Page 21 of Atlas and the Traitor

“We know who the first two are,” Robin said from his perch. “Who’s the hunter?”

“A human,” Adam answered.

“Erased,” added Icarus, who’d been holed up excavating with his sister all evening.

“He sounds closer to the three of us,” Atlas said, gesturing at himself, Mary, and Icarus, indicating the subtle shift in vocal tone that set folks from the South apart from their Northern neighbors. “From what I’ve gathered, he lost someone about the time of the Rift, maybe multiple someones, and he’s been on the warpath ever since, targeting the magical and supernatural.”

“So he’s a religious zealot?” Icarus said, as he cinched his reclaimed robe around himself.

Atlas shook his head. “He blew up a church harboring paranormals. I barely got everyone out of there. Even my zealot father wouldn’t go that far.”

“So he wants what?” Mac asked.

“A normal life.” Atlas flitted a hand in the air. “Free of all this.”

“And he what?” Jenn scoffed. “Thinks if he kills her?—”

“And Chaos.”

“That magic will disappear, and the world will be one where his loved ones would’ve lived?”

“They’ll still be dead,” Abigail said.

“And besides,” Mac picked up, “that’s not how it works. There are no humans either without Nature.”

“And no Nature without Chaos,” Atlas finished.

“It’s a balancing act,” Robin said. He’d been so uncharacteristically quiet that Atlas had almost forgotten he was there, same as everyone else at the table who whipped their gazes his direction. “It always has been.”

Paris was the first to twist back around in his chair toward Mary. “But you’ve been trying to destroy Chaos?”

“Is that what she’s been doing?” Atlas challenged, and the pixie tellingly kept her lips sealed.

Everyone around that table thought he was the master manipulator, and they weren’t wrong, but Nature was in a class by herself. She was also right, however; there were too few days until Solstice to get into how inconsequential they all were when the poles of their existence went to war. If he was going to balance their shit so they didn’t all die, he needed the table full of people—distractions—occupied and out of his way.

He finished casting his last spell, then slid into the space between Mac and Paris, because yes, he was an asshole. And because Adam, the most strategic of the soldiers around the table, was directly across from them. He pushed the picture of the hunter back toward him. “You take the hunter. He’ll be making his way north. I’ll give Icarus and Mary everything I know on him. Excavate and track until you find him.” He grabbed the picture of Dyami next and pulled it in front of Mac. “You’re on Dyami. Use your connections with the tribes and your badge. He’s power hungry. He’s made other mistakes. I’ll turn over what my excavator found. Investigate the licenses at the casinos and bring him down.”

Robin hopped off the barrel, his heavy bootsthunking as they hit the floor. “And you’ll go after Evan?”

He rotated to face the coyote stalking his direction. “He thinks I’m wavering.”

Robin stopped directly in front of him, his golden eyes hard and assessing. “Are you?”

“It’s a balancing act,” Atlas said. “Every day.”

“And if you catch him, will you kill him or use him to bring Chaos through the veil?”

“What if we can do both?” Atlas realized his slip the minute it crossed his lips.

Robin didn’t miss theweeither, his stern face cracking into a victorious smirk. “She promised me revenge.”

“You’ll get it.” Of that, Atlas was certain. Whether any of them survived was a whole other question.

Fifteen

Robin did him the courtesy of making noise as he approached for a change, scuffing his booted feet along the sandy path that led from the villa, along the edge of the reflecting pool, to the vista overlook where Atlas stood casting spells to shore up the property’s perimeter. “Are the suits gone for good?”

“If I can help it,” Atlas replied. On the way to Talahalusi, he and Paris had made a pit stop by the compound of Sunset Hill penthouse condos that now belonged to Paris. Atlas had needed to resupply on essentials, including his kilts. He hadn’t brought any suits with him.

---