I landed back in my body with a slight jolt. Nothing like trying to shove myself back into my body after a healing before I ascended. Saint, Ransom, and Kord were all there to catch me if I needed it. "That was unexpected," Kord said.I nodded. "I'm guessing since I actually ascended into a Prime, I could breach his walls."They all nodded. "Good. Let's get the rest of the group set up with the mental links. Then we need to question the last guy," Ransom said.I nodded. "Let's do it."**"You can speak up or keep your mouth shut. Either way, I'll be getting the knowledge one way or another," I said to Brownie Two. He sat there with his unemotional face. His dark eyes looked straight through me. I wondered if anyone was even home. "Does anyone know if someone is capable of building robots that look like humans?" I asked aloud. Taryk made a low noise. "Not anything like this that I've seen.""The field of technology isn't this far along yet, honey," Saint said.
"Then find her trail, Junior," I leaned down and snarled into Xander's tiger's face. "Don't yell at him, Saint. He can't help. She pushed him out of there, remember?" Xander said as he ran his hand through his tiger's fur."Do you feel that, mes amis?" Mason interrupted. He put a finger to his lips as if silence could help us feel something better.We all shut up. We had no other firm direction to follow. Mason's head tipped to the side. Shook his head. Squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "Join hands. Our Kona is calling," he shouted as he reached for the person nearest him. We all linked hands. I, for one, prayed. Like I've never prayed before. Eternity passed with no answer. No glimmer of hope. Hellion popped into the lobby, arms full of a bloodied and broken Kiema. "She's been attacked on the spirit plane. Give her your magic or she will die," he said right before he vanished again. Nononononononononono, it spun on a loop inside my head. Ransom had to p
I strode forward. I didn't know how I knew this guy, but as soon as I saw him, I recognized his face. Tall enough to make Mason seem short, he towered over me. "What are you doing here?" he asked me. "Why did you send out a call?""Okay, first up, I recognize your face, but that's about it. Why don't you tell me who you are and we'll go from there, m'kay?" I nodded, and kept nodding, until he joined me in the motion. With a grunt, he shook his head. "This is not funny, Kiema. You know exactly who you are. Why you're here. This was your mission. You chose it. What the hell is going on?" He looked over my shoulder. I turned to look with him. My family. The loves of my life and mates of my soul all stood there staring. I felt emotion crawl up my throat. Looking back at the giant, I said, "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. But I'll leave that for you to explain later. Can you tell me why I have a goddess rune?" I asked. Giant shook his head, looked at me l
"As much as I love that idea, Ki-Ki, I would like to give you a hug." Asher walked over, picked me up in his arms, squeezed me tight. Setting me back on my feet, he stepped back. "And get some fucking sleep. Between training today and getting magic sucked out of my body, I'm pooped. I don't even want to think about how Xan and Cherrypie are feeling." He shook his head. I stopped him as he tried to move past me. "Why would Xander and Scarlet be feeling any crappier than usual?" I turned back to the two in question. Xander did look like he'd been on a bender for at least a week. His dark brown eyes were sunken. The bags under his eyes looked like he was hosting a sleepover in them. The laugh lines around his mouth made him look haggard instead of happy. Scarlet was faring a little better, but I could still see that she'd been zapped by what happened. Her white hair, usually so shiny and white, looked more dull and gray than anything else. Her bottle green eyes were muddy and tir
"What the fuck are we going to do?" I asked once Kiema had finally cried herself to sleep. "This is literally killing her."Saint and Kord looked ready to battle demons barehanded. Saint shook his head. "I don't know. But I can't handle her getting caught in the middle of all of this. This is tearing her apart.""I know I haven't known any of you for very long," Kord began. "But if what Hellion says is true - "Saint snarled, cutting off our fourth. "I've heard the legends of the Reckoning. His story, in this particular part, lines up with what I already knew. I think we can actually trust him on this part. Even if nothing else he says can be taken as fact." He pushed his glasses up his nose, looked between both of us. I nodded for him to continue. "If what Hellion says is true about drawing first blood, then I think we need to act as quickly as possible. Who knows when the Reckoning actually begins? Did they draw first blood by pulling Kiema to the spirit realm and g
The next dayNow that the time had come to implement my plan, I was terrified. Of my mate. She was going to go batshit crazy. Oh well. She'd do the same exact thing if she'd thought of it first. I nodded to Ransom. He leaned over, kissed Kiema awake. "Ransom?" she asked, her voice sleepy and relaxed. "Yeah, angel. It's your favorite mate." He shot me a grin as Kiema snickered.I rolled my eyes. "That's what I tell all of you," she said. I pumped my fist into the air. Suck on that, Ransom.He flipped me off behind her back. "I need you to wake up, angel. We've got a plan we want to run by you."She popped up as if she was spring-loaded. "Hit me."Saint laughed, gave her a mug of coffee. "We're still not hitting you, but we'll tell you the plan anyway."She nodded, took her first timid sip. "We're going to send out the word that we're ready to dance, metaphorically. Once Heppni gets word, you're going to dash in, bitchslap your mother back to the
I heard the thought race through Kord's mind. I wanted to smile, but I also didn't want to ruin his fun. This would be between me and the Directs. Me and my mother. No one else. Although it was nice of my family to bring them here. While they'd been hatching their plans last night, so had I. But I'd done mine on the spirit plane. My body safe in my mates' care, I'd gone to my spirit landscape and thought and plotted for hours. Something Hellion had made a point to say the night before kept gnawing at my brain. How did my power work?As I sat in my familiar spirit landscape, I sifted through the layers and layers of my power. The parts and pieces I'd had with me since childhood. The webs and sheets of power I'd absorbed. I found what I was looking for in the motes and particles Anda had given me. I followed the line of those delicate fibers to their ends. Oliver and his group of Directs had been waiting for me. Last night, the smile on my face could have lit the worlds
I forced Kiema behind me as Atlas fell to his knees. A look of pure rage covered his features. I parried the blow that Heppni shot, letting my sword absorb the magic. I shot her a fierce smile as her howl of rage rent the air. "Back to back, just like we've been training," Taryk said. His back bumped into mine as the twins took up their positions on either side of us to form a weapon-wielding cross. The boys had guns that Kord had managed to fill with magic powder. I had my sword.We slayed a swath through the Directs who had allied with Heppni. The head woman herself was staying near the back, biding her time. A true coward.The goddess who had taunted Kiema lay directly in my path. "Lock arms, we're going invisible," I said to my men through the mental link Kiema had set up. "We're going to destroy this bitch.""Get down wit' cha bad self, Cherrypie," Asher called. "Just make sure you leave some for us. We're the men you know."I chuckled as I drew my invisibility power ov