and he kissed the back of my hand before dropping it into his lap.
“I’m sorry.” I wasn’t entirely sure what I was sorry about. So many warring feelings writhed inside me it was difficult to decipher them.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Tyler said firmly,
“None of this is your fault,” Alec agreed.
“I hate how messed up everything has gotten.” Neither of them replied. What was there to say?
We sat like that for a while, just holding each other and staring out at the moon, listening to the water crash rhythmically against the cliffs.
Eventually, we went back to bed, but I couldn’t get to sleep.
I kept staring into space, thinking about all the things I’d avoided thinking about for days, if not weeks. Then I’d stare at their beautiful faces and feel my chest tighten at the mere thought of losing one of them.
As soon as the first rays of sun streamed into the room, I got up—careful not to wake them—got dressed, and went for a run. I pushed my body despite the soreness, letting the burn in my lungs distract me, letting the crisp morning air clear my head. I went around the island twice, waving to some of the Lighthunters we’d met.
By the time I got back, the sun was casting bright rays over the kitchen, where Ethan was cooking eggs. The others sat around the dining table, sipping coffee.
“Hey,” I panted, pouring myself a big glass of water and chugging it at the sink.
A chorus of “mornings” accompanied tired, lazy smiles. Ethan kissed my sweaty cheek.
After a hot shower gave me an extra dose of determination, I came back to the dining area and pulled Tyler’s borrowed laptop toward myself. He looked up from his coffee with raised brows.
I sighed. “I need to know what’s happening out there. I can’t pretend anymore.”
They all paused and watched me warily.
“Breakfast first.” Ethan dropped a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. His smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“Breakfast during,” I stated, picking up the fork and opening the laptop at the same time.
Tyler draped an arm over the back of my chair and leaned in, bringing up news articles, intelligence reports, and updates from people we trusted.
“I’m not gonna lie.” He sounded resigned. “It’s not good.”
For the next hour, he updated me on what was happening past the azure waters at the bottom of the cliffs.
The protests and violence had escalated. Some countries had been forced to declare a state of emergency; in other places, curfews and security checkpoints were coming into effect. Variant Valor had branches everywhere. They were well funded by the generally better-off Variants, and their propaganda was all over billboards and the media. The Human Empowerment Network was taking a more grassroots approach—graffiti, human-only areas, Molotov cocktails, and radicalization through social media.
Davis’s face and voice were all over the reports—both news and top-secret intelligence.
So was mine.
He was holding press conferences to tell the world I was the key to everything, making it sound as if the technology he was creating would solve everyone’s problems.
According to Lucian and Kyo, Melior Group was struggling to keep up with him. They were stretched thin. Part of the forces were tasked with assisting human law enforcement, trying to make the streets safe, but some of the elite teams were still hunting Davis, trying to take him down discreetly.
Lucian happened to connect while we were going over the reports. He explained, “Part of the problem is that he keeps moving and he’s well protected by his own lackeys, some of them with dangerous abilities. Then there’s the issue of discretion. We need to take him quietly, if possible. We can’t just tackle him to the ground in front of a dozen cameras. But by far the biggest problem is the mole we have. Whenever we get a solid lead and set up an operation, he disappears. We suspected it before, but now it’s undeniable that someone high up, maybe even someone on the board, is leaking information to Davis.” He sounded tired and far away on the other end of the line, and I felt bad we’d abandoned him. Tyler was his righthand man, and he was here with both hands tied behind his back. “There is serious division in the management here, and it’s starting to trickle down the ranks. The number of people I can trust is woefully small. Charlie is doing all he can to weed out who the problem is, but they’re covering their tracks