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"Hello, Sentinel"

"Hello, Sullivan"

His sress?"

"Not a bit" I told him what I’d learned--or rather, what I hadn’t

"You’ve eli" He slid his hands into his pockets "I’ to check on Luc Would you like to take a break?"

I glanced at the clock, realized I’d been sitting in the chair for nearly two hours I rose, stretched my arms and back "I would"

He took my hand, and alked to the door, then down the hallway that led to the second-floor quarters of the vaan House

"I feel like a depressed drug-sniffing dog," I said

"I look forward to hearing your explanation for that siet bummed if they don’t find contraband every once in a while, so handlers plant things for them to find"

"Ah," Ethan said "You need to find so"

"That’s about it"

He raised our joined hands to his lips, kissed ure it out We always do"

• • •

Lindsey’s rooamation of paint, posters, and fabric Little wonder that even though they spent ether, Luc had chosen to recuperate in his rooly sedate for acaptain of the guards, Luc had a rooer than the standard dorood-sized sitting area, with a couch and television on one side and doors to a bathroom and closet on the opposite wall The furniture was dark wood and masculine, the fabrics dark and muted A bookshelf was lined with books and a collectibles frouess I expected a mock-up of a Wild West cathouse, I told Ethan as alked to the bed, where Luc lay in tasteful pinstripe pajamas I don’t knoho he is anye to hold in a chuckle He is a many-faceted jewel

"Have you come to praise me?" the jewel asked, eyes closed "Not to bury me?"

"We’ve come to see if you’ll still stand as captain or if I need to open applications"

Luc cracked open a suspicious eye "Here I ae, busted up because I took a hit for the tea jokes like that"

"How are you feeling?" I asked hiain "Ribs ache Migraine is a bitch, as is the vertigo I’ll heal, Delia says, but not fast enough to suit hts And another pint or two of ice cream Lindsey’s in the kitchen as we speak"