Oh yeah? Watch me. I’m about to protest when Em’s voice invades my thoughts. If she were here, she’d touch my arm, think something for me alone to hear.
“Let her go,” she’d whisper. “Look who she has for company. Anyone wishing to harm Khloe will have to go through a Shield, a Mask, and a Magnet first. Would you want to be that person? Because I wouldn’t.”
As always, my better half is right. “Fine. But if anything happens to her, I swear to—”
The breath is knocked from my chest when Khloe rams into me. I enfold her, give her the tightest hug she’s ever had. When she releases, she gives me one of her I-can-get-whatever-I-want smiles, then rejoins her group on the other side of the room.
I take in each person present in turn, really look at them. The empty vial weighs heavy in my pocket.
“I think we’re ready, Lieutenant Commander Rhyen.” Makai announces my new title for the first time, making everyone aware I’m his official second. Not David. Me. The position belonged to Gage once. I can see him now, all smug in his human strength. My, how the currents have shifted.
“Hold on.”
Great. What else could Song possibly have to interject at this point?
“Garden of Epoch? Fountain of Time? We’re chasing Fairy tales, Rhyen. Even if such places did exist, how can you be sure a Threshold will become a wormhole that will spit you out in the exact place your precious vessel ended up?”
The griffin’s really asking for it. I dig my hands into my pockets. My right hand wraps around the vial. “I can’t be sure. As Ebony said, there are no guarantees. I have a pretty good guess my idea will work, though. And we’re wasting time standing here arguing rather than moving into action.” Placing one foot out the door, I add, “We have to try. Each second we remain here is another we lose elsewhere.” Sunlight filters in through the door’s crack, highlighting the dust in the air.
“Elsewhere. Right.” Wren’s scowl makes her look more like Preacher than her father, the Physic. “End the Void. Save the Reflections. I get it. You want to be the hero.” An eye roll from David’s girlfriend is the last thing I need. “What I want to know is why are we going off on some Dragon chase with you?” She points a finger. Come on, that’s just rude. “You are the vessel of the Void, the enemy of the Verity. Everyone knows what happens when the Void’s vessel is given too much power.”
My jaw clenches and I swallow hard as if that will force the Void to recede down my throbbing neck. It may live inside me, but the darkness does not define who I am. I say none of this, though. Instead, “Which is why we must destroy the Void, as I have already stated.” If she makes me repeat myself one more time, I swear—
“Joshua should be our leader.” Her words, more snap than statement, have me thinking she might as well take on her griffin form if she insists on behaving like an animal. “Not you.”
Now she’s gone too far. I will not continue to be treated like a traitor. To be disrespected on my own mission, in front of my own team. They have faith in me despite what I contain. In fact, they probably trust me because I contain it, because I can be myself while also imprisoning their greatest threat. I pause before issuing my next words, a rarity for me. But I don’t have a chance to get them out before—
“Joshua is not himself.” Makai clears his throat. “He is a Shadowalker now and cannot be counted upon. We’ll take him with us. His bond to Eliyana will certainly prove useful in locating her whereabouts. Besides, his Ever blood may become useful in a crisis. Better to weaken him than Regina.”
I grind my teeth to keep my jaw from dropping. His words could be a quote of my own dark thoughts. Commander Archer is closer to David than anyone, the last person I’d expect to take a stand against him, let alone suggest using his blood. Then again, Makai seems to hold truth and justice above any human. What would happen if Elizabeth became a Shadowalker? Would he treat her the same? Let’s hope I never have to find out.
Wren keeps her mouth shut this time, and I have to turn my head to conceal a satisfied grin. She may hold zero respect for me, but the Commander of the Second’s Guardians can certainly put the Mask in her place.
“Enough discussion.” He draws his wife to his side with one arm, then cradles their newborn baby, Evan, with the other. “If you are not ready in ten, you will not go. We depart with or without you.”
His confidence causes me to stand three feet taller. So this is what it feels like to be trusted. To have friends.
I cast my gaze to the floor. Friends, yet no one here, not even Khloe, is close enough to know my secret. All have been made aware of our goals. What they don’t know? I’ve tasted water from the Fountain of Time before.
My mind wanders to that not-too-long-ago day as I exit the cottage and wait outside. Hands in my coat pockets now, I rock back on my heels. The desert is cool, the day cloudy, but the chill inside provides the greatest discomfort. I’d take low temperatures over the dark, depressing bite of the Void anytime, anyplace. As I close my eyes I picture that day.
The day a stranger traded a vial of water for passage to the Fourth.
ASIDE
Joshua
Get up.”
I blink awake. Did I fall asleep again? Curse this darkness. The environment is Josh’s convenience. Makes it much too easy to keep me complacent.
“I said, move.”
Makai?
“Do not toy with me, Shadowalker. Either you heed my command or I use a measure of force.”
I sit and strain to hear more. Darkness surrounds me, but the man I have looked to as an older brother my entire life breaks through.
The world around me shakes as Josh is lugged to a stand. He doesn’t acknowledge Makai and I want to tear him apart for his insolent silence.
Defiant fool.
“I know you are not lost to us,” Makai says in a low tone. “Return and make things right. Until then, I have no choice but to treat you as a murderer rather than my friend.”
I nod, though it does nothing to move the man upstairs. Makai doesn’t see my physical agreement. He has no way of truly knowing that, yes, I am still here.
And, soon enough, I will make my return.
NINE
In My Way
It is all right, amica. There is no cause for panic.” Grandma B (has a nice ring to it, don’t you agree?) rubs small circles on my curved back the way Mom always did when I was younger. The two have never met, nor are they related. The gesture must be a mom thing or, in this case, a grandma thing.
I’m hunched over in my chair and breathing hard. My palm hasn’t abandoned my right cheek. As if this will keep the truth from being seen. Not that anyone here would know the difference. I peek from beneath my eyelashes, just enough so it will appear to those present my eyes remain closed. The attendees are distorted through my lashes, but not enough that I can’t tell what they’re all thinking. Expressions of shock or awe or curiosity contort each face. All except two. And these are as contrary as night and day.
Literally.
King Aidan inches closer, gazing at me with those green-green eyes of his. I suppose he might appear curious, though his countenance suggests a knowing. An observing. Omniscience? I huff a laugh. He’s exactly as I pictured him.