His eyes darkened, and I felt the insane urge to cry. Why did my heart feel like it was breaking? I was on the sand with my mate – in fact we were even more than that – a melded couple, which was the ultimate union in this star system. Life couldn’t get any better, right? And yet there was something I knew I was forgetting.
Samuel appeared behind us. When I saw his face, a surge of adrenalin shot to my limbs. I jumped to my feet.
“What are you doing here?” I blasted at him, unsure why I hated his guts right now.
“I’m so sorry, sister,” he said.
I turned with great reluctance to Brace. His head had dropped. I shuddered in a breath, tears pricking my eyes as I waited for him to look at me. When he finally lifted it the screams lodged in my throat. His smile was cruel, mocking me, and his eyes were gold, swirling, sinister and dead. More than anything the emptiness in them smashed the world around me to pieces.
Suddenly the beach was gone and I was back on the battlefield. Memories hit me hard as reality rushed back in with the force of a freight train. Que and the battle, Brace with his golden eyes, and Josian, my father, pulling me into a Walker doorway. So why was I back on the empty battlefield on First World? I spun in a circle, my eyes scanning every inch of the green field. I stopped as a golden cord appeared before me.
Was that a tether?
Hesitantly I reached out a hand to touch it. Something warned me not to, but I couldn’t stop myself. As my hand brushed the coarse material I waited to be transported somewhere, but instead it brought him to me.
He stood there at the centre of the golden glow. Brace ... but not my Brace. I stared at the changes. His tribal marks were no longer black but now the most stunning purple, like that moment before midnight when the sky is iridescent. His dark hair was longer, not to his shoulders but almost there. His usually baby-smooth face now had days’ growth of dark whiskers, giving him even more of a rakish bad-boy look.
And of course the eyes.
His beautiful melting chocolate-brown had been replaced by swirls of gold.
“I have been waiting for you,” he said.
His voice was cold, lower than usual, and with none of the inflection I expected.
And still I ached to run into his arms.
“Who are you? And why am I back here?” I asked, my own voice a ghostly echo.
I both needed to know and dreaded finding out what had happened to Brace.
“I have no name. I am from the beginning of time. I am creation itself. And we are in your head. You chose this scene for our meeting.”
Damn, why had I brought us back to this spot?
“What do you want with Brace?”
The golden eyes were almost hypnotizing; I attempted not to stare into them.
“He is the only vessel strong enough to house me,” the cold voice said.
“What do you want with me then?” Strength infused my words.
“You’re trying to prevent my brothers from being released. I want to stop you, but I’m in the body of your mate and that bond has not been severed. He fights me. He will not let me take you, but I will destroy him eventually. I have all of eternity to wait.”
Comprehension hit me like a punch into my gut.
A Seventine. Oh, crap. Brace was possessed by one of the ancient evils.
The Seventine were energy-sucking creatures, hell-bent on destroying this star system. The seven of them had been contained for many millennia until Brace’s father Que had begun the task of releasing them. Yeah, he was an evil piece-of-crap, and he’d somehow orchestrated a plan to use his own son as a vessel for the first Seventine.
Despite the fear and despair its words created, there was also this sliver of hope vying for a place. It said that Brace was fighting, that the bond wasn’t gone yet. Did that mean there was a chance to save him?
“Again, what do you need me for?” I realized something in that moment; I couldn’t extract myself from its deadly presence. From the moment I’d touched the cord it had been holding me in place.
But before I could panic at my deprivation of liberty, it said the very words designed to make me want to stay.
“I offer you a chance to save your mate. I will release him, unharmed, if you simply free the third of my brothers.”
What the eff? He was trying to make a deal with me.
And damn if it wasn’t a really tempting deal. I’d give up almost anything for Brace but who could trust the devil himself? Although – I paused – it was only asking for one of its brothers to be released. Could it be a deal worth considering? I shook my head; I couldn’t seriously be contemplating trusting the word of a Seventine.
Before I could be tempted further, a heavy weight landed in my hand. Power and clarity flooded through me, clearing my mind from those tendrils of doubt. I dropped my eyes to find a shining blue stone. My laluna, one of the sacred stones of the Walkers (the good guys to Seventines’ evil), was nestled in the palm of my right hand. Its energy flowed through me like a river of strength and for the first time I could take a step back. It was at this point I realized the true extent of the power of this creature. It had been buffeting at me like a hot breeze, and the laluna gave me a reprieve from the force it exuded.