Rebel's Consort - Phoenix Book 1 by KH LeMoyne Read Free Book Online Page A

years of fragile trust and interaction down the proverbial tube. What had he expected? They were right to fear him.
    “You worked for the Regents?” Hena’s voice, filled with disbelief, hissed across the table.
    “Yes.” That shocked them enough to bring on healthy anger. Aaron and Hena had obviously expected a denial. Their rigid posture matched the disgusted horror in their eyes.
    Well, they’d asked, and he wasn’t lying. It didn’t bring the cleansing satisfaction or the numbing distance he’d hoped.
    A movement from his side caught his attention. Gar, not able to see Analena’s command to stay away, stood awkwardly by the table, his fingers wide in front of him to detect collision. He’d frozen at Trace’s comment and turned his face to him.
    “Gar.” Trace reached a hand to steady him. The boy flinched and backed away.
    Analena rose, an arm circling around the boy’s chest, bringing him safely against her.
    “You did these things?” The whisper came from Gar. His hand touching his own cheek cut deeper into Trace’s soul than the condemnation in Analena’s eyes. Or maybe they both hurt so much it didn’t make any difference. In penance, Trace answered the question spoken and unspoken.
    “I did what they told me to do.” He’d had another choice, one he couldn’t reconcile then and still wouldn’t embrace now. Even knowing the outcome, he wouldn’t risk a different path.
    “Why?”
    Trace would have ignored the question had it come from anyone else, but from Gar—the boy had suffered too much to dismiss harshly.
    “To save my wife and daughter.”
    Gar pursed his lips and turned away. Analena rubbed her hand over the boy’s chest. Oddly, her look had changed from seething anger to cold speculation.
    “Did it work?” Aaron asked.
    “No.” Trace stood and walked back to the exam table to jam his tools back into the duffel. He didn’t need any more of their judgment, and he sure as hell didn’t need their pity. What he’d done, who he was, didn’t concern any of these people.
    A muttered curse and the diminishing whispers signaled the others’ retreat, creating as much distance as possible from him.
    At a small scraping sound, he turned.
    A tiny doll of a girl with ebony skin and equally dark, shiny curls held a stuffed bear and shuffled toward him with a gait that made him cringe. He could guess what had been done to her, yet she didn’t look more than four and too tiny for any monster with a conscience to harm. Then again, the Regents didn’t hire men of conscience.
    She grabbed his pants leg and looked up with one arm lifted for him to pick her up. He wanted to ignore her. He wanted to pry her off his leg and leave. Instead, he lifted her to his chest. As she clamped her arms around his neck, her bear poking at his back, he heard the sharp intake of someone’s breath.
    “Analena say hugs make everything better,” the girl whispered in his ear.
    He gave her an awkward pat on the back and finally looked around, desperate for someone to extract the child before she killed him with memories of his own precious innocent.
    “Bits, come with me.” Hena moved close enough to pull the child from his arms and, without looking at him, left the room.
     
    ***
     
    Analena followed Onyx through the tunnel. His stride lengthened with his attempt to flee. Not before she got a few things perfectly clear.
    His revelations had shocked everyone, herself included. She’d trusted this man with her secrets, making herself vulnerable to his agenda. In theory, he should be no more of an enigma than he ever was. Several years of helping her save her kids should have bought him some trust. The fact that he’d worked to save these kids, doing the very thing she risked her life on, warred with her uncertainty.
    “I can arrange payment. I didn’t pull anything from the labs this time that you might want—didn’t have time.” She glanced back down the long tunnel. Gar sat beside Aaron.
    She saw