“You’ve been blocking me. Ever since I tried to kill you in your cell, you’ve been reluctant to let me near you. I guess I’ve caught you at a weak moment,” she smiles, nodding toward the bed.
“There was nothing weak about that moment. Did you tell Kyon I’m here?” I ask.
“Oh, he knows. If you’re too stupid to use your gifts to find out what he’s planning and stay ahead of him, then you deserve to have him find you and kill your lover.”
“As soon as I do figure it out, you’d best run, Nezra. I could maybe excuse you for trying to kill me in my cell—I’d chalk it up to sibling rivalry—but now you’re starting to piss me off.” I walk past her, gather up the floating crystals in my arms, and take them to the black lacquer case that contains both of the sonic sayzer cuffs as well as all the weapons I was given at dinner. I put them in the box as well.
Taking a deep breath, I try to think more clearly. I take out one of the silver cuffs. Slipping it on my arm, I move my fingers, making the weapon elongate into a sleeve. I walk past Nezra again, returning to the zero-gravity apparatus. Shutting it off, I gather it from the floor. It, too, goes into the weapons’ box, next to the crystals and the other cuff.
Nerza’s blond bee’s nest that she calls hair bobbles as she asks, “Why is he obsessed with you? What have you done to him to make him this way?”
I slip on Charisma’s black jacket. “Who? Kyon?” I ask with a raise of my eyebrow. “Well, that’s simple, Nezra. I ran away from him and swore to him that I’d never do anything he says. You should try it sometime. It’s called ‘I hate you, leave me alone.’ It gets all the psychos foaming at the mouth for more. Add a little ‘I’ll never love you,’ and bam! Instant crazy.”
“You belong to him. He can do whatever he wants to you. You’ll find out.”
I point my finger at her. “That’s where you’re wrong. He can’t do whatever he wants to me, because I’m not going to let him.”
I go to the closet to get a messenger bag I’d seen there earlier. I stuff clothes into it as fast as I can. Back in the bedroom, I gather up the black box, sliding it into the bag. Slipping the bag over my shoulder, I look at Nezra standing by the chair.
“Why are you still here?” I ask. I’m halfway to the door.
“Falla wants me to ask you a question.”
I pause. “Who’s Falla?”
“She’s the priestess who likes you—although she cannot explain to me why she does with any clarity.” I wrinkle my brow at her in confusion, trying to remember which one was Falla—the Bird or the Flower? “The one who sensed your presence when we were tending to Kyon.”
The Bird, I think, remembering her as being the one who helped Nezra force me out of their future. The Flower was the other one who healed Kyon with the freaky silver light.
“I’m not interested in answering her questions,” I reply, almost to the door.
“She just wants to know if you love the other one too.”
I stop where I am and look over my shoulder at her. “The other one? What other one?” I ask.
Her smile, I decide, is sinister as she says, “The one from Wurthem: Vance Giffen.”
I flip her off as I leave the room.
CHAPTER 12
KEEP THEE TO ME
There’s a shickle load of them outside,” Wayra says to me, as I join him and Trey in the Great Room. Trey takes my hand, bringing me closer so that he can wrap his arm around my waist and pull me to his side.
“Everything’s ready,” Jax says as he joins us.
“Then it’s time to go,” Trey states. They all look at ease, like having the Alameeda outside is a normal, everyday thing.
“We’re going out there?” I ask, fear making my knees weak.
Trey whispers in my ear, “Did you lose the other priestess or is she still about?”
I search the interior of the room, but nothing out of the ordinary catches my eye. “I think she’s gone. I left her back in our room. She hasn’t followed me—I don’t know if she can.”
From somewhere outside, Kyon’s voice booms bullhorn-loud. “Kricket, do not make me come in to get you. I will kill everyone inside if you do.”
“Uhh,” I exhale, as if he hit me in the stomach. I cover my face with my hands, rubbing it involuntarily. They’re gonna break down the doors. “I have to go to him.”
Trey’s arm squeezes me tighter. “I don’t think so. You’re not going to him, Kricket. Today you’re a magician’s assistant and I’m going to make you disappear.”
I drop my hands from my face. “What do you mean?”
Trey leads me to the wall of falling water. He touches the jade and ivory tiles; it turns off the water and opens the descending steps. Handing me night-vision glasses, he says, “Now you see us.”
He leads me down the steps into a tunnel lined with a conduit of wires and pipes.
“Now you don’t,” I breathe.
“This is how we’ve been getting people out of the city. We’ve been patrolling the streets, saving the ones we can by funneling them through these passageways. I never filed any of the schematics for my tunnels to any of the Isle of Skye zoning authorities. They don’t exist in any databases. They’re sort of illegal.”
“Trey, you’re a doomsday planner.”
“Guilty,” Trey agrees. He leads us to his waiting hovercycle. “Unlace compartment,” he murmurs. The lid of the hovercycle opens for us. Trey mounts the seat, pulling me down behind him. He waits for me to wrap my arms around his waist. “Ready?” he asks as he starts the engine. I lean against him, my cheek resting upon his broad back. I nod so he can feel my answer. The compartment lid closes around us. The other Cavars are mounted on their hovercycles, moving ahead of us through the tunnel.
Our hoverbike rockets forward, away from Charisma’s sanctuary. I silently make a note to thank her for her generous hospitality, even though she had nothing to do with it. A few minutes later, the ground trembles as a boom shakes the walls around us. The tunnel behind us collapses, spewing out a volcano of rock dust. Wayra’s laughter comes through the hovercycle’s com-link; it sounds a little bit like a goat being strangled. When he catches his breath, he says, “What a bunch of knob knockers.”
“Do you think we got Kyon?” Jax asks from his hoverbike beside us.
“I wish I knew,” I murmur. My breath becomes an icy coil before my eyes. The world around me melts away.