Page 81 of Legacy of Chaos

Man, she asked a lot of questions. And for some fucked-up reason, he kept answering them.

“Yeah.” Painful memories flitted at the edges of his mind as he looked out at the fog. “We didn’t know what’d happened to him—his soul, I mean. No one can find him. I thought…I thought that if I was dead, it would be easier to locate him.”

She nodded as if she understood, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. She hadn’t killed her baby brother and ruined many lives.

Something in the mist screamed. Fat, crimson veins began to spread through the fog, pulsing and squirming, growing more agitated as if sensing his mood.

“Look,” he said, “we have shit to do and not much time to do it in.”

“You’re right.” She nodded decisively. “We can save this for later.”

“We’re not saving anything.” He started toward his office but heard her quiet snort and knew therewouldbe a later—and she was definitely saving for it.

Cyan was still rattled by Stryke’s confession when she returned to the forward operating center, where Taran was catching Blade, Mace, and Scotty up on events. The team armed themselves as Taran spoke, pulling weapons and tools from their packs, stuffing them into pockets and sheaths, and strapping them onto different body parts.

He’d been so desperate to find his dead brother that he’d been willing to die. Holy shit. How much agony had he been in to consider such a thing?

Focus. You have a job to do.

Shaking her head to clear it, Cyan studied the blueprints, searching for the perfect location to activate the amplifier. Ideally, near electronic machinery, but she also wanted to be as close to the water and broken glyphs as possible.

“Boss.” Jackson gestured to his equipment screen. “We got another heat signature. Headed this way fast.”

“What’s that mean?” Mace asked.

“It’s either a big demon, a mass of small demons, or a blast of evil atmosphere that’ll hit like a storm and add to the fog.” Taran tapped his wrist comms, and the speakers on the bridge clicked on. “Sea Storm, brace for impact or attack. Mages, fortify the shield.Incoming.”

Suddenly, the platform trembled. Something hit the only window with no cracks, and the thing nearly shattered. The fog closed in, seeping between the smallest gaps in the glass and metal. A moment later, the mages must have regained control, and the mist retreated from the rig.

“This is so fucked up.” Blade lowered the handheld crossbow he’d aimed at the window. “Leave it to Stryke to kick off the start of the end of the world.”

“Stryke didn’t start this.” Cyan zoomed into a center section of the schematic. “The oil company did. Stryke is trying to fix it.”

Blade shot her a look of disappointment. “So, you’re on Team Stryke.”

“I’m not on anyteam, Blade,” she said, unable to contain her irritation.

She was starting to understand why there was so much tension between the brothers—and in the entire family. She’d also seen how deeply Stryke was affected. He didn’t need Blade’s guilt trip when he was drowning in his own.

“I definitely wasn’t Stryke’s biggest fan when I started at StryTech,” she admitted. “But now…” She shrugged. “Now, I see another side of him.”

“The side of him without clothes, I’m guessing,” Blade muttered.

“Excuse me?” She snapped her head around to glare at him because, hell no. She wasn’t putting up with that shit. Furious, she wove a nasty shock spell into his wrist comms and triggered a jolt that made him yelp. “My opinion of him isn’t based on orgasms.” She shocked him again, turning up the intensity. This time, he leaped backward with a curse. “Say something like that again, and I swear I’ll train you to sit pretty and roll over on command. And I’m not in the mood to show mercy.” An image of Blade beating Stryke flashed in her mind, and she zapped him once more.That was for Stryke, she thought, feeling grimly amused when Blade clenched his teeth and took that one like a champ. “You got it?”

“Buddy.” Mace tested the edge of a blade before disappearing it up his sleeve. “Stow it. I hate to agree with Stryke because he’s such a dick, but he was right. We’re in a fuckton of trouble, andyour beef with him is turning your focus to shit. Now’s not the time for this. Stop being an asshole and team up.”

Scotty thrust out her fist. “Team up.”

Blade, his expression stormy, looked over at the petite redhead. “So, you agree with Mace?”

“Yup,” she said, “and you’re lucky he said it before I did. I wouldn’t have been as nice. You’rewayout of line, and Cyan went too easy on you. She should have laid you out. Deal with your personal shit on your own time.”

The shadows in Blade’s dark eyes writhed angrily, but they gradually disappeared, and he gave his teammates a resigned fist bump.

“Team up.” He shot Cyan a sheepish look. “That was uncalled for. I apologize.”

“We’re cool. Thank you.”

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