Pursued(153)

And then the imps dragged her away and she could see no more.

* * * * *



“I’m sorry, Talana, but they’re going to have to close the fold.” Sylvan’s pale blue eyes were suspiciously bright and Sophie could feel the overwhelming sorrow brimming up inside him. This was about more than just closing the fold in space—Sylvan was admitting that he had lost his oldest friend. That Merrick was gone forever.

“Can’t they wait a little longer?” she pleaded. “Didn’t you say that sometimes ships get a little turned around in the fold and then come out later?”

“It’s been over an hour now.” Sylvan sighed and raked a hand through his spiky blond hair. “With each minute that passes, the odds they will return diminish. And the amount of energy the ship is expending just to keep the fold open is equivalent to the output of a super massive black hole. We simply can’t keep it up indefinitely.”

“Just five more minutes,” Olivia pleaded, joining in the conversation. Elise had been her patient, and Sophie knew her twin felt a special bond with her. “Please, Sylvan!”

“I’m sorry.” He shook his head regretfully and Sophie felt his grief grow even more intense. “I’m so sorry, but the ship can’t bear much more. We’ll have to shut the fold. We have to—”

“Look!” Kat’s voice was high and excited. “Look, you guys! Look at the viewscreen!”

All eyes turned up to the massive viewscreen, which showed the red gash in space located right between the Earth and the moon. Something was coming out of it.

Slowly but surely a tiny silver craft slipped from the fold and hovered in space, as though uncertain of what to do next.

“It’s them!” Kat shouted. “It has to be!”

“Thank God!” Lauren murmured, putting a hand to her chest.

“Merrick!” Sylvan shouted, grinning with relief. “Thank the Goddess—Merrick!”

Suddenly the picture on the viewscreen flickered and changed to an interior shot of the ship. Sophie saw with concern that only Elise was sitting there at the controls. When she looked up, her brown eyes were dull with grief.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice sounding numb and far away. “But it’s just me. Merrick is…gone. He’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone, where?” Sylvan demanded.

“Just gone.” Elise still sounded numb. “Can someone please help me? I don’t…don’t know how to fly this thing.” Suddenly her face crumpled and she put her head down and began to sob.

“Oh, no!” Sophie looked at her husband. “You’d better go to her, Sylvan—she’s stuck out there.”

“Yes, I suppose I should,” Sylvan said grimly. He looked at Olivia. “Get a room ready for her at the med station. I think she’s in some kind of shock.”

“I’m on it,” Liv assured him. She and Sylvan hustled out the door, leaving Sophie, Kat, and Lauren to stand looking at each other helplessly. Sophie’s heart ached for Elise and those words kept echoing in her head over and over…

He’s gone.





Chapter Thirty-eight





Elise woke with a gasp from another bad dream. She’d been having them every night since she got back to the Mother Ship, and they all featured Merrick.

Sometimes she saw him being tortured by the horrible silver-eyed man who had kidnapped them. That…that… What was his name? It started with a D, Elise was almost sure, but she couldn’t remember it. The vault might be broken, but it seemed like her mind was still trying to protect her by forgetting things.

Other times, she saw Merrick working feverishly, welding together pieces of metal and building some kind of device that looked like part of an engine. What was it? Whatever it was, Merrick was desperate to get it finished. He worked tirelessly, arming sweat from his forehead and never stopping to rest. The only time he paused at all was when he turned his attention to another, smaller device. It was tiny—small enough to fit in the palm of his hand—and so delicate Elise wondered if it was some kind of clock mechanism.

The dream she’d just woken up from had been the worst. In it, she saw Merrick lying on his back, covered in blood. He was surrounded by rubble and wreckage as though some kind of explosion had gone off. All around him were the dirty gray bodies of imps and the Tolkien-esque troll creatures. It was clear they were dead and it looked like Merrick was dead too—dead or dying. As she watched, she saw him gasp for breath and his lips moved, forming her name. Then his eyes fluttered shut and his chest rose no more.

Elise wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the shaking. Merrick, she thought as the tears leaked from her eyes. Oh, Merrick… She missed him so badly she couldn’t even express it in words. Losing him hurt…hurt so much she didn’t know how to stand it. Didn’t know what to do except curl up in a ball and die…