After we’d finished our tour, we were sitting in a dark corner, feet dangling into the warm spring.
“Do you think it was all an act?” Lucy said in a low voice.
“Samuel?” I asked for confirmation.
She nodded once.
I sucked down my own pain and anger. “Yes, Luce, I’m sorry. But I think at some point during his imprisonment Lallielle’s asshat of a son changed sides. He was put there to gain your trust, to be an inside man relaying our plans to Que.”
I tried to contain my fury. I’d never liked my half-brother, and he wanted to hope I didn’t run into him anytime soon. Samuel had been trusted above all others; he was family. But he was going to pay.
“Makes so much sense now,” Lucy said, her face falling.
“Explains away all his weird behavior,” I agreed.
“I just don’t understand why he took it so far, pretending to be my mate, wanting to do the ceremony. It was overkill for his mission.”
I looped my arm over her shoulder. “Maybe he grew to care for you, Luce. You are pretty easy to ... love.” I stumbled over the painful word.
Lucy leaned into me, offering her comfort.
Even though I’d attempted it a million times, and knew the futility of my actions, my mind continued to search for Brace. Walkers have the ability to read thoughts, except for those with strong shields, but Brace and I shared even more because of the melding. He used to be an actual presence in my mind at all times and now it was gone. I wondered if I would be forever reaching into the emptiness where my mate used to be. All that was there now was a golden cord which I could never touch.
“We will get him back, Abby. You and Brace are an epic, happily-ever-after kind of story. I refuse to believe it can end like this.”
“I know, Luce,” I agreed, even though I wasn’t sure I believed it.
In my dream Brace had told me to hold onto the memory, but the pain stabbed at me like a burning knife. Right now I needed to bury my agony deep, so deep that the churning bile in my stomach was its constant companion. Maybe then I could finish my mission.
It was time to prepare for the next planet. It would just be Lucy, Talina and me going to Crais.
The burning world.
We did not have much intel about the planet or its inhabitants. Josian wanted to send some of the Reds with us, but I knew their power would be a beacon for the Seventine. I was relying on the half-Walker protection, the cloaking of our powers, to keep us safe even outside Josian’s cave system.
And I was so ready to leave.
The planets were often dangerous, the perfect thing to keep my mind from its endless searching. I’d been trying to devise a plan of rescue for Brace, but besides accepting the Bracentine’s offer, I had no idea what I could utilize to free him. I needed a weapon, and I needed the next half-Walker. We were apparently strong enough to defeat the Seventine, so the more halves I had the better.
But we couldn’t leave yet, so while we waited Talina, Lucy and I spent our time swimming in the hot springs and tending to the garden. The main reason for our delay in leaving was so Josian could teach me how to shield properly. Part of the limited information we had on Crais was that the surface temperature was too hot for us to survive, and since we didn’t know a safe place to open a doorway, our lives depended on me being able to shield all three of us from its suns.
But right in the middle of my training Josian had taken off to First World, using his Walker power to open a doorway and walk between the two worlds. He’d left the moment we received word that Lucas, First World’s future Emperor, was tearing apart the planet trying to find us. Lucas believed I was his Empress, and even though I’d told him numerous times I wasn’t, he was particularly tenacious when it came to me. Josian was going to talk-him-off-the-ledge, so to speak.
Plus he’d wanted to check our home to see if Francesca, my soothsayer aunt, or Samuel, the traitor, were hanging around. Francesca was Lallielle’s sister and a future-seer. She’d used her gift to make the predictions about the Seventine and half-Walkers, before sending me on my mission to gather the girls. And then she’d disappeared. Josian was keen to find her for Lallielle, although he made no secret of the fact he didn’t like Francesca much. I’d tried to talk him out of leaving the safety of these caves. What was he going to do if the Seventine confronted him? But as usual he didn’t listen to me.
Chapter 3
The next night I was snuggled into my cave bed, Lucy on one side and Talina on the other. Since the battle we hadn’t been far apart; the comfort I felt from my friends eased some of the ache. My girls understood, each nursing her own wounded heart. Lucy over Samuel, and Talina ...Well, she’d had a double blow. Her brother Raror had been killed by her mother, right in front of her, and Ladre, the Spurn of her dreams, had disappeared, and she had no idea if he was dead or alive. Yeah, we were an emotionally unstable group. I’d overheard the other Walkers calling us the bitch-squad, not surprising considering the way we growled at any man who crossed our paths. But honestly, men really sucked this week.