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the enemy. If he’d lowered his guard, something awful would happen. But as luck had it, something horrible had happened anyway, and the next day Peers and Aubrey were back on their own with blood soaking their clothing and hands.  
    He understood why Cameron and the others didn’t sleep, and why the one they called Kindred seemed so uncertain of him. To Peers, Kindred looked exactly like Meyer Dempsey, Heaven’s Veil’s supposedly dead viceroy. That would have been fine if not for the group’s second Meyer Dempsey — this one simply called “Meyer.” But Peers thought he knew what this was. Astrals were shapeshifters. It seemed that Kindred had once been Astral, and was now stuck in human form. Surely he’d eye Peers with a raised brow, but no matter his suspicions he wouldn’t truly know anything beyond the fact that Peers wasn’t Astral.
    It would take time. And that was fine.  
    A half hour expired, and the questions got started. They asked Peers how he knew they were in Derinkuyu when they really wanted to know why he was looking for them in the first place, especially the farther they got from the ancient Cappadocian city. Hours passed, and it was obvious that the honeycomb was far from Peers’s home base. Why had he and his assistant trucked all the way out to that specific point to rather coincidentally save them? If pressed, he’d tell them he knew they had the archive key, and that the Astrals were after it. But he wouldn’t say anything until he had to. Secrets had to be rationed.  
    Evening slowly replaced afternoon. The crew became restless, unwilling to close their eyes despite obvious fatigue. Perhaps it was dawning on them that their saviors had captured them, too. They weren’t in chains and Peers wouldn’t use force to hold them, but those on the bus had entered a quiet standoff. While the vehicle was in motion, everyone on board was more or less stuck. All eyes seemed to be weighing the situation, frying pan versus fire. They could ask to get off, yes. But why? The outlands offered no cover, and Peers had given no reason to doubt his intentions.  
    Except for his and Aubrey’s appearance being so highly, highly coincidental.  
    Peers shifted attention between his new charges and the road. The Den was another half hour away, and the only customs or border patrols still in these parts were those that wandered everywhere, regardless of the old, pre-Astral map. And besides, he had help keeping this stretch clean, so Peers had little reason to worry. They’d be there soon — no need to press things beforehand.  
    But something itched at him. Something that felt forgotten. He’d known the group’s composition, and they were all now in the bus. Kindred; Meyer; Cameron Bannister and his apparent wife, Piper; Meyer’s daughter, Lila; and her obviously Lightborn daughter, Clara. The blue-eyed man with the dark stubble seemed to be with Lila, and though Peers wasn’t good with names, he seemed to remember their brief introductions naming him Christopher. There was a stern-faced man in a button-up shirt and brown slacks named Charlie, and the hard-edged woman with the brown ponytail was the group’s militant: Janet, or something.  
    And that was everyone. All the spotters had seen — everyone Peers had background on, if he cared enough to look.  
    So why did he feel like something had been left behind? Something that might come back to bite him?
    And why, several times now, did he seem to see something in the corner of his eye, like an animal running along beside the bus?  
    “You know us, don’t you?”  
    Peers felt his attention snap. He looked down to see the little girl. Glancing back, he saw her mother watching them both from a few rows back. Clara was seated across the aisle from Peers, watching him with unconcerned eyes.  
    “I do now.” Peers tried to affect a smile, but Lightborn gazes were so unsettling. Rumor had it they could talk across distances. Intuit the future.