I braced my elbows on the railing of the bridge and stared down at the water swirling below us. I knew what Wu was going to say before the words popped out of his mouth, and I didn’t want to hear them almost as much as I was relieved he could issue an order I had no choice but to follow.
Yes, I was a coward.
No, I didn’t want to face my father.
His heart would break, and I would be the one left holding the hammer.
“You can’t visit him.” Wu intruded on my thoughts. “He’s hidden in the system well, but today proved Father is watching all clinics and taskforce facilities.”
Grateful to put off grim duties for another day, I angled my head toward him. “That’s how he found us so quickly?”
“He knows protocol. He helped establish it.” Wu joined me in staring into nothing. “He must be tracking me, hoping to catch you.” He tossed a leaf into the air. “No one is that lucky.”
I cranked my head toward him. “He can track you?”
“Not me, but my ID number. It’s entered into the system every time I access a facility. The same is true for all taskforce members. The receptionists we’ve met have used our names to search the system for the code to plug in our arrival and departure times as well as the purpose for our visit and who we saw.”
“I bet it collates surveillance footage too.” Meaning the computer attached our IDs to the videos of us taken from all cameras while in the facility. In some instances, it even created files and tucked them away for later perusal. When I caught Wu starting at me, I shrugged. “Santiago was griping about it after . . . ” I rolled in my lips then popped them out again. “Sorry, the rest is classified. Coterie business.”
I wasn’t sorry.
Wu didn’t even do me the courtesy of pretending to believe me. “Your poker face is worse than Knox’s.”
“Maggie used to say I was the worst liar.” The smug grin fell off my mouth. “She used to be right.”
“She’s still right.” He forced a smile, but it had weary edges. “How do you want to proceed?”
The coterie had to be warned about the threat from Wu’s father. Meeting with Death’s mate also rated a mention. Even with Wu as backup, the others would want to be there, and I wanted them with me too.
“I’ll call Santiago. His line is the most secure.” And he checked my phone for bugs and other infestations routinely, so it ought to be safe enough to use. “He can get in touch with the others easier than I can out in the field.”
“All right.” Wu swept the sky with his gaze. “Let’s get moving.”
We left the bridge and headed for the city park where we found a bench sheltered by the trees to cut down on our aerial visibility. I dialed up Santiago and didn’t give him a chance to be an ass. “Wu and I are being hunted.”
“I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Are you secure?” Cole rumbled. “Do you need an extraction?”
“Yes.” The sound of his voice made me flinch, and I was grateful he wasn’t here to see it. “And no.”
I launched into a brief explanation of who and what Wu’s father was and what he wanted.
Namely, all cadre heads served up to him on a silver platter.
“That makes sense,” Miller said thoughtfully. “We suspected there must be a higher power than the taskforce in control of this terrene. There would have to be for this world to stand against the cadre for so long when there are no native charun, only the descendants of past cadre coteries.”
“What are you?” Portia asked. “Not to be nosy, but we need to know what we’re up against.”
Wu mashed his lips into a flat line.
“Google seraphim,” I told them.
My new partner cast me an incredulous look that said I had ruffled his feathers with the comparison.
“What? My uncle and aunt were very active in their church.” I attended bible school with the kids from their congregation each summer until I graduated. I participated in the early years then stepped up to help the frazzled adults when they were short on volunteers. “Dad and I might not have spent as many Sundays on a pew as we did on the bench of his johnboat, but I’m not totally ignorant.”
“Jesus,” Portia breathed.
“Not exactly.”
“We figured help was coming from above,” she said, “we just didn’t give the charun who came before us enough credit for creating their own myth.”
“What is above this terrene?” Cole demanded. “More of you? A six-winged legion?”
“Seraphim—to borrow from Luce—are royalty. So, no. There are very few of us, at least within several terrenes of Earth. This is my father’s territory, and no one in their right mind would challenge him for it.” Each word felt pulled from his throat. He gave as little information as he could, but it still pained him to share. He was a man of secrets, and this plan of his—using me to help end the war for good—was unraveling him. “The elite soldiers guarding the next terrene are more along the lines of archangels. The infantry itself are more angelic.”
A thought occurred to me that I had to put out there. “Did your father decide anything that ascended from below Earth qualified as a demon? As evil?”
Wu cut me a wry look. “What do you think?”
“I think he set the stage so that if humans ever found out about us, they would side with him and revile us on principle.” I massaged my temples. “There’s no good or evil?”
“I wouldn’t say that. There’s good and evil within all species, within each of us, within all of us.” Wu looked like he would rather be having a root canal than this conversation. “There’s no heaven or hell, if that’s what you mean. At least not as in a physical plane of existence accessible by the living. Earth is the midpoint of . . . everything. The only difference between my kin and yours is we had to descend to get here, while you had to climb.”
Uncle Harold would have had a stroke right about now. “That explains the myth of fallen angels.”
“We have fallen,” he said softly. “Some of us farther than others.”
“You’re telling me that if the cadre managed to claim this world,” Santiago said, “we’d still have to climb the distance from Earth to Otilla to reach the pinnacle?”
Massaging my forehead, I glowered at him. “There will be no world claiming.”
One nutso overlord was a nutso overlord too many.
“Yes,” Wu answered as if I hadn’t spoken.
“Fuck that noise,” Santiago growled. “I thought this was the finish line, but now you’re telling me it’s just another starting block?”
“We have bigger concerns than breaching a new terrene,” Miller counselled after casting me an apologetic glance. At least one person was listening to my free Earth agenda. “We still have to meet with Janardan if we have any hope of figuring out what Death is up to before she breaches.”
“Someone’s really got to tell that guy the whole waterlogged carrier pigeon shtick isn’t working for him,” Portia added. “Human corpses are smelly, for one thing. They’re also—”
“Living, breathing people who were murdered so he would have fresh paper for his pen,” I snapped, hating I lost my temper when I never had with Mags. She’s not Maggie, I reminded myself, but it didn’t make me feel any better. Neither did snarling at Portia for placing less value on the lives of those outside our coterie, a view Conquest had no doubt encouraged. I was willing to kill charun to spare humans. How were her values any different? “We have to put a stop to his killing spree if we want to control the contagion the victims are spreading. That’s one epidemic even the NSB can’t kick under the rug.”
Cole entered the breach blasted wide open by my temper. “What do we do with Sariah?”
“Bring her along. Leaving her unsupervised is asking for trouble.” I braced for the next admission. “One more thing. I also made a new friend today. He has offered asylum for my family among his people.”
“We haven’t come across any friends during our time here who could make such an offer and uphold their end,” Santiago said, and the others murmured agreement. “How certain are you that he can be trusted?”
“I met with him. I’ve seen his home, what he’s offering.” I mashed my lips together. “I trust he can do what he says.”
“It’s Thom’s choice,” Miller said.
Santiago agreed. “I don’t want him out of my sight this close to the endgame but . . . ”
“His wounds go deeper than his wing.” Maggie lowered her voice. “He’s grieving.”
“Any inattention on his part will get him killed,” Portia finished. “We can’t risk him in open battle.”
The coterie had nothing to say to that. Neither did Wu. Their wings were part of their culture, their identities. Without them, they were earthbound. Crippled. Though none of them would use that word.
“Bring him,” Wu decided. “We’ll ask him, and if he chooses the enclave, I’ll deliver him there myself.”
“No.” I put a hand on Wu’s arm. “His pride couldn’t take it if you flew him.”
“I’ll do it,” Cole offered, regret thick in his voice. “It won’t be the first time.”
“I’m going to knock his ass out,” Portia decided. “He’s not going to know how he got there.”
“Good idea,” Santiago agreed. “He’s got a crapton of sedatives in his med kit.”
A rueful smile threatened to overtake my face. Catching a case of the warm and fuzzies after hearing a group of charun planning to drug one of their own into unconsciousness was probably wrong, but I still loved them for it all the same.
With our plan solidified, we signed off and set out for our meeting with Janardan.
*
Considering the amount of effort Janardan put into snaring my attention, I expected him to step from the bushes along the river and shout “ah ha” or “gotcha” or the charun equivalent. Other options included an ambush, the use of sniper rifles once he got us where he wanted us, or an escort of goons to ensure his safety when he approached us.
What I didn’t expect, even in my wildest imaginings, was the short man who strolled the river wearing a saffron-colored robe that belonged on a monk. Sun glistened on his dark skin, including his bald scalp. His eyes were a milky silver that made me wonder about his vision, but his steps were sure. I wasn’t sure what to make of him, especially after he smiled at me . . . and seemed to mean it.
“Welcome,” he said, his voice as gentle as the breeze swirling off the river. “I’m pleased you received my message.”
“I did,” I replied carefully. “Several, in fact.”
“Lovely.” He remained sincere. “You saved me the effort of sending another.”
“I would prefer you not murder innocents, use them as stationery, then toss them in the river like trash in the future.” Damn it. So much for keeping my cool. “Still, your methods on Death’s behalf are more peaceful than those employed by either War or Famine, so for that I am grateful.”
“My apologies.” He glanced between Wu and me. “I did try more orthodox approaches, but I’m afraid my touch is rather toxic to humans, and there is no one I can trust for such a task.” His lips twitched. “They say dead men tell no tales, but I’ve found that to be untrue. They are the most faithful of all messengers.”
That explained why the cause of death hadn’t been apparent. Though, to be fair, the labs would have isolated any foreign toxins given time to run proper tests. This nugget of information might also explain the secondhand illness affecting humans who had contact with the corpse. It also fingered one of the aquatic helpers as being to blame for nibbling the last victim. All I could say was I hoped it didn’t get sick.
Wu noticed the look and eased closer to me. “What is the purpose of this meeting?”
“Where is Nicodemus?” A frown creased his brow to find Wu at my side. “What I have to say must be heard by you both.”
A fission of unease accompanied his casual use of the name I had only just learned, but I locked down the burgeoning sense of foreboding.
“I’m here.” Cole strolled down the path then veered off to join me. “How are you, old friend?”
“Hold up.” I whipped my head toward him. “Old friend?”
“This world is all we were promised and more.” Janardan raised his left arm to show off the smart watch strapped to his wrist. “I have seldom beheld such wonders as the human mind conjures.” He laughed at the bauble then patted it fondly. “This is the end we foresaw all those centuries ago. There are no promises to be made now. None we have any hope of keeping. I’m afraid that means the time to square old debts is upon us.”
The words punched Cole, hit him low and hard, and I wasn’t sure he had sucked in a breath to recover before I demanded, “What does he mean?”
“I have long been the keeper of something that belongs to you,” Janardan explained. “I vowed to protect it with my life in exchange for amnesty for myself and my mate when the cadre reached this terrene.”
A shocked laugh burst out of me. “What could you possibly have of mine that’s worth a free pass?”
“Luce,” Cole rasped, tormented, as he reached for me. His thick fingers closed over my wrists, drawing my hands against his chest, and through them I felt him tremble. “I can explain.”
“Is this explanation going to include how you failed to mention Conquest is your mate?” I actually looked around like the words might have shot from someone else’s lips, but no. I tasted their residue on mine. “War told me I was owned. A mating bond—is that what she meant?”
“No.”
Casting my memory back over that night, he had seemed enraged to discover another claim on me, but I had been in shock, and a lot of what I heard then evaporated between that terrible night when I lost Mags and the next morning after I fully grasped my life was no longer my own.
“Otillians own their mates,” Janardan told me. “The bond is only reciprocal if their partner allows it to be so.”
Cole bonded with her. That was his secret, the source of his shame. Did that mean . . . ?
Had he loved her? Before it all fell apart, had they been . . . together?
Unable to breathe, to think, I started walking. Distance. I needed distance. From him, from this, from her.
A mountain loomed on my periphery, and in two long strides planted itself in front of me.
“The connection we have is ours,” Cole growled fiercely. “I gave her obedience, not my heart.”
Stupid tears clogged my eyes until I could no longer see him. He was being so careful with me, they all were, so afraid that one wrong word might crack the shell holding Conquest hostage. “I want to believe you.”
“This is all the proof I can give you.” He released me and thrust his arms out in front of him. “Will it suffice?”
The angry ridges encircling his wrists were exposed. Both of them. What amazed me most was not that he was showing them to me, but that they were healing. Not just from where Lorelei had brutalized him to harvest enough rosendium for the cuffs, but deeper. He had a long way to go before his skin smoothed around the bands, and there might always be scarring, but he wasn’t prying the mark of ownership from his flesh. He was surrendering to it, honoring it—honoring me.
And I knew in that moment I would do anything, give anything, to free him.
Cole loomed over me, a thing he did better than anyone I had ever met, and his presence comforted me as I traced the warm metal with a fingertip. “You’re healing.”
“Yes.” He shivered beneath my touch. “I am.”
“What does this mean?” A thrill zinged through me, shot with anticipation. “For us?”
“I want you, Luce.” He rested his forehead against mine, and his breath filled my lungs. “Be mine.”
“I think we both know that’s never been the issue.” I laughed softly. “Be mine too?”
The first tender brush of his lips over mine had me smelling smoke. What little brain I had left sizzled and popped beneath the gentle pressure of his mouth. The brush of his tongue against the seam of my lips asked me to open for him, and I did, groaning at his taste.
“Always.” He spoke against my mouth, his taste filling my head. “For as long as you love me.”
A bittersweet promise that should Conquest ever wrest away my control, that this spark died with me.
“Charun don’t love,” I told him, and even I heard the sadness in my voice. “Not the way humans do.”
“A human heart only has so many beats.” He flattened my palm against his chest. “I’m not capable of a love so small or finite. What I feel for you can’t be confined to the lifespan of a century. My heart speaks the language of eternity, and the name it whispers is yours.”
Unable to see past the tears veiling my eyes, I whispered, “I more than love you too.”
“I was wrong about one thing,” he murmured, his gaze sliding past my shoulders.
A flush warmed my nape. “We have spectators.”
Now that he had mentioned it, I felt Wu’s gaze boring into my spine.
“Impatient spectators,” he agreed.
“Come on.” I stared up at him, my heart expanding against my ribs. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”
I led Cole back to where Janardan stood with his bare feet in the water. I smiled in response to his broad grin when they shook hands.
“This is what I always wished for you,” Janardan said. “A true mating, one dictated by hearts instead of heads.”
“You dreamed bigger for me than I ever dared, Jan.” Cole did some complicated back-slapping thing with him then cupped my cheek in his wide palm. “This is Luce Boudreau, my mate.”
The way he growled the word my left me lightheaded.
I might have thought I was dreaming if I couldn’t still taste him on my tongue.
“I had heard Conquest suffered a fracture.” Jan examined me now that he stood much closer. “I had no idea the host was so fully formed as to be her own person.”
“There’s more to Luce than a simple husk,” Wu said crisply. “She is a person in her own right.”
Learning Cole considered us true mates was less shocking than hearing Wu stick up for me as being a Real Girl.
“I meant no offense.” Jan bowed low to me. “I am honored to meet the woman who stole the heart of a dragon.” He rose and exchanged a weighted glance with Cole. “I understand now, why you hesitate.”
Meshing my fingers with his, I anchored us both for what came next. “Cole?”
“I struck the bargain with Janardan centuries ago. Conquest was still enamored of me then, and her affection was genuine. She granted me a boon for good behavior with the caveat it couldn’t be used against her. I asked her to grant Death and Janardan immunity from her wrath, and she laughed. She was young then, and she couldn’t imagine her sisters ever betraying her, or her betraying them. She agreed, and the deal was struck. She had no idea what I bought with her favor, and I would have died before letting her discover the truth.”
Yet here he stood, offering full disclosure to me. He had come here knowing the outcome, or guessing at it, and made no move to prevent this meeting from unfolding. Perhaps he saw this as inevitable. Or maybe he viewed this as atonement. I wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t convinced I wanted to know, but we were here now. Another truth bomb was about to drop on my head, and there was no shelter from the blast outside of his arms.
A lump formed in my throat. “What did you need to protect, even from her?”
Cole gathered my hands in his. “Our child.”
The world slid out from under me, and I hit the mud on my ass. “Our . . . child?”
He sank beside me on his knees. “Our daughter.”
A fracture blazed through my skull, splitting my head wide open, and memories oozed in.
“Atru, Atru,” a breathless voice calls. “Atru, Atru, Atru.”
Hidden behind the planter, sheltered by its crown of fronds, I watch the small predator flare her nostrils as she homes in on her prey. Her head jerks toward me, crimson eyes as vivid as spilled blood, and she smiles.
She will make a glorious huntress one day.
“Atru,” she cries in triumph, toddling up to me. Her pudgy hands fist in my skirt. “Atru.”
Unable to resist, I heft her up and settle her on my hip. “Atruhadael.”
Coiling her hands in my hair, she lowers her head and yawns against my throat.
The sun hung lower when I blinked free of the vision but not by much. I had slipped down the slope of the past, but I hadn’t gone under. That had to be progress, right?
Turning my head caused dried mud to flake off my neck and crumble onto Cole’s shirt. He cradled me in his lap, tight against his chest, and his mighty heart drummed in my ear.
Wu sat beside us, his hand on my shoulder, his eyes on my face. Warmth spooled into me from his touch, and I might have shrugged him off if I hadn’t remembered his claim of being a healer. That shined a new light on all his past acts. Any show of affection might have been an act of mercy in disguise. I didn’t have much pride left for him to spare, but I was grateful all the same.
“I remember.” A thickness banded my throat and made my tongue hard to operate. “Not the girl, but . . . a memory of her.”
“From when you blacked out,” Cole said, more confirmation than question. “You told me you saw her, but you didn’t say who.” The torment edging across his features told me he had guessed. “We were talking about Lorelei, so I couldn’t be sure.”
A rubber band of thought snapped in my mind, and the memory of our conversation surfaced with stinging vividness.
“She wanted a child from you.” A blade of agony twisted in my heart. “You looked—” like he might consider granting her wish, “—sad.”
“Our species is rare, almost unheard of this high in the terrenes. Odds are she will never have children, and that is a pity.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb. “The sadness you sensed was far more selfish. I see her, her need for a child to love, and I can’t help but remember what it was to witness my daughter take her first breath, to hold her in my arms.”
“I thought you wanted her,” I admitted weakly. “That you might want to be with one of your own kind.”
“Hmm.” His lips skimmed my temple. “You’ve glossed over an obvious detail.”
Learning I had a mate, that we had a child, had kind of blown my mind to smithereens. “What?”
“You were born Otillian.” Heat curled through his voice when he rumbled, “You’re Convallarian now.”
Black spots winked across my vision, and I dug my fingernails into his skin to keep my eyes from rolling back.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Wu’s grip bit into my shoulder, and the flare of pain helped center me even more.
“I’m a . . . a . . . dragon?” Mouth gaping, I let him take possession of my lips. “I can fly?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” he teased, his adoring kisses making my head spin.
“You still have to consider—” Wu interrupted our not so private moment, “—the price of Janardan’s gift.”
“Amnesty for Death.” I glanced over at him. “What is her usual role?”
Thom once told me she tended to work alone, the same as Conquest. But he also warned that the rules changed with each world and that the first one to learn them won.
“Death is no less brutal than her sisters,” Wu confided, “but she tends to be the least vicious. Death wins in the end, with all of us. She doesn’t work too hard at reaping souls when her sisters are eager to deliver them into her hands.”
A caricature of a grim reaper flashed in my mind’s eye. “You left your child with her?”
“There was no other choice. She couldn’t travel with us, Conquest and I were the only members of her coterie then, and I refused to leave her to be raised in the ashes of my city by tutors imported from Otilla.” A sigh moved through him that lifted me too. “She would have been groomed to carry on your legacy. She would have been named the next Conquest.”
“It’s a hereditary title?” That raised all sorts of interesting questions about my birth parents. And it made me curious why Sariah wasn’t the next War. She couldn’t exactly be poised for her own reign of terror if she was already tagging along after her mother.
“It can be,” he allowed. “It’s rare for one of the cadre to mate so soon after beginning their ascension. The pregnancy almost killed Conquest. Otillian biology adapts quickly, but she wasn’t wholly converted when she discovered she was with child. She was too sick to continue, so the ascension stalled out waiting on her to recover. Afterwards, she was eager to leave, and she had no qualms about entrusting the child to her own tutors.”
“How is that possible?” Human pregnancies lasted nine months. Reptilian gestation periods varied, and that was the only point of reference I had for dragons. Boa constrictors, for example, are ovoviviparous. They give birth to live young. That sounded like what Cole was describing. If that was the case, the pregnancy might have only lasted four months. That would explain why her condition progressed too rapidly for them to risk moving on, but it didn’t explain the memory. “The child I saw was a toddler, two or three years old.”
“Offspring are rare for my people, and our world harsh. Each birth is celebrated as a divine blessing. Our children develop at an accelerated rate—mentally and physically—until they reach sexual maturity to give them the best chance of survival. After that, their growth normalizes.”
A thought struck me, and it left my ears ringing. “She’s an adult.”
“That changes nothing.” Bittersweet regret softened his features. “She’s still our child.”
An adult capable of defending herself struck me as more appealing than welcoming a child into our war, but she wasn’t our child. She belonged to Cole . . . and to Conquest. I wasn’t sure where that left me.
“Your bargain granted Death and her mate reprieve from Conquest.” I was thinking it through. “That means Conquest can’t harm them, likely me too, and neither can the coterie. Anything else?”
Cole must have already been reciting the verbiage to himself. His decisive nod came quickly.
“All right.” I looked to Wu. “The enemy of my enemy is still an asshole, but it will take a power to nuke Death if this bargain goes sideways.”
It was a testament to Wu’s quick mind that he caught on so fast. “Father.”
“Got it in one.” I dusted my hands. “If this goes south, she can be his problem. We’ll hand deliver her to him. I’ll tie the bow myself.”
A slow grin spread across his mouth. “All right.” He inclined his head. “Make your bargain.”
“Atruhadael.” I pegged him with a look. “It means mother.” I studied him. “How long have you known?”
“Until you triggered the full message,” Wu said, “I couldn’t be certain.” He shared a look with Cole. “The news about your daughter wasn’t mine to share, but I would have if he hadn’t been honest with you.”
The threat to his family coaxed a warning growl from Cole, but he didn’t tell Wu he was in the wrong.
“My brain is a minefield.” I stroked Cole’s arm, soothing him, while I spoke to Wu. “We’re all trying not to step on the hot spot that makes me implode. I get that. I appreciate it even, but thank you for being willing to set off a few explosions when it matters.”
“That’s what partners are for,” he murmured, smiling when Cole renewed his rumbling.
Yep. Hormones or not, fifty percent of Wu’s attraction to me was in annoying Cole.
Climbing off Cole’s lap, I searched for Janardan and spotted him sitting in lotus position out in the shallow water. Wu stood as well, but he made no move to follow us. This was coterie business—no, it was family business. “Do the others know?”
“No.” Cole exhaled softly. “I was afraid she might be discovered and used as leverage against me.” His lips thinned. “I was on polite terms with the other cadre mates. Though meetings between all eight of us were rare, Janardan and I struck up a friendship.” A grim smile tugged up one corner of his mouth. “Conquest tried many times to cut him from my life, she hated the competition for my affection, that I actually liked him, but she couldn’t afford to alienate Death when theirs was a true mating.”
How surreal. Death and Janardan. Sittin’ in a tree apparently.
“Death never blabbed to Conquest?” That was the most remarkable thing to me.
“She values Janardan too highly to risk the advantage on what promised to be our final battlefield.”
“Why didn’t you give me a heads-up that Death might be an ally and not an enemy?”
“I prayed the bargain I struck with them would hold, but I wasn’t willing to risk you if Death had a change of heart. I would rather greet her with a sword at my hip and not have to pull it than meet her empty-handed and pay the ultimate price.”
When he put it like that, I couldn’t fault his logic. Better safe than sorry was my motto where the cadre was concerned as well, even if it still smarted to learn there was hope of a relationship with this final sibling when it was too late to prefer for such a possibility.
“Ah.” Janardan made to rise at our approach, but I indicated he could remain seated, and he nodded his thanks. “You have come to a decision?”
“First,” I said, just as calmly, “I have a question for you.”
“Of course.” He kept emoting serenity. “Ask.”
“Why now?” I had my hands full with Dad, with hunting War, with managing Sariah trapped in my inner circle, not to mention the personal whammy of learning I was a mate and now a mother-type-figure-person. “What prompted you to reach out now when you’ve been here as long as War? She’s been plenty busy, but you’ve just been . . . doing what, exactly?”
“Your suspicions are well-founded,” he congratulated me like I had earned a pat on the head. “None of us can afford gifts for one another unless strings are attached. I postponed contact with you after hearing of your altered condition. I wasn’t certain you would honor our bargain, and if you didn’t, then I might never see my mate again. Rather than chance it, I waited and watched until Cole’s behavior toward you convinced me you were trustworthy.”
“That’s when you decided to use humans as messages in bottles.” The bite in my words didn’t go unnoticed, but they only made Janardan smile more warmly. I got the impression my humanity enchanted him. “That’s when the contagion started spreading.”
“Just so,” he said without a hint of sarcasm.
“I will honor the terms of the original agreement.” And not one clause more.
“Excellent.” He cast his gaze across the river. “I must ask for one final favor.”
Cole touched my arm when I started to argue. “What did you have in mind?”
“I must return to the swamp to collect your daughter. She remains in Death’s care, as there was no safe way to escort her without arousing War’s suspicions.” Janardan locked gazes with me. “You must stabilize the breach site so that my mate and our coterie may pass through.”
“I’m not sure I can do that.” A ball of dread lodged in my throat, and I couldn’t swallow past the implications. Death’s arrival would usher in the final battle for the terrene as well as accelerate the weather phenomenon sweeping across the globe. People would die. Charun would too. The potential for catastrophic fatalities hung in the balance, and I was about to tip us over the edge for the sake of a child who belonged to the man I loved and the monster in my middle. “I don’t have great control over my powers.”
Cole wiped away all traces of how much my answer mattered to him. “Will you try?”
“For you.” I brushed my fingers down his cheek. “Anything.”
Death was coming, one way or another. At least we could control this breach. That was something. It also indebted her to me. That couldn’t hurt.
Capturing my wrist, Cole pressed his lips against my knuckles. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” I turned to Janardan. “The task you’ve given me is a second favor, a substantial undertaking, and I must ask for a boon in return.” A wisp of the cold place flavored my tongue. “In exchange for stabilizing the portal and retrieving your mate and her coterie, I want you to work with—” I almost said Thom and winced, “—one of the taskforce doctors to create a cure for the contagion you unwittingly unleashed on the humans.”
“I am happy to end what I began.” He spread his open hands wide. “I harbor no ill will toward humans.”
Pissed he could say that with a straight face and mean it, I made the diplomatic decision to keep my mouth shut on the topic. There was no use alienating a potential ally against War.
“There is also the trifling matter of Famine’s coterie.” Janardan had the grace to appear chagrined. “Death gave her word that she would bring them through with our people. That was the bargain struck to allow me first access to this terrene.”
“We figured.” I massaged my forehead. “She wouldn’t have left them without a contingency plan. We assumed she would expect them to come through with Death.” Hearing it firsthand still sucked. “How likely are they to come through the breach swinging?”
“The odds are low,” he decided. “Without a direct order from Famine or her mate, it’s unlikely they will attack without provocation.”
Low was better than high. That was the only good thing to be said about his reassurances. I would have to take it and hope for the best.
“We should get moving.” I squinted up at the sky. “It’s dangerous to remain out in the open for so long.”
“Luce,” he began in a halting voice. “Do not think that because I am kind that I am merciful. Betray us, and you will live to regret your choice as many times as my wife wishes it.”
“Gotcha.” I sensed Cole bristle at my side. “Janardan?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t think because you’re Cole’s buddy that I won’t go dragon on your ass and eat you.”
With that, we left Janardan to make his arrangements, and possibly put on dry clothes, while we saw to our own preparations.
Santiago looked ready to spit nails over the deal we’d brokered. Charun hearing at work again. Moisture smudged Portia’s cheeks, and her tears reminded me of the heartbreaking loss of her own children. How that had been the catalyst for her joining Conquest. Miller didn’t look at us at all. He was too busy watching Portia, in Maggie’s body, leaking. Honestly, he looked too panicked by the tears for me to tell what he was thinking other than he would have traded his right arm for a box of tissues.
“I hope you’ve got a plan,” Santiago spat. “What you’ve agreed to is stupid to the nth degree.”
Portia rested a hand on his forearm. “I would have done the same,” she rasped. “For any of my children.”
His unforgiving lines softened while Miller’s hardened to diamond sharpness as his gaze fixed on the point where Portia touched Santiago. Maggie surfaced, and they lowered their arm. She winked at me and then vanished beneath Portia’s stronger personality.
Leaving them behind with a weight on my heart, I trudged up the path to the SUV, to Thom. Never a fan of sitting still, he fidgeted even in his sleep. He curled on his side in the front seat facing the door and the open window. I padded closer and rested my forearms in the opening to watch him rest, to assure myself he was still alive, that the Drosera hadn’t taken him from me.
“You smell . . . different.” He wrinkled his nose, eyes fluttering open. “Chemical.”
“Probably the IUD.” I stroked his hair, and his expression smoothed. “I’m still here, still me. Promise.”
“Good,” he murmured. “I like you.”
More than anything, I wanted to haul Thom into my arms for a spine-cracking hug, but he was still too fragile. That didn’t spare me from recounting Knox’s offer and waiting on the verdict.
“Hmm” was all he said in response.
“I’ve visited the enclave and met the leader. Knox seems like a fair man, and the facility is pristine. You could rest there, heal. You would be safe.”
Physically at least. Mentally, I hated he would be living among a reminder of his loss.
“That matters to you.” The intonation was wrong for a question. “It would ease your burden.”
“I want you with me,” I admitted. “I’m selfish that way. You’ve got to make this decision for yourself. If you don’t, I’ll keep you. Probably strapped to my back so I can protect you better this time.”
“I miscalculated, and I paid for it. It happens in battle.” He nuzzled my palm. “You’re not to blame.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree.”
“I’ll go to the enclave,” he decided. “I need to heal, and you need to forgive yourself.”
Not gonna happen. I should have been there for him. No. Scratch that. I shouldn’t have let him go in the first place. I should have refused to let him handle the worst infiltrations back to back. Poor leadership on my part caused this, and I would never shuck that blame. I didn’t want to in case I was ever tempted to make the same mistake.
I had lost so many people I loved, and this felt like another one slipping through my fingers.
“Okay.” I sniffled, wishing I could blame the runny nose on cat allergies. “Your phone was trashed, so I expect you to take one of Santiago’s tablets with you. We’ll get you a secure line. I want you to check in every day. Every single day. No excuses. One missed call, and I’m coming for you.”
“It’s for the best.” He smudged the stupid tears I’d hoped he wouldn’t notice slicking my cheeks with his thumb. “I’ll be fine.” His lips quirked. “And if I’m not, I know you’ll come for me.”
“Yes.” A thread of steel twined through my voice. “I will.”
Conversation sapped the strength from him, and he nodded off between one halting breath and the next.
Miller must have watched my back when I was too hellbent on seeing Thom to do it for myself. His neck twitched with the need to search out Maggie, but he sidled up to me and gazed down at Thom. The ache in my heart was mirrored on his face, and his voice scraped when he asked, “Where to next?”
“Canton.” A fragile tightness spread through my chest. “We’re going home.”