Page 32 of Polestar
“But I still don’t know what this sigil means.Why would he have it?Is it something to do with the trafficking ring?”
“Yes,” Kane said.“It’s the mark of one of the sector heads that we’re tracking.We’ve only seen it a few times, and it’s never resulted in anything good.”
“What do you mean?”Ana’s hand shot to her chest, fingers tugging on the edges of her robe as her anxiety spiked.
Dark magic is way out of my league.
“It means that unless we can find a way—which we haven’t yet—to break this hex, the only way we can communicate with Aksel is through you.”
All the blood drained from Ana’s face and a chill swept through her like a north front.
“I—I see.”She drew a breath.“And what if I can’t?”
“Then we’re going into clan territory completely blind,” Magnus said.
“LikehellI’mgoinginto polar bear clan territory!”Ana squeaked at Kane, eyes wide, still gripping the front of her thin robe across her throat.She freed a hand to swipe the air in front of her.“N—No.I agreed to Iceland, for Carson—who’s not even frigging here, by the way!But the Barents Sea?No.No way.”She turned toward Magnus, jabbing the air in his direction with a pointed finger.“No.”
Then she spun around in her fuzzy slippers and stomped out of the Director’s office, the bottom edges of her robe billowing out behind her.
Burns stared after Ana, mouth gaping.“I’ve never seen her lose her shit like that before.She’s always so damned calm, like an unruffled cat.”
“Seems that cat just got her tail stomped on.Good job, Magnus.Great way to break the new recruit in.”
“Shut up, Connor,” Magnus growled as he followed Ana out—and not sure why he did.
Just to calm her down and make her see reason, he told himself, since Kane had insisted that she was the only agent that could do this mission.
Which he seriously, seriously doubted.
There has to be someone else that can do it.Someone that won’t shrivel at the sight of snow.
Still, Magnus didn’t like to see her so rattled.Especially not after how she’d handled herself for the last couple of days.She’d been so empathetically solid for all of those survivors they’d interviewed.So calm and collected as she led their team through the ship to find his near-dead clansman.
And she hadn’t even been working on these cases nearly as long as he and the others had.
Just before he caught up to her billowing robes, halfway down the hall to their rooms, he admitted to himself he respected her.
Her professionalism and compassion in the face of such hardship.
“Ana.”
“No.”Her index finger jabbed the air as she swung her arm out behind her, but she didn’t slow her pace.
Two more strides and Magnus reached for her arm, trying to slow her without hurting her.“Listen.”
“I.Am not—.”She heaved a deep breath.“Going.To TheNorth.I’m not.”She shook her head, eyes wild as she looked at him, then up and down the hall in case anyone else was coming to force her into the barren frozen wilderness.“Not happening.”
“If you would just listen—.”
“Nope.Nuh-uh.As I said, I was willing to go to Iceland for Carson because he’s like a brother and he’s always had my back.ThankGod, I ended up here instead.And now, what?You’re going to try to make me go into hostile territory?I’m not trained for that.It’s so much worse than Iceland.”She sobbed on the last few words.
“You’re exhausted.”
“You’re demented,” she snapped.
“And you’re being rude again.”Noting the red splotches of color appearing on her cheeks.Just like it did before she passed out in the hangar.He tried to take a softer approach.“Ana, you’ve pushed yourself really hard these last few days.Get some rest and we can talk about this tomorrow.”
She’d handled herself impeccably, and now, at the mention of going to his homeland, she was losing her shit?It was the Iceland incident all over again.
