Page 72 of Forged Absolution (Fates of the Bound 4)

“Not anymore. He’s moved up in my esteem lately. We’re contemplating becoming best friends. I’m sure there’s a greeting card or a secret handshake involved. I’m a bit rusty.”

“Best friends with a man who cut out his slave’s chip?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lila said.

“I’ll tell you exactly what I’m talking about. He’s not workborn, from his bearing. He comes from money and power, but it all slipped through his fingers. I can see that plainly enough. There’s guilt in him. Pain, loneliness, and sadness, too. He’s just starting to come into his own as a man, figuring out the sort he wants to be.”

“I think time away from his brother will help him do that.”

“It better not come at the expense of my little sister. I might not like her, but I love her,” Kenna said. “It is times like these that I wish had the vision. I’d touch Dixon every time I saw him.”

“You care a great deal about your sisters. You pretend frustration, but you worry over Blair a great deal.”

Kenna played with a napkin. “I’m the eldest. It is my job to worry. The seizures took our mother too early, just like they’ll take Mòr in the end.”

“They’re adults, Kenna. You don’t have to play that role anymore.”

“Don’t I? Given Mòr’s illness and Blair’s refusal to participate in the world, someone has to take care of them.”

“Where’s your lover?”

Kenna looked up, not expecting the question. “Some people can’t handle responsibility.”

“It sounds lonely.”

“Not so lonely as busy. Cecily and Camille help when they aren’t preoccupied. Achille did as well. That might have put on a strain on their relationship. I just hope it wasn’t the reason why he left.”

“I sincerely doubt he left Cecily because he occasionally had to remind a grown woman to wear her jacket and gloves,” Lila said. “If he couldn’t handle that, he didn’t deserve her.”

“Damn straight.”

“Connell seems to help.”

“Yes, he does. Connell is a good man. Is Dixon a good man?”

Lila nodded.

“Well, I hope he’ll return with you, and I hope he’ll figure out things here. Maybe you both can. I see in your eyes that you’re lost too. Stay here as long as you wish. You’ll always have a place with the oracles.”

Dixon entered, his lips and cheeks a touch redder than before.

Kenna snatched up her breakfast plate. “I need to eat and help the girls clean up. Drive safely. I’ll see you both soon.”

Lila left her plate where it sat. Nico had cooked excellently, but she’d lost her appetite after Mòr’s seizure. Instead of lingering, she and Dixon walked back to their cabin, with Lila sneaking peeks at Dixon’s face.

“We both need to retrieve things from the shop. If you’re going on vacation, you need to do it properly. Also, it would be helpful if you and Toxic could help me go through some of this data.”

Dixon paused mid-step, as though he might refuse.

“Take me back, Dixon, and I won’t bug you for details about last night or what just happened in the kitchen. At least, not yet.”

Dixon’s cheeks turned a darker shade of pink.

Chapter 14

Lila watched the cars and shops pass by the truck as the pair sped through New Bristol, the skyscrapers growing larger the closer they drove to downtown. They’d only been a few dozen steel peaks in the distance for the last two days, barely visible above the oracle’s stone wall. She’d nearly forgotten them, as though their influence decreased with their size.

They might not have existed at all.

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