Page 129 of The Light Within

“That’s who we’re here to discuss,” stated Darcy calmly. Thank goodness she was here, or the whole thing would be descending into chaos. “We need your help. And we need it right now.”

Madame Sinclair, sat on the very chair she’d swivelled around on last night, looking between them, obvious exasperation written on her face. Her usual impeccable demeanour had unravelled further since they last saw her—purple bags under her eyes, crinkles in her power suit. Had the woman slept at all?

Moments prior, Darcy had relayed, with impressive conciseness, the entire situation, and outlined exactly what she wanted from Madame Sinclair. Elliot and Cinn had stayed quiet the entire time. It was glorious. Even more glorious was how much she could get done without Julien dragging her down.

“I didn’t realise you were capable of so many words,” Madame Sinclair said eventually, appraising Darcy as if seeing her for the first time.

Darcy tipped her chin up. “Needs must.”

“This is all extremely concerning. And very unfortunate timing.”

Unfortunate. Darcy pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

The older woman jerked her head towards her consoles and screens. “With the continuation of the calamities imminent.”

“With respect, if we find Julien, we might be able to destroy the machine, and in turn, solve all of our problems at once.”

“‘Might’ is the keyword there. Look, believe me, I care for Julien’s safety more than you know.”

Elliot did not contain his snort.

Madame Sinclair pierced him with a glare so fiery it could melt an iceberg. “I have no children of my own, you know. No siblings. Isabelle was the closest thing I had to a sister. I failed her, in so many ways, but when she died, I did my damnedest to look out for her children. Including sitting through dinner after dinner with their insufferablefather, pretending for years we had a strong alliance. Including trying desperately to keep Julien away from all this for the last year.”

“Now’s the time Julien needs you the most,” Cinn quickly interjected. “Surely it’s enough that he’s run off to see his father! How is that going to end well? Now he knows what he knows?”

Closing her eyes for a moment, Madame Sinclair leaned back in the chair. “I agree. Of course I’m concerned. If the entire gendarmerie hadn’t been dispatched to tackle various umbraphage attacks, I’d be on the phone to Salvatore Gallo.”

The screen behind her showed flashing dots over Hong Kong, New York, and a couple of other major cities. Darcy slid her eyes to Elliot, who twisted his lips. After Julien had summoned him to Cinn’s house, he’d called in to work and made excuses. He probably felt terrible about it.

“Most of them correlate to locations predicted to be hit by climate disasters in under twenty-four hours. Manpower is at a premium right now.”

Darcy made to talk again, silenced by Eleanor raising her hand.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help. I’m explaining our situation.”

Malik cleared his throat, shuffling slightly away from the console he was monitoring. “Ma’am? If I can support, I want to.”

Madame Sinclair swung back and forth on her chair until Darcy itched to stick her leg out to stop her.

“I need four hours. Maybe five. I’ll see who I can gather. It won’t be many.”

“No!” Cinn’s voice was so choked with emotion that Darcy herself felt it. “That’s not good enough! One hour, then we leave! We might be too late already!”

“Fine then, you leave in an hour. I’ll take the Displacement Baths, and we’ll see who gets there first.”

The woman stared at Cinn calmly, awaiting his response.

“Fine,” Cinn spat. “If you can get us into the Baths, I guess we’ll do it that way.”

“Go, quickly. You’re delaying everything. We’ll meet you outside the Baths.”

Malik moved towards the ladder. “I’ll show them out.”

Madame Sinclair gave him a withering look, like that was obvious.

As Elliot and Cinn followed Malik up the ladder, Darcy called after them. “I’ll be there in two minutes.”

Cinn paused on a rung, giving Darcy a curious stare, then continued onwards when she revealed nothing. When she and Madame Sinclair had the room, the other woman waited.

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