walker saga 06 - dronish (18 page)

Light started a slow ebbing stream across the blackness that had been the sky. Tendrils started from the center line and flowed through the air. I wasn’t cold, wrapped in the arms of my hot-ass man, but I’d noticed the other girls shivering. Then, as the warmth followed the light, their shivers subsided. The cracks on our skin started to slowly fill in again, taking longer than usual, but thankfully still healing. I barely noticed the pain, but the slow heal was like an itchy sandpaper coating my skin.

Sapha’s red eyes were wide. “I can’t believe it.” She spun in circles, trying to see everything in one go. “The energy has returned to Dronish. The sun burns and the moons live.”

She was right. There was now a very large and hot sun sitting to the left of the sky. And six moons scattered in the foreground of the sun’s path, only just visible in the bright light.

Is it too much to ask that we have five minutes to focus on the bond?
Brace’s words were a cross between resigned and pissed-off.

Five?
I teased.
I’m going to need longer than five minutes to focus on this bond.

Not only were emotions flooding through me, but there was this tingly heat which had started at the top of my head and was slowly working its way down my body. A tingly heat that had everything to do with the bond and everything to do with the hard planes of muscle and warm skin that was pressed to me. It had been a long time without Brace, and I wanted all of him right then.

He laughed.
Stop thinking about that, Red, or you and I will be secluded in our snow cabin for days, weeks … maybe months. And the worlds can fix them damn selves.

I sucked in a deep breath. He was right. I needed to focus. We needed to finish this with the lalunas, because I couldn’t leave Josian as their prisoner. Who knew what was happening in there, how they were messing with his mind? I had to save my dad.

You have no idea how much it pisses me off that we can’t just hole up right now.
I pushed back my curls.

Sometimes I wanted to stamp my feet and curse at the world for everything it was taking from me.

It’s almost over, baby. And then we’ll have so much time, an eternity.

I knew Brace was right, but it didn’t annoy me any less. Plus there was this teeny, tiny part of me that worried we wouldn’t win. I was confident, but not stupid. The Seventine were damn powerful, and there were so many factors leading up to the convergence; well, who the hell knew which way it would go?

I was distracted from these thoughts as I finally focused on the land laid out before us. Dronish. A world which had been dark, cold, and dying. Now it was alive again. But it was strange to observe an environment almost completely devoid of life. It was as if a lava field had flowed across the land, coating and covering everything. The shapes of life were still there: mountains, trees, houses. But it was petrified into large black blobs. Blobs which were rock-hard now. It was almost a land of statues, a frozen moment of a world that used to exist.

Sapha rushed to my side.

I’d noticed earlier that she’d been watching Brace and me with more than curiosity in her gaze. It seemed as if the driving emotion in the depthless red eyes was longing. Desire. She wanted what we had here. True love. A bond greater than anything that had or would ever exist in these worlds.

Right then she was dancing on the spot next to us, clearly not wanting to interrupt, but something had driven her to cross the space and stand at our side.

I pulled away from the Abernath princeps. Reluctantly. Very, very reluctantly. I could hear his chuckle in my head, and just having him back where he belonged was better than any gift.

“What’s up, Sapha?”

Her eyes widened at my choice of words. I guessed she didn’t understand the context.

“Sorry, I mean, is something wrong? Are you okay?”

She nodded a few times. “We need to go to Arotia. The Drones are in danger.”

I didn’t question her. I trusted my half-Walker girls, and I knew the reason would be important. I held out my hand and she barely even hesitated before placing hers into the open palm. We were making progress. Brace linked to my other side and the rest of the females fell in line. Without hesitation I traced our large group to the outer region of the barrier-lined city.

The screams were the first thing that registered in my brain. My eyes took a few more seconds to catch up. Drones were everywhere, curled up, crouching under any cover they could find. It was lucky they mostly wore thick sheets, because, clearly, the sun hurt them.

Ria had her hands threaded through her gorgeous chestnut hair. “What’s wrong with them?” Vines were starting to spring free, as she swung her head from side to side, and for the first time I noticed the small black dots which flew off her hair plants.

Were they seeds? Was Ria actually creating new life-growth? Maybe her power could help to restore some of that which had been lost from Dronish.

Sapha started to run, yelling as she went. “Drones are night dwellers. The sun burns them.”

There were at least fifty of her people outside of the gates, and as we followed her path I gasped at the angry red burns littering their translucent skin. Basically any place where they weren’t covered by their black sheets had been severely toasted.

“They’re very much like the vampire legend.” I said it out loud, but no one besides Brace understood my reference.

We’d once joked about Josian being a vampire, rocking out his red eyes. I’d definitely have to tell Lucy. If she forgave me for abandoning her so much at the moment.

“Combine power with me, Red.” Brace reached out and linked our hands.

You just want to touch me,
I teased him.

He grinned that wicked, badass, full-perfect-teeth smile, and before I even realized what he was planning he kissed me on the mouth. Hard, passionate, and absolutely delicious.

Our power responded inside us, rolling together with a strength that surpassed the half-Walker females. Our lips still locked, Brace called some of that energy. Truth be told, I was too distracted to do anything more than keep kissing him.

You have to stop, Abigail. I’m not going to be able to help these Drones if you keep distracting me.

Good to know I wasn’t the only one enthralled.

Reluctantly I pulled away, and as I turned my head my jaw dropped a little. Brace had elevated those prone Drones, lifting them free of the hard dirt and, as one large mass, they were ferried toward the city of Arotia. We ran after them. I could feel a small amount of energy draining from Brace and me, but we seemed to have plenty left to go around. This activity wasn’t even tiring me out. We used the back entrance into Arotia, Sapha’s little fence hole.

Once we were inside the girls took off in all directions. No one hesitated. They started to drag the screaming, burning Drones out of the light and into the tall, skyscraper-style buildings around us. Brace and I deposited our fifty into the bottom level of an undercover building. Thankfully, many of the inhabitants were already holed up in their homes. But still thousands littered the open streets of Arotia.

The scent of burning flesh was prominent. But still more subtle than that of burning human or animal that I’d smelled before.

Sapha looked exhausted. For someone who’d wanted her entire world to die, well, she was tireless in trying to save those left.

I caught her eye as we rushed past each other with more victims.

“We have a chance now.” Her voice shook. “Dronish has a chance to survive. We know better; we are better now.”

I wasn’t sure she actually believed that. Had her people evolved enough to learn from past mistakes? Or, like humans, were they doomed to continue repeating the sins which had destroyed their world in the first place? I gave her a nod and a smile. I hoped for her sake that her words were true. At least we’d given them more time, rather than the slow torturous starving-to-death thing they had been doing.

I was reminded then of the fact that we’d taken away a sun from Crais. Again, this was another world which had learned to adapt to their harsh and extreme environment. What sort of changes had we wrought? Would there be suffering and death prevailing there at the moment? Fury must be worried sick, especially about Dune. I was worried about Cerberus, but I knew he could move between the worlds, so I hoped he was back on First World.

I had to focus on the current problem. It took a long time, but finally we seemed to have found all the exposed Drones and dragged them to safety. Brace took off for a quick circumnavigation of the area, ferreting out any we’d missed. It had taken many hours to gather them. By the time we were done, the sun had shifted across the sky. It was close to setting, allowing the six moons to appear in their bright, blue glory.

I was next to Sapha now. We were trying to space out the victims in the largest of the skyscraper buildings.

“Are they going to be okay?” I asked her.

She would have the best idea whether these burns were life-threatening.

“Yes. I will gather the mineralines. They will be fully charged with more than enough energy to replenish the Drones. The crystals will replace the oils which should naturally coat our skin. These liquids are healing and protective. Previously the lack of energy limited these protections, but we will have more than enough now.”

Creeping out of the shadows and listening to her words were many of the Drones who’d been safe inside. I left Sapha then. She was explaining to all of those present what had happened and also recruiting their help with sharing the mineralines around.

We’d stashed Drones everywhere, in every building, so Sapha was going to have to repeat this little speech more than once. At least she didn’t seem to be dwelling on her friend, Marl. Being back on Dronish would probably bring those painful memories to the surface again. Right then she had more important things to deal with. I just hoped she didn’t run into her mother.

I found Fury in the chaos.

I could tell by the look of relief on her face that she’d been searching for me too.

“I’m tracing back to Crais.” Her words fell over each other. “I need to check on Dune and Cleo.”

I nodded once. “Will the world survive now without two suns?”

Fine lines creased the corners of her round eyes. “Honestly, Supes, I have no idea.”

She rubbed at her temples in a tired manner. “The dragoona and nomads rely on the energy, so it will depend if there’s enough strength in the sun left.”

I gave her a commiserating look, and then she disappeared. 

In the hours that followed we helped Sapha gather the mineralines. She seemed astonished by how many the priest guy, Kan, had holed up in his temple. Seemed as if the people here had been getting royally screwed by those in authority. Again. Most of First World’s youngling planets were quite advanced and fair to their people. Earth and Dronish seemed to be the worst of the lot. I knew that many of the negative traits of these worlds had been accelerated after the release of the Seventine. The balance had been thrown off.

The mineraline crystals were lit up – fully charged for the first time in years – and I could feel the energy bleeding off them. With help from thousands of uninjured Drones, they were distributed around. I watched in fascination as the injured opened their mouths and those snake-like protrusions emerged. The mouth ends would attach to the stone and then energy infused into the host. Burns disappeared, cracked skin smoothed out, lifeless muscle sprang to life, filling out the almost non-existent frames. As the oils sloshed across the skin, their eye morphed from this sickly yellow to a blood-red. In that moment they would stand, the picture of health, when only moments before they’d looked at death’s door.

“The sun will rise again in a little while.” Talina was stationed near the entrance to the building we were in. “But I think they’ll be okay now.”

She was probably right. They seemed to have recovered enough that the rest would come along in time. Then they would rebuild their lives. It was time for us to go. We’d delayed long enough. I needed to deal with the lalunas and Josian. Which meant I had to find the Seventine again. I wandered across to Sapha, who was crouched beside a small, child-sized Drone. Her eyes lifted to meet my gaze.

“We have to go,” I started without preamble. “The countdown is on and there was no point saving these two worlds only to let the Seventine destroy them.”

Her eyes examined me, roaming across my face. Abruptly she leaned down and whispered something to the child, and then stood in a smooth motion.

“You have saved my world, my people. I will help you. But …” She held up a hand. “I still do not trust you, nor the other females. That will take time. In my experience, nothing comes without strings. No one does anything without expecting ten times more in return. So, for now, I reserve judgment.”

Damn, she was prickly. “No problem.”

We needed her and she knew it. The power which came along with this knowledge was always scary. Who knew what she might demand from us in the future? For now she’d been nothing but great, so I wouldn’t stress too much.

Brace had not been far from my mind. I’d been keeping track of him as he zoomed around doing ten times the work load of the rest of us. I could sense his presence as he moved closer to me. I wasn’t surprised when arms came around me and a kiss dropped onto my cheek.

“We need to get back to the war council.” His voice was strong and commanding.

But then there were those soft words he whispered in our shared bond. I forced myself to focus, and to halt the flood of blush that wanted to coat my entire body. Oh, Brace, he was a keeper for sure. Images of our nights in the snow cabin continued to float through my mind, not to mention our time on Abernath. He was turning me into one of those girls.

I sort of liked it.

The half-Walkers, minus Fury, gathered around us. We left the building and moved out into the open space of the town of Arotia.

Brace paused suddenly. “Something’s happening at the dark mountains.” He twined our hands together as we crossed the center of town. “It looks as if the Seventines’ dark creatures have started to emerge.”

He was either in contact with the other princeps or his Abernath council. His words were definitely worrying, but right then my focus was on Josian. We had to imprison the lalunas, strengthen the prison, and save my father. I was still very stressed about the thought of releasing a Seventine, but I had to trust the other princeps. They seemed very sure this was the best way.

I raised my chin to meet Brace’s eyes. “I’m going to have to make a deal with the Seventine.” 

I had no other option; I was going to have to find the first again. Only problem was that melded to Brace once more made me too strong for it to get in my head.

I sighed. “Can you please remove yourself as much as possible from my mind?” Even I could hear the reluctance in my tone.

Brace stared at me strangely for only a heartbeat before his genius mind caught up. “You want to try and contact the Seventine.”

Then just like that I felt him withdraw. He still occupied a small section of my head, but mostly his presence was undetectable.

I hated even this minute distance between us. I fought the urge to start chasing the Seventine right then. I didn’t want to seem too eager. I was going to wait and see if they came to me. Without the power of the Crais sun, they really couldn’t waste the opportunity to release the next of their brothers. They were running out of time.

Everyone linked hands, so I traced all of us back to the edge of the battlefield. My feet moved forward without pause, when suddenly my eyes caught up to the scene. I ground to a screeching halt. What the hell was going on here?

It was not the chaos I expected. Instead I was staring at a plethora of large regimented groups. Each distinct and separate. I could tell the different Walker clans, not to mention the other species and fey which were here to help also. The way everyone was lined up, standing motionless, it was clear they were waiting for something.

Delane had her weapons in her hands again. “They’re mobilizing to the dark mountains,” she said. “We were discussing the logistics of this when you pulled me to Crais.”

I turned to Brace. “Do you know what’s happening in the mountains?”

“The Seventine are trying to bring it all down. If they destroy the structure of their prison, it’ll weaken the entire area and its tethers. They’ll have to expend less power to release the brothers, and we won’t have anywhere to lock them away.”

“So the strength of their prison lies, in part, with the actual mountain range itself?” My eyes darted around, trying to take in everything.

Brace pulled me a little closer. “Yes, strength is woven into each and every tether on the dark mountain. With each freed Seventine, they’ve lessened the security and frayed the tethers. It’s weak now. When we lock them away again, or even when we secure the lalunas into the walls, the tethers will find strength.”

I remembered the frail, tattered nature of the mountain tethers. We needed to hurry with the lalunas. I couldn’t let the Seventine destroy the prison. It had been chosen by the original Walkers as the strongest place to confine them.

“Do you think they’ll still take the deal, even though they’re trying to destroy the mountain tethers?”

Brace nodded. “Yes, the creatures they’ve released are mainly there to disable our forces and to weaken the mountain’s ties. Probably bring down parts of the prison. But they still need to free the fifth. If they don’t soon, they’ll run out of time.”

I had a feeling then I was going to find the Seventine at the dark mountains. They’d obviously gone straight there after Crais and started to release their minions.

I reached out and gripped Brace’s shirt, pulling him closer. “Can you check that the lalunas are on their way to the mountain?” 

He didn’t hesitate, kissing me solidly before dashing off through the masses. Watching his broad shoulders disappear, my heart only ached a little. Being melded meant that he always felt close to me, even when he was far away.

Ria distracted me. “What’s our next move?”

I explained to all of them what was happening. We were going to follow our allies to the dark mountains. We needed to fight, and the half-Walkers would be frontline in this war. I’d be going to Earth very soon, but I had to deal with the lalunas and Josian first.

“Aribella!”

The scream had me spinning around, my heart rate picking up as I scanned for the source. Long black hair caught my eye first. It was Lallielle, her flawless features scrunched as she pushed her way through the Abernath contingent.

“Baby girl!” The frantic nature of her words was increasing.

I turned to the girls again. “Follow Delane, go to the dark mountains, find out what’s happening, and I’ll meet you there soon.” I sucked in deeply. “And keep an eye out for our animals. They’re probably there waiting for us.” I really freaking hoped so, anyway. I had the impression from the other Walkers that the sacred guides were pretty indestructible. I held on to that thought.

The different groups were starting to disperse through a few large Walker doorways that had been opened. The half-Walkers would follow the crowd. Talina gave me a hard hug. “Be careful, see you soon.”

I could feel the tension under her cool, pink skin.

“I’ll be there,” I promised her, hoping it was true.

I took off then, across the field toward my mother. I’d only heard that tone from her once before, and that was when she’d lost everyone in the dark mountains. I was alternating between needing to know what was wrong, and hoping she wasn’t going to tell me something that would tear my world apart.

She was still struggling to make her way through the masses. I hit the edge of the Abernaths and started to weave my way through. Luckily, as soon as they noticed it was me, the soldiers moved. They were still so disciplined from their time under Que. Things had improved during Brace’s administration, but a few months does not undo thousands of years of servitude.

“Princeps.” A man, his hair the color of ash, nodded his head and lowered expressive eyes, his entire being the picture of respect.

I stumbled a little and he caught my arm.

“Thank you,” I said, my lips trembling as I pulled my arm free.

I’d forgotten that I was part of their leadership now. That I held the energy of these people as well as that of Doreen. I was, as always, split between two worlds.

In that moment Lallielle slammed into me. Her slender arms were around my neck in the same heartbeat.

“He’s gone, baby girl.” Her sobs had her shuddering against my shoulder. “Josian, I can’t feel him anymore, and I’ve looked everywhere. He’s gone.”

She continued to mumble, but the words were lost. Shit, she didn’t realize that Brace and I had reformed the bond. She didn’t know Tenni probably held Josian captive right now and was blocking all access to him. To her it was as if he was dead. I believed the laluna when she said she would never kill her bonded one. But, as I’d known it would, it still felt like he was dead

“No, Mom!” I had to shout so she could hear me over her pain. “Dad’s okay. His laluna has him, but we’re going to get him back.” My voice was firm. I was focused right then.

Men and women still marched around us, but the crowd was starting to thin. I continued to search for Lucy and Colton in the mass. I was worried about my friend. Since it seemed as if the still sobbing Lallielle was going to be incoherent for quite a few moments while she released her fear and worry, I reached out for the one person who’d know how Lucy was.

Colt.
I mentally projected to the blond wolf-Walker. I hit his barrier, and it took a moment before he let me through.

Hey, Abby. Everything okay?

Just checking in on you and Luce. Are you heading to the dark mountains?

His mental energy disappeared for a moment, and I figured he was letting Lucy know.

Hey, Abbs.
Her sweet pixie tones washed through the connection. Lucy had inserted herself into Colt’s head so she could chat too.
We’re just with Malisna and the pixies. We’re going to the dark mountains right now. What about you?

I quickly explained about Josian and the lalunas. That was where my focus would be for the next little while.

Okay, well stay safe and in contact with us,
she ordered.
We’ll probably see you at the mountain. If not, make sure you don’t head to Earth without us.

I’ll let you know,
I assured her, and then with a few last words I withdrew from the connection.

My energy shield wrapped around my mind again, more solid than ever before. My previous struggles to stay shielded had been a hundred percent about the broken melding bond. I was relieved that so far everything seemed to be back to normal. I hadn’t noticed any changes in the connection between Brace and me. I was keeping my fingers crossed that would remain.

Lallielle pulled me closer. She had her head buried in my neck as she continued sobbing her heart out. She hadn’t ceased her breakdown since dashing across the field. I sympathized and empathized with her wholeheartedly. I knew her emotions. I’d felt her pain. It was even worse that she’d been fighting with Dad too. She was probably wracked with guilt.

“Mom.” I tried again, gentler this time. “He’s okay. Tenni has him because Brace and I reformed the bond. It was an accident. We had the energy of the Crais sun and were going to die. I needed Brace’s help.”

Slowly my words penetrated. She started to quiet a little, the occasional gasping sob still shuddering her frame.

“I was so horrible to him.” I could barely hear her. “He tried to explain, he begged, apologized and I … I ignored him. I walked away!” The last part was shouted as she lifted her head from my shoulder.