Shadowstorm (Sorcery and Science Book 6) (19 page)

An Elition man with eyes the color of a tropical ocean stood before the waterfall, the fine mist beading like diamonds on his gold hair. He already had another arrow ready to go. Three more Elitions stepped through the waterfall, the stream splitting away from them like drawn curtains. One of them also held a bow; the other two each carried a Serenity sword. Terra recognized one of the Elitions: the woman with the web tattoo that covered one side of her face and part of her neck. Behind her sword, the woman gave Terra a wink. Maybe coming here hadn’t been the best idea. Last time she’d crossed paths with the Night Rose Order, they’d drugged Cameron.

Boots scratched and scrambled down the hill. The bounty hunters were retreating. They’d obviously heard of the Night Rose Order’s reputation as well. Wiping her sweaty palms on her pants, Terra turned and stepped up to the ocean-eyed man. He seemed to be the one in charge here.

“I’d like to speak to Braeden Falls,” she said, putting herself between them and Cameron.

“Terra Cross?” he asked, his pale brows lifting.

“Yes.” Her heart was pounding so fast, she thought it might explode out of her chest.

“Remarkable,” he said, raising his hand toward her pink braid.

She knocked it away.

A smooth smile spread across his lips. “My apologies. I just couldn’t help myself. The Elite Prophet here, right at our doorstep.” He looked past her at Cameron, his eyes lightening to icy blue. He’d matched the color of Cameron’s eyes perfectly. He was a Chameleon. “And the Elite Prior. Braeden will be positively ecstatic.”

That’s what Terra was afraid of. She should never have brought them here.

“We need to use your portal,” she said.

“I’m sure Braeden would be more than happy to help you out of your plight.” He stepped aside and gestured toward the waterfall. “Do step through. The men hunting you are regrouping for a second attempt.”

Terra heard them too. “Come on,” she told Cameron and Everett.

Everett gave the Chameleon a wary glance. “Are you sure we can trust them?”

“No. But it’s better than staying here.”

Apparently, he didn’t have an argument against that. He just set his hand on Cameron’s shoulder, and the three of them stepped through the waterfall portal.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

~
The Deal ~

527AX January 12, Night Rose Order

TERRA HARDLY RECOGNIZED the camp of the Night Rose Order. Everything was still there. There was just a lot more of it. They’d planted a new grove of saplings alongside the existing orchard, and the number of bathing pools had doubled.

The real difference, though, was the housing. Tents filled the gaps between buildings, and people filled the gaps between tents. As she followed behind the Chameleon on the stone path that led past the bathing pools, Terra had to step around buckets, towels, and a few crooked tent pegs. Inside every single pool sat an Elition, their eerie, beautiful, tortured eyes tracking her.

“Your group has grown,” she commented.

The Chameleon looked back, his eyes now shining sapphire blue. “Our numbers have been growing steadily for the past few months. Rogues aren’t safe out there anymore. They’ve come to us for shelter.”

“Shelter? From what?” she asked.

“The experiments,” said Braeden Falls, walking down the path to meet them.

He looked the same as he had half a year ago, albeit a tad thinner. Delilah, the doom-seeing Prophet, walked beside him, their hands linked. She looked thinner too, and worry pulsed behind her pale blue eyes. She wore her black hair in a single long braid coiled atop her head like a crown, freeing her face. When she met Terra’s gaze, her cheeks lifted in a smile that pushed up the wings of her butterfly tattoo. She looked almost relieved.

“Jason is looking into the experiments,” Terra said.

Braeden nodded. “I know. I was the one who told him what’s going on out here.”

“Braeden Falls…” She stopped. “I’m sorry. I don’t know your power name.”

“It’s Elixir. But there’s no need for such formalities here. Call me Braeden. Jason does, and you’re his…” He grinned at her. “Well, you’re someone special to him, aren’t you?”

People special to Jason got locked away ‘for their own protection’. It wasn’t worth the dubious honor.

“Very well, Braeden,” she said. “I’d like to ask you—”

“And you are Terra Cross. You sure had us all fooled.” He wiggled his finger at her. “Devious girl.”

“I would be happy to discuss my deviousness or lack thereof at some later date. For now, I’d appreciate a moment of your time.”

“Ok, shoot.”

“You see, my companions and I are in a bit of a bind,” she said. “We need to travel south to Lear, but we can’t seem to make it out of the Red Woods.”

He nodded. “I’ve heard about the bounty hunters that have infested those woods. Aaron Selpe giving you a bit of trouble, is he?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the deal with him anyway? You’re married to him? But you love Jason?”

“Aaron’s a pain in the ass. I’m married to him, though not by choice. And I don’t want to talk about Jason,” she answered his three questions in turn.

Braeden laughed. “Being hardheaded, is he?”

“Yes. And I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I saw the look in his eyes when he talked about you last time the two of us met up.” Braeden stroked his chin thoughtfully. “The thing with my dear cousin is this: he’s built up such a big wall of ice around him that even once you’ve managed to burn a chunk off, you just have to keep burning it off again and again until it doesn’t grow back anymore.”

Terra gaped at him. Words failed her. She did manage a good, solid glare though.

Braeden didn’t take the hint. If anything, he was encouraged. “Fascinating. I think your eyes even phased a little there.”

When he leaned in for a closer look, she swung a punch at him. Not a big one. Just one with enough power to make him take a step back if he wanted to avoid a blow to the head.

He jumped back, laughing. “I like you. And I can totally see why Jason does too.”

“I’ve known Jason for a long time, Braeden Falls. I know precisely what he’s like. But that doesn’t mean I have to put up with his nonsense.” She sighed. “Ok, now that you’ve gotten the obligatory teasing out of your system, can we just get back to why we’re here?”

“Very well. Please continue.”

“Thank you,” she said. “The gist of it is we want to use your portal. The one that will bring us to southern Pegasus.”

His smile faded. “How do you know about that?”

“My friend Ariella told me about it,” Terra said, looking at Delilah. “She once tracked her to the portal.”

“Silver-haired? Carries a magic Serenity sword?” asked Braeden.

“Yes, that’s Ariella.”

“She’s working with Jason right now,” he told her.

“How do you know?”

He gave her a congenial smile. “I have my sources.”

“How did that happen?” she asked. “Did King River ask her to work with him? Or was it Jason’s idea?”

Braeden smirked at her. “I thought you didn’t want to talk about Jason.”

“I don’t.” She cleared her throat—along with any lingering thoughts of Jason. “So what do you say? Are you going to let us use the portal?”

He stared at her for a few seconds, then said, “Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“On one condition,” he added, cutting short the sigh of relief she’d dared to breathe. “I…” He looked at Delilah. “No,
we
need a favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“The kind of favor we’re hoping the Elite Prophet and the Elite Prior can deliver.”

Terra glanced quickly back at Cameron, then said, “Never mind. Forget it. We’ll take our chances with the bounty hunters.”

“Neither of you will be harmed,” Braeden assured her.

“The thing is, I just don’t trust you. Last time we were here, you drugged Cameron. How do I know you won’t pull that stunt this time too?”

“The drugs are perfectly safe. We’ll be monitoring you the whole time.”

So not only did he want to drug Cameron, he wanted to drug her too. Splendid.

“As I said, we’ll take our chances with the bounty hunters,” Terra said, then she pivoted on her heel and started to walk back down the path.

Cameron caught her arm as she passed. “I can’t let you do that.”

“Cameron, let go,” she growled. “We’re going.”

“No, we’re not. Those bounty hunters want you. And they won’t give up until they get you. Even if they fail, there are dozens of others waiting. Sooner or later, one of them will succeed. And then I’ll have to live with the fact that I let my sister run to her doom. I refuse to let the Selpes have you. They’ll break your mind until you go mad.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

But he was right. The Selpes would break her. They’d break her so hard that she might never be able to put the pieces of herself back together. She’d already been in one of Lord Adrian’s dungeons—in those days before Davin had made the deal to free her. They’d drugged her into madness, and then they’d sat back and watched as she thrashed and beat herself against the walls and bars of her own cell. She closed her eyes, blocking out the memory.

She opened them a moment later and looked at Braeden. “What do you want us to do?” she asked him, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead.

He extended his hand toward his cabin. “Let’s discuss that.”

* * *

527AX January 12, Night Rose Order

Terra and Cameron followed them into the cabin. Everett stayed outside, chatting up the Chameleon. They were having a lively debate about arrow fletchings, of all things. The Rev sure had come a long way from his distrust of magic and Elitions.

“Please, sit down,” Delilah said as Braeden closed the door behind them.

He joined her on the snug wicker sofa. Terra and Cameron sat upon an identical sofa on the other side of the coffee table. Wisps of steam rose from the teapot at the center of the table, and a ceramic cup was positioned at each corner like petals on a ceramic flower. Terra watched Delilah pour dark red liquid into each of the four cups. It looked like blood, but it smelled like raspberries.

“Just raspberry-vanilla tea,” Delilah assured her, sipping from her own cup.

Terra lifted the cup and sniffed the tea. Vanilla and raspberry, just as she’d said. But there was something else there too. “Honey?”

“Just a hint of it,” Delilah said.

Braeden intertwined his fingers with hers. “It helps with the foresights.”

Honey was one of the ingredients that soothed the Prophet mind.

“I still take it myself from time to time,” Terra said.

“How long did you take an Inhibiting Serum?” Delilah asked her.

“Nearly five years.”

“And did it help?”

Terra shrugged. “A bit. For a time. But it didn’t solve the problem. It just buried it.”

“To live without the burden of the foresights, if only for a short while…” Delilah closed her eyes, inhaling deeply.

Braeden set his hand on her cheek, holding it there until she met his gaze. “As Terra said, it only buries the problem.”

“Of course.” She gave her tea a few good swirls with a cinnamon stick, then looked at Terra. “Do you remember what I told you the last time you were here?”

“That Jason would kill me? Yeah, it’s not so easy to forget something like that.”

“The future is malleable. You’re a Prophet, so you know that. Sometimes we don’t see what we think we’re seeing. And sometimes we can change it.” She took a sip from her cup. “Do you remember the other thing I told you?”

“That you couldn’t read me except in the futures of others. Yeah, that’s kind of weird. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

“Neither have I.”

“Perhaps it’s because Terra is the Elite Prophet?” Cameron suggested.

“Perhaps.” Delilah didn’t sound too convinced. “I should research this to see if it’s come up before.”

“Delilah,” Braeden said, nudging her.

She caught his hand, hugging it to her chest. “Right. Back to malleable futures. Not every foresight comes true. And there’s one Braeden and I want to make certain never does.”

Terra set down her teacup. So this was going to be one of
those
conversations. Trying to change the future was a bad, bad idea. It never ended the way you wanted, and most of the time you just made it worse.

“Tell me your foresight,” she said anyway.

“It first came to me a few months ago.” Delilah paused. Her lips were silent, but her eyes told all. They screamed anguish and dripped despair.

“It’s ok. You can do this,” Braeden said, kissing her hand.

She nodded, wiping away her tears. “I saw death. Our camp was overrun. Our people were being slaughtered. There was blood everywhere. Screams. Swords. Guns. Death.”

“Who was it?” Terra asked.

“The Avans. And Elitions. Or maybe they were Siennans.” She looked at Braeden. “How did they even find us? How did they know?” she asked with trembling lips. Her eyes were so dilated, they were more black than blue.

“It’s not real. They’re not here now.” He set her teacup into her hands. “Here, drink.”

Her hands shook, rattling the teacup. Waves of red tea slopped overboard and trickled down her lap. She drank down what was left in the cup in one long gulp, then set it on the table.

“I don’t know when this will happen or how or why,” she said, her teeth chattering.

“It might never happen,” said Terra. “As you said, foresights are unreliable.”

“It won’t happen,” Braeden declared. “Because you’re going to help us prevent it.”

Terra drained her cup. “Look, even if I can figure out everything that will lead up to that moment—which is virtually impossible, even for the Elite Prophet—anything you do to stop it could just make it worse. Or maybe trying to stop it is what causes the whole thing to happen in the first place.”

“I’m aware of the risks,” Braeden said. “But I must do something. All these people are depending on me. Not just my own people, but these refugees too. They did not flee torture at the hands of the Selpes to die at the hands of the Avans.”

Terra looked out the window, watching the masses of ragged Elitions. Her people. Their condition was a testament to the Selpes’ quest for dominion, their suffering proof of the empire’s depravity.