Thorne's face was like a mask of ice, his dark green eyes fixed on Elias Moretti. "Did you come all this way just to spout nonsense?"
Elias Moretti shrugged and chuckled. "I just wanted to see what's so great about my high-and-mighty younger brother. You're like a centipede—it takes a lot to bring you down. You always manage to find someone to help you."
Hearing this, Orion's Adam's apple bobbed. The unruly look on his face froze, and a complex, unreadable light flickered in his eyes. He mumbled, half in suspicion and half to himself, "Flora... isn't one of your people..."
His usually carefree and uninhibited expression was now a mixture of confusion and something else, something hidden.
A strange smile appeared on Elias Moretti's face. The curve of his lips held an indescribable meaning, as if mocking himself or perhaps lamenting. "I wish she were one of my people. With her help, I'd be a hundred times stronger."
