Page 75 of Kiss the Dawn
“Micah. His name was Micah.”
My stomach lurched. “What?” How many Micahs were there in the Order? Only the one that I knew of. My mentor. My friend. But it made no sense. My Micah was early thirties, so he would have been much tooyoung to be her lover…or was he in his early thirties? The blessed aged slowly, after all. He’d never told me his age. “Why didn’t you tell the Circle when they interrogated you? Why tell me now?”
Her smile was a jaded thing. “I needed to be able to warn him, and I couldn’t do that until they allowed me to come back home.”
The feed trembled, and my mother was replaced by Daphne. “Rest assured this Micah person will not escape justice. We will?—”
The feed cut off, leaving me staring at a blank wall, heart in my mouth.
Micah was the baby smuggler.
Chapter 27
My call to Micah was met with a dead tone.
The number had been cut off.
Micah was in the wind. Running from me, from the truth, and the repercussions that would come. He’d taken me from my home and given me a life free of constraints. I didn’t hate him. I couldn’t. I just…I needed to understand how he fit into my Order parents’ death, and if it was indeed murder like the investigation was suggesting. I needed to tell him I forgave him, and I understood, and that I’d fightforhim, not against him, but all those things would have to wait until he found a way to contact me, which he undoubtedly would.
He was my mentor and friend, and now I knew he’d been my mother’s lover, I was going to forget I’d ever had a crush on him.
I filled the team in on my eventful afternoon oversupper at the Boar’s Head a block away before catching a taxi to Henry’s place for our meeting.
There was a lot to digest, and we agreed we’d do it at our morning catch-up once we’d all had a chance to sleep on it.
I dragged myself from my thoughts as I climbed Henry’s porch. I’d come pretty much straight from the office in Order uniform, sword at my back because even though it no longer channeled blessed power, it could still stab and cut. But as I waited for him to answer, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should have changed into something casual. Reminding him that I was a protector, that I should have protected Agatha, might not be the best idea.
But it was too late now.
I went to knock on the door and noticed the note pinned to it.
Just come in, it’s open. I’m in the study and might not hear the door.
I guess you could afford to leave such an invitation when you lived in a fancy part of town. Only a fool would try to break in when there were cameras all over the place.
I pushed the door open and poked my head in. “Henry?” Music drifted into the entrance hall. “Hello?” I stepped inside and closed the door.
A soft click sounded, and then a whirring sound filled the hall.
I spun to find a sheet of metal coming down over the entrance and bars slipping over the windows.
“What the fuck?” Panic choked off my words as I threw myself at the door, missing the handle by a moment as the sheet cut me off from the wood.
The clatter and whirr ended, leaving me trapped.
I ran across the hall and into a sitting room to find the windows there barred too.
Static filled the air followed by Henry’s voice. “Thank you for having the decency to come tonight, Orina. Agatha said that you were an honorable person, and she was right. It’s the only reason that you’re still alive because I know that you would have tried to save her. That you genuinely feel guilty, but I can’t let the crime go unanswered.”
“What do you?—”
“Ezekiel needs to pay for taking her from me.”
“Henry, what have you?—”
“He needs to suffer like she suffered. He needs to feel pain.”
“You can’t kill him. You know that?—”
