Gesai had cast Sleep on us.

  It was probably the only way that Fray or myself would have gotten any sleep last night, but it still felt dirty. Though I didn’t want to out her in front of everyone, because I had a feeling that Fray would feel even more violated if I did.

  Ether had woken up before, which I couldn’t remember ever happening before. There wasn’t much to do in the way of preparing breakfast. It was ration bars again. At some point I wanted to try my hand at cooking. Aelin had worked at a diner in Zeb, so the blonde was by far the best cook out of all of us. Between her, the Cafe at the Cathedral, and our hosts there wasn’t a lot of room for someone else to try it out. But in situations like right now, I wasn’t sure which one of us would have been the best option to prepare food, if we had ingredients.

  Gesai was still on the roof, it seemed because I didn’t see her inside the building. Fray was still asleep, while it looked like Ren was checking on our three guests in the tent.

  Oz was just outside the tent and talking with Ether in hushed tones that I couldn’t hear.

  “Everything okay?” I slowly stood up and stretched.

  “Trent looks like he’s doing a little better. No change in Mive or Astrid though.” Ether walked over to me. “How’d you sleep?”

  “Too good.” I nodded at the ladder. “Gesai on the roof?”

  Ether looked at the ladder, then back at me. “Don’t be too hard on her. She was just worried about you.”

  “She could have offered or told me…”

  “And you would have refused and stayed up all night doing nothing but worrying.” Ether interrupted me. “So go easy on her. She’s worried about you.” The ivory woman grabbed my shoulder. “We’re worried about what’s about to happen.”

  “It’ll be fine. They’re here to help.” I didn’t really believe that, but I was going to keep saying it and hope that helped it be true. I kissed her on the forehead. “I’m going to go talk to Gesai and see if there is a timetable.”

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  I earned a glare from Ether, but she didn’t say anything as I headed for the ladder.

  Gesai was leaning on the parapet and didn’t bother looking my way. “You’re upset.”

  I walked over and leaned on the concrete ledge next to her. “You didn’t ask me if I was okay with that.” I reached over to touch her arm, and felt her long gloves. It reminded me of what she’d done to protect my secret when Trent had been bound not to do anything. It was hard to actually be angry with her when I knew how much she’d gone through for me.

  “And I’m not angry.” I slid my hand down her arm, until I was covering her hand. “Frustrated, yes. A little upset, also yes. But not angry.” I looked into her green eyes. “I wish you had let me have a say in whether or not I got to help you on watch last night. I don’t think you would have shouldered that all by yourself.” I squeezed her hand. “But that was the longest I’d slept all at once in a long time, so you did accomplish that.”

  “Sorry.” Gesai looked away towards the rising sun. “I can stay up for a few days without sleep. It’ll start wearing me down, but I can manage.”

  “But what if we need you to fight?”

  There was a pause, but when she finally turned to me I could see the answer on face before she said it.

  “Then it won’t matter.” She shook her head. “Trent was supposed to take me to the dungeon once we got back to the Cathedral and power level me while the twelve of you were having your evening breaks.” She shrugged. “Just one of the personal guards would be enough to take us all down. Whisper might be able to hold out against one of the weaker ones, but honestly, we’re about to be at their mercy.” She smiled and bumped her shoulder into mine. “I wanted to give you at least one good night’s sleep in case that happened.”

  I wanted to argue with her, but all the bluster I’d felt when I’d headed up the ladder was gone. “If you’d have given me that speech last night, then I would have been okay with what you did.” I sighed, “So I guess what I’m saying is, next time give me the speech before?”

  She nodded. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  Her CB buzzed and she tapped on the display. “They’re almost here.” She slowly pulled away as she headed towards the stairs.

  I wrapped her in a hug from behind and squeezed her tight. She let herself lean into me as I put my chin on her shoulder. “We’ve got this.”

  We stayed like that for too long because the moving van along with a really long vehicle flanked by two smaller vehicles pulled up outside. The block looked like it was normally pretty empty, but there were still enough people around to come out and gawk at the spectacle. At least there were no Authority vehicles present at the moment. I felt my ears pop as the middle door to the back vehicle opened. A casually dressed white-haired woman stepped out and her piercing red eyes locked on to me. I didn’t need an introduction to know who this was.

  Klix had arrived.

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