Sea of Stars(82)

 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.

 Seabirds fly overhead; their cries are mocking laughter on the ocean breeze. Kyon’s eyes, the bluest of blue, stare down at me. He reaches for the nape of my neck, tying a red flower around my throat. It’s a black-ribboned choker adorned with the rarest bud. His elegant black dress uniform seems out of place in the fading light of the setting sun upon the water. With sand between my toes, I stare at the lapping waves on the beach. Gold and silver shine in the tide along the shoreline, a seaside with all the stars of the heavens captured within it. The thin veil covering my eyes parts, his eyes lean to me, bringing with them havoc within my bones. I stifle my instinct to recoil. “With this flower,” Kyon says, smiling down upon me, “I keep thee to me . . . always. Welcome home, Kricket.”

 “Kricket . . . Kricket,” Trey rubs my arms that have gone slack around his waist. “Answer me. Are you okay?”

 I lift my head from his back. We’re still moving stealthily through the underground tunnels on his hovercycle. I’m disoriented, but I manage to say, “I’m fine.” I hear the thickness in my own voice that makes my statement sound like a lie.