Page 124 of Control's Undoing

“Colum?”Eric said.

At first, Annie thought Eric was checking on him, but when Colum blinked, focusing on the meeting once more, she realized it had been a prompt.

“The Spaniard knows about the Masters’ Admiralty,” Colum began speaking in quick, sharp sentences, unlike his normal meandering word patterns.“He might even be a member, given how much he knows.”

Around the table, everyone shifted.Colum had said the quiet part out loud, words dropping like lead balloons.Annie was glad someone else had pointed out that, more than likely, the Spaniard was a member.She’d been thinking it but hadn’t wanted to say it.

“He’s connecting with clients who want something from us—the blackmailer, now Dodge.Or maybe Dodge isn’t his client.Maybe the Spaniard purchased whatever piece of the manuscript Dodge found in Stoker’s papers from him, and is trying to get the pieces we have.He clearly has some of it, as evidenced by him sending a page to Nikolett.He sent it to Nikolett to show us he knows who we all are.Or maybe he sent it to Nikolett as a test, to see what she’d do with it, and by all of us coming here, we confirmed whatever information he had on us.”

Colum stopped, looking around at everyone’s reactions.Annie smiled, reaching for the hand still on her knee under the table.

“There are a few things I’d add,” she said, smile dropping as she turned away from Colum.“I don’t have all the context for what’s happened before, but from where I sit, it seems clear that the Spaniard didn’t get involved in the manuscript issue until very recently—I mean, in the past few days.The first two attempts to get our pieces of the manuscript were amateurish.We know that based on information from the man in Dublin and the man?—”

“One-eyed man,” Xavier muttered.

“—in New York,” Annie continued.“I think after the failed attempt in New York, either Dodge hired the Spaniard or sold his piece of the manuscript to him.Either way, I think if this Spaniard had been involved from the beginning, the first attempt to break into the archive would have been successful.”

Everyone took a moment to process that.

Xavier sat forward.“We need to check with the other admirals.Maybe they each got a page.”

“Good idea, text your mother,” Eric said, pulling out his own phone.“I’ll text the others.”

Nikolett studied Xavier.“You’re Victoire’s son?”

“Yes.”

Colum studied Nikolett closely.It was clear he knew Nikolett, but they responded to each other as if they were merely colleagues, not friends after that first brief, awkward encounter in the entrance hall.And there was certainly no romantic attraction.Colum had admitted to having no feelings for her, but Annie was only human, and when she’d first seen Nikolett in the hallway, she’d felt a twinge of jealousy because the admiral was very beautiful.

“So who’s trying to kill you, then?”he asked Nikolett, clearly curious rather than concerned.

“Probably someone loyal to Petro,” she said casually.“Given what we’ve discussed about the Spaniard being a mercenary specializing in attacking the Masters’ Admiralty, it’s possible that some of the recent attacks could be the work of the Spaniard, if he was hired by my enemy.Maybe his words to Vadisk were a warning that he’d taken a contract to kill me.”

Eric was holding perfectly still, his gaze on his phone, his knuckles white.

“Could they be the same person?”Annie asked.“Your enemy—the person loyal to Petro—and the Spaniard?I think it’s pretty clear the Spaniard is either a member or someone related to a member.”Annie glanced at Colum.“Do you reject legacies—the children of members—who don’t meet the society’s standards?”

“My mother didn’t get a page,” Xavier said, before anyone could answer Annie’s question.He held up his phone, then tucked it into his pocket.

“None of the others have, either,” Eric said, though his voice was strangled.Abruptly, he pushed to his feet.“Excuse me.”

“Eric, wait,” Colum called out, standing as well.“There’s something…” He started to run a hand through his hair but stopped, lowering his arms to his sides, his spine straight.“I’m stepping down as archivist.”

Annie started to interrupt, to stop Colum, but Xavier caught her eye and shook his head.

Eric reared back as if Colum had struck him.“Like hell you are.”

“I mean it.As soon as this is all over, I’m finished.”

Eric’s flash of anger melted into genuine confusion.“Why would you leave the archive?You love it.It’s your home.”

“You’ve left me no choice.I told you I don’t want a marriage in name only.”

Nikolett’s head snapped up at that.

“I want a real trinity.I want to be loved.”

Annie’s heart broke.

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