by Nina Croft
“Some sort of explosive device, I think. Though I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“She was going to blow up my fucking ship? The little bitch.”
“No. I don’t think she planned to blow her up, just delay her a little.” He waved at the primitive explosive device. “I’m guessing this would have gone off before I got back, probably destroying the evidence. But the damage would have been fixable. Given a little time.”
“Time for what?”
Saffira to get back from the planet? But certainly not long enough to “save her people” whatever the hell that involved.
“I’m guessing time enough for her to get back here. We wouldn’t have known it was her.”
She must have planned this before she left Earth. Hell, she could have been planning it for the last five hundred years. She’d certainly had time to come up with a scheme.
“Well, it’s failed. Hasn’t it? I’m presuming you can stop that thing?”
“Yeah, easy.” He hunkered down, detached the timer from the device, and pulled it gently free from where she’d taped it beneath the console. He handed it to Tannis. “I’d dump this in space—we have no clue what it can do.”
“I will. But what are you going to do?”
“What I planned to do anyway. I’m going after her.”
Tannis shook her head. “Nothing has changed. We’re still leaving. In fact, I’m more determined than ever. This place is bad and the sooner we get out of here, the sooner I’ll feel safe.”
“I know.”
“Well, if you change your mind, you’ve got an hour and twenty minutes—don’t wait until it’s too late.”
“I won’t.”
But he suspected they both knew he wouldn’t be coming back.
Chapter Twenty
Considering it was her first time, she reckoned she handled the shuttle well. Though it wasn’t difficult and it was good to have something to concentrate on. As the Blood Hunter grew smaller in the viewers, she tried not to think of what she was leaving behind.
A movement at the side of the ship caught her attention, and she focused on it. Another of the shuttles returning. Too early to be Devlin, though maybe he’d finished sooner than he thought and was running back to her. Only to find her gone.
Well, if everything went well, she’d see him again soon. Though she doubted he’d want anything to do with her then. Except maybe kill her.
She’d hardly be the idealistic heroine of her people.
But that wasn’t who she was anymore.
When the first explosion went off, would he realize it was her?
Did it matter?
By sheer force of will, she blanked him from her mind and concentrated on what she had to do next. She wanted to see Thorne again. One last time. She was walking away from her destiny and he would hate her for that. Thorne had always protected her, looked after her, but over the years she’d come to see that it had never been personal—he’d been protecting the prophecy, not her. He’d been closer than a father to her, the only “family” she had, yet he’d never told her he loved her. No one had.
Jesus, she was turning into a miserable bitch.
But the truth was, Thorne had always been about saving their people. She was the means to do that. All the same, being this close, she had to see him one last time.
She landed the shuttle within the hollow mountain of the Keep and sat for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she unfastened the harness, pushed herself to her feet, and headed out.
As the door slid open, the shuttle was flooded with the spicy, heady, drug-saturated scent of the place. She breathed the air into her lungs, felt the drug seep into her system, travel along her veins. Closing her eyes, her mind filled with a vision of Devlin. I love you. Had he really said those words? Or rather would he at some point in the future? She doubted it. But then, she’d come to doubt her visions of the future. Only the past was set.
She blinked a couple of times and swayed, balancing herself in the metal doorway. Another vision took hold of her. For a second, she fought it, then her lashes fluttered closed, and she let it take her. She was watching a ship fly away, a strange ship she’d never seen before, vanishing into a wormhole. Leaving her behind. She was always getting left behind. But this time, she wasn’t alone. She turned her head so she could see who stood at her side…
“Saffira?”
A voice spoke directly in front of her and she jumped. Her lids flew open, dragging her from the vision.
Thorne stood before her, his eyes filled with wonder. “Saffira, I thought I’d never see you again.” He closed the space between them and she was in his arms. His were wrapped around her tightly, pulling her closer so she was plastered against him. After five hundred years, he still felt familiar. Had her memories played her false?
She’d persuaded herself that they had all used her, but she could feel the emotion pouring from him.
Why couldn’t things be as she’d thought? Why was everyone determined to turn her memories against her? Thorne didn’t care for her. She swallowed down her emotions. It didn’t matter. They would be all right without her. Or at least as all right as they would be if she stayed.
Thorne must have sensed something. He pulled back and held her by the shoulders as he stared down into her face. “What is it?”
She shook her head. “I’m just a little overwhelmed. It’s been a long time.”
He frowned. “Five days.”
“Try five hundred years.” Of course, he couldn’t know how she had returned. Maybe he believed she had found a way back through the wormhole. “Well, five hundred years awake and another thousand sleeping like an Old One. I left Earth on the Trakis One. The crew of the Blood Hunter found me and woke me.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it. And I escaped from the Blood Hunter.”
“They were holding you prisoner?”
“Not really a prisoner, but they wouldn’t let me return to the planet.”
“Why not?”
“They won’t risk coming near the place, not after what you did to them last time.”
“I promised not to do it again,” he said with a wry smile.
“Well, somehow I don’t think they trust you. Or me.”
“And Devlin?”
“Devlin?” She sounded wary but couldn’t help herself. She didn’t want to think of Devlin right now.
“He was devastated when we left you on Earth. And presumably he woke you on the Trakis One—he didn’t have to.”
“Yes. But he still wants his revenge more than he wants me. And I have things I must do here.” Well, that was the truth anyway.
His brows drew together as he studied her. No doubt taking in the differences. He reached out a hand and put it under her chin, raising her face so he could look into her eyes. “You’ve changed.”
“I know. But not in any way that matters.”
He looked a moment longer, his head cocked to one side as he considered her. “No, the changes matter, but we’ll worry about them later. Come and tell me what needs to be done.”
He led her down the ramp and into the main cavern. As she stepped onto the sand, a shrill scream tore the air around them. Thorne looked up but kept moving. “It’s Medina, she’s fine, just having the baby, but everything is going well.”
Shock filled her. “I’d forgotten.” How could she forget? Medina had been like a mother to her.
Thorne glanced at her. “You’ll forget a lot in five hundred years.”
“You’ve lived ten thousand, have you forgotten?”
“It’s different for me. I’ve been here all that time among people who are part of those memories. You’ve been alone. I imagine it was easier to forget many things.”
“Maybe.”
She followed him out of the main cavern, down one of the winding tunnels cut into the mountain. Soon they left the screams behind, and some of the tension seeped from her. Finally, he led her into one of the smalle
r meeting rooms and gestured toward the couch. She sank onto it and he took a seat opposite, steepled his fingers, and rested his chin while he studied her some more.
She really wished he would stop.
“What do you need to do?” he said.
“I have to get to the Circle of Change.”
A wariness entered his eyes. “That will be difficult.”
“I know, but it’s important.”
“Why?”
She took a deep breath. “I had a vision—it was incomplete—my ability to see time faded as the years went by—but I was at the Circle.” That much was true. That final vision had been what had made her realize what she needed to do. What she wanted to do. “And I saw something, something vitally important, something that’s needed to save our people. I have to go there, and it has to be now. We’re running out of time.”
“So you go to the Circle and what then?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I just know that I have to be there.”
He nodded slowly. “And what can I do to help? I can come with you.”
“No. The wardens will sense you straightaway. Alone, I’ll be able to slip past them.”
“It will be dangerous.”
“I’ll be fine. This is meant to be.” She had to get out of there. Maybe it had been a mistake coming to see Thorne, but she hadn’t been able to resist seeing him one last time.
Guilt was a solid lump in her belly as she made her way back to the shuttle. When she’d planned this, she’d never thought she would feel guilt. She’d saved mankind—without her they wouldn’t have even been here, they would have been destroyed in whatever catastrophe had overwhelmed the Earth.
And to do that, she’d been alone for five hundred years, running, hiding, never trusting anyone. This was her due. Her reward.
But every step was hard. She couldn’t give up now. This was her dream. The dream that had sustained her all those centuries alone. Thorne walked beside her, silent now. At the bottom of the ramp, he halted, and she came to a stop beside him.
She wanted to leave, get out of there before she broke down, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. Drawing her to him, he held her close. “I love you,” he said. “Whatever happens, whatever the future brings, remember you have been a daughter to me, and I will love you whatever you were, whatever you are, whatever you become.”
His words shook her to the core, pain and regret flooding her heart.
“Go now,” he said.
She climbed the ramp without conscious thought. Each footstep automated. He spoke again as she reached the top. “You were never told the full prophecy.”
She turned and stared down at him. “I wasn’t? Why?”
“Because the full prophecy stated that you would betray us. We thought it best you didn’t know that part.”
Her mind reeled. Would he stop her? “So why tell me now?”
“It was time.” He gave her a faint smile. “Now go do what you need to.”
Her legs shook as she took the last few steps, and the doors slid shut behind her. She forced her mind to blankness as she readied the shuttle for takeoff.
The viewer showed Thorne standing on the sand, then he whirled around and disappeared. The shuttle rose into the air. Keeping her mind blank, she flew over the planet that had been her home for such a short portion of her life. After about ten minutes, she recognized the mountains surrounding the Circle of Change and settled the shuttle down outside the ring.
He’d said he loved her.
Why now?
And why had they never told her the full prophecy? That she would betray them? Would it have made any difference if she’d known?
Maybe. In fact, probably. She’d been so idealistic. How would that idealism have fared in the face of the fact that she would betray them all? Perhaps this was meant to be, after all.
Did that make her feel better or worse?
She sat and stared up into the sky as she built up her courage to continue. What would she find in there? Thorne had never spoken of the time he’d been here for the Change. She wasn’t sure whether that was some sort of unspoken rule or whether he just didn’t want to relive the experience.
Was it painful?
She rose to her feet and brushed the sand from her black leather pants. Time to go.
Time to make her dreams come true.
…
Devlin honed in on the shuttle’s signal. She wasn’t moving and he searched the land below for a sign of her. Finally, he spotted the shuttle on the ground close to the spot where the Blood Hunter had first landed, and they’d been attacked. Where he had first met Saffira. She’d saved them that day—he had no doubt about it. It seemed a lifetime ago. Hard to believe it had only been a couple of weeks. Well, for him, anyway.
He could see no sign of life around the shuttle but his readings told him there was a life form on board. He landed close by, shut off the engines, and sat for a minute wondering what he would say.
He unfastened his harness and got to his feet. Outside, he stood for a moment. Nothing moved in the lifeless landscape.
He headed across to her shuttle. What was she doing here? Why had she come only to hide away as valuable time passed? It was already too late to get back to the Blood Hunter. But she wouldn’t know that. She would think her little explosion had incapacitated them. So why wasn’t she busy doing whatever she had come here to do?
The door remained closed, and he pressed his palm to the panel, half expecting the vessel to be reconfigured and ignore him, but it slid open, and he stepped inside.
A high-pitched bark assaulted his ears, and a small white dog raced toward him. It was Saffira’s, the animal she’d had in her cryo-unit with her. And it didn’t seem to like him—probably didn’t like cats. He crouched down but the dog backed away. He straightened and looked around the shuttle.
It was obvious she wasn’t here and he swore softly.
Outside again, he searched the soft sand and, at last, found the slight imprint of a boot. It appeared as though she was heading inside the circle of mountains. He followed and found himself in a valley between two of the small peaks. There was only one direction to go. A sense of urgency woke inside him and he broke into a run, sprinting through the narrow passage, only slowing when it opened into the wide basin at the center.
Off to the right was where Callum had taken Tannis to get the Meridian treatment, or whatever it was they called it here.
And he knew then what she was doing.
Somewhere in the last five hundred years, she’d decided she wanted immortality. That was why she had needed to get back to the planet, so she could come here.
Could he blame her?
Why hadn’t she told him? Didn’t she trust him? Of course she didn’t. Why would she? She hardly knew him.
He needed to find her. He wasn’t sure what for—maybe to tell her he understood. As he raced across the open space, he searched the rock face for an opening.
Finally, he came to a narrow fissure just wide enough for a man to slide into sideways. He squeezed himself through and found himself in a narrow passage that headed slightly downward. The air was warm and saturated with a strange, spicy scent that he recognized from the Keep. He forced himself onward. At first, light filtered through from the opening behind him, but that soon faded, leaving him in total darkness.
He pushed himself on, ignoring the nagging doubt that maybe he was wrong; she wasn’t here after all, and he was merely heading farther and farther beneath the mountain. So far that he would never come out. The weight pressed down on him from above and into him from all sides, until he wanted to twist around and get out of there into the open air. The pressure was relentless, the air so heavy that his lungs burned with the need for oxygen. He almost gave up and turned back, then up ahead a faint light glowed. Violet, like Callum’s eyes.
He pushed on, and the light grew. Finally, the tunnel widened, and he walked more easily until it broadened further into
a huge cavern. A violet mound glowed in the center, the source of the light, and beside it stood Saffira. She had her back to him, her head bowed, her slender figure tense.
“Saffira?”
She whirled around and stared at him. Her eyes glowed violet, inhuman. Around her arm twined some sort of growth but, as he stared, it unraveled and dropped to the floor, shriveling to ashes.
“Devlin, be careful. They’re—”
Red-hot pain surged up his arm. He stared down and found something had attached to his wrist. He had a second to look around and see that the chamber was full of the things, like headless snakes, blind but seeking, reaching out from the walls and the floor, hanging from the ceiling. One was coiled around his forearm, and shafts of agony pulsed up his arms, through his spine, flooding his brain.
He threw back his head and screamed. His knees buckled and he crashed to the floor as his brain burst into a burning conflagration. Deep violet filled his eyes, dimming the flames, and a thousand voices screamed in pain.
He had a last thought of Saffira and wished he’d told her he loved her. Wished he hadn’t been such a coward. Now she would never know. Because he was dying.
He had to be dying. No one could survive this.
Finally, mercifully, the darkness took him.
Chapter Twenty-One
Oh God, there was nothing she could do to help him.
Devlin lay writhing on the ground. His back arched and a scream tore from his throat. Finally, he slumped down onto the sand and lay unconscious.
He looked dead, his skin pale and eerie in the violet light. She stared at him until she made out the slight rise and fall of his chest, then the breath left her in a sigh.
It had affected her less, or rather differently. Maybe because it hadn’t come as a surprise. She’d welcomed the change, embraced it, and the joining had been like warmth suffusing her body and mind, swelling inside her.
Like coming home.
Devlin had looked like he was burning up, like that poor woman they had burned alive on Earth. She’d made herself watch other burnings, as a lesson in what would happen to her if she wasn’t vigilant. Even after all these centuries, she still heard the screams in her mind.