Page 39 of Custodian

“Let me guess; he started to perk back up after the Massacre?” Cali asked, dryly.

Nik sighed, “Now that I think about it – yes. But I just figured he was rallying around his fellow wardens in their time of need. It didn’t cross my mind it was because he had stolen state secrets and was plotting to take over the damn world.”

“I think Axel is on the right track. I should go there,” Max announced into the silence of the room.

Max’s statement had Nikolai bolting upright in his chair, “I’m sorry, go where?”

“To the chade encampment,” Max chirped. “Who knows? I might be able to pick up on something. Feelings, echoes, premonitions. That kind of thing is happening to me all the time now.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not!” Nikolai yelled, preventing Ryker from having to do the same.

Ryker had never been inside one of the chade prisons but he had been outside of them often enough. It was enough to make his skin crawl. He didn’t know how the rangers worked there day-in and day-out and managed to stay sane. The thought of such a sensitive being like Max with her extreme empathy and all those holes in her spirit, being in such close proximity to that wretched place made him physically ill.

“It’s not your decision to make,” Max informed Nikolai, primly.

“Like hell it isn’t! I am the Gatekeeper, the King, the Monarch and the fucking God of that place. What I say, goes. And you are definitely not going. It is not a place you will ever be welcome. I don’t give a shit how powerful you are. I’m not scared of your swirly eyes, either,” Nikolai added, obviously noting the power whirling in the coloured depths.

Max narrowed her eyes but didn’t attempt to command Nikolai again. Instead, she turned to her left; “Ivy –”

Ivy shook her head just as determinedly, “Nik is right, Max. There is no way I would allow you to step foot in that place.”

“Allow?” Max’s eyebrows rose to a startling height.

“Don’t get bitch-face with me, woman,” Ivy stabbed a finger at Max. “You heard me. It’s for your own good. Besides, Nik already told you; there aren’t any chades left from that time.”

Max pouted for a moment, before seeming to accept reason, “Maybe not, but there’s sure to be some chades currently imprisoned who have met the ones known to Emmanuel – or have even met the guy himself. They are being drawn to him just as surely as the curable chades are being drawn to me.”

Ryker wasn’t going to waste time asking Max how she knew that. The certainty in her voice was now very familiar to him. And judging by the looks on his fellow paladin’s faces, they knew it too. “You’re not going. Period,” Ryker stated firmly, cutting her off before she could argue, and offering an alternative. “But I’ll go.”

Max gasped and spun on him, “I’m not allowed to go but you are?”

He simply crossed his arms over his chest, “You bet your pretty little butt.”

“How is that fair?” Max demanded.

“Life isn’t fair, princess,” Ryker risked his head – and his balls – by saying.

“Not that your foreplay isn’t entertaining as hell,” Nikolai’s amused voice cut in. “But I can think of a better person than Ryker.”

Ryker narrowed his eyes, “Oh, really? And who do you suggest, oh great King?”

“Him,” Nikolai pointed at Lark.

Lark pointed at his chest, looking surprised, “Me?”

“Lark?” Ivy’s voice swiftly followed and she half-stepped in front of her lover.

“Yes, you,” Nikolai answered Lark first before turning to his best friend. “And yes, your boy-toy.”

“Stop calling him that,” Ivy hissed.

“Why?” Lark asked, easily ignoring the murderess next to him.

Nikolai didn’t look quite so sure or amused as he replied, “Because you’re Isaac’s son. You’re sure to be trained in advanced interrogation techniques.”

“Advanced interrogation techniques?” Lark snorted, “You mean torture.”

“Eh, tomato,tomato,” Nik shrugged.

---