"And you're not?" Morana wondered how his brain worked. He might have seemed cold and aloof to others, but there was more there: a deeply intelligent mind and a heart exclusive to one woman.

"No."

Morana considered his profile for a long minute. "Who is Xander?"

His lip twitched in a smile. "He's the reason his mother didn't give up on her life for many years. He's the leverage I've used for years to keep her alive. He's the one answer she's been waiting for."

Morana's jaw dropped, shock infiltrating her system, and everything suddenly clicked into place.

"He's Luna's son?" Her voice was a strangled whisper. Memories flitted through her mind—Luna watching Xander from afar, her looks at baby Tempest, her face at Zephyr's pregnancy announcement. Morana stared at the man beside her, rendered speechless, as other memories came in. Xander making her a sandwich, Xander learning tech from her, Xander pushing up his glasses, Xander letting him hug her. A kaleidoscope of memories she had with him, that Tristan had with him, never knowing he was his biological uncle. But he felt like a father. She felt like a mother to him. They had almost adopted him. They were going to get a dog for him next month, foregoing the cat she'd wanted for their first pet because Xander had responded better to dogs than cats. Did they have to let him go now? Could they? When he'd become such an important part of their immediate family?

"Are you his…?" she stopped. If he was, then why would he lead Xander to them?

"His guardian," he corrected her assumption. "I've raised him since he was a baby with the help of a lovely nanny. The plan was always to lead him back to his maternal family if and when I found them."

"And you led Tristan to him."

"Yes," he affirmed. "With his help and a friend of his who used to live in the same neighborhood."

"Lex," Morana guessed.

"Yes. After his family passed, both Xander and the nanny made a good case for him. He stayed with us for a year before I sent them your way."

Everything was making crystal clear sense. "How old is Xander?"

"Six."

Another shock. They had all believed he had advanced intelligence and was around eight years old. This was more likegifted.

The Shadow Man extended a gloved palm. "The codes."

Morana swallowed, taking the lipstick tube out of her bag and haltingly placing it in his upturned hand. "What are you going to do with them?"

"What do you think?"

"End The Syndicate?" she threw out a guess.

"The Syndicate can never end," he stated plainly. "It needs to exist to dissuade any chaos in the vacuum."

He was right, but chaos had and would still exist. Could there be something worse than The Syndicate?

"Then what will you do?"

The Shadow Man smiled. "I'm going to reboot it."

And with that, he was up and gone.