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Sebastian put his hands on his hips and scowled down at the array of tablets that made up the star chart. “So we have nothing. Who else is working on this?”
“Just us.” Garrett grimaced. “I wanted to sound the alarm and get the whole fucking Resistance on it, but…I didn’t know if…”
“If Maxwell would want that,” Sebastian finished for him with a sigh. “No one else knows that Maxwell’s a torvar?”
“Concretely, only you, me, Leon, and Sazahk because he’s the one that looked at Maxwell’s body to confirm.” Garrett suppressed a shiver as he remembered the mess of Maxwell’s face—Maxwell’s old face.
Sebastian massaged his temples with a thumb and middle finger. “It drives me fucking crazy, but you were right to keep it under wraps. Maxwell wouldn’t want anyone else to know.”
“Did you?” Garrett dug his thumbnail under the edge of one of the screws holding the metal tabletop down and looked up at Sebastian. “Know he was a torvar?”
“Yeah.” Sebastian nodded, and Garrett thought he picked up a few notes of resignation and maybe even an apology in his voice. “Yeah, I’ve always known. I was the only one, though.”
Garrett scowled and leaned back in his chair, tired of looking at star charts that didn’t help him. “You and Kurt Buck, I guess.”
“Apparently.” Sebastian lifted his lip. They lapsed into silence for a few moments, and then Sebastian sighed and looked away from the tablets and into Garrett’s face. “For what it’s worth, I told Maxwell he should tell you.”
Garrett raised his eyebrows. “That he was a torvar?”
Sebastian nodded, but Garrett shook his head.
“Yeah, ’cause that went so well for him the last time he told a man that.”
Sebastian huffed an unamused laugh. “That’s what he said.”
“And besides”—Garrett kept shaking his head—“he didn’t owe me anything. I didn’t have any right to expect anything more than he gave me. And I shouldn’t have.”
Sebastian frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Garrett crossed his arms. “It means we weren’t in a relationship, and he didn’t have feelings for me, and he was very clear about that, and so the idea that he would reveal that kind of secret to me is stupid.”
“I know it’s hard for you, but don’t be an idiot, Garrett.” Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Of course Maxwell has feelings for you.”
“No, Sebastian, he doesn’t.” Garrett fixed Sebastian with a firm glare and forced himself to repeat the words out loud that he had so often had to repeat in his head. “He literally said that everything we did together didn’t mean anything.”
But Sebastian just tossed his head with a scoff. “Yeah, Maxwell said a lot of things. Like, ‘I’m human.’”
“Well, I’m going to take him at his word.” Garrett pulled his crossed arms tighter against his chest. “Trust him. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”
“Yeah, I guess. Fine.” Sebastian wrinkled his nose. With petulance written all over his face, he picked up one of the tablets and started swiping through it. “Maybe there’s something written in the Klah’Eel reports about the prisoners. Maybe Buck made some contacts while doing his time that are out now.”
“That’s a good idea.” Garrett straightened up at the first stirrings of hope he’d had since he realized Maxwell wasn’t really dead.
Sebastian waved him down. “It’s still just an idea.”
Garrett nodded, then sighed and tapped his index finger a few times on the table. “Hey, Sebastian?”
“Yeah?” Sebastian raised his eyebrows without looking up from the tablet.
Garrett took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
That made Sebastian look up, his eyes going comically wide as he stared at Garrett. “What?”
“I’m sorry for being such an asshole to you all these years.” Garrett forced himself to maintain eye contact. “I should have given you more credit for your honesty and your transparency.”
“Damn right you should have.” Sebastian dropped the tablet to his side and put his other hand out on a cocked hip. “I am a very honest person.”
“I know.” Garrett cringed. “And I still never trusted you.”
