Page 38 of Seer Prophet

Guns weren’t the reason these people were staring at Jon, though.

He caught enough stray thoughts to know at least some of the humans recognized his face. Of course, they envisioned him with a yellow and black “terrorist” stamp under his portrait, but they knew him.

“Look.” Jon cleared his throat.

He felt an amused whisper of light from Chinja, and even from Vikram.

“…I know this is a lot to take in.” Jon motioned vaguely with his mutilated hand. He saw a few of the humans gape at his missing fingers and thumb. “But there are people out there, seersandhumans, who want to kill you. Now, I mean. Now that you’ve been ID’d as belonging to this List I was just talking about.”

The group stood there, blinking under the yellowish casino lights.

Jon hesitated when an early-to-mid-twenties black woman frowned at him, folding her arms. She glanced at her companion, an Asian man who looked Chinese, her frown deepening after he returned her look, quirking an eyebrow.

Jon took another breath. “We didn’t mean to put you in danger?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Maygar burst out.

Before Jon could turn, he felt the construct around him shift.

In what felt like a single heartbeat, the humans went completely blank-faced. Their pupils retracted to pinpricks. Their jaws loosened. Their faces grew slack. They swayed lightly on their feet, blinking every few seconds, their expressions serene.

Jon stared at them, one by one, in disbelief.

He aimed that stare at the muscular seer. “What in the actual fuck, Maygar?”

The young Elaerian met his gaze unapologetically.

Like his father, he wore a fitted, dark-gray suit.

Jon’s face flushed hotter. “Jesus. What is thematterwith you? Are you mentally damaged in some way?”

“AmImentally damaged?” Maygar gave him an equally incredulous stare, gesturing sharply at the slow-blinking, slack-jawed humans.“Gaos,Jon. That was twenty minutesoverdue!”

Next to him, Damon let out a low snort, covering his mouth.

Clicking in irritation, Maygar pitched his voice upward, imitating Jon’s with an exaggerated, mocking lilt.

“Um, yeah, okay. See, we’re, like, terrorists, you know? With supernatural powers? And like, this disease? The one thatmurderedeveryone you love, in the most horrific way imaginable? Oh, and then, like,totally destroyedyour entire civilization? Yeah. Well, I know you thinkweused it to kill all the humans. But, you know, wedidn’t. Even though all the human news stationssaywe did. That’s just them, you know, lying. We’re the good guys. Promise. But we’re going to, like,kidnapyou now, see? How are you all feeling about that? Is that good for you? Do you have any questions?”

Next to him, Chinja burst out in an involuntary snort-laugh.

Even Yumi cracked a smile, although she covered it with one hand. When Jon noticed, she gave him an apologetic look and a hand wave.

“Fuck you.” Jon looked back at Maygar. “They have a right to knowsomething?”

“Why, in the name of the gods?” Maygar threw up his hands. His arm knocked into the gun he wore, which looked strangely compatible with the suit. “How does that help them in any way? You’re going to make their human brains explode!”

“We can’t justkidnapthem.”

“But that’s exactly what wearedoing!” Maygar snapped. “No amount of bullshit sugar-coating will change that!Weknow it will save their lives, but do not expect them to understand that, Jon. Not now, and certainly not here. It is far better to bring them on the ship, explain things there. It will give them other humans to talk to, people they’ll trust far more easily than any of us. People who might even convince them we’re not the ogres they believe.”

Jon fought to argue against Maygar’s logic. He couldn’t, really.

In the end he only scowled. “So I answer to you now? Who made that genius decision? And why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“My dad did,” Maygar growled. “Mydadmade the decision, and hedidtell you, because I was there. He said military decisions fall onme.Security decisions fall onme.He made me responsible for keeping your sorry ass alive!”

There was a silence.

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