Genesis (26 page)

“
Oh, come on! What kind of
answer is that? What’s wrong with, ‘No, Rayla, I’m not able to read
your mind’, or something less…lame?”

The padding of footsteps broke through
my rant. Luke scrubbed at his eyes and meandered toward us. When he
was a few feet away, he leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Morning,
beautiful.”

I blinked up at him, not sure what to
say other than, “Hi.”

“
So what’s going on between
you two? You woke me up.”

I grimaced. “Sorry.

He shrugged then looked at Zach. “What
is this about?”

Zach snapped the book shut and leaned
on an elbow. “I’ve been searching for a memory. I couldn’t sleep,
so I took advantage.” He stifled back a yawn. “When do we
leave?”

Luke cocked a hip against the table.
“Kalista is furious, especially considering this recent
development; we’d better not make her wait much longer.” Sighing
really loud, he turned toward me. “I hope you got enough time with
your mother.”

Without even thinking about it, I stood
and hugged him. “I did. Thanks for…everything.”

His grin lit the room. Pulling back
from me, he touched my cheek. “You’re welcome. Now, if you are
ready…”

I nodded. With all five lords around
me, and a monster in my back pocket, the fear I’d harbored had been
obliterated. Tabitha’s warning made no sense. My connection to the
lords afforded me at least a general idea of their mood. Although
trepidatious, none of them seemed to be hiding anything. In fact, I
had never felt this connected to them as a whole. These were good
men, yet one thought bothered me over and over. There had to be a
reason she sent the letter.

We didn’t take much time in leaving
since Mom was gone again. I had insisted on seeing Styx before we
left, but as it turned out, we had to ride to Altasia. Drifting at
the heights involved was supposedly dangerous. I’d take Luke’s word
for it.

I rode with Zach, hoping to get to talk
to Styx along the way. Luke hadn’t even complained when I told him.
Bastion flew ahead of us. Every so often Styx would nicker and
she’d immediately respond with a slight change in course or some
kind of movement.

I lowered my walls, hoping it was just
for him. “Are you there?”

His reply was immediate. “Yes,
Elemental. What is it you wish to discuss?”

I smiled. “This seems to have worked
out pretty well for you.”

A chuckle. “I suppose so. Thank you for
allowing me time with her. It has been too long since we were left
alone.”

“
No big deal.” I fidgeted,
trying to formulate my thoughts into something coherent. “I have
something I want to ask you.”

“
I am aware.”

When I shifted again, Zach put a hand
on my thigh. Electricity shot through my leg and zoomed to my
heart. I couldn’t afford to get distracted. Who knew how much time
we had?

Straight shooting then. “What do you
think of the borderland creatures?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Same thing I think
about any creatures. Some are good and some are not.”

“
How do you know the
difference?”

“
Have you dealings with
anything in particular?”

I bit my lip, attempting to keep
Creed’s image out of my head. “Are you going to go blabbing this to
Zach?”

He huffed and purple smoke
choked me. “I never
blab
. You may trust me.”

“
Okay!” No need to get
touchy. “You probably know about Gibbit.”

Another chuckle. Good to know he found
me so funny. “Technically, he doesn’t belong to the
borderlands.”

Poor troll didn’t belong anywhere. I
was starting to feel really bad about the way I’d left things with
him. “Well,” I hedged. “I met a hellhound through him. I kind of
fixed him. I mean, it was unintentional, but he went from being the
puniest thing you’d ever see to the biggest monster
there.”

Silence.

“
So I ended up leaving, but
a wraith showed up a couple of days ago, claiming that he was
trying to protect me.”

“
You haven’t given me a
question to answer, Rayla. Besides, I hardly see the connection to
these events.”

“
I was getting to that. It
seems Cerb asked Creed to come check on me.” Weird. Two C names in
a row. Why did my mind conjure those particular names?

He groaned. “Tell me you didn’t name
these creatures.”

“
Why?”

I could feel him shaking his head at
me. “Foolish doesn’t begin to explain what you have
done.”

“
Are they bad? I didn’t know
what to do, and it seemed weird that they didn’t have a name. I
mean, you have a name.”

His muscles stiffened
beneath me. “
I
am
not a borderland creature. They have been stripped of identity for
a reason.”

“
Which is?”

“
They are
dangerous.”

Crap. “So I shouldn’t have done it
then?”

“
I didn’t say that. You will
not know the answer to that question for quite some time, I’m
afraid. As it stands, do not tell anyone else about
this.”

“
At all?”

“
No. Before you ask, not
even the lords. As good intentioned as all of them are, they do
have agendas to fulfill.”

“
Speaking of…I tried to talk
to Bastion—”

“
She told me.”

“
Why wouldn’t she talk to
me?”

“
Out of kindness. She does
not want to interfere with your decisions.”

“
You talk to me.”

“
I am not
Bastion.”

This was getting me nowhere. Should I
tell him about what was really bothering me? I closed my eyes and
let the thought flow. “Tabitha warned me about the
lords.”

Styx huffed. “Tabitha should learn to
keep her thoughts to herself.”

I tightened my grip on Zach, but he
didn’t seem to notice. Even with all we had been through being near
him calmed me. “Why?”

“
She is going against her
own dictates. She is influencing you.”

As if that was a real answer. Why did
everyone here seem to like to talk in riddles? “There’s no way I’m
going to find out everything I need to know is there?”

Styx hesitated. “Sometimes you have to
go on faith, Rayla. It is the driving force of your
universe.”

Nice in theory, but how do you start
using something as intangible as faith without anything to go on?
“How will I know what’s right?”

“
Trust those who love you;
trust yourself; trust your creator.”

I grunted inwardly. “I’ve kind of made
a mess of things by being too trusting.”

“
Is that what you
think?”

“
I don’t know what to think.
That’s the problem.”

“
Your real problem is you
are waiting for someone else to validate your course. Only you can
know what is right for you. When the time comes to decide, you will
make the right choice.”

“
How can you know
that?”

“
I don’t, but I believe you
will which is the first step to true knowledge.”

I sighed. This was so complicated.
First I can’t trust the lords, now I should, even though all of
them had compelled me at some point…even though Tabitha had told me
not to.

Styx banked left, and I wasn’t ready
for it. Zach grabbed my leg, righting me before I fell.

“
Thanks,” I said, giving him
a quick squeeze.

“
Well now.” He chuckled. “If
I had known you would cling to me like this, I would have made sure
our journey had a bit more turbulence.”

I laughed. “Go ahead, but I hope you
like screaming.”

He glanced over his shoulder at me, a
grin spreading along his luscious lips. “Oh, I can think of worse
things.”

I blushed. The smirk on his
mouth faded to a serious line. His eyes burned with unmasked desire
that ignited a slow burn in my belly.
Zach
, I thought.
What a mess we’ve made of this
.

Styx interrupted my inner turmoil. “We
are nearly there, Rayla. I have one thing to share with you about
compulsion.” I waited for the best advice of my life, so I was
surprised by what he told me. “The line goes both ways.”

“
What is that supposed to
mean?”

“
I’ve told you all I can
say.”

He retreated from my mind and no amount
of shouting from me got him to come back. I checked my barriers
again, just to make sure. They were fine.

Styx had implied that for compulsion to
be used, the one doing the compelling had to pay a price too. What
else could he have meant?

Whatever. There was no way I was going
to squander what little time I had left with Zach, so I wrapped my
hands tighter around his waist. He didn’t complain. Not that I
would have cared if he did. I missed him. He’d compelled me into
trusting him initially, but now I didn’t even have to think about
it. He shifted back and turned his face toward me, grinning at me
like a schoolboy.

I gave him a peck on the cheek and
settled my head against his back. “I’m glad you found me first,
Zach.”

He stiffened and his voice came out
throaty. “I only wish I had done things differently.”

“
I don’t,” I said. “I
understand why you did what you did. You were only trying to
protect me.”

He grunted. “There was a little bit
more to it than that!”

I shook my head at him. “I know, but
for now, I want to think about the good things you did.”

“
You’ll not hear anymore
about it from me, lass. Thank you for forgiving me.”

That was just it. There wasn’t much to
forgive. I smiled at him and he turned around. Zach was as good as
his sister was evil. I needed to remember that.

When the city came into view, I stared,
unable to do much more. It hovered in the clouds high above the
earth. Opaque spires jutted straight to heaven while light spiked
through the clouds and onto the sprawling structure that seemed to
go on forever. It glowed like the crystal castle, but it had an
underlying blue hue. The closer we came, the more I longed to see
it from the inside.

We landed on a cloud, literally. I
mean, what the heck? Clouds are gas for heaven’s sake.

Styx hadn’t plummeted through the
questionable ground, so why couldn’t I bring myself to take Zach’s
outstretched hands. When he moved closer, I screeched. Any second
now I knew he was going to fall through a pothole.

As much as I’d come to love discovering
the limits of my powers, I’d freaked myself out when I jumped into
thin air to escape Tabitha at the crystal castle. I’d been more
stories up than I wanted to admit. If it wasn’t for Styx, I could
have died.

Zach inched closer, once again, and I
couldn’t take my eyes off his feet. “It’s safe, love. Don’t worry
so much.”

“
But it’s a
cloud.”

He shook his head. “It merely looks
like one. Jump down; you’ll see.”

I said a quick prayer. It couldn’t
hurt. When my feet hit the cloud, it crunched like crusted sand.
Weird. I bent down and gathered a handful.

The tiny particles melted at my touch
like snow, yet it wasn’t cold. This was the coolest thing I had
ever seen, all the winter fun without the threat to toes and
fingers. Even with this revelation I stepped lightly wishing we had
landed closer to the castle. The stuff stretched a good football
field ahead of us. Luke must have been eager to get inside because
he took my hand and led me toward the queen. Several servants
hovered around her, preening her windblown hair into an up-doo.
Interesting. She either liked the hands-on approach, or maybe what
she liked was making these people earn their keep?

She smiled at me and stepped away from
her entourage. “Welcome to Altasia, Rayla. You will find that
unlike other provinces, we are not spread out.” Her exuberant laugh
trilled through the air. “It would be too cumbersome to maintain
this type of environment elsewhere.

Why was she apologizing to me? “It’s
lovely, your majesty. I can’t wait to see the inside.”

Her resultant smile seemed genuine.
“Let’s not tarry then.”

She whirled around, her blue silk
skirts flowing after her. The sheen reflected the vibrant color of
the sky.

Luke offered an arm, and I accepted. He
caressed my fingers with his other hand. “I’ve been dying to show
you my kingdom. Now that you are here, we have so much to do yet so
little time.”

“
About that.” Man, how was I
going to bring this up? “I’ve heard rumors about some
raiders—”

He gave a sharp squeeze to my wrist.
“Some things are better discussed in private.”

He did have a point. As soon as the
word came out, everyone around us fell silent. “All right, what
would you like to talk about?”