Page 58 of Only Cold Depths
Leland swiped his tablet again, making the vault holograms disappear. “I’m not sure, my lady. Perhaps the thieves simply couldn’t breach the lunarium repository given its thicker vault and more extensive security measures. If you ask me, this whole thing has the feel of a slapdash, smash-and-grab operation.” The chief of staff let out a little sniff, as though greatly affronted by such low-class, common thievery.
Nothing about this had been slapdash, and the Erztonians were focusing on the wrong things or, rather, the wrong people.
“Forget why the mercenaries broke into the mineral exchange. Has anyone spotted Esmina Reston?” I asked.
Leland froze, as did Verona. Aldrich blinked in surprise, Siya sucked in a startled breath, and even Rigel frowned in a rare show of emotion.
“How do you know that name?” Aldrich asked in a sharp voice.
“Kyrion and I ran into Esmina Reston on Tropics 44. She’s working with a man named Pollux Lamont, and they hired some bounty hunters to kidnap me.”
Siya sucked in another breath. Rigel’s frown deepened, and his hand curled around the hilt of the hammer hanging off his belt.
“Pollux Lamont?” Siya asked, her voice just as sharp as her father’s. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Here. See for yourselves.”
I pulled out my own tablet and called up the footage of Esmina and Pollux confronting the bounty hunters. I stopped on a clear image of the two mercenaries, placed my device on the table, and flicked the footage up into the air so everyone could see it.
A heavy blanket of silence dropped over the library, and the air practically dripped with tension, like water oozing out of a sodden towel.
“What do you know about Esmina and Pollux?” Kyrion asked. “Who are they to you?”
Aldrich and Verona looked at each other. Magic surged off them, along with the whisper of a telepathic conversation, although I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Your facility was breached by two very powerful psions,” Kyrion continued, his voice growing more suspicious. “This is no time to keep secrets.”
The couple looked at each other again.
“If Esmina and Pollux are back on Sygnustern, then today’s attack is even more serious than we realized,” Verona said. “Kyrion and Vesper deserve to know, as does Asterin.”
“Deserve to know what?” Asterin asked.
Aldrich grimaced. “Esmina Reston is an Erztonian. So is Pollux Lamont.” The lord hesitated. “They are both originally from House Collier.”
Shock jolted through me, zipped along the bond to Kyrion, and bounced back. Asterin frowned at her stepfather, but then her confusion slowly cracked away, and her eyes widened in growing recognition—and horror.
Aldrich waved his hand at Leland. “Show them the files.”
The chief of staff hesitated. “Are you sure, my lord?”
Aldrich nodded, a resigned expression on his face. Leland swiped through a few screens on his tablet, causing more holograms to appear. More shock jolted through me. The images showed a younger version of Esmina glaring at the camera with a sour expression.
Aldrich stared at Esmina’s photo. “Esmina’s father, Stefanos, was one of my best friends, and they were both part of House Collier. When she was twenty, Esmina formed a truebond with Micah Dilson, a twenty-year-old who also belonged to the House.”
“I remember hearing about that,” Asterin said. “Didn’t House Collier throw a party for them?”
Verona nodded. “We did, although you were away at university at the time.”
Kyrion frowned. “I’ve never heard of a truebond being formed at such a young age. Most truebonds don’t form until people are in their late twenties, after their psion power has fully matured.”
Verona gave him a grim smile. “Neither had anyone else in the other Erzton Houses. We all thought it was a marvelous blessing.” Her smile vanished. “But Esmina did not.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Even back then, Esmina was an extremely strong psion.” Verona’s gaze flicked over to me. “A seer.”
Like you.Verona didn’t say the words, but they whispered through the air anyway.
