Daughter of Zeus ✔

19

It took a day for Darcy to calm down.

When she was ready for rational words, she asked to see her mother. Ada agreed. Only Shylar seemed reluctant to take them to the Moretz estate.

Her voice flat, Ada informed him, "We don't need you to go anywhere. We're going, regardless. Then later, you're going to tell me where to find the black site you took me from."

"We're never going back there again."

"I never said we're going there, but you will tell me."

Shana hadn't contacted her again, which meant she was still gathering intel or planned on going back on their deal. Knowing the location of the site would be a start.

"We can go to both places, and you'll see the first is abandoned, and the second is another type of bad idea," he said.

She believed him about the black site being abandoned, as it made the most sense. The whole idea behind a State black site was anonymity, which was impossible to maintain after what had transpired with Moretz.

"Okay, we'll go see Darcy's mom and that's it," Ada said.

The three of them slid into the car. Ada situated Kressick's urn on her lap. She wasn't quite sure what she would say and to whom, but his ashes didn't belong with her.

From the backseat, Darcy dictated the necessary address to the car's interface. In twenty minutes, they arrived at the Moretz estate. The guard waved them through the front gate when he saw Darcy.

As the vehicle advanced the length of the winding driveway, the ramp appeared and slowly lowered. The car drove into the sub-garage. No one greeted them after they parked. Their steps echoed in the concrete space, with the only other sound being the grind of stone on stone as the ramp closed.

Darcy looked around the sub-garage. "Maybe no one's home."

Shylar, noticing Ada, offered to carry the urn. Gratefully, she handed it over. They traversed the sub-garage to the main floor stairway, Shylar with a deep frown.

"They're home," he said.

From his attitude, Ada thought back to her gun and wished she had brought it along. But she surmised she didn't need conventional weapons—she was a weapon. She was also naive enough to think, Chancelin and Phennell aren't going to hurt us. The grim look on Shylar's face said otherwise.

Upstairs, the hallway was dark, and most of the doors closed. A light from Moretz's open office seemed encouraging. Darcy went first, poking her head around the door. Then, she motioned for Ada and Shylar to follow her in.

Chancelin sat behind Moretz's desk, tapping away at several panels, her manicured nails clicking along the fluid surfaces. When she glanced up, the first person her eyes settled on was Darcy.

Chancelin smiled. Tears glittered in her eyes. Her smile slipped at the appearance of Shylar, transforming into a look of disgust when Ada came closer into view. Immediately, she spoke into one of the panels. Phennell answered, and footsteps could be heard coming down the main staircase.

"Where are Brontes and Kressick?" Chancelin asked Shylar.

He stared at her directly, still maintaining a degree of respect.

"Here's Kressick." He held up the urn, and she gasped. "As for Brontes—he's with the authorities, ma'am."

"What did you do?" was the first thing Phennell asked when he walked into the office.

When Shylar didn't speak, Ada half-turned to see why. The Phennell she was used to was nowhere in the room. There was no concern or understanding left in the young man before her. If anything, he resembled his stepfather and not in a flattering way.

He was assessing her with the same look of disgust Chancelin had. It was at that moment Ada realized his question had been intended for her.

"I didn't do anything," she said, frowning. "Your father made a deal with the Sammies, trading himself for my freedom."

"That doesn't sound like him," he scoffed.

"No, it doesn't."

She was merely repeating what happened from the gaps Shylar filled in for her. Why Moretz saved her was a mystery. Kressick's inspiration couldn't be entirely transformative, could it? His power allowed for nerve control, but she had been unaware his abilities included cognitive control. Had he altered Moretz on a neural level? If so, then Kressick managed to reverse his son's perverse habits, replacing them with selfless ones. She stared at Shylar through a new lens.