Page 16 of Controlled Drift
Because the truth was simpler and more dangerous than anything he could say out loud.He had never stopped listening for Niko in the sky.Never stopped measuring routes and weather and risk against the possibility—however remote—that one day he might need to fly like that again.
For him.
Because if he spoke, the truth would spill out in ways he didn’t trust himself to control.
They flew on.
After a moment, Niko asked, “How’s your wife?”
The question was careful.Neutral.A bridge extended without pressure.
Ethan swallowed.“She passed away.Eight months ago.”
Niko’s breath caught.
“It’s just me now,” Ethan added.“And Poppy.”
Niko turned fully toward him.“Poppy?”
“My daughter.”
The silence that followed was different.
Niko went very still.
Ethan felt it—the shift in the air, the recalibration happening behind Niko’s eyes.Shock.Calculation.Something like grief layered beneath it.
“I didn’t know,” Niko said finally.
“You weren’t meant to,” Ethan replied.
They sat with it.
Ethan let the silence stretch, knowing from long experience that it would do more work than explanation.He wondered how much Niko was mapping in his head now—how quickly he was connecting gaps, replaying old conversations, fitting new information into an old shape.
He wondered if Niko was angry yet.
Or if that would come later, once shock gave way to understanding.
Ethan wondered what Niko was thinking.About timelines.About choices.About a life Ethan had lived without him while refusing, stubbornly, to forget about him.
He wondered if Niko saw the same fault lines Ethan did—the places where one decision had fractured into a thousand consequences, each one taken alone, each one justified at the time.
Ethan had built his life small on purpose.Fewer points of leverage.Fewer people to threaten.Fewer reasons for his father to reach out and remind him who still held power.
Poppy had changed that.
And now Niko was sitting beside him, alive, furious, and asking questions Ethan wasn’t sure he deserved to answer.About timelines.About choices.About a life Ethan had lived without him while refusing, stubbornly, to forget about him.
“I think I would like to know more about this Pyre role you play,” Niko said after a while.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Before he could answer, a presence filled the space behind them.
Kael stopped just short of the cockpit, arms folded, expression unreadable.“So would I.”
Ethan didn’t turn.“I assumed you’d already looked into it.”
