Page 74 of Rise of the Queen

“He is. I’m not sure I’m going to be the one to help him. My dad said it needs to be you and Ivan. My dad keeps assuring me that Viktor isn’t scared of me, but he’s terrified of finding out what he can do. He knows I’m the one who’s helped everyone else unlock their gifts and he doesn’t want to know what his is yet.”

“How do we help him then? I don’t know the first thing about how you’ve helped everyone else. You just do it, it seems. How are we going to do that for him?” I asked, thinking of how Ivan and I could possibly get Viktor to realize his gift.

“That, my love, is the million-dollar question,” she said, climbing over me to get out of bed. “One that I do not have the answer to just yet.”

Viktor walked into my office that afternoon. “I heard from the journalist. He said he has the information we need. Do we still keep up the charade that Chen is the one he’s been talking to this whole time? Did Battista tell him who he’s really been helping?”

I thought for a few moments. “I’ll call to confirm with Battista, but my first instinct is to keep up with the charade. Chen seems to enjoy it, and I’d still like to keep us as anonymous as possible.”

Viktor chuckled. “Chen loves it. Who knew that kid would enjoy pretending to be somebody else so much? I’ll make the arrangements.”

Once he walked out of the office, Ivan walked into the office, closing the door behind him. “That looks serious,” I said, watching him close my office door.

“Eh, I’d rather not be overheard and I don’t know how I feel about it looking like we’re in here staring at each other without saying anything yet. We have to ease into this one,” he said, laughing as he sat down.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Sephie talked to you about Viktor?” he asked.

“Briefly, yes. When we woke up this morning. I had noticed that he’s been avoiding spending any time with her after she brought it up. He always sends somebody else. I think she might be starting to take it personally,” I said.

“She’s definitely taking it personally, but she’s also trying to not let it bother her. Her dad confirmed that he’s been avoiding her. She was not the least bit surprised. But her dad also said it might be up to the two of us to help him figure it out,” Ivan said.

“That’s what Sephie told me this morning. The bigger question is how the fuck do we do that? She’s the one who’s done it for everyone else. Even she doesn’t know how she’s done it. She just does.”

Ivan was thoughtful for a few moments. “I think we should have a conversation with her. She’s inadvertently nailed everyone’s gifts before they’ve gotten them. I think she was the first one to say that Stephen could mindfuck someone. She nailed me being able to see demons. She also hyped Andrei up enough that he finally started to trust himself and trust what he was seeing. The only one she didn’t do much for was Misha, but his was already starting. She did, however, make damn sure we’d always listen to it.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard her say anything like that about Viktor though. Because he’s the one who spends the least amount of time with her, he has the fewest inside jokes with her.”

“That’s why we need to talk to her, I think. I know she’s seen something that none of us have or she knows something that the rest of us don’t; she just hasn’t paid attention to it. She just has to give us a hint on what she thinks his gift is, and then we can figure out a way to help him realize it.”

“Agreed. She gave you extra points when she found out you caught my eyes changing yesterday. She said you’re getting quite good at seeing the weird shit when it first happens. I agree.”

“I wouldn’t have caught it if her dad wouldn’t have told me it was going to happen. I knew hers started when she would get insane-level angry. When I felt her anger go off the charts to contain yours, I figured that’s when it would happen. I knew you were also trying to figure out a way to keep her from seeing Armando again. The best way to keep him from seeing her eyes is to make your eyes do the same thing. For the record, I do agreewith her on what to do about him, but it doesn’t mean I’m happy about not watching him die.”

“I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that one. I still don’t like it. I’ll argue with her. I’m not sure I should argue with the universe though,” I said. Ivan laughed as he saw my anger start to rise over not being able to kill Armando myself.

“You might need to get contacts too, Boss. At least for your business meetings,” he said, smirking at me.

“No shit? Right now? I’m barely angry.”

“No shit. They’re not as dark as hers, but they’re darker than what they were last night. It took her a long time to get all the way black.

“Shit. I didn’t even think about my meetings. That’s gonna be awkward until I can get a handle on this,” I said, somewhat amused at the thought of scaring my business associates.

“Maybe avoid eye contact for a while until we can figure this out,” he said, laughing at my predicament.

“Get out of my office, asshole,” I said, laughing with him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sephie

“What’s up, my girl?” Chenasked as he walked into Adrik’s office.

“Chen! My favorite French person!” I said, jumping up to give him a hug. Since Chen had been helping us out for so long, the guys no longer got overprotective of me hugging him. Not gonna lie, I missed that. “Are you ready to just straight up lie to someone’s face yet again?” I asked, laughing. Chen had discovered that not only did he love being able to lie to someone’s face, but he was actually quite good at it.

“You know me so well. It’s disturbing how much I enjoy this,” he said, chuckling. “Also, the three amigos say hi. Trino still wants to know if there’s a chance you’ll move to Colombia.”

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