The man nodded in approval and winked. It was wonderful to see her friend again, so wonderful she wanted to shoulder her way into the apartment and ask the man what his name was.
“Thank you for coming to find me,” Beluviel said. Pia yanked her attention back to the consort, who looked puzzled. “Let’s talk in the morning.”
Pia couldn’t help herself and looked at the man again. Yes, the man’s bright gaze promised her. We’ll talk. Soon.
“Certainly,” Pia said. Who was she answering again? She couldn’t remember. “Good night.”
Beluviel closed the door, and Pia turned to Eva and Miguel, who were frowning at her. Eva said telepathically, Did you tell Beluviel everything you needed to tell her?
Of course, Pia said.
She sent the Elf who had escorted them to the main hall with a message for the others, and soon Andrea, James and Johnny joined them in their apartment. Eva and Miguel updated the others while Pia stayed silent, lost in thought.
She felt like she was forgetting something. What was it? If only she could chase it down. The feeling was driving her crazy.
Eva asked her, “What did Beluviel say when you told her about what you sensed?”
“Hm?” Pia said.
Was it something she had forgotten? Or was it someone?
Eva studied her with a frown. “You did say that you told Beluviel about what you were sensing, so you must have had a quick exchange telepathically. What did she say?”
Pia frowned back at the captain. She did know that she had told Beluviel everything, while someone had watched her. Who was it again? He had such green, green eyes.
She had a feeling of something slipping past her, like a train of thought almost but not quite recovered. She told the other woman, “You heard as much as I did. She said we would talk in the morning.”
Eva’s lips tightened. “Fine,” said the captain. “Extra vigilance on watches tonight. I’ll take a double, since Hugh’s gone. Miguel, I want you on the second shift. Maybe you can get a better reading when things quiet down and at least most people are asleep.” She looked at Pia. “Anything else you want to add?”
It was a relief to turn her mind to other things instead of trying to chase down that maddeningly elusive memory. Pia said, “Maybe I should check on things during the second shift as well, to see if I can sense any changes.”
“Smart,” Miguel said.
“Other than that, we can see if Beluviel can give us more news or clarification.” She straightened her back, which had started to ache again. “Depending on how that talk goes, we may be leaving tomorrow. This whole trip may just be a case of poor timing all the way around, but there’s no reason to stay if we can’t accomplish what we set out to do.” And then because she had been a good, good girl that whole damn day, she looked at Eva and let herself ask, “I don’t suppose Hugh might still show up this evening with any news?”
Eva shook her head. “Not unless it’s urgent. He won’t try to fly into this Wood at night.”
Fuck. Unsurprised but still disappointed, she nodded.
Even though Eva’s gaze remained fixed on her, it was clear the captain was lost in thought. After a moment Eva said, “Everybody pack. There might be a simple explanation for what’s going on, but right now we don’t understand what we know, and I want to be able to move at a moment’s notice if we need to.”
“I’m never going to hear the end of this,” Pia muttered. “Somehow this will all end up being my fault.”
Eva slapped her on the shoulder. “’Course it will, princess. That’s ’cause it is.”
For the barest moment Pia resisted her impulse. She should not stoop to Evil Eva’s level. But then there it was. Her hand came up without her permission, and she flipped the other woman her middle finger.
Eva and the others laughed. As Pia went to bed, she consoled herself with the thought that at least the psychos’ laughter was friendlier than when they had first started out on the trip. Anyway, that was her story and she was sticking to it.
When she went to bed, she expected to toss and turn, and to chew on all her worries, but instead she fell asleep almost immediately.
Someone stood over her, swathed in shadows, looking at her with green eyes. He bent over to touch her.
No. That wasn’t right.
There wasn’t a man in her room. Someone was growling.
The peanut lay stretched out on her torso, long wings sleek against his supple back, his head on her shoulder. He was such a beautiful white dragon baby, every delicate feature etched in perfect miniature. She stroked a hand down his body and whispered, “Ssh, sweetheart, it’s all right.”
He lifted his head to look at her, and his dark violet eyes glowed with ferocity. Wow, he really was unsettled. He was going to be quite a force to be reckoned with when he grew up. She looked out the window where he had been staring. While the night sky was clear, there were no stars.
The sky looked so wrong that dread jolted through her. She gathered the peanut up in her arms and rolled to her feet to go to the window. Oh, thank God, there were some stars sprinkled across at least part of the sky.
As she watched, a few of the bright lights went dark. A man stood at her shoulder and whispered, “Nothing shines forever. Their deaths will pave a way to a new age.”
She glanced back at him. Green eyes smiled at her.
“No,” she said. Was she agreeing with him, or refuting him?
The peanut’s growling grew louder. She hugged him tightly. Either the stars were dying, or they were being smothered or eaten. Despite what the man said, it was horribly wrong, the most horrible thing she’d ever seen. A harsh, discordant clash sounded like a dirge, or perhaps it was an inhuman scream, and dread soaked the landscape like blood.
The dread was everywhere. It beat a dark, oily sludge in her veins and tried to black her out, swallow her whole. The man reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, and suddenly the peanut’s little head whipped around and he actually bit her—
She plunged awake, her skin damp with sweat. Dammit all to hell, that wasn’t the kind of dream she had been hoping she would have. A vague nausea roiled and she curled on her side, breathing deeply.
The baby was roused again, his presence draped over her, an invisible protective cloak spiked with aggression. She put a hand on her rounded stomach. What the hell?
The dark sense of dread had intensified. It saturated the air so thickly, she felt as though she were actually breathing it in like wood smoke.
Smoke.
She came fully awake, stabbed to alertness by a knife of adrenaline.
The acrid scent of smoke hung in the air. A sharp clash of metal sounded in the distance, along with shouting, and a red-tinged fog drifted across the window outside.
Or maybe that wasn’t fog. Her head ached fiercely and her ears rang as if she heard a high, thin scream.
There was no sound of movement in the apartment. Lunging to her feet, she ran out of her bedroom.
The embers of a fire pulsed brightly in the fireplace in the common room. James sat on the floor, slumped against the hallway door. Andrea sat in an awkward heap in front of the window.
They couldn’t be dead. They couldn’t be. Pia leaped to James and slapped him. He came upright with a growl and pressed the tip of his sword against her throat before she could jerk back.
The sharp tip nicked her skin. They stared at each other, wild-eyed. Then James jerked his sword away and said, “FUCK, don’t ever do that again. I could have sliced your throat wide open.”