“Kal, so pleased you could make it,” he said. He had a boil the size of a fist on one side of his nose. He’d long since begun to turn cross-eyed with it. “Some of us were very nervous about the decision you might make. Especially after the… complication.”
The ‘complication’ he referred to was the death of my brother. I kept my smile fixed firmly in place.
“My brother was foolhardy,” I said. “Someone had to look out for the people’s best interest.”
“Quite right,” Lord Flex said, one eye turning toward the boil. “We kept an eye on the beacon in case you called for our aid. Of course, we would have responded.”
Fat chance of that, I thought. House Taw had called for their aid many times over the years and they had never responded.
“I must say, a good many of us are relieved you didn’t burn the beacon,” he went on. “What good would it have served? The death of thousands of innocent Titans. Why throw away so much when there is no guarantee of success?”
No “profit” was what he meant to say.
The moment the Changelings turned up, he would have dropped to his knees and puckered up and kissed their feet, asses, or any other part of their anatomy they requested… so long as the price was right.
And that, unfortunately, was how many of them thought.
“I was very sorry to hear about your dear elder brother,” Lord Flex said, shaking his head as if he wasn’t secretly glad he was dead. “Tragic. Just tragic. But it will happen when you run into war without being properly prepared.”
Or with a bunch of assholes ready to turn him in once the reward was high enough to warrant the risk.
My smile didn’t waver a fraction.
“My brother would be glad to count such people as yourself among his friends,” I said.
Lord Flex’s hand twirled in circles as he bowed low.
My eyes happened to glance up at the crowd, at the sight of a figure drifting like she floated on air.
My chest tightened at the sight of her and the blood drained from my face.
“No…” my lips murmured, barely capable of producing a sound. “It can’t be…”
Her skin glowed, ethereal as if she existed on another plane. Her eyes flicked up and met mine. My entire body shook and I thought my legs would give out.
“Jeyell…” I whispered.
Lord Flex rose from his bow with a confused look on his face. I leaned to one side to peer around him at the woman once more.
My eyes searched the crowd for her luminous skin, her mesmerizing smile, her raven hair…
But she was gone.
I was still shaken when I was ushered into the anteroom to await my turn to meet our new Changeling overlords. I was the first to receive the invitation and the room was empty when I arrived. If I’d been more aware, I might have felt a little unnerved they left me there alone.
Instead, I went over the moments immediately after I saw my wife in the crowd. I moved between the guests, politely smiling at those that offered a hand to shake, and ignored those that turned their backs on me.
I could care less.
The only thing that mattered was finding my wife.
Could she still be alive? It was possible, wasn’t it? People faked their deaths all the time. I ignored that buzzing voice in the back of my head asking, “Why? Why? Why?”
It didn’t matter why! I didn’t care why!
She could have had a mysterious and, to me, completely unknown past. A relative that kidnapped her and faked her death to claim a ransom.
“Why? Why? Why?”
I didn’t know!
Yes, I had seen her cold dead body on the examiner’s table. Yes, I had felt for her pulse in case someone had made a mistake. But that didn’t mean anything.
Maybe it wasn’t really her body. Maybe it was only a shell.
“Why? Why? Why?”
With modern technology, it was easy enough to fake someone’s death. Much of her face had been burnt away. They could have used someone else to pretend it was her. A handmaiden or a member of security. She was worth a lot of money as a hostage.
Then why hadn’t I received the randsom note? I heard the irritating voice of logic at the back of my head whining. She was worth nothing if they never asked for money.
But kidnappings went wrong all the time. You only had to open a newspaper to read about one.
I rounded the room. Outside, I was calm and serene. Inside, I was frantic.
I performed a complete turn about the room and came to a stop.
She wasn’t there.
No… There had to be some mistake.
Then it occurred to me. As I was moving around the room, she would be moving too. We could be moving in perfect synchronicity.
I cut across the middle of the room, checked the two corners I was now ignoring and surmised she must be ahead of me, in the fourth corner.
I approached it, keeping a close eye on either side of my peripheries to ensure I didn’t miss her again.
I reached the corner.
She wasn’t there.
I’d felt so certain, so sure it had been her. Was I mistaken? If I was, where was the woman who only looked like her?
Or had I imagined the whole thing?
I replayed the moment through my mind. It did nothing but confirm my certainty it was her.
I was sure of it.
Then another explanation shimmied up to the surface of my consciousness.
My elder brother died two weeks ago. Maybe it was reminding me of my previous brush with death.
When I lost her.
Maybe I was under too much stress. Maybe I’d imagined her.
The hair still stuck up on my arms, my senses telling me what I saw had been real.
I slumped in a chair back in the anteroom and ran my hands through my hair. I needed to keep it together. I needed to be strong for Titans everywhere. They were looking to me for leadership.
I shouldn’t be in this situation. I
