I eyed him carefully as I chewed. That look on his face wasn’t fake, and I realized that being alone in here the whole day would probably drive anyone a little crazy, and when I considered that his life had done a major turn...

Just yesterday, he was living his life at his home with his family, and today, he was trapped in here, half of his family dead, half whisked away to an unknown location, and he couldn’t even be sure if he’d ever be able to hug them or touch them again. And I was sure all he could do here was think over and over again what he could’ve done differently or remember what things used to be like. I took a sip of juice, wondering if maybe I was projecting.

When Hugo had saved me from the Ezzatis years ago, the first thing he’d done was train me, and he’d kept my mind occupied, because if he hadn’t done that, I didn’t think I would’ve managed to survive. Maybe James hadn’t been so close to his father and his half-brothers, but they had still been his family, and his mother and sisters were now far away from him and he didn’t know what was happening to them.

My headache only intensified. Oh God, why was I doing this to myself? Why was I looking for connections where there weren’t any? So yeah, maybe it would be nice to have someone who understood a little of what I’d felt when my family had been taken away from me.

“Okay, you can come with me,” I finally said, and his eyes met mine with surprise flashing in them. “Just around here, though.” I had no intention of letting him leave this place and get any ideas. We ate the rest of our breakfast in silence, and when I was ready to go, James followed me outside.

We hadn’t even made it a few steps into the hallway when Brent showed up.

“What are you doing? Where’s he going?” Brent glared at James.

“He’s coming with me. Has there been any news on the Desaltis?”

Brent gaped at me. “We can’t talk about that in front of him. He’s our enemy!”

“Well? Anything?” I raised an eyebrow at him, ignoring his objection.

“No, but you can’t just let this guy roam around.”

“He’s not roaming. He’s with me. God, Brent. Just lay off it. Go tell Meg to set up the room so James can talk to his family.”

Brent ground his teeth. “We’ll discuss this in private later.”

“We won’t. Stop questioning my decisions.” I waved at James as I started down the hallway. “Come on.”

When we stumbled upon a few people, they stopped what they’d been doing, greeted me, and then observed James, who only returned their stares, his face deadly serious.