Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (33 page)

Oh, sorry, this is all just so weird. I’m in the bathroom at the palace. I was just drying my hands when I felt all you were feeling. I slammed my forehead into the wall a bit too hard. Shit, I cracked a couple of tiles. Grace, are you sure I can’t come to you?

She smiled. She couldn’t help herself.
No. We have to finish this shoot. But when I see you again, I think we need to manage some alone time. Maybe with wings.

She heard a growl, or at least she thought she did. Could he communicate a growl telepathically?

Is that a promise?

Oh, yeah.

I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll have to block your sensations.

Same here. Bye.

She felt the connection break. It was so strange being so close to Leto at any given moment.

She took a few deep breaths and let her wings fly. She put her fingers to her lips because she’d almost orgasmed. She hadn’t realized how close she was, but then she’d felt everything Leto was feeling.

Yes, she definitely had things to
discuss
with him later, or maybe just things to mount. Many things to mount.

She closed her eyes and resorted to some serious deep breathing.

The room had grown very quiet.

When she was finally in command of herself, she turned to find, first of all, that Marguerite had a wet towel slung around her neck.

Fiona was blinking rapidly.

“Well, that was interesting,” Grace said.

Fiona laughed. “I haven’t been mounting my wings very long, but that was really strange. I realized I had only mounted my wings when Jean-Pierre was around.” Of course, her cheeks started to grow very pink. Then she laughed. “Oh, this is just too embarrassing.”

When Fiona turned in Marguerite’s direction, Grace had a full view of her wings. “Oh, Fiona, your wings are magnificent. All that black and gold and the flame pattern is so evident.”

For the next few minutes, they spent time examining one another’s wings. Marguerite’s were a deep cherry red, with black flames at the base. Grace had seen hers while on Fourth with Casimir. There had been plenty of mirrors to look into, unlike in the Creator’s Convent.

As she took her place to the right of Marguerite, an order that seemed fitting because Fiona had been the first to discover the nature of her power, Grace began to gain some confidence. She really was obsidian flame. Her wings matched Fiona’s and Marguerite’s. She really did belong here.

Of course, the proximity of the triad kept a certain level of power flowing among them, but as long as they didn’t form a circle together the power remained a pleasant vibration over her skin.

As the photographer worked them, most of the comments came from Marguerite and generally stayed close to the topic of how well acquainted the photographer was with Photoshop and did she truly think she could shave at least four inches off her bottom.

The photographer assured her repeatedly that she could have final approval of the photo.

When the photographer and her crew took off, Marguerite contacted Thorne and asked him to join the triad because they were ready to begin practicing.

When Thorne arrived, Grace addressed obsidian flame’s biggest concern. “So, we need to figure out how to do the mass folds.” She turned to Fiona. “You were able to channel Endelle’s ability to fold. Does that mean you have the same ability now?”

Fiona shook her head. “There is always a residual effect, something learned, but it’s not the same thing. So, no, I don’t have her level of power.”

“So I need to acquire Endelle’s ability.”

Fiona smiled. “That would follow.”

Grace knew why she was smiling. There was one woman on the planet with the ability she needed to acquire, but it was never an easy thing to work with the scorpion queen.

She glanced at Thorne. “Would you contact Endelle for us?”

He smiled. “Of course.” He whipped his phone from his pants pocket. Grace had forgotten that he’d broken the mind-link with Endelle all those months ago. Now he had to contact her the usual way. He probably could have used telepathy, but Grace had a feeling Thorne wanted it this way. Maybe having a
breh
made a difference as well.

Grace waited and tried to calm her heart. Endelle was never easy to take, but this was new territory and she was already nervous. Thinking about being within Endelle’s soul was like thinking about swimming with sharks.

Suddenly the alarms started shrieking like mad, after which Endelle appeared. She looked around, clearly not understanding why the alarms were ringing.

Thorne lifted a hand and shouted over the shrill signals, “I’ll take care of this.” Once more, he was on his phone. He spoke quickly and a moment later the alarms stopped, thank you, Creator.

Endelle scowled at Thorne. “Didn’t you tell them I was coming?”

He laughed. “You didn’t exactly give me a lot of time.”

“I suppose not. You could say I’m a little anxious about what’s happening here.” She glanced from one woman to the next, finally landing on Grace. “So you have the ability to acquire any of my skills.”

“That’s right.”

She smiled. “You’re very sure about it.”

“Yes, I suppose I am.” She explained about practicing with Alison and about reading souls.

Endelle actually smiled. “Okay, so tell me what to do.”

Grace felt uneasy. “I think I should warn you that I’ll have to go deep to get to this particular power—as in, I’ll be descending into your soul.”

“Fine.”

“You mean, just like that? You don’t mind?”

“Hell, no. Just do it, Grace. What the fuck do I care? All I want is to finally get the upper hand over Greaves, get his fat balls in my hand, squeeze hard a few dozen times, then send him to perdition. If that means you do some soul diving, it’ll be worth it.” When Grace still hesitated, Endelle added, “Aw, for shit’s sake, just jump inside my mind, or wherever the hell my ‘soul’ is”—she made air quotes—“and let’s get this damn thing done.”

“Okay, fine.” Maybe not the most brilliant response, but Grace was very surprised. She had thought that the Supreme High Administrator of all of Second Earth would be more protective of her deepest parts. But then Endelle wasn’t exactly known for her boundaries.

She moved just a little closer to Endelle, closed her eyes, then pushed into Endelle’s mind. She hadn’t expected the entrance to be so easy, but then Endelle had motivation to cooperate right now.

Grace allowed herself to sink through the deepest layers of Endelle’s thoughts. Because the entrance into her mind had been so easy, Grace had thought she would move swiftly into the woman’s soul. But this layer of her mind was deep and it was dark.

She continued to sink. At last, she found what turned out to be a brilliant turquoise field of light that seemed as broad as it was high. There was so much beauty in the center of Endelle’s domain that she could hardly contain her wonder.

She focused on Endelle’s folding ability, and as before a kind of lock appeared. Grace focused her thoughts, shaping them into a blue key, and inserted.

With a powerful rush, Endelle’s folding ability covered her. There was so much power that she was thrust out of Endelle’s soul. She flew outward so that when she opened her eyes she was ten feet away from Endelle and flat on her back. She opened her eyes to stare up at the enormous steel girders that supported the roof.

She took deep breaths, but closed her eyes. She thought about Endelle, how beautiful her turquoise soul was, how vast, as though it would take millennia to know her, really know her.

She saw Endelle’s stilettos, then looked up to smile at her. It was strange knowing her in this way, the loveliness of her soul, all that beauty covered up with her odd fashion choices, her profanity, and her deep cynicism.

“I take it you were successful?”

“I was.” Grace rose to her feet. “But I wanted to tell you that your soul is very beautiful. I mean it’s an elegant turquoise color, which I realize makes no sense, but you have surprising depths.”

Endelle’s mouth turned up on one side. “You mean, for a scorpion queen?”

Grace grinned. “Yes. Exactly.”

Endelle chuckled. “Just don’t tell anyone. It would ruin my rep.” She glanced at Marguerite and Fiona. “I guess I’m done here.”

She lifted her right arm. Thorne reached out for her, to stop her, but she vanished anyway with a smirk and an “Oops.”

Grace covered her ears because the alarms were incredibly shrill and loud.

Thorne rolled his eyes and withdrew his phone from his pocket once more.

When the alarms stopped, Grace knew the time had come to begin practicing the mass folds. Her heart thumped now. This was what she had put into motion, a spectacle event featuring obsidian flame as a subterfuge for stealing Greaves’s army away from him.

But could the triad carry it off? Could she really do what she had promised? Only one way to find out.

*   *   *

Leto stood in the palace command center and glanced at his watch. Six-thirty. Thorne had promised him that he’d call a halt to the obsidian practice by seven-thirty. He had only an hour left; then he could head to the villa and make sure everything was ready. He had a certain plan in place involving wings and an empty house. Having checked in with Parisa, he knew she was working at the rehab center through the night, and of course Medichi was working the Borderlands with the rest of the Warriors of the Blood.

It felt strange not to be including the rest of the brothers in the war plans, but Greaves hadn’t let up on the Borderlands and a constant flow of death vampires was keeping the WhatBees and the Militia Warrior squadrons working hard every night. And that had always been a significant part of Greaves’s strategy: to wear down the most powerful warriors on the planet, thereby reducing their effectiveness. The plan had worked well until the
breh-hedden
started bringing strong women to the warriors, changing the focus of each of their lives and adding all sorts of new powers to Endelle’s arsenal.

Leto had lived a long time, and he had noticed that when evil tried to forge a wall against that which was essentially good, then life would respond and provide a countermeasure. Maybe it was spiritual in nature, or maybe it was just the immense life force inherent within the spirit of man to ensure survival above all things. In his opinion, the arrival of the
breh-hedden
was one of those countermeasures.

And he and Grace were part of that.

He focused once more on the separate grid that Thorne had brought in for the purpose of mapping that portion of the army that would submit to Leto’s command. Leto was satisfied with his progress. His biggest concern involved those warriors among the ranks who would prefer to be with Greaves. Most of his conversations with the Division Leaders ran along that line, but the general consensus was that each leader would remove those warriors to a separate area for a specified duty. That way, when the time came for the mass fold, then those staunch supporters of Greaves would remain behind.

Because he had trained the army, especially the leadership, the troops had tremendous loyalty to their Regiment and Division Leaders. Those whom Leto contacted chose pretty quickly to align with Endelle. The generals had caused so much suffering among the divisions that the five months since Leto had left Greaves’s service had created exactly the right atmosphere for a mutiny.

Leto had asked Endelle to create two large areas on the planet that she could cloak in mist, to which Leto could begin sending the support staff and materials any working army needed: latrines, tents, an abundance of food and water, and weapons.

The logistics of his part in the battle plans had finally come together. All that needed to be done now was to make sure that the triad could locate each misted area with ease. From what Grace had told him, she would simply need to see the location in her mind, something that could be accomplished as soon as the locations were set up.

Grace. Sweet Christ, his heart had expanded over the past few days. And how his life had changed. Was it only days ago that Grace had come back to him? During that time, he’d made peace with his beast-self and learned to make the transition with ease and without putting anyone in jeopardy. Incredible.

He wanted to give her more, to give of himself fully. And he was trying. But he also knew himself, that the war had taken something from him, had made it almost impossible to give all that he had to give. He wondered if that would ever be different.

He felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise. He turned, and sure enough Casimir made himself visible. “You are really starting to bug the shit out of me.”

Casimir’s smile was rueful. “I need a word with you.”

“Okay.” Leto frowned. He didn’t know what to make of the Fourth ascender. He recalled doing battle with him in the Convent when Casimir had been acting on Greaves’s behalf. Casimir’s purpose had been to destroy both Grace and Leto, but then the
breh-hedden
had gotten hold of Casimir and changed everything.

Casimir drew in a deep breath. “I wanted to apologize for that Convent mess and for my behavior.”

Leto didn’t know what to say, but he felt angry all over again. “You took Grace to Fourth. You somehow persuaded her that you needed her. Don’t think for a moment that I don’t know how you worked to manipulate and seduce her, because I do know. She deserved better than you.” His hands were balled into fists. He wanted to hit Casimir, but the damn man just stood there—no cocky smile, just sincerity in his dark brown eyes.

“I should never have taken her,” Casimir confessed. “But I was a different man back then and I’d made a deal with Greaves. The prize was Grace.”

Leto knew it wasn’t as simple as that. Grace had explained to him a dozen times that her intuition had told her she had to be with Casimir if she was to save Leto’s hide.

But he was a man and Casimir had walked off with Grace as pretty as you please, and he’d been too lost in his dying blood fiasco to do a thing about it.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Leto said.