Thorne had been her right hand all these centuries, but he’d split from her and now lived his own life. She understood and respected that he had a new role to play. She just hadn’t realized how much she had relied on him or how important he’d been to her.
She’d get over it, of course. But today was one of those days. She had a nasty gut feeling about the war, that something bad was on the wind. In former times, she’d have had a sit-down with Thorne; they’d talk it over, then strategize.
Now? He had other duties, important ones, like building her army.
He was powerful as hell now and actually served as part of the obsidian flame triad, not as a significant player but as the anchor. Between that, and adding to her massive Militia Warrior forces daily, he sure as hell didn’t have time to soothe her shitty loneliness.
She rubbed the back of her neck, which reminded her of the other glorious part of her life right now, that she had permanent scars back there, also something she couldn’t get rid of. That Sixth bastard, Braulio, had put them there, but she still didn’t know what they were for or what he’d really done to her. She only knew she often woke up sweaty and nauseated and ready to do battle with anyone and anything.
Jesus H. Christ. Too much shit in her life.
She sat at her desk in her office, leaning back in her tall chair, her head pressed against the Appaloosa horsehide that hung over the back. With her elbows on the arms of the chair, she formed a steeple with her hands and tapped her fingertips together.
Her gaze shifted past Thorne. The windows had been replaced since her last freak-out when she was sure Thorne was dead. She’d gone full-out, batshit crazy and demanded that James, another real Sixth Earth piece of work, get his ass down to her office on Second, bring healers with him, and restore Thorne’s life. Hell, she’d threatened to destroy the planet if he hadn’t.
So James had come, with the Sixth healers, and brought Thorne back.
And there Thorne stood, a changed man, his back to her, his Droid Ascender pressed to his ear. Marguerite was pregnant with twins, and he was playing the concerned husband role like he’d been born to it. God, staring at him was like looking at an amputated leg, the portion that had been removed. She kept wanting to reach for Thorne and reattach him somehow.
“So how are you doing?”
Endelle flipped around in her chair to find that Alison had just folded into her office. “How the hell did you sneak in here without my knowing and why the hell are you grinning like that?”
“I have news.”
Endelle waited to hear what it was. But Alison didn’t say a word, she just kept grinning like someone was tickling her ass-crack.
“Okay, I am so not in the mood for any fucking games.”
Alison lifted a brow then turned slowly around until Endelle had a perfect view of her bare back and what looked like wing-locks.
“Holy shit.” She rose up from her chair and looked closer. “Alison, don’t be shitting me. Does this mean you fucking got your wings?”
Alison turned back around, her expression euphoric. “Yes, Madame Endelle, I so fucking did. I woke up this morning, felt a little strange, then a vibration flowed through me like an electric current. The impulse to mount my wings was almost overwhelming. As soon as I told Kerrick what was going on, he folded me to the back lawn and I let them fly. I still can’t believe it.”
Neither could Endelle. Despite the fact that Alison was only recently ascended from Mortal Earth, Endelle had always known that Alison would mount her wings early. Anyone with that much power wouldn’t wait decades to take to the skies.
Damn but wasn’t she a beauty; about six feet, long blond hair pinned back this afternoon with a gold clip. Was it any wonder Kerrick had fallen hard for her? But then had he really had a choice? Her warriors were succumbing fast to the breh-hedden, one after the other, a bunch of overbuilt dominoes. She had long suspected that the appearance of the breh-hedden on Second Earth was a balancing force against Greaves, a set of dimensional scales working on behalf of ascenders everywhere to keep evil from triumphing.
Thorne was the latest victim of the breh-bond, and for the past five months she’d received reports from the Seattle Colony on Mortal Earth that Leto was still caught in the fist of that myth-that-wasn’t-a-myth. Oddly, it was Thorne’s sister, Grace, that Leto had lost it for.
But as she met Alison’s gaze, she had a strong prescience that there was more to the sudden appearance of her wings than just flight capability. Endelle could feel it in every cell of her body.
Her heart started beating like a bird trying to get out of a cage. She put her hand to her chest.