Through The Veil (27 page)

He blinked at her open-mouthed for a moment and then stammered.
“You want to steal Bethany out from under Aaron. Are you suicidal?”

“Not in the least, no, but I have a plan that I think will
work.”

Griff
groaned. “We’re totally
going to die, and I so didn’t want the last person I see to be you.”

“The feeling is mutual big guy, but don’t worry.” She patted
him on the chest. “We got this and no one will get hurt.” She explained her
plan and by the time she finished, he grinned at her.

“Let’s do this.”

* * *

The sweat dripped down the small of Marcus’s back as Brooklyn
cursed under her breath inside Aaron’s tree house. He stood in the shadows
outside the door, watching the remaining Warriors go through their exercises.
Bethany sat off to the side, attending to some reading and paperwork. Since the
Warriors main job included protecting her, she went with them everywhere, even
when they trained. Occasionally she would glance up and watch Aaron and the
Warriors work, and then scan the forest for activity. But he guessed since
she’d been instructed to keep Aaron from killing any of them, she probably knew
something brewed in the area.

Brooklyn worked to pick the lock of a chest at the foot of
Aaron’s bed. From the sounds of it, she wasn’t having a lot of luck.

He could sense
Griff
and Lori
nearby, but they’d put up heavy shields to keep them from knowing what they’d
planned. The timing of this exercise couldn’t have been worse. This time of the
day, the Warriors trained in the field behind Aaron’s home. He and Brooklyn had
caught a lucky break and been able to sneak in while Aaron worked, but he
wasn’t sure how they were going to get out. And they needed to hurry. They
didn’t want Aaron to catch them breaking into his stuff. Exercise or not, he
would not be amused.

“Do you need some help?”
he asked.

“No.”
Brooklyn’s mental voice echoed with stress
from her effort,
“I’ve almost got it, I think.”

A loud screeching reverberated from the house at the same
time that Brooklyn squealed,
“I got it!”

He cringed, but no one out in the field seemed to have heard
the sound.
“Hurry up, Brooklyn, we have to get out of here and our hour is
about up. Just grab something.”

“No problem. I found the perfect thing. It looks like
some sort of journal. Are you ready for me to come out?”

The Warriors continued to spar.

“Yes, let’s go,”
Marcus instructed her.

Just as Brooklyn stepped out of the door, a loud rumbling
began underground. The Earth trembled and the entire tree shook. The two of
them grabbed hold of the railing to avoid falling off the platform. When
Brooklyn did so, she dropped the red leather bound book. At the same time, a
six inch wide crack opened in the ground from where the Warriors sparred to
where the book now rested on the forest floor.

Suddenly, the quaking stopped and the crack closed back up.
But now every eye was on Marcus and Brooklyn since the crack had stopped right
in front of them. Marcus tried not to squirm or look guilty under their
suspicious expressions. This looked so bad.

Aaron scowled as he strode forward. He reached down and
picked up the book, taking a moment to brush his fingers against the dirt where
the ground had closed back up. “You broke into my house?” His voice sounded low
and angry as he lifted the book to them.

“Bethany can explain,” Brooklyn said. The three of them
glanced over to where Bethany had been sitting, but she had disappeared. Only
her pile of paperwork remained.

 
“Sound the alarm!”
Aaron yelled to the other Warriors.

“No, Aaron, stop! I’m pretty sure she’s fine.” Marcus tried
not to shrink in the face of his extremely angry boss, who looked ready to lop
his head off. “Um, it was an exercise for the team. I’m pretty sure she’s
probably back at the base of her tree house. Just check in with her, Aaron. I’m
sure she’s there.”

“Oh, man,” Brooklyn murmured. “That takes balls. Why didn’t
we think to steal Bethany? That’s perfect.”

The grinding of Aaron’s teeth echoed over the quiet glade.
“She’s there.” They could all hear the relief in his voice. “You two had better
hope and pray to the Goddess that she’s completely unharmed and then I expect a
damn good explanation for all of this. In the meantime,” Aaron turned back to
Eric, who stood quietly beside him, and instructed, “cuff them.”

Eric’s eyes widened in shock, but he stepped forward to
follow the orders. All the Warriors carried cuffs for wrists and bindings for
wings when they needed to restrain anyone. Rarely did that ever happen, though.
Aaron made a statement by doing so now with two of the Warriors, the elite
class of fighters within their society. This meant they would march across the
forest floor in disgrace to Bethany’s home so the entire village would see
them.

Marcus closed his eyes. Damn, Aaron was pissed. But he
couldn’t help the tiny surge of pride. Lori never ceased to amaze him.

* * *

After a humiliating trek, the group of Warriors rounded the
corner to see the base of Bethany’s tree house. Bethany sat there, tied up and
blindfolded. Lori held a knife to the base of her neck.

The grip Aaron had on Marcus’s arm tightened markedly.

“Tread carefully, Baby,”
Marcus warned her.
“Aaron
is not happy about this.”

“Aaron, I’m fine.” Bethany’s voice carried strong and sure
over the forest floor. “It was just a training exercise, and I do believe Lori
and
Griff
won.”

Brooklyn groaned.

Lori lifted her hands off Bethany. When she released her,
the blindfold turned to leaves and the ropes and the knife she’d been holding
her with reverted to sticks. He couldn’t stop his grin of pride. Her powers
were getting stronger and stronger. By the gleam in his eye it looked like even
Griff
was impressed with what she could do.

Bethany stood, walked over to Aaron, and laid a soothing
hand on his arm, murmuring quietly to him. He hoped she’d calm him down enough
so that he didn’t leave them locked up while he worked off his anger. They all
watched him cautiously.

Finally Aaron gave a sharp nod to Eric. “You can
uncuff
them.”

Several of the villagers had gathered around, drawn by the
commotion. “You all can go home,” Aaron told them. “There’s nothing more to see
here. We were just working on some of our training exercises.”

After Brooklyn and Marcus had been freed, Aaron nodded them
over to where
Griff
and Lori stood. “They won by
stealing the most valuable object. Go and enjoy making them dinner, but I want
all four of you to report to the millhouse afterward. I have a new test of your
teamwork.” With that, he strode off, holding Bethany protectively in front of
him.

Collectively, they let out a sigh. While his competitive
spirit chafed at the fact that their team lost, Marcus couldn’t help the gush
of pride for what Lori had accomplished.

“Well, that was tense,” Brooklyn stated.

Lori nodded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get everyone into
trouble.”

“No, I think it’s fine,”
Griff
said. “I guess we’ll see for sure after dinner, but he didn’t seem angry
anymore.” He turned back to her and cocked an eyebrow. “I had no idea you could
do that kind of stuff. I’ve heard about your power, but damn.”

“Um, yeah, most of that’s pretty new since I’ve learned how
to tap into the
ley
lines and it’s definitely
stronger with you all in my head. I wonder…” She looked at the three Warriors
speculatively. “I think we need to test some things because I think our bond
has done something more than just tie us together mentally. Let’s go back to
the cabin and see.”

Upon arriving in the cabin, Brooklyn went immediately to the
kitchen and the other three followed. She began to pull out vegetables to make
the stew and grabbed a knife out of the drawer.

“
Nuh
uh.” Lori shook her head at
Brooklyn. “Use this instead.” She set a stick in front of her.

Brooklyn cocked an eyebrow and put her hand on her hip. “I
don’t think that’s going to work and besides, it doesn’t even look clean. I
don’t want to cook with that.”

“Pick it up and think about what tool you need to cut the
vegetables.”

As Brooklyn followed her instruction with a dubious look,
the stick transformed into a wicked looking knife. The steel curved blade
glinted in the light, highlighting the fine sharp edge.

“Whoa!” Brooklyn yelled and dropped it. As soon as her skin
didn’t touch it, it became a stick once again.

Three pairs of stunned gazes turned to Lori. “I think you
all share my gift now, at least part of it. It doesn’t feel as strong, but I
can sense it in each of you. That will be handy when you need a weapon. But you
need to be aware the magic only lasts as long as you touch the item you’re
manipulating. Once you let go, it goes back to its original form, which is also
useful, because then your own weapons can’t be used against you.”

“That’s why the crack in the ground closed up so quickly
before, isn’t it?” Brooklyn asked.

“Yes, I had to touch the ground to create it. Once Aaron’s
attention diverted to you guys I let go of it so we could get Bethany out of
there.” She frowned in concentration. “Manipulating the earth takes a lot more
effort than the stick trick. I don’t think you all have enough power to do
that, but we need to play around a bit and see just what your limitations are.
I’m thinking we could be stronger as a group when we’re touching, too, just
like when I touch the crystals from the
ley
lines I’m
stronger.”

Throughout dinner prep, they all continued to experiment,
just to see what they could do. For the three Warriors, it was an all-new
sensation, so they had to get used to the idea that they could manipulate an
object just by thinking about doing so. There were just a few minor mishaps.
Everyone became so excited about the possibilities that they didn’t really care
when the soup landed on the floor because Marcus opened up a huge hole in the
middle of the table.

It helped to keep them focused off the upcoming meeting with
Aaron, too, which Lori was nervous about. But the appointed hour came anyway,
and they flew down to the mill. When they entered, the other four
Warriors—Aaron, Eric, Garrison, and Malcolm—all stood against the back wall,
legs spread, arms crossed. They looked fierce. Bethany sat demurely over to the
side, looking on with a small smile that helped to relieve a little of Lori’s
tension. She didn’t think Bethany would be smiling if they planned something
bad.

Aaron strode forward. “You exhibited impressive skills this
afternoon, but I think you need something more to test your teamwork ability.
You’re going to go up against my team.” He gestured to the men. Then bared his
teeth at Lori’s team in what she assumed was supposed to be a grin, but it sure
as hell didn’t feel like anything happy.

“Tomorrow, beginning at sunrise, you have the same
objective, but this time you will be going up against an enemy that’s prepared
for you—us. Try to steal Bethany from us. I dare you. Let’s see how you really
work as a team. Dismissed.”

No one said anything as they headed back to the cabin. This
would be their first real test of the four of them working together. If they
could win against the Warriors who knew they were coming, then they might just
have a chance against the soldiers from the ES in rescuing her friends.
Anticipation and a heavy dose of nervous energy thrummed through Lori.

After they entered, Marcus said, “Well, it’s time to come up
with a plan of attack. We also need to work on our story.” He grimaced at
Brooklyn. “Malcolm could sense something had changed with us. Sorry. After we
finish tomorrow, he wants to do a thorough examination of all of us.”