RHYS HELD THE CUP IN his hands, not drinking it, the tea no longer warm, let alone hot. Seema shivered beside him, while Finn absentmindedly sketched some contraption on a napkin.
"You're saying there is no Blade of the Sun?" Rhys asked, triple checking what the archaeologist had said.
The man shook his head. "There isn't. My family were Shields of the Sun for a millennium. Guardians." He brushed away the hair that had fallen in front of his face. "We failed."
"You betrayed." Seema's voice was quiet but thick with some unnamed emotion. These being the first words she'd spoken since the appearance of the archaeologist, they made Rhys even more curious. From her story, she couldn't have met Mr. Rao; she had been hiding in cat form since long before he was born. Still, her knuckles were wh
