Page 58 of Apollo

“What are you talking about?” Irowen already recharged the wattage on her ire, exposing her own suspicions about Kaw’s diffidence. “Captain? Is there something I should know?”

Perhaps . . .

“And you’re only broaching the subject now?”

The crow danced more nervously on his branch. We chose not to tell you at first, because we weren’t totally sure about our hunches.

“Hunches,” she repeated. “About what?”

Yet again, after Kaw recounted the same impressions he’d exposed to Apollo a few hours ago, she returned the bird’s regard with a look that edged toward eerie. The crow stuck to the assessment until she took a huge breath that heaved her shoulders, tensed her face, and conveyed her weary vulnerability.

“Okay,” she finally said, the word just as weighted. “So you’re saying Genny’s formed a mushy Stockholm thing for her guards. Not completely surprising, since it’s been several weeks since the kidnapping. And her direct detail is probably younger shatei, so they’re likely stacked and cute and—

No, Kaw broke in.

She slapped back by raising both eyebrows. “No, they’re not stacked, or no, they’re not cute?”

No, he qualified. There’s not a ‘them’.

“Excuse me?”

His captain stilled his wings and steadied his stare. When we spotted Eugenia leaving the airport, she wasn’t escorted by a detail, as you’ve implied. There was only one guard with her. And since the time has come for full honesty, we weren’t even sure he was her appointed guard.

“Huh?” Irowen stomped back toward the tree. “So what does that m—”

A scout on Quil’s squad faked intense interest in a rice snack on the ground near the two of them and their car, the bird went on as if she hadn’t spoken. The spy was able to confirm a tantō sheath and a stun gun under the guy’s jacket. The traditional blade and the alternative firearm led us to believe he was definitely one of Ito’s men; however, the behaviors we observed from the young man, as well as your sister, had us wondering about the true . . . ermmm . . . circumstances of their travel arrangements.

“True circumstances? In what way?” She snorted for final punctuation, clearly not cool with her hazy grasp on Kaw’s ultimate purpose. Admittedly, Kleos was taking the stressful scenic route to get to his damn point. “Is there a way to cut the Clouseau complications and just spell out where you’re going with this?” she demanded next. “Kaw, I don’t have time to be a sidepiece ditz here.”

“You’re not a sidepiece,” Apollo gritted out.

“Not the point,” she snapped. Then with matching impatience to Kaw, “Which I’m still waiting for, Captain Kleos. You and the sun god airborne clearly have a hot take here, so let’s freaking hear it already.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

If birds could sigh like doctors about to impart shitty news, Kaw donned that figurative doctor’s coat and did just that.

Damn it.

Thankfully, he got over himself just as fast. After her blood donation to Natasha Korra’s chandelier, a couple of dimension jumps via hellfire hurricanes, and a flyby with the yakuza she never wanted to repeat again, Wen had no more psychological energy for the never-ending night—least of all, wondering how to wrestle a confession out of a bedraggled bird in a gingko tree.

It’s possible your sister and a member of her security detail have become enamored with each other. And because of that, the smitten young buck has taken advantage of Ito’s distraction about meeting Ms. Korra, and sneaked Miss Genny out of the kumi’s custody.

She stepped back but not by far, taking care not to narrow her eyes. This wasn’t a moment for dunking Kaw with dubiety, especially because he might just be right.

The expression on Apollo’s face didn’t just beg to differ. His own gaze, furious as a celadon storm, was topped only by his irked sneer. “Kleos, I’ve put up with doozies that’ve made me wonder what substances you gobbled off the street and threw down your gullet. But this—”

“Isn’t that long a pass to bring to the end zone,” she butted in, slamming a silencing hand across the O of his stunned mouth. “Suck it up, Sweet Stuff. Regrettably, the logistical details from Quil’s team add up.” But as hard-assed as she kept the rejoinder, no way was that possible when she added, murmuring to prevent her voice from cracking, “Also regrettably, so does my sister’s psychology.”

Apollo’s greens roiled like heavier cloudbursts. “She’s pulled this kind of shit before?”

She winced. Only a little. Or so she hoped. “Not exactly this kind . . . ”

“What does that mean? Then what kind?”

Perhaps we can shelve the Eugenia Steed docu-reel for another time. As we’ve already determined, seconds count right now.

Kissing a crow on the lips had never sounded more like the right thing to do. If their time crunch and his lack of actual lips weren’t factors, she’d have found a way to show her gratitude with more than a fast glance at the bird, which would have to suffice for now.