SECOND DRAFT: Hard Bank Left

47

Krys wished so desperately to read Graham's mind that she thought, just for a moment, that she had. She was the only thing he had left to lose, not his property, not his savings, not family, not even his memories. He had lost all of those over and over and over. He'd become numb to it. But Krys? Her presence? Her support? The space she took up in his life? That was something he had lost and missed, something he found himself unwilling to part with. He needed her every bit as much as she needed him. If he lost her the way the team had lost Raide, the way they had nearly lost Ve and Mizella...

"Graham, wait!"

But it was of no use. He was beyond hearing her. He trudged on up the short flight of stairs into a small room flooded with moonlight from the large windows on the right side of the room. Alasier shouted orders, for someone to bar the doors and turned to look out the windows at the street before him. Flaming wreckage lay just on the other side of the glass, beyond that it was difficult to tell if there was anyone populating the darkness. Nannette and Asper answered his orders, barring the door in the far left corner of the room as best they could with a rifle that had been bent into an unusable condition.

Christian leaned limply against the far wall an arm burnt to a crisp. Krys couldn't tell if he was breathing. Several of Tawni's men stood huddled in the corner conferring amongst themselves. Cadence and Celeste stood not far from Christian. Celeste was checking over his wounds, ignoring howo her own skin layer lay exposed in several places on her arms revealing the beautiful, intricate cervos Graham had handcrafted. Cadence was bleeding, had sustained several injuries, including a gash running from temple to jaw, several lasserations across his lower back, and a bullet wound clean through his right shoulder. He seemed unphased by what would have had anyone else immobilized.

"Mizella and Coran?" Graham asked, without missing a beat.

"On the other side of that door," Cadence answered, not so much as wincing as Celeste wrapped scrap fabric around his middle.

"God help them," Alasier muttered.

"What's the situation?" Graham pressed.

Alasier answered, not looking away from the window. "We're outnumbered, outgunned. Madam Constantine is still in their custody. Ero is escorting her personally."

"Ero has her convinced that Ve is dead," Cadence cut in.

"Is she?" Celeste demanded, looking at the pair of them in desperation. "Mizella said--"

"She's fine," Graham cut in. But we weren't able to move her. She's in the pool room."'

"Damn." Cadence grunted as Celeste tied off the wrap. "We're going to need to get Mrs. Constantine to her then."

"How do you intend on managing that?" Graham clenched his jaw, not wanting to give Cadence the power he was obviously giving him.

Krys touched his elbow reassuringly. Graham ignored it, or at least he seemed to ignore it.

"That's the thing." Cadence ran his tongue under his upper lip as he put his thoughts together. "We don't have a plan. We were hoping you had something. Oh, and there's another thing."

Krys looked up at Cadence, recognizing his bad news tone, the one he used when breaking hard truths to her, the one that made her want to slap him and his smug, holier-than-thou face. "What?" she snapped, not intending to.

"They know about Elicith."

For all the tension, Graham spoke with a surprisingly genial tone. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"They know who she really is," Alasier chimed in. "They know she's Krys' mother."

Krys felt Graham wobble and held him steady by his elbow. It might not have been news to him, or it might have been. She didn't know what information the earpiece had given him, but that wouldn't have been why he wavered. Knowing who Elicith was, both her status in the Caste and her relationship to Krys left, Krys a target. The risk of losing her just went up exponentially. Wrapping her hand around his bicep, Krys tried to get Graham to turn and look at her. He refused to move let alone look at her. That's when she caught Alasier watching her from his moon-lit window.