His lips draw into a snarl when he sees me, his pointed teeth bared, and through a clenched jaw he growls, “Where’s my son?”
Oh my god. “Wh-what?” Oh no, what’s happened…
“Where is my son, Analina?”
I gape at him, my mind drawing blank.
“Do you have him?” he roars at the camera, and he stops pacing, his arm making a jerky gesture as he glares at me, glares at me with his whole face. “Did you take Asili?”
“No, Vahadr, never,” I manage to gasp, fear settling into my stomach in an acrid swirl.
“Well he isn’t here!” He scrapes in a rough breath and resumes pacing. “The staff have searched every inch of this dwelling. Mother is off-sphere at a spa resort, Kyrin has not been to his own dwelling in days, and I don’t know—I don’t know where else he could be.”
“Have you contacted the authorities?”
“Useless,” he snaps, running a hand back and forth through his hair. “What good will they do? Paperwork and bureaucracy.”
“What can I do—”
“Nothing. I have Kyrin on the case.” He stops and stares into the camera again, stares with an intense, soul-crushing ferocity. “Are you sure you don’t know where he is?”
“Vahadr, no, I’ve been in this room all night and day! If knew, if I’d seen something I would—”
The connection goes dead and I’m left staring at nothing, horror for what could possibly have happened to Asili churning heavy through my gut.