Page 110 of Xerxes Ascendant
“I...no, we didn’t. But Epsilon is getting him back.”
Casey stared. “Stars save us,” he whispered, his eyes dragging upwards as if expecting to see those same stars painted on the ceiling.
“I need you to find the cats,” Kyle told him urgently. Him and Casey might not have seen eye to eye on everything, but when it came to his babies, he knew he could trust each of his colleagues to keep the three felines safe. They were all family. “We have to get them out of here. We’re...going to lose the House.”
Casey swallowed.
“Right,” he said, weakly, but rather than asking the dozen questions Kyle had expected, he turned on his heel and raced upstairs, calling out each cat’s name.
Kyle followed, making his way through the building he’d worked in for the last five years, mentally saying goodbye to each room as he rushed between them to gather the staff and send their clients home.
“I sincerely apologise for disturbing your appointment, but there’s been a disruption to the environmental controls in this sector,” he told each one in bland recital, automatically plastering on a reassuring smile he couldn’t feel. “The urgency of the evacuation means we’re unable to organise a refund tonight, but you’ll be credited with a free, extended session next week.”
Let Theta deal with the fallout of such enormous promises. Kyle was too busy ensuring House Epsilon was stripped of everything of value and importance.
He was helping Casey coax a surly Chaos out from beneath the rows of chairs in the training room when his cousin arrived.
Kyle hugged her tightly, feeling her squeeze him back. “Thanks for coming, Indira.”
“Of course,” she said, no nonsense and all business. “I brought help.”
He glanced over her shoulder, surprised to see her husband standing in the doorway to House Epsilon with an armful of flattened boxes.
“You can’t come in, Bensen, the cats-”
“What’s a little sneezing when it comes to helping out family?” the man said graciously. His eyes were already streaming, his nose twitching, and he was clearly fighting through the discomfort of his allergies to be there. Kyle didn’t miss the way he edged away from the stone cat on the steps.
“Perhaps you could help us outside,” Kyle suggested diplomatically. “Keep an eye out for anyone coming who looks like they might be-”
“Someone’s coming,” Bensen said before he’d even finished speaking. Putting the boxes down, the softly-spoken man turned in the doorway, doing his best to block it. He folded his arms, and then dropped them to put his hands on his hips, and then folded his arms again.
It wasn’t very intimidating.
“I’m really very sorry, but House Epsilon is...uh...closed this evening.”
“Out of the way,” ordered a sharp and uncompromising female voice, and Bensen stumbled backwards in his haste to obey. Indira gave her flustered husband a weary but fond look, and tugged him by the hand to settle him at her side. He seemed disappointed with himself, but he had no reason to be: the woman who now filled the doorway commandeered a presence the size of the planet below.
“Master Rho,” said Kyle, unable to keep the wariness from his tone. Why wasn’t she with the rest of the House Masters,ready to tear strips from Akira for his confessed defamation of Theta?
“Mr. Randall. I assume Epsilon has already departed for the Coterie’s meeting?”
“Hi! I’m Indira!” his cousin interrupted loudly and with over-exaggerated cheer, sticking a hand out for their visitor to shake.
Rho eyed it – and her – with visible confusion.
“We’ve met.”
“Oh,havewe?” Indira asked in mock surprise, and then squinted closely at her old boss as if trying hard to remember. Kyle struggled not to laugh but Bensen held no such compunctions, openly sniggering at the array of emotions on Master Rho’s unnaturally flawless face.
Her mouth eventually settled into a thin, unimpressed line. “I see you’re still as wilful as ever, Indira.” Rho’s stiletto heels clicked tauntingly on the floor of the foyer as she stepped inside uninvited and glanced around.
“If you’ve come to measure House Epsilon up for new furniture,” Kyle snapped, furious, “at least have the decency to wait for us to move out first.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
He glared at the laced back of the Master’s dress. “If you think I’m going to continue working for the Coterie when you’ve bullied Akira into-”
Rho turned sharply to face him.
