"I don't know much about it," Nicky said. "But a child seemed to have escaped from one of the clients and somehow ended up in Novaterra."
Nicky's voice was still trembling, still edged with fear, but there was something else in it now—a note of genuine confusion, as if he himself didn't quite understand the significance of what he was saying.
Nicholas went still.
Every muscle in his body seemed to lock into place, his breath catching in his throat, his eyes sharpening to razor focus.
A child?
The thought echoed through his mind. His brain raced through every piece of information he had gathered over the past months, every report he had read, every briefing he had attended. He searched his memory for any mention of a child—a runaway, a rescue, anything that might fit the description Nicky was giving.
But there was nothing.
They hadn't seen any child from the breeding house in Novaterra.
