Mak’s lips turned up a bit, but his eyes remained wary as he tracked towards her and offered a soft, quick kiss.
‘Who were you speaking to?’ he rasped, almost a little too casual in his attitude.
Saba had promised him always to speak with honesty, so she confessed. ‘Shiloh.’
His brow rose even as his eyes narrowed. ‘She’s doing OK?’
While his words were carefully framed, his tone was glacial, the warmth in his eyes fading.
Saba sighed. ‘She’s well.’
Mak sat on the edge of her reading desk and nailed her with a searching look. ‘Where is she?’
‘OnThe Selburniaark ship,’ Saba told him, nervous, playing with a loose thread on her overalls. ‘But it keeps moving, so I’m not sure where in the flotilla it is.’
‘That’s because Zolan keeps stealthing it so he can keep going with his pirate side hustle. She’s still with him?’
Saba exhaled and shrugged, caught between protecting her sister and maintaining her covenant with her husband.
‘The truth, Saba,’ he growled.
‘Naam, she’s with her man.’
‘I trust you’re keeping confidence, wife.’
Saba was well aware of what he was asking, and it stung that he was contemplating that she’d ever betray him again.
She turned to him and nailed him with a long look. ‘When I married you, you became my family, and my loyalty is to you, first and always, whether you believe it or not.’
His eyes remained wary, skeptical. ‘So why didn’t you tell me you spoke with her on the regular?’
She hesitated, sensing the trap she was walking into. ‘She asked me not to say -.’
He scoffed, his mouth twisting into its former bitterness. ‘There it is. Your devotion lies with her first.’
Saba raised her hands in frustration. ‘She’s my twin, Mak. I must value her discretion, but I would have told you if she had crossed the line.’
‘Is that right?’
His voice hardened with every word. ‘Pardon my cynicism. The Lisades have not been forthright with me in the past.’
Saba’s eyes stormed, and she sucked her teeth. ‘You keep lumping us together. While my uncle and Suri were not real with you and let you down, Shiloh and I are not the same.’
He stared her down. ‘Yet you both conspired to lie to me and the entire Order at the altar.’
Saba refused to allow him to get away with such a cheap shot. ‘Will you ever forgive me, or will you continue to dangle my sin before me whenever it suits you to punish me?’
Her words hit home. She noted how he flinched at them.
After a tense stare-off, he exhaled. ‘I’d prefer if you held off speaking with Shiloh for now.’
‘I can’t promise that.’
‘Let me at least make sure your conversations with her are above board.’
‘What d’you mean?’ she demanded.
‘I need to be certain that her lover is not using the calls as link-throughs to hack our systems and steal intelligence through either encryption, exfiltration, or both.’
