XLI

Rhett stood next to the handcuffed traitors he’d forced up against the wall across from Blair’s desk with Aiden between him and his erstwhile fiancée. Rhett, then Aiden, then Elodie. Blair wasn’t sure whether or not he’d meant for them to be in height order, but they were. Like stairsteps, one leading down to the next. All leading to Elodie.

The girl was pretty. Not beautiful. At least, not as beautiful as she should have been to have gotten Aiden to betray who he was, to join Eos, and to commit the ultimate crime. Intercourse, the way it had been in the past, no longer existed. And in a perfect world, the world the Key was trying to create, a woman could no longer use her beauty as a tool to manipulate. But the world was far from perfect. Blair knew that firsthand. She’d used her beauty many times. It was just one part of her power.

Elodie fidgeted with the frayed ends of her plain T-shirt, which covered her plain brown skin beneath the lengths of her plain brown hair, which she shook away from her plain brown eyes. The girl might as well have been beige paint. So where was her power?

Not only had she manipulated Blair’s only brother, she had also wiggled her way into the Fujimoto household and gotten Jasper Fujimoto’s youngest daughter to recant her statement to the Council. Maxine’s eyes on the Council had informed her that Council Leader Darby was certain the retraction couldn’t be trusted. Astrid Fujimoto was, after all, one of Elodie’s friends, and it was clear that Elodie could get anyone to do anything. Taking down Westfall’s top families seemed to be Eos’s goal, and they were using Elodie Benavidez to achieve it.

Aiden cleared his throat, snagging Blair’s attention. “Blair, is all of this,” he lifted his cuffed hands, “really necessary?”

Rhett’s boots thumped against the concrete as he came to Blair’s side. “They’re Eos scum.” His gaze hardened on Aiden. “Be thankful restraints are all you’re getting.”

“Rhett.” Elodie’s voice cracked. “You don’t have to do this. I can explain.”

Blair perched on the edge of her desk, her sleeveless top and her skirt matching the slick black Onyx. “Oh, please do. I would love to hear what sort of tales you weave.”

Elodie sniffled, blinked, and sniffled again. “I don’t understand.”

Blair turned her attention to Aiden. If anyone was going to tell her the truth, it would be her Denny. “Is this how she did it? How she got you to join Eos? By playing the dumb girl.”

Aiden’s green eyes narrowed. “She didn’t get me to do anything.”

Blair dug her nails into her new palms. The synthetic gloves dulled the expected bursts of pain. “Don’t defend her, brother!”

Elodie leapt from the wall. “I don’t need defending!”

Rhett lumbered forward and forced his trifling fiancée back to her place with the butt of his stock prod. “I know you haven’t been yourself, but please don’t make me do anything I’ll regret.”

Anything he would regret? How had this dull girl managed to subjugate both of these men? How could they not see her spoiled, volatile nature? Blair tossed up her hands as she slid off her desk. “And just like that, her switch has flipped.”

Elodie was off the wall again. “Just like that?” she growled between clenched teeth. “I’ve been sentenced to death! My best friend was murdered in front of me! My fiancé put me in handcuffs! And for what? A kiss? At the end of this, the Key will have taken three lives and our kiss will have taken none.”

“You destroyed my brother!” Blair snarled, spittle flying from her lips.

Rhett was there again with the safe end of his prod, shoving Elodie against the wall.

Elodie’s pitiful brown hair swept her shoulders as she shook her head and fell back in line. “You don’t know your brother.”

Rhett returned the stock prod to its holster. “You couldn’t possibly, Blair. If you did, you’d know this was mostly him.” He crossed his sausage arms across his chest. “El and I had everything worked out. Then your brother comes along and has her acting like a total space cadet.”

Blair’s lips parted with a grin. “Men like you have been underestimating women for centuries.”

Rhett’s cheeks reddened. “Your brother did this. He recruited Elodie and filled her head with nonsense. We were meant to be. We were—”

Blair couldn’t keep from laughing. It was the kind of hollow laughter that lived in her throat and leapt on wounded prey. “You really believe that?”

“I believe you shouldn’t interrupt me when I’m speaking.” Rhett’s meatball of a hand rested on his stock prod. “Eos and your asshole of a brother broke my Elodie!”

Blair felt something deep within her click. Perhaps it was her switch that had been flipped. Her hand itched for the gun Maxine had promised.

The door hissed open and Blair’s heartbeat quickened. Ask, believe, receive . . . Her hands grew clammy inside the gloves as she waited for the impatient stomps of Maxine’s kitten heels.

Blair stepped backward, gripping the edge of her stone desk as Cath marched through the doorway. “You shouldn’t be here.” Blair clenched her teeth. “I have this handled.”

Cath didn’t look at Blair, didn’t even acknowledge her adoptive daughter or that she had entered a private meeting in the office Blair had worked so hard to acquire. Cath only looked at Aiden.

Blair’s stomach hollowed. No matter what she accomplished, Denny would always be Cath’s favorite.

Cath brushed something from her cheek as she turned to face Blair. “Let my son go.” The blistering light from the chandelier was somehow softer, more golden when it struck her.

Blair stiffened. Aiden was Cath’s son. But Blair had always just been Blair. “I have this handled, Cath,” she repeated without washing the coldness from her tone. “We don’t need you.”

Aiden lifted his wrists and his handcuffs rattled. “Mom, don’t—”

Blair slapped the edge of her desk. “I said we don’t need you!”

“Let my son go and take me instead.” Cath pursed her lips and swallowed. “I’m a member of Eos. I’m who you want. Not Aiden, not Elodie—me.”

Blair let out a throat-burning screech as she cast her gaze to the ceiling. “Don’t lie, Cath. The girl needs to learn a lesson.” She pressed her hands against her hips. “Plus, I can’t let Denny leave. Preston Darby finally has a little bit of power and it’s driving him crazy. He’ll use this to destroy us.”

Even amidst this circus of finger pointing and blame dodging, Cath’s hands still rested gently clasped below her waist. “I’m afraid the lessons Elodie needs to learn are those you are unequipped to teach her.” She frowned. “And I did caution you about teasing Darby.”

Blair cocked her chin. “So this is my fault?”

Rhett ran his hand through his closely cropped hair. “This is getting ridiculous.” He cracked his knuckles. “How about the three of us,” he said, motioning to Cath and Aiden. “Go to my warehouse?” He turned to Blair. “I’ll knock this runt down a few pegs and my guys will get some answers out of your mom. I get what I want and you get to be first in line for Director. Win, win.”

Blair caught Aiden and Elodie as they stole a glance at each other. Blair’s insides boiled. “You can do whatever you want with that one.” She thrust her finger at Elodie. “She’s the reason all of this has happened. But you won’t harm my family.”

“Blair! Enough!” Aiden charged forward. Rhett lashed out with the stock prod. Metal spikes jabbed Aiden’s ribs, and he let out a strangled shout as he convulsed and collapsed.

Blair wobbled and gripped the edge of her desk as her brother’s knees slammed against concrete.

Cath ran to Aiden’s side and sank to the floor beside him. “This is my doing!” she shouted. “I’m the reason Aiden joined Eos.”

And now Blair knew. It had been Cath, not Elodie. Cath had taken Denny away just as that monster had taken their real mother and father. The Key had never matched Cath for a reason. The Key knew she shouldn’t have had children. She didn’t know how to care for them. How to nurture them. She hadn’t been the one who stayed up with Aiden all night as he sobbed for the parents who were never coming back. That had been Blair. She had always been there—would always be there. How had this happened? Cath had destroyed Aiden. Blair’s brother. Her Denny. Her love and her life and her reason for being.

Aiden grunted as he struggled to his knees. “Mom, don’t—”

Cath leaned into Aiden and kissed the top of his head before rising to her feet. “I’m the one you want, Blair. I’m Echo.”

Blair felt as if someone had sucked all of the air out of the room. “What?” she wheezed as she pressed herself away from her desk.

Rhett clapped his hands on top of his head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He seemed to harden as his eyes bore into Blair. “Our most wanted person in Westfall is your fucking mother?”

How could she have missed this? Blair surged toward her imposter of a mother. “How?” She bit off the word so ferociously, spittle flecked Cath’s cheeks.

Aiden coughed. “Mom, don’t tell her anything.”

“She is not your mother!” The words burned Blair’s lips as she spewed them at Aiden like acid.

With a snarl, Rhett stomped forward. The prod’s metal tines crackled and sparked as he stabbed the air in front of Cath and forced her up against the wall next to Elodie. He holstered his weapon and returned to Aiden. His fingers twitched over the shiny black rod as he slammed his boot against Aiden’s chest and shoved him back against the wall.

The door hissed open, but Blair couldn’t tear her attention away from Rhett looming over her injured brother. “You said you’d do all sorts of unspeakable things to them back at your warehouse. This,” she ground her pointed heel into the rug, “is mine. And I have bots that will cart you away and burn your body before it’s even cold. I said not to touch my family.”

Maxine glided ghostlike from the door to the corner of Blair’s huge black desk. She didn’t make a sound when she set down the gun.

Lava flowed within Blair’s chest and heat crept up her neck. She squeezed her fists to keep from erupting. “Do not test me again, Major Owens.”

Rhett’s grip tightened on the prod as he shifted away from Aiden.

Blair kneeled in front of her battle-bruised brother. To her, he would never look older than he had that day in the clearing, his round face tipped up toward the moon. “Why won’t you let me save you?” Tears burned her eyes. “I love you, Denny. And the only true love, love that can withstand anything, is that of family.” Blair’s gaze cut to Cath. “Blood family.” Her chin quivered. “I love you, my sweet, sweet boy.”

Aiden leaned back against the wall and rocked his head from side to side. “Spare me. Your one true love is your job. This office.” He threw his cuffed hands in the air. “The Key. Not me or Cath or anyone else.”

Blair pushed herself to her feet, shook back her tears, and smoothed out her black skirt. She would fix her brother later. He would see, they would all see, that everything she did, she did for him. But in order to cure Aiden of the poison these women had fed him, Blair needed to erase them from the picture.

“You started this,” she snarled and stalked over to Cath. “You’re the one who can end it. A recorded confession and answers to some questions will be a good place to start.”

Cath studied Aiden and then Elodie, who had done a terrific job nearly blending into the wall. “You’ll let them both go?”

Blair’s gaze swept over the pistol on the corner of the desk and settled back on Cath. “I’ll take you and let them go. I can fix the trouble they’re in with the Council. Especially if I’m trading an Eos leader for two kissing teens.” Blair crossed her arms over her chest. “As Director, I won’t need any leverage. And the Key will appoint me immediately.” She paused and hung a smile on her lips. “After all, this is what happens when citizens don’t have effective leadership.”

Cath’s foot hung in the air for a moment before she committed to stepping forward.

Aiden pushed himself to his feet. “Mom! You can’t. They’ll kill you!”

Blair hiccupped back a sob. Aiden was choosing between them, and he wasn’t choosing wisely.

Cath’s eyes rested on Aiden as she clenched and unclenched her fists.

Blair swallowed her despair. “Holly, please record the events in the room.” With Cath out of the way, she could fix all of this. She could fix Denny. “If you want to save your son, it’s now or never, Mother.”

With her trademark poise and grace, Cath Scott walked forward to stand between her adoptive daughter and Major Owens. “My name is Cath Scott, although, to many, I am Echo.” With her shoulders pulled back and her chin lifted skyward she continued in the even, slow lilt Blair had once found so comforting. “I’ve been a member of Eos since their inception. I regret nothing. I only wish I could have done more.” Cath took a breath. Her eyes skimmed Blair before settling on Aiden. “I love you both deeply. You were the best decision I have ever made.”

Cath surged forward at Rhett. She crashed into him. His arms windmilled as he fell into the corner of Blair’s desk. His head hid the stone with a sickening crack as Cath struggled to her knees, spun, and grabbed the silver pistol.

Blair scrambled backward. She wasn’t Cath’s favorite, but Cath couldn’t end her like this. Cath wouldn’t! A sob flew from Blair’s lips.

The gun glinted in the harsh light as Cath pressed the barrel under her own chin. “After the storm comes the dawn!” Cath cried, and pulled the trigger.