“If he did,” the Basileus said with a grunt, “he would have declared war by now. No, she must have fooled him.”
His stare was making her even more uncomfortable, and Delaney barely resisted the urge to clear her throat pointedly. Instead she held her head high and tried to make her voice as calm and respectful as possible.
“I’d just like to go home,” she told them.
“This is not an ideal situation,” the Basileus said then, “and I assure you we will be taking steps to right the wrong my daughter has done us all. However”—he folded his hands across the surface of his desk slowly—“it has also come to my attention that we have no real knowledge of where she is. As you know, Earth is a big planet. Therefore—”
She felt the blood draining from her face before he’d even finished his sentence.
“We simply cannot allow you to leave.”
CHAPTER 5
“With all due respect, we can’t ask this of her,” Ruckus said. He was deep in conversation with the Basileus and Basilissa, but Delaney barely registered anything they were saying.
She’d zoned out the second it’d been stated they weren’t going to let her go home. Suddenly it was too hot in the room, despite its size and the open windows across from her that showed an almost pitch-black sky. At least she couldn’t see any alien terrain through them; right now she didn’t think she could handle that.
Mariana had to have realized by now that Delaney wasn’t at home. She would have texted her as soon as she’d gotten to Ottus’s house and expected a reply. They did that. Let each other know that they’d gotten to their destinations safely. It was nice, considering that Delaney had grown up in a large home with absentee parents.
Just like Olena’s parents, they had no idea where their daughter currently was. The thought made her laugh, the sound strained even to her own ears.
Fingers tightened at her elbow and she glanced up, blinking to find them all staring at her. Ruckus was frowning, and there may have even been a dash of general concern, but the Basileus drew everyone’s attention away before she could be certain.
“You understand the stakes,” he asked curtly, “don’t you, Delaney Grace? You’ve been told what will happen to your people should the Kints declare war on the Vakar, correct? If so, you understand why this decision has to be made. Neither one of us can risk the Zane discovering my daughter is still on Earth. Until we find her, you’re our best chance at eluding him.”
“If there were another option,” Tilda said then, “believe that we would take it.”
“Yes,” Magnus agreed. “We know what we’re asking of you is difficult to accept. But it is the only way, for now, to ensure the safety of everyone. Surely, put plainly, you agree, don’t you, Ander?”
Ruckus wouldn’t meet her gaze, but Delaney didn’t need him to. She’d already caught the same glimmer in the Basileus’s eyes that she had in Trystan’s. He wasn’t asking. He was telling.
She didn’t really have a choice.
“This is a lot to take in,” Tilda said. “Ander, please escort her to her rooms.”
“We can discuss this further in the morning,” Magnus added.
When they looked to her a final time, she nodded mutely, and from there Ruckus moved her out of the room rather quickly. She paid even less attention to her surroundings this time, not even noting the guards they passed or that the color of the walls had changed to light green until they were stopped at yet another door.
He pushed it open and then placed a hand at her back, easing her gently inside with more care than she would have expected. She was still too dazed to put up a fight, and entered without argument.
It was a bedroom with a king-sized bed set against the center of the right wall.
The room was shaped like an octagon, with each other side smaller than the one before it. The longer walls were about fifteen feet across, the shorter sides half that. Each of the four smaller walls had a door set in it, all closed.
Even still, the door on the far left obviously let out onto a balcony, because she could see it from the window that made up the entire wall directly across from the bed, floor to ceiling. The glass was sparkling and so clean, it was practically invisible. Outside, a deck painted white, like the walls inside, stretched out with a railing that would come up just beneath her chest. There was a patio set out there, a small circular glass table with only two metal chairs, also white. They were pristine; this whole place was pristine.
As if someone hadn’t lived in it in quite a while.
How long had Ruckus said Olena had been gone? Five years?
She dropped her gaze to the carpet, running her foot over it. She was still wearing her Converse, and their neon-yellow color was a sharp contrast to the forest green beneath her. White walls with green molding, green bed frame, green vanity against the large far wall … She was sensing a theme here.
“How long?” She moved farther into the room and then turned to face Ruckus.
He’d come in behind her and shut the door, but was now running a hand through his dark hair and staring out the window.
“Presumably until Olena is found,” he told her.
“I can’t stay here,” she snapped, the words coming out slightly hysterical.
“Lower your voice,” he ordered, yellow-green eyes hardening slightly. Easing forward, he approached as if she were a wounded animal he didn’t want to spook. Once he was only a foot away, he halted, giving her a moment to adjust to his presence before speaking.
“I will get you home, Delaney,” he told her softly. “I promised, and I meant it. It’s just … I can’t do it as soon as we’d hoped.”
She was trapped here, and the only way out was by playing along. By pretending to be a person she knew nothing about, in a world she knew nothing about. Why was this happening?
He began leading her toward the bed, but she yanked herself free.
“I’m not a child,” she spat, “and I don’t need to sit down. You’re going to hold me prisoner; just man up already and admit it. That’s what this is.” She took a shaky breath. “Tell me the truth, Ruckus. I know you have to find Olena. All right. Fine. But how long is that going to take? When can I go home?”
He opened his mouth, shut it again. Running his large hands through his hair, he knocked more dark strands loose so that he had to sweep them to the right instead of back in order to keep his hair out of his face. In this lighting, the green rim around his eyes forced the yellow to glow like shimmery coins at the bottom of a clear lake.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Oh.” It was all she could manage. She swallowed and glanced at the bed at his back. “I know I said I didn’t need to sit, but…”
He moved to her, quickly helping her across the room and to the edge of the bed. Once she was on it, he stared down at her.