll handle it.”

Finn’s nostrils flared, his mouth opening on a sharp statement.

Kira grabbed his shoulder before he could speak. “Okay. We understand. Come on, Finn. The man said he’d handle it. Let’s let him do that.”

Raider eyed Kira like she’d suddenly grown too heads. “That’s surprisingly understanding of you.”

Not really. She’d just thought of a better way to accomplish her mission.

“Jin’s waiting for us,” Kira said.

As much as she’d like to argue with the idiots in front of them, they didn’t have a leg to stand on. This was the emperor’s territory, and the oshota served him. Making a scene wouldn’t help their cause. Instead, it could harm them. Better to head up to Jin’s room. The oshota guarding him all knew Kira and were more likely to take her report seriously.

And if they didn’t, Jin would.

She trusted his way of handling things would have these three ruing the fact that they hadn’t listened. Honestly, she was kind of hoping Jin’s guards ignored her. The resulting fireworks were bound to be entertaining.

Reluctantly, Finn let Kira lead him away as they headed up to the wing of the palace that housed the emperor’s family.

“Someone sounds upset,” Raider muttered as Jin’s raised voice greeted them upon their approach.  

Yes, someone did.

For half a second, Kira debated the merits of doing an about face and marching back to Roake.

But no. That would be cowardly.

Wouldn’t it?

Yes, it would. Not to mention she still had to report the intruder to the oshota standing guard.

Resigned, Kira marched toward the pair of oshota outside Jin’s door. “What’s going on?”

One of the guards was a stranger to her, but the other she recognized as belonging to Graydon, the emperor’s Face, and Kira’s lover. She wasn’t as familiar with Isla as she was with Amila, but they’d interacted enough for her to know how capable the other was. 

The corner of Isla’s mouth quirked up at the sight of Kira. “What impeccable timing, Roake’s heir.”

Kira paid no mind to the quick look the oshota on Isla’s other side shot her. Most Tuann greeted her with either suspicion or curiosity. He must be more inclined toward the latter.

 “Instead of asking her, why not just come inside and figure that out for yourself!” Jin shouted from the other side of the door.

“There goes your chance of tucking tail and running,” Raider snickered.

Kira gave him a one fingered salute as Isla opened the door for her.

“Best of luck, Roake’s heir,” Isla murmured as Kira trudged past.