The Armor was all metaphorical imagery. With the exception of the sword, all of my primary available weapons and protection would have to come from inside me. I had been fully equipped all along.

Truth. Righteousness. Peace. Faith. Salvation. And prayer. That was it.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, I slid from the bed and fell to my knees, but still I felt too high. I pressed my forehead to the carpet, and silently spoke the most important, fervent plea of my life. I lay there with my eyes closed, buzzing with the sureness of my arsenal.

“Daughter of Belial,” I heard Kaidan say. He stood at Kopano’s side.

I quickly pushed to standing and faced him.

He nodded, his eyes hard. “It’s time.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

GALAXY

At once Kaidan and Kopano became still, their eyes far away as they listened.

Oh, no. What were they hearing?

Kaidan’s eyes darted around the floor, landing on his duffel bag by the closet. He ran to it, unzipping it and pulling out my book bag.

“Here’s your bag. Get ready,” he said roughly. But with his hands he signed, Hide the hilt! The son of Shax is coming.

Marek! Not good. He was a possible ally, but I couldn’t take any chances.

I thought fast. As quietly as possible I removed the bag of candy from my backpack and put it in the trash. Then I took some napkins from the room service cart and threw them on top. Yuck.

When the knock came, my stomach dropped. Kaidan pointed for me to sit on the bed. I sat with the book bag in my lap as he opened the door. To my horror Marek came in, flanked by a whisperer. Marek was shorter than Kai, about Blake’s height. I’d wondered if he was friendly before—he’d seemed like it compared to Caterina—but his face showed none of that friendliness now. His eyes were like ice as he pushed up the sleeves of his black dress shirt.

He stopped in front of me, and I wished I were dressed instead of wearing that stupid robe. My Neph friends stood in a tense semicircle around us.

“We meet again,” Marek said. Without asking, he took my bag from me and began to riffle through it, tossing my underwear and shirts out.

“Hey!” I said, trying to seem indignant. “What are you doing?”

When the bag was emptied and he’d felt all the pockets, he glanced around the room.

“What did you take from the bag before I arrived?”

“What? Nothing—”

“I heard a sound! Like . . . crinkling. What was it?”

No, no, no.

“Oh,” I said. “Just some candy I didn’t want anymore.”

He turned and scanned the floor until his eyes stopped on the trash can. No! Without hesitation he reached in.

“Ew, man,” Blake said, but Marek was undeterred.

Panic flared like a rushing meteor inside me. Everyone stepped closer, faces hardened as if ready to fight.

Marek shook the food off the candy bag and proceeded to do what nobody from any of the airport security checks had done before. He ripped the bag open and dumped its contents onto the desk. I leaped from the bed and dove toward the exposed hilt, but I was too late. The whisperer hissed above us as Marek shoved me back, plucking off pieces of candy that I’d taped to it. Kaidan stepped forward, but Kope steadied him with a hand to the shoulder. I hoped Marek and the whisperer thought Kai was angry about what I’d hidden from him, and not the fact that the son of Shax was taking possession of it.

Marek didn’t seem to notice any of this. He didn’t act surprised or satisfied or . . . anything. He matter-of-factly opened the leather flap to reveal the shimmery heavenly metal underneath.

“Dude,” Blake said. “What is that? What are you gonna do with it?”

The whisperer had plastered itself to the ceiling as far from the hilt as possible.

Marek closed the leather flap over the hilt and slid it into his pocket before answering Blake. “Don’t worry about it.”

I watched the wheels turning in Kaidan’s mind. He looked prepared to attack. I gave him a tiny shake of my head, and Kope stepped slightly in front of him, as if signaling him not to make a move. As much as I wanted to jump on Marek and take the hilt back, I knew this was a pivotal moment. We could not yet let on that we were all allies. I needed to be the only threatening one until we had all the Dukes gathered. Then the Neph boys could take the hilt by force. If we tried to take it now, the whisperer would fly off and rat us out. Then we were trapped at a disadvantage.

We could still get it back. We had to.

Marek looked at Kaidan and nodded his head toward me. “She had it all along. Don’t you know never to trust a pretty face? Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“I won’t,” Kaidan said, his eyes hitting mine. “Especially now.”

Marek turned and headed to the door, seeming to speak to the air as he said, “I’ve got it.” And he left the room with the whisperer trailing behind him.

We all stood there, stunned. This changed everything. For one, my guilt was now proven. I’d lost my biggest advantage. What was I going to do without the hilt? All at once I felt small, fragile, and useless. My breathing hitched, a panic attack approaching.

I grasped for something positive, trying to slow my heart rate. We still had the surprise of our Neph alliance, as small as it might be. And maybe other Neph would join us when they saw we were willing to fight. I couldn’t pretend that a huge fraction of my confidence hadn’t disappeared with the hilt, along with the hope that Marek might end up as an ally, but I didn’t want the others to feel as desolate as I did.