Page 196 of Remnants: Disruption
Arya shifts a little before pulling herself sitting. She lets out a yawn and stretches widely—her naked skin reflecting in the sunlight from the thickly reinforced windows.
My heart does a double thump at her figure. At the figure that no longer looks sickly and pained. At the woman who looks like a completely different person from who I had met months ago.
“But I see through you, Cassandra Alta,” she says, a jaunty tease in her tone. She slides off the bed and saunters to the bathroom. “Now come join me in the shower—I have a plan to get one up on Darkrend.”
Chapter 68
Lachesism
It
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“Ithought you seemed a little antsy before the meeting with Roberts,” Cass muses as we appear outside DAEMON’s New Chicago headquarters.
“Well, I wasn’t exactly excited to meet the guy in the first place.” I scan the scenic garden that contrasts heavily with the rest of the neighborhood. ‘Gentrified’ doesn’t even begin to express how much this corporation saps from their community.
The rest of the city is, ostensibly, a war zone. Most of the fighting between Tempest’s forces and RISE is cordoned to the border, but there are signs of battle here, too.
“It’s weirdly quiet,” I say, glancing down the wide street that separates us from DAEMON’s campus. Vehicles move back and forth like there wasn’t an emergency order given just twenty-four hours ago.
“Because our forces have kept RISE occupied with minimal causalities.”
“It’s obviously a trap, right?” I ask, crossing the street when it’s clear no one’s going to run us down. “This whole thing reeks of a distraction from whatever Darkrend is really doing.”
“Indeed,” Cass breathes out. We walk through gardens and I crane my neck as far as I can. There’s no real sign of damage near the top of the building, but I know I definitely went through a wall.
Her hand comes down on my shoulder, and I pause mid-step.
“Heads up,” she whispers, nodding across the fountains to the front of the building.
I follow her gaze and let out a scoff at the figure huddled against the onyx stonework.
Picking up my pace, I weave around the garish decor and slow before reaching them.
“Dr. Blair Andrews,” I say, a little louder than I probably should—but it’s nice to see what I hope is a friendly face. “You look like shit.”
Their head of frizzy dark hair bounces as they startle, eyes searching the grounds frantically until they land on me. The stiffness in their spine eases a little but doesn’t disappear.
“Arya?” they ask, a little breathless. They take a step forward, dropping their handbag. Then another. “Are you a terrorist?”
I let out a bark of laugher, and Cass nudges me with her elbow. “Yeah, I think so. But the fun kind that all the kids are into these days.”
Blair blinks a few times like that hadn’t been the answer they wanted nor expected. “Did you kill Damien Roberts?”
I shake my head, glancing around at the few people milling in the courtyard. No one seems to be facing us, but DAEMON is supposed to be shut down today anyways inmourningfor the loser. “I didn’t, but if he’s been killed in the interim, that’s on him.”
“She never touched him,” Cass says, and I realize now that Blair hadn’t yet seen her and the good doctor jumps like they’d been electrified.
“Who—” but then their tanned skin pales before my eyes. “Oh my god.”
“Bloody Mary,” I gesture at Blair, “this is Blair Andrews, the foremost expert on Remnants in Nye Verden.”
Blair’s eyes are stuck on Cass, and I can’t tell if it’s fear, reverence, or some mixture of both.
“Bloody—” they trail off. “So, it’s true?”
“What’re the rumors?” I ask, taking another step towards them. They don’t seem to notice, but I’d rather not spook them now.
