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Seren stands by the window. He doesn’t turn around. “I said he’d ask before he was fully conscious. You said after. Nobody owes anybody lunch.”

“You’re both fired,” I snap, suddenly annoyed. “Where is he?”

They exchange a look, but none of them tells me what I need to know.

“Ryven.”

“He was eliminated.” At least my cousin has the decency to look guilty. I grit my teeth, but the motion only makes my head pound louder.

I’m halfway upright before pain tears through my ribs. “By who? Who the fuck killed him?”

Ryven is out of the chair. “Nobody. Ash, chill. He’s alive.”

I stop fighting the mattress. “Then where the fuck is he?”

“They shipped him out.” Seren turns from the window. “Candidate transports started leaving hours ago.”

“Hours?” I shove the covers away. “Then we need to get to him before he leaves Tempest. Which transport?”

Ryven glances at Seren. “Yeah,” he mutters. “He really did hit his head.”

I grit my teeth. “Ryven.”

“What?”

“Find him.”

Ryven lifts the multislate already in his hand. “Please. I’ve known you my entire life. You think I waited for you to wake up and start barking orders?” His thumb keeps moving across the screen. “Last confirmed scan was the sixth saddle. After that...” He glances at Seren. “Nothing yet.”

Seren folds his arms. “He started looking before you were conscious enough to be annoying.”

“Exactly.” Ryven frowns at the display. “Medical flagged him when they cleared the candidates. That’s all I’ve got.”

Medical.

He walked out of that cave on his own two feet. So what the fuck did they flag?

“Keep looking.”

Ryven gives me a flat look. “What part of I know you are you struggling with?”

I open my mouth to tell him exactly which part, but what comes out is closer to a growl. Even that costs too much. My head sinks back into the pillow.

Ryven reaches over and pulls the blanket back over me. “Yeah, terrifying. Save it.” He gives my shoulder a careful shove when I try to move again. “Stay down for five fucking minutes. I’ll find him.”

The medication drags the edges of the room into softness, and my mind goes where it’s been trying to go since I opened my eyes, back into a hollow that smells of rain, pine, and him.

I mean, he kissed like a man who’d never been taught how and refused to be bad at anything. Hesitant, then furious at his hesitation, then past caring. I put my hand around his throat, and he let me. I spat in his mouth and told him to swallow. He obeyed before he’d decided to, and the look on him afterward, the horror chasing the want across his face, is filed somewhere I will be visiting for years.

And fuck me, he fell apart right in front of me. He thought I hadn’t noticed, even after I told him I notice everything.

I felt it happen. He came without me ever touching his cock, shaking against me before turning his face into the dark as if he could hide it.

I let him think he had.

Next time, he comes in my hand. Or in my mouth. Bet nobody’s ever given him a proper blowjob.

Yeah, one day I’ll tell him about our first night in the cave. I’ll choose the moment for maximum ruin.