Page 93 of Lost Kingdom

“You’re cloaked in shadows because of the pain you feel. But she’s wrapped in black because of the pain she’d rather foist onto a child. Everything you do is to protect Mia from touching that darkness. But Jada…” She shakes her head. “She wants to latch onto Mia. Because she’s light. She’sgood. I won’t let her touch that baby.”

“You’ve gone off topic, Aubree Grace.” I snag her arm and pull her around until she has no choice but to look up into my eyes. Until she has no escape, and no excuse to avoid me. “A bomb at that house today?”

“I didn’t know about the explosives. But I knew going there would kill you both.”

“How? How did you know?”

“The, uh…” She sniffs and looks down, shame, or maybe embarrassment, washing through her touch and tingling up my arm.

“Aubree?”

“The DB told me.”

“The dead body?” Minka stalks around Archer and plops her ass on the counter. “Nah. I’m calling bullshit.”

“Bullshit me?” Aubree spins to her boss. “Bullshit you! You hear them, too.”

“Hearthem?” she laughs. “The dead people? No, Doctor Emeri. I autopsy them.”

“And the little girls? Those sweet little babies who deserve a little… vigilante justice? They don’t speak to you?”

“Aubree!”

“Maybe they visit you in your dreams, because that’s when you allow yourself to hear them. But I’ve been listening my whole life.” She turns back to me. “Your driver? Frank? He’d take a bullet for you. Because he worked for Tim II, and he saw what evil is. Now he looks at you, and he knows, it’s his job to bottle this.” She looks me up and down. “This goodness. He would sacrifice himself for you. Because he has high hopes for a world where, from evil,youstill exist. You shouldn’t. The cards were stacked against you, but you chose distance over power, and good over malice. Oh, and Daisy? She thinks of you like a brother. And you think of her like a sister.”

“You asked me if I thought she was attractive! You know everything else, right? How could you not know this?”

“I asked you about herwhileyou were actively thinking of her.” Her eyes dance when I remember. When I recall the way my heart skipped, because I was thinking about Daisy, but I wasn’tthinking aboutDaisy. “If you’d been paying closer attention, you’d see what I’m trying to tell you.” She turns to Felix. “You would die a happy man if Tim agreed to meet you on your level. He doesn’t have to be as outspoken or as obnoxious as you, but you feel like a fraud, sitting where he was born to sit. If he joined you, you’d be unstoppable.” Then she looks at Archer. “You’re terrified of exposure. Hers, not yours. And her blood disorder keeps you awake at night. I found out whatshe is, not through her, but through you, way back around the first time you got married. I had suspicions before, but you told me in giant, neon lettering. You’re an open book, and I’m fluent in Malone.”

“You…” Cato considers. “Read minds?”

“I read moods.” She shrugs. “And feelings. Energy. I read memories and intentions. I’ll touch you when I want to know more, and I’ll heal you when I can.” She looks at Minka. “Your shoulder should hurt a hell of a lot more than it does.”

“I told you not to touch me.” Our most socially awkward one wrinkles her nose. “I don’t like when people touch me.”

“Yet, I wrapped myself all over you the very first day, the very first minute, we met. I knew from the start everything I needed to know.”

“I just assumed you were an overly friendly crackpot who would eventually wear my skin.” Minka folds her arms. “This is all a load of shit, right? You’re punking us to mess with Lix, because he’s annoying and you’ve officially run out of patience. I’d sooner believe you’re in bed with Booth.”

“This is…” She draws a long breath and exhales again with a sigh. “It’s my business. It’s my life, and it’s not something I share with just everybody.”

“Because it’s a load of shit!” Felix snaps. “You’ve been collecting intel on my family, and now you’re preparing to use it against us. You’ve convinced me of nothing, Emeri, except that you’re a sneaky shit who knows how to dig deep into a family you shouldn’t be hanging around.”

“We all have guardian angels watching over us.” She ignores my brother and turns to search my eyes. “Sometimes I ask mine for help. Or for guidance. For healing. For strength. I’m like my sister, and my sister is like my dad. And Eli has gifts, too. Oh! And Cordoza, too.”

“What?” Cato explodes. “That fat old fucker reads minds too?”

“No, he…” she considers. “I imagine he has a finely tuned gut instinct that revolves around reading someone else’s intentions. He allows Felix to do what he does in New York, despite the fact he could have easily wiped the Malones off the map and kept the city for himself, because he understands Felix rules out of love, and Timdoesn’trule, also out of love. He understands that Tim II attempted to create monsters, but all he created was the very army that would defeat him in the end. He understands who Minka is, even if not the things she does. He understands her heart, and he’s… pleasantly intrigued.”

She brings her focus back to me, her perfect ocean blue eyes flickering between mine. “You can choose not to believe me. And you can choose to think we got married without me knowing. The beauty of choice is that it’sall yours, and whatever you do with it will lead you to the path you’re meant to be on. But I won’t stop being who I am, and I’ll continue doing the job I do, standing up for the dead and working for the best damn chief M.E. this city has known. If, at some point, I see a certain outcome I know I can stop, then I’ll step in the way and try to fix it. Because I have that ability, and I won’t?—”

“Wait!” Archer grabs Aubree’s sleeve and spins her around so fast, her feet skid on the floor. “You can, like, sense the dead and their thoughts and feelings and yada yada?”

“Some—”

“Why the fuck are you out here watching us run through an entire investigation, when you can just ask the dead person who killed them?”

“Because it doesn’t work like that,” she snickers. “You’re oversimplifying something that isn’t, well… documented. It’s not real, according to science. And presenting your case to a judge, with a sticky note that says, ‘Aubree said so’ isn’t going to do you any favors.”

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