Page 88 of Guardian of Exile

“When she reached out to me, I didn't think there would be anything to find, but...” Connell shrugged. “I liked her. I knew if I didn’t take the job she'd hire someone else, someone who would take her money and string her along for as long as they could. I didn’t think I could find Tristen, but I thought I could convince her there wasn’t anything to find. To try and come to peace with it and move on.” He ran his hand over his face and nodded at the apartment. “That’s really her boy in there?”

It wasn't the first time he’d asked, and Nyx figured it wouldn’t be the last. She just nodded, and avoided the follow-up question on how they’d found him, voicing instead the thing she’d been piecing together as Connell had told her Belas’s story.

“It was an inside job. Someone who is normally a part of the Enforcers’ Shamanic acquisitions division is illegally moving some of them.” It explained why they’d had the right identification, the right documents. Why they’d come with a Shaman who could grant their claims validity. Why, when Belas had balked, someone had tried to kidnap Tristen and failed. They’d never intended to succeed. They’d only intended to scare her into voluntarily giving him up.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Connell acknowledged. “What I don’t understand is why they didn’t just send her the updates she asked for. Send her some pictures, let her send letters. Monitor the kid’s letters back. She never would have known. They must have done this before, with no one the wiser. The scheme relies on the kid never being reported missing.”

“I'm sure they intended to,” Nyx answered, “but his handlers died.”

Connell's eyes narrowed. “He kill 'em?”

“He’s a Shaman,” Nyx said pointedly.

Connell relaxed, reminded that Shamans couldn’t kill anyone and live to tell the tale. Nyx relaxed too, because while she didn’t like Connell knowing about Tristen at all, at least she had kept him from learning anything more dangerous than the fact that Tristen was alive.

They drank tea in quiet silence for a while. They ordered more tea and she asked about Connell—what exactly he did, and how he’d gotten into it. It was in her nature to be curious, but more than that, she was trying to ascertain how far she could trust him. By the end of it, she was relatively certain he was exactly who he appeared to be—a man who’d done military service, come out the other side without any clear direction, and eventually found his stride in private investigation.

He was attempting to be retired, in no small part due to the knee Tristen had healed, but he’d taken a job for a friend that had brought him here. Here, he’d met Belas, and he hadn’t quite been able to turn her down.

“What about you?” Connell asked.

And that was the problem with asking about other people—sometimes they bothered to ask about you in return. “What about me?”

“How did you find Belas’s boy?”

Nyx shrugged. “I was in the right place at the right time.” Dead Earth hadn’t been brought up, and Nyx intended to keep it that way. The less Connell knew about Tristen, the better. She couldn’t decide if it was a good thing he was clearly enamored of Belas, or an inconvenient thing. On the one hand, he would be less likely to do anything to hurt her—such as tell anyone about Tristen. On the other hand, he was unfortunately likely to stick around—as evidenced by the fact that he was still here.

“And being in the right place at the right time, you decided to, what? Take a man you barely know to find his mother? Why?”

Nyx shook her head. “The why is none of your business.”

“It is when Bel hired me to find him.”

“A task you failed to complete,” she pointed out. “He knows why I’ve brought him here, and he’s the only person who needs to. I won’t tell you any more than that.”

“I could find the answers on my own.”

“You could try,” Nyx conceded, “but you have to ask yourself what those answers are worth. You don’t strike me as a bad man. You also don’t strike me as a stupid one. Shamans are valuable. Shamans not in the direct control of the Council are even more so.

“Do you really want to bring that kind of attention to Belas? I’m sure you can imagine the life Tristen has led up to this point. Do you want to be the reason he ends up in a similar situation again? Do you want to put Belas through the trauma of losing her son again?”

She could see that he wanted to argue. She could also see the wheels turning in his mind.“No,” he said finally. “But I don’t want him to hurt her, either.”

He was, in Nyx’s opinion, overstepping. “I don’t know if Belas returns the interest you clearly have in her, but a word of advice? It’s not your place to ‘protect her’ from her own son. She’s a grown woman. The fact you clearly perceive her as fragile doesn’t mean that she is, and it doesn’t mean she needs you to make her choices for her.”

His mouth pressed into a line, but he didn’t look angry at someone half his age telling him her mind. After a minute, he said, “You’re right. It isn’t my place. But you’re also wrong—I don’t think she’s fragile. I think she’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. But I’ve seen what life can do to a person, and yes, I would like to protect her from that.”

Nyx was saved from continuing the conversation when she looked out the window and saw Tristen was sticking his head out of Belas’s apartment door. He caught her eye and nodded back into the apartment, indicating she should come over. She nodded at Connell. Tristen looked annoyed, even from this distance, but he nodded again, and the two of them walked over.

Belas's apartment was a small, cramped place, with little in it, but it was meticulously clean. Belas and Tristen both sported slightly red eyes, as if they'd both been crying, but Belas’s happiness couldn't be hidden. Nyx had been right—when she truly smiled, she lit up the entire room. Connell looked a little stunned. The fact wasn’t lost on Tristen, who shot the older man a warning glare.

“I want to take her with us,” Tristen said to Nyx without preamble.

“Take her with us, as in, to Raveras, or take her with us?” She did not think bringing Belas Veld to Earth was a good idea.

“To Raveras.”

She blew out a breath.