Chapter 951: Knew her?

“What?” Noah asked tersely.

“How could Garina go missing?” Emily added in a low hiss. “She’s an Apostle herself! And a really strong one!”

“A strong one,” Revin agreed idly. He picked at a fingernail, trying to look less concerned than he clearly was. “But not the strongest. There are others.”

“Don’t count yourself,” Noah said.

“There are still others,” Revin said. He shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not the strongest Apostle. That would be the Prophet. And as much of a pompous ass as Kyyle is, he’s far from weak. The Disciple of War is not one easily outperformed whilst fighting.”

“Dunno about that,” Emily said. She looked off in the direction that the Executioner had sent Kyyle flying. “It looked like he got splattered pretty good.”

“Make no mistake, he let that blow connect,” Revin said. “Not that he could have dodged it completely. But he could have tanked it. Kyyle realized his best way out of this was to allow himself to be struck and use it as a way to flee. He might be strong, but he’s not going to go picking a fight with Vivian’s Hand in the middle of Aqua Terra.”

“So, what, you think the other Apostles jumped Garina or something?” Noah asked with a frown.

“I don’t know what happened,” Revin replied. “But she’s gone missing, and given that we were working on something together, it’s rather inconvenient. Loathe as I am to admit it… I need her help. And I can’t really go looking for her.”

“Why?” Noah asked.

“Because I’m me,” Revin replied. He arched an eyebrow. “And, unfortunately, my presence is loud indeed. The Apostles would know of my approach well before I made it anywhere meaningful.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. He and Emily glanced at each other.

“You just came out of Kyyle’s shadow,” Emily said. “Like… literally from beneath him. A minute ago. How could you possibly get closer?”

“I said meaningful,” Revin said. “This place is cloaked. Vivian’s power makes everyone as dense as a rock. Lots of fun for me, but not something I can really rely on outside of the city. And I am certain that Garina isn’t here.”

Noah’s lips thinned. He really didn’t have the capacity for this. Especially given the one who was asking for his help… it just didn’t seem like a good idea. Revin was an absolute nutjob. There was a very real chance that he was just fucking around with them.

But it wasn’t a chance he could afford to take.

It really was quite odd that Garina hadn’t found him yet. If she’d somehow been hurt or kidnapped… that would definitely explain it. And despite the number of times Garina had killed Noah, she had helped him. He couldn’t just turn around and do nothing now just because it was convenient.

Noah sighed.

“What else do you know?”

Revin smiled. “Ferdinand is missing as well. Her loverboy was the first one I went to look for after she vanished off the face of the planet. But he wasn’t anywhere to be found either.”

“You sure she didn’t just run away to not have to deal with your bullshit?” Emily asked.

Revin paused for a moment. His head tilted slightly in consideration. “I suppose that would be possible. But we were working on something rather important. It would have been quite irresponsible of her to do something like that. And there’s only room for one irresponsible person per project. Given that I have taken the role, it would be quite impossible for her to take my mantle. I can assure you that I’m far worse than she is.”

“No assuring needed,” Emily muttered. “I’m quite aware.”

“Then you can see my issue,” Revin said. “So keep an eye out for her, would you, Spider? See if you can pry anything out of the Apostles. And don’t you worry. If you get yourself into a fight… I’ll be there. I figure it’ll be too late for diplomacy at that point anyway.”

Noah just shook his head. “I’ll do what I can. But I’m going to need to figure out how I’m supposed to pass Emily’s connection with me off now. Kyyle is suspicious. Probably even more suspicious now that you popped out of nowhere and attacked him. I can’t have him coming after my students.”

“Hm,” Revin said. “That is a problem.”

There was a short pause.

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“What?” Emily asked. “That’s it? You’re not going to suggest a solution or something? He’s agreeing to help you. The least you could do is offer some assistance.”

“Oh, no. I’m good.” Revin shook his head. “Sounds like it’ll be pretty tough. Probably going to end up being a whole bunch of convoluted shit. That isn’t really my shtick. I prefer the kinds of stories where everything is straightforward. Especially the ones where I’m the main character. But I’m sure Spider will figure something out. I’ve got complete faith in him.”

“No, Emily is right,” Noah said. “You could at least...”

He trailed off.

Revin was gone.

“Bastard,” Noah muttered under his breath. “God, that guy is infuriating.”

“Tell me about it,” Emily said with a grimace. “James has told me so many stories about him, and I don’t think a single one of them were good. He’s a man-child. Unfortunately, he’s a very strong one.”

“Unfortunately,” Noah agreed. He pinched the bridge of his nose through his cloth mask, pressing his lips thin as he thought.

The Executioner was still standing in front of them like a scarecrow to ward off the Apostles, but they couldn’t sit around here forever. Worse, the longer he took to hunt the Apostles back down and make sure they didn’t get the right idea, the harder it was going to be to keep his bullshit from falling apart.

He needed to act fast.

A few seconds dragged past. The sounds of the party going on all around poked at the back of Noah’s thoughts. Nobody was looking in their direction, and most people were very pointedly trying to avoid getting too close to the Executioner.

Stories were indubitably already going to be spreading about the Executioner stepping into save him. That wouldn’t be doing him any favors with the Apostles at all. Not unless he managed to twist the story so bad that everything looped back around.

Noah’s head tilted slightly to the side.

And then he realized what path laid before him.

His eye twitched.

God damn it.

“Okay,” Noah said. “I need to go. The Apostles need to be dealt with. Keep your wits about you. Don’t let anyone isolate you or bring you anywhere. Make sure James does the same when you meet back up with him.”

“What are you going to do?” Emily asked nervously. “We just found you again. Don’t—”

“It’ll be fine,” Noah said with a little more confidence than he actually felt. “It’s me we’re talking about, Emily. I’ve bullshitted my way through harder situations. Or are you forgetting that I met you and Moxie back when you both thought I was a Linwick?”

A small smile crossed Emily’s features. “Yeah. I guess that’s true.”

“Of course it is,” Noah said. “And I’m going to need you to do something for me.”

“Yeah?”

“Slap me,” Noah said. “As hard as you can. It’s important. We need to make sure people overhear—”

Emily slapped Noah. He cursed, more out of surprise than any real pain. “Ow!”

Several people glanced toward them. A few snickers rolled through the crowd.

“There,” Emily said.

“I didn’t even finish explaining why you had to slap me!” Noah exclaimed. “You were way too eager to do that, weren’t you?”

“Are you complaining about me following orders?” Emily asked, arching an eyebrow in a very Moxie-like manner.

Noah sighed. He’d wasted so much time talking after the slap that all the effect was already lost. Only a few people were looking in their direction.

“Okay,” Noah said in a low tone. “Just remember this. You hate me from here on out. If anyone asks, Spider is a bastard and you can’t stand him. I don’t know why yet. Just agree with whatever they say. It’ll be important.”

“Easy,” Emily said with a smirk.

“Good,” Noah said. He thrust a finger into Emily’s shoulder, pushing her back a step. “Take care of yourself. Now slap me again and walk—”

Emily slapped him a second time. Noah let out a curse.

Stop cutting me off!

“You too,” Emily said in a low voice before sending him a scathing glare and raising her voice. “Fuck off!”

Noah bit his words back, spinning on his heel and striding into the crowd. That was going to have to be enough to sell the rest of his act.

“Maria,” Noah whispered under his breath, turning toward the nearest patch of shadows. “I need a little backup. Get me over to Kyyle. The two of us need to finish our talk.”

A coil of darkness extended, weaving across the ground and vanishing into the crowd.

Noah’s lips curled.

Then he strode after it.

He swept through chattering groups, moving quickly and with as much purpose as he could. Noah kept an eye on the tongue of shadow slithering across the busy floor as he wove past people in pursuit of it. Kyyle had really flown pretty damn far, but he couldn’t leave the room until Vivian called the party off.

So long as he found the Apostle before then, there would be a chance to fix this.

Noah wasn’t actually sure how long he ended up following after the darkness. It was probably something around thirty minutes. The party was in full swing already, with the air completely full of loud conversation and the clink of cutlery.

And then Maria’s darkness faded away.

Noah blinked, looking up in confusion, only to find a thin gap in the crowd before him. Sitting at a table alone just a few paces before him was Kyyle.

There we go. Finally.

Noah strode straight toward him, pulling the chair alongside Kyyle out and sitting down alongside the other man.

“Spider,” Kyyle said. “What a coincidence.”

“No coincidence about it,” Noah said coldly. “I tracked you down to tell you that you’re an idiot. What did you think you were doing back there?”

“What a coincidence,” Kyyle said. “That was exactly what I was going to ask you. What was—”

“You think it’s any of your godsdamned business who I am subjected to dealing with?” Noah growled. “You don’t see me rooting up your past problems. So stay the hell out of mine. I was trying to do the bare minimum pleasantries. Instead, you bring that cretin Revin over to me and force me to come up with a load of horse shit to justify what’s going on to that vile woman while trying to keep a smile on my face.”

Kyyle blinked. “I — what? What are you talking about?”

“That woman is connected to some very powerful mages. Connections that I very much cannot afford to anger any further than I already have,” Noah said in a clipped tone. “Our operation cannot take more attention than you have already drawn to it. You need to stay away from her. The only thing that will come from it is scrutiny that none of us can allow.”

“I… huh?” Kyyle blinked. “Are you trying to say that you aren’t friends? You clearly knew—”

“Of course I knew her,” Noah snapped. “That woman is my ex-wife.”