Page 51 of Siege of Shadows

Rhys kept his eyes on me as he asked, “Is that a bad thing?”

“Not always,” I said, my smile falling. “But sometimes.”

Even from his side profile, I could see the vulnerability reflected in his soft eyes. He walked close to me, close enough for me to feel the heat from his body, or maybe I was imagining it. After I’d spoken, there was a slight uptick in his pace. The softness gone, he looked straight ahead.

“Well,” Brendan said, “his taking our mother’s name isn’tjustabout living as an agent.”

Rhys sent him an inscrutable glare as we turned a corner. There was a white, double-bolted door ahead of us. Brendan used his keycard, letting the red light from the scanner pass across the white plastic. The bolts unlocked with aclickand the door released from its seal. Taking hold of the edge, Brendan pulled it back.

The door opened to a monotony of darkness broken only by some lamps lining a redbrick wall and a trail of steps spiraling downward into the unknown.

“The Hole is where we keep the worst criminals,” Brendan explained as we began to step down the staircase. Brendan went first. Rhys followed after me.

The staircase was narrow, enclosed by two brick walls, narrowly spaced apart. It was as if we’d taken a wrong turn from the slick, high-tech enclave of the Sect and gotten lost inside an ancient castle dungeon. If it weren’t for the electric lights in the walls, I would have believed this place had been built centuries ago.

Brendan was a step below me and Rhys a step above me. I descended carefully.

“The worst criminals. Like Vasily.” Each creak of the steps beneath my feet sent jitters up my spine. They really could have spent more on maintenance down here.

“Vasily Volkov is dangerous. Well, you should know that. According to my briefings, you’ve had quite a few run-ins with him in the past.”

“Quite a few.” That Cheshire grin as he happily sliced off a man’s finger would never leave my memories. “Yeah, I see why he’d be locked up in a place called the Hole.”

“Not the first one he’s been in,” added Brendan, and with his hands tracing the wall for balance, he twisted around and looked up at his younger brother behind me. Rhys kept his eyes ahead, avoiding his meaningful glance.

“You mean the Devil’s Hole,” I said. The Greenland facility’sothername. Rhys had mentioned it once before.

“Keep going,” Rhys said, since his brother had stopped for just that second. I’d never seen Rhys so tense.

“Rhys, you once told me that some facilities are tougher than others. What happened there? What kind of place was it before it burned down?”

“It’s not something we need to talk about, Maia.”

Brendan looked at him sideways with narrowed, disbelieving eyes. “You’re really still bitter about having had to train at Fisk-Hoffman. The very fact that you’d be bitter in the first place is just...” He scoffed, shaking his head incredulously. “Unbelievable. You really are something, aren’t you? Like a spoiled child. Complaining about every opportunity you’re given.”

Rhys was very still.

“Maia, did you know that Fisk-Hoffman is—was—one of the most prestigious training facilities within the Sect?”

“Prestigious?” I frowned. That certainly wasn’t how it’d sounded when Rhys had first told me about it in France.

“Not that I would expect a young civilian like yourself to know much about it,” Brendan continued with a certain snooty upturn of his nose, “but since it opened in the sixties, only seven students from facilities around the world were selected as the cohort of a special program. Training the leaders of the future. And leaders theyforged. Like Father. And Grandfather. It made them heroes.”

“Sounds like a family affair.” A family of Sect-bound warriors, specially trained within carefully curated cohorts... until it was Rhys’s turn. “Didyougo?” I asked Brendan.

Brendan’s expression turned sour for just a moment before his chin lifted a little higher, as if he were trying to save face. “No. Selections aren’t made on the basis of family, but skill. Rhys was chosen when he was twelve, a year younger than the general recruiting age. Though technically he did have Father’s recommendation. It’s a greathonor.” He’d put emphasis on the word. It rang out into the darkness below. “Particularly for the youngest,” he added under his breath, his jaw tightening afterward ever so subtly. “And yet he’s angry just because training was a bit difficult. As if that weren’t the whole point.”

“Yeah, when I said it’s not something we need to talk about,I actually meant that.” Rhys’s footsteps were getting heavier behind me. That menacing hint in his voice wouldn’t stay buried forever. Even though I could breathe easy knowing it wasn’t directed at me, it put me on edge nonetheless. This wasn’t a subject he wanted broached.

Brendan didn’t seem to notice that.

“I’m not even surprised he’d be like this.” He was talking to me now, as if he’d already given up on talking to Rhys. “We haven’t seen each other in a year. Barely talked. And yet the second he sees me, he doesn’t even say hello. I mean,Isaid hello, because I’m the civil, responsible one. Theniceone. Buthejust stood there.” Brendan didn’t seem to realize how ridiculous he sounded. “He’s always like this. I bet he’s told you nothing but the worst about me. Our father, too.”

“He doesn’t really talk about either of you that much,” I said stiffly, because I could feel Rhys burning a hole through the back of my head.

“Because it’s personal,” Rhys said irritably. “How much have you told me aboutyourfamily, Maia?”

“Everything there is to know about them was probably in whatever file you read before you met me,” I coolly reminded him.

---