Central (16 page)

“Okay,” Gabriel said. “Come and get it.”

Much as Olivia had predicted, James set his sights on her. So, as she and her sisters had planned, she turned and rushed toward Caleb. Amber took her place in front of James. Skye did a series of flips that brought her closer to Gabriel.

Olivia wasn’t sure what to think about the smile that flashed across the usually implacable Caleb’s face when she hurried over in his direction. But she had to admit that she was more than a little intimidated by his display of knuckle-cracking. Her mind whirled as she considered her possibilities. Attempting to take Caleb on in hand-to-hand combat would have been laughable. He was nearly Gabriel’s rival in that form of defense. Likewise, he was quite skilled with throwing weapons. His weakest ability had to be with staff weapons, if she had to pick. Unfortunately, she hadn’t proven much more skilled with them than he was. However, if she could engage him in a contest, she could open the path for one of her sisters to possibly capture the flag while he was distracted.

With that thought in mind, she ran over to the weapons rack.

Amber and James faced off. Amber knew Gabriel was keeping an eye on her, something she hoped would work to their benefit. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Olivia hurry over to the weapons rack and grab a bo. Caleb wisely grabbed a second one of the weapons to defend himself.

Turning her full attention back to James, Amber bounced a couple of times on her toes, her body positioned in a typical offensive karate stance. He assumed a similar position, prepared to defend. Testing his defenses, she swung out toward his chest, met his forearm where it swept down to block her. Had she been on the receiving end of her strike, she wouldn’t have just deflected the blow, she would have used one hand to deflect it while lashing back out with her other hand to strike her attacker. But the blow would have hit her opponent in the midsection. She knew immediately why he hadn’t taken the shot.

Exploiting his consideration of her condition to win this contest wasn’t an option. She circled, moving deliberately away from Gabriel. James kicked. She ducked. She considered rolling closer to the flag. Dismissed the option when she saw his eyes flash to the spot she was considering rolling to. Lashed out with her fist followed closely by a kick. They circled and evaluated.

Skye kept her attention centered on Gabriel. She tried very much not to think about just how powerful he was. Although he kept his power carefully at bay, she had seen him physically shove someone with a thought when he was angered. After all, he was a couple thousand years old for all his youthful appearance, among the most powerful Estilorians on the entire plane. He was too much of a gentleman to use that power in a contest like this, of course. But the knowledge was certainly an effective mental block.

So, as she usually did when she was nervous, she started babbling. “Gosh. I still don’t know how I got here. A few months ago, I was on the dancing circuit around the Kodiak Peninsula. And now look at me…facing off with my brother-in-law on a whole other plane.”

He grinned.

She looked around as she thought aloud. “I suppose if I just made a run for the flag, you’d grab me. I’m not strong enough to get away from you. The weapons are on the other side of the courtyard and Olivia and Caleb are already going that route.”

“Five minutes have elapsed,” Ini-herit said from the sidelines.

“Golly,” Skye said. Her eyes moved over to the flag. She started taking a few steps backwards, away from Gabriel. He watched her carefully, but made no move to advance.

Beside them, Amber and James continued their hand-to-hand battle. Amber managed to maneuver closer to Olivia and Caleb, where they faced off with their bos. The weapons made a distinct clack when they connected again and again. Realizing her sister was tiring, Amber waved at her.

“Liv!”

Taking the hint, Olivia tossed the bo to Amber. Even as she threw it, she dove to the side. Caleb would have stopped her with his bo, but Amber quickly hurried into place and stopped him instead with a defensive block. When James tried to get around Amber to go after Olivia, she shifted to use her bo against him, too.

Olivia started to go right toward the flag, but saw Gabriel shift slightly in her direction. She also realized James wouldn’t let Amber’s bo stop him for long, especially with Caleb there to occupy her focus. In the next heartbeat of time, she turned and hurried back to the weapons rack. Moving quickly, she grabbed her bow and arrows.

Amber watched Olivia and realized immediately what she intended to do. When Olivia glanced at her, she looked briefly at the far wall, near Skye and Gabriel. Olivia nodded. Amber had to move quickly with the bo to buy her sister another few valuable seconds.

“I just love to watch Amber in action,” Skye was saying to Gabriel. She moved constantly, drawing attention by shifting from foot to foot and taking a few graceful strides from one direction to another, almost as if dancing. She didn’t make any overt moves toward the flag. Indeed, she did a pirouette, her right arm above her head like a ballerina. “She’s going to make sure your son or daughter is a little warrior.”

The words had their effect. Gabriel blinked, obviously distracted, as he processed the idea of his son or daughter, much as she had intended.

Just long enough for Olivia to nock her arrow and let it fly.

James managed to get past Amber’s bo, but not before Olivia shot her arrow. Across the courtyard, Skye threw a ball of light at Gabriel, who had to shield his eyes. The instant she did that, the arrow landed in the wall less than a foot from her. Skye easily reached over and grabbed the flag, which Olivia had snagged with the arrow.

“Woohoo!” Olivia cried, setting her bow down and running toward Skye.

Amber grinned and did the same. She met her sisters in the middle of the courtyard. When they threw their arms around her in celebration, she didn’t fight them off.

“We did it!” Skye giggled.

“Good job, ladies,” Gabriel said, reaching over and hooking an arm around Skye’s shoulders even as she clung to her sisters. “I’m very proud of you.”

“Excellent shot,” Caleb said, propping his elbow on Olivia’s shoulder.

“You are a true team,” James added. He tapped his fist to Amber’s.

“We’re all a team,” Skye corrected. She held her hand out, palm down. “We’ll work together…support each other.”

Olivia understood. She laid her hand on top of Skye’s. “Encourage each other.”

Amber nodded and placed her hand on top of theirs. “Love each other.”

“Believe in each other,” Gabriel said, laying his hand on top of Amber’s.

“Challenge each other,” James contributed, adding his hand to the pile.

“And protect each other,” Caleb finished, putting his hand on top.

The resulting explosion of power knocked everyone in the courtyard off their feet.

PART II:

Integration

Excerpts from the Great Foretelling:

“
Through her and her sisters, our minds and our hearts will ultimately be opened.”

“
If he denies what he feels, he will fail the greatest test set before him.”

Chapter Fourteen

James heard someone calling his name, but he couldn’t make himself respond. His body was a strange blend of numbness and incessant tingling. Hot pain seared across the inside of his right wrist and then faded. Everything was gray. He felt like he was floating.

Then he heard someone urgently speaking Olivia’s name. His Gloresti power surged.

“Olivia,” he said suddenly, his eyes flying open. He was on his feet in a fraction of a second.

His gaze absorbed everything in as little time as it took to get to his feet. The three sisters were all on the ground, not moving. Gabriel and Caleb were just getting to their feet, their eyes glowing dark blue. The elders all knelt beside the girls, obviously trying to rouse them. Skye’s spirit guardian hovered over her still form.

What just happened?

Is she breathing?

He blinked in surprise when he heard Caleb’s and Gabriel’s thoughts directly in his mind. Then he dismissed it as unimportant right at that moment and fell to the ground beside Olivia.

“How long has she been this way?” he asked, trying to get closer to her. Uriel was leaning over her, checking her pulse. James couldn’t see her face.

How long did I leave her unprotected?
he couldn’t stop from thinking.

When Gabriel and Caleb both turned to look at him from their positions beside Amber and Skye, he understood that he had inadvertently conveyed the thought to them.

What did we do?
he thought as he looked from one of them to the other.

Gabriel shook his head as he lifted Amber’s upper body so she was supported by him.
I don’t—whoa…her hair!

James and Caleb instinctively glanced down at Olivia and Skye. Now that Uriel had sat back, James realized what Gabriel meant. A streak of Olivia’s hair, about an inch wide, was now a startling shade of green on the right side of her head. It started from her scalp and appeared to go all the way to the ends, but because her hair was bound it was impossible to tell. When he looked in Skye’s direction, he saw an identical streak in her hair, but light blue. Although he couldn’t see Amber’s head from his angle, he imagined she had a similar gold streak in her hair.

Gabriel leaned down and pressed his lips to Amber’s even as the thought about her hair registered. It obviously worked, stimulating Amber’s self-healing. Within a moment, her eyes opened and she jerked in surprise.

“What happened?” she asked immediately, looking around.

“We don’t know,” Gabriel said, not resisting when she pulled away and crawled over to Olivia, who was closest.

Uriel moved further back when Amber got beside her sister. She didn’t comment on Olivia’s hair, though her eyes rested on the anomaly for a notable moment. Instead, she just rested her hands on either side of Olivia’s face.

Only seconds passed before Olivia’s eyes opened and she blinked in awareness. James almost sighed with relief.

“You’ll live,” Amber said, giving Olivia another brief pat on the cheek before crawling over to Skye to repeat the procedure. This time, when she saw her sister’s hair, she spoke. “I’m assuming I have this rather odd coloring in my hair now, too?”

“Yes,” said all of the males around her.

She nodded, then touched Skye, whose eyes flickered and then opened. Her spirit guardian winked out of sight.

“Holy cow,” Skye said, sitting up and holding her head with her right hand. Her eyes touched on Amber’s hair, then flickered over to Olivia. “Holy cow!” she repeated, louder this time. Then she looked at the inside of her right wrist, resting almost directly in front of her eyes. “Holy mother of all cows!”

Amber took hold of Skye’s hand and turned her wrist so she could see it. As she did so, she glanced at something on her own wrist. Caleb, who was watching them, turned his right wrist over.

Look
, he thought.

Hearing him, James and Gabriel looked at the insides of their right wrists. Olivia quickly did the same.

They hurried to their feet and walked toward each other, holding their right wrists up so that the others could see. Ini-herit, Uriel and Knorbis followed them, looking on in deep curiosity.

Each of them now bore a mark about an inch in diameter. It was a triquetra, an infinity knot with three pointed and overlapping rings. One of the rings was gold, the other light green and the third light blue. Amber’s and Gabriel’s marks were positioned so that the pointed tip of the gold ring pointed down their arms, toward their hearts. James’ and Olivia’s marks had the green ring pointing down and Caleb’s and Skye’s had the blue ring aimed downwards.

“Holy cow,” they all said at the same time.

Ini-herit did his form of an exam to assure Gabriel and Amber that their baby had suffered no ill effects from the unexpected display of power.

“But you never know if he or she might not come out with weirdly colored hair or covered in tattoos,” Skye had pointed out cheerfully.

Once they determined they were all okay, they went inside and showered and changed, taking time to collect their thoughts before meeting again. Now, they were all sitting at the long table in the dining room, the easiest place for everyone to congregate. The only person eating was Amber, who had a plate of fruit and cheese in front of her.

Olivia shifted in her seat, the skirts of her dusky-pink sundress flowing over the chair’s legs. She kept running the thumb of her left hand over the new symbol on her right wrist. What did this mean?

Ini-herit sat at the head of the table. He spoke first. “I believe that these symbols have formed as a result of the Gloresti-Corgloresti pairing.” When everyone stared at him, he pointed at his own silver tattoos. They lined the undersides and backsides of his arms. “When a Corgloresti pairs with a Gloresti, they exchange a permanent symbol marking them as paired. You, Gabriel, once had as many such markings as I do. They did not remain on your Estilorian form when you returned to this plane.”

Gabriel nodded. “I’d forgotten about that,” he admitted.

Olivia glanced at James. He didn’t have any such markings. But then, he had already told her that she was his first pairing. She guessed the same was true for Caleb since he was also a young Gloresti.

“I believe that this was a delayed marking,” Knorbis agreed. “Each of your pairings was done in nontraditional ways. Gabriel, you were paired with Ini-herit, but rather than you remaining here to watch over his form, your roles were reversed.”

“Still, the usual marks were made before you crossed planes,” Ini-herit said. “But you did not retain yours.”

Knorbis nodded. “And with each of you girls, there was no time to assign your Gloresti until after you had been sent to the human plane, and you were too young to pair, anyway, meaning no marks were made.”

“The formation of the marks involves an exchange of vows, much like the marks shared by Amber and Gabriel,” Ini-herit continued, referring to the mark on Gabriel’s bicep and the coordinating gold and blue-gray markings Amber now had around her eyes and on her right shoulder blade. “Unlike their vows based on love, however, the vows between a Gloresti and Corgloresti are the ultimate commitment to another being’s life: absolute protection and guardianship. I believe that since the girls are half-Corgloresti, the vows you all exchanged in the courtyard served to bind you together.”