One led me and Maggie to a hotel off the beaten path. Well, a room in said hotel to be more precise. She disappeared just as Maggie knocked on the door, leaving me alone with a Garde who seems to trust me and her well armed Cepan. I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be when the door opens. Conrad Hoyle has a small handgun that he fixes on me the moment he sees me, to be expected since my people are hunting him down. I still think this is going to be the end of me and that I might’ve made a big mistake.
I take a step back, hissing for One, but she’s really abandoned me. Hell of a time to disappear. Then Maggie steps in front of me with more determination than I have. “He helped me find you and avoid the Mo—the others. He says he can see One.”
Conrad looked at me suspiciously. “That who you talking to?” He towered over me, big, muscular and intimidating. He didn’t lower his gun.
“She’s not here, right now.”
Maggie frowned at me. “But she was—“
Conrad looked between us. “What’d he say that makes you believe him? He could be bringing them here.”
“He knew about that night. The night we got on the ship and what we saw.”
Conrad frowned, studying me, like he’s trying to see if I could’ve been on sight. He lowers the gun a moment later and waves me in. Maggie followed, closing the door behind her with a click of finality that rang in my bones. There wouldn’t be any turning back. I was betraying me people.
I wiped my palms against my jeans as Conrad gestured for me to sit in the bed. I tried just casually perching on the edge, but ended up more collapsing on it. My body was still screaming at me for doing too much so soon after waking up, and I felt like I could throw up at any moment. Not the ideal situation to try winning over the Loric.
“Explain,” Conrad demanded, not putting the gun down, but no longer actively pointing it at me.
“After One—“ the memory burned fresh in my mind, sword through her chest—“was killed, I was hooked up to her body to go through her memories. But she was there. I saw her life, talked with her…” It didn’t feel like it summed up what really happened between us.” I swallowed. “She changed me. When I woke up… I’d been in a coma for three years. And then One showed up. After we found you.” I met his eyes. “She told me I had to stop them.”
“You left out the giant crush part.”
My head started spinning as I looked over at One leaning against the wall. And then I blacked out.
When I came to, I was being jostled and One was entirely in my face. The sun shone on her hair, and I was vividly reminded of watching her play with her telekinesis in the car. She pulled back with a knowing smirk. “You need to work on your fainting issues.”
“I just woke up from a coma. I’m adjusting,” I replied dryly.
“You’re awake!” Maggie cried and I looked over at her. She was leaning around the passenger seat of the car. It took a couple more moments to orient myself. I was sprawled over the entirety of the backseat, completely unbound and Conrad was driving, glancing back at me at Maggie’s declaration.
“Is that One you’re talking to?” He continued on without waiting for a response. “You’ll need to practice not talking to her out loud. It’ll draw attention to us if you don’t.”
I nodded. “Where are we going?”
“We received a encrypted message offering help. They knew information only us cepans remember.” He gave me a look like he thought Mogs having that kind of knowledge might not be as far-fetched as he first thought.