The glow built. Blue imagined she could see the struggle, the dark and the light, jockeying for the upper hand. The other crystals pulsed, their lights fading and growing in no pattern that she could see. Then, with a flare that caused her to duck and cover her eyes, they steadied. Gradually, the glow of the circled plinar faded to what it had been, Brika’s matching—a clear purple.
Garfield rubbed over her shins, and a thought reached her. The pack is safe.
Then came an image of a piquet batting a pretty purple crystal across the floor and pouncing, only to do it again.
Blue glared down at the cub. “Are you insane? No.”
“Who talking to?” Felix’s arms tightened on her, and she blushed.
“Ummm... would you believe the cat?”
A strident yowl.
“Okay, not a cat. The piquet.”
Felix chuckled as something landed on him, pushing him into her. Vivi. The other cub peered over his shoulder and down at Blue. She let out a squeaking purr, then let go, bounding over to Forrest, who knelt on the floor next to Phillip. Or what had been Phillip.
Blue tapped Felix’s arms, signaling for him to let her go, and this time he listened. She approached Forrest, who leaned over and pulled the blade from Phillip’s neck. Staring at it, he swallowed, and his fingers tightened on the grip.
“Forrest—”
“Not yet Blue. Not yet.”
She stroked a hand down his arm, then pulled the blade away. “Okay. Not yet. But I think it’s over. Well, this part of it. Lead me out? I don’t want to be in here anymore, and I’ll need to be blindfolded at some point, I’m sure.”
“Are you humoring me?”
“Maybe a little.”
“Oh. Well, that’s fine, then.” He looked over her shoulder toward where Brika lay. Brika, and now Phillip.
“He—”
“Please Blue. Not yet.”
“Right.”
The silence stretched out. “Let me just tell Mo’ata where we’re going,” Forrest said. He leaned over, kissed her temple, and strode off.
Blue took a breath and blew it out, the action slow and controlled. Trust he will ask when he needs to. Plus, it wasn’t as if she was really ready to talk about any of this either. Or think about what was next.
Forrest, with Felix and Jason behind him, returned. They wiggled through the opening, and Blue tied on the cloth, still in her pocket, that was her makeshift blindfold.
“I carry,” Felix said and picked her up. “No try walk on bad stone.”
“Uneven path,” Jason said.
And that was it. Felix carried her through the stone tunnels, her blindfold secure, until they were close enough to the entrance that daylight filtered through once more. Blue didn’t know how the others made it, didn’t ask how Forrest saw well enough or Jason didn’t trip. Didn’t ask how Felix could possibly know where to go and what to step over or around.
When they were close enough to the cave mouth that she could detect the light even through the cloth, she pulled it off. Felix paused, but when she said nothing, he kept her right where she was. When they exited into the valley, they settled beside their transport and waited.
In this, Blue was okay with waiting.
Chapter 21
BLUE
She cuddled back into Mo’ata. Her feet were propped up on the low couch, a fluffy blanket was draped over her lap, and Garfield purred close by. Her ring was back on her finger, sparkling up at her. It had been a relief to slip it back on; she’d had to remove it the morning after the ceremony for fear of Phillip seeing it and being triggered. A muscular chest rose and fell in steady breaths beneath her back, and motes of dust swirled in the beams of light filtering through the high windows of her sitting room.
Yeah, she had her own sitting room, which was a little
over the top, but now that she was an official guest of the Alliance and not just the Prizzoli, someone had decided she needed an upgrade in accommodations. Not that she minded.
The best part, though? She got her cuddles back. The suite included three bedrooms with connecting doors, and she hadn’t spent a single night alone. Most of the time was spent simply cuddling or in Blue and her guys reassuring themselves that all was well. Even if she went to bed alone, she rarely woke that way.
Felix, Trevon, and Jason were just down the hall sharing a suite of their own. Even though they could have left, they’d decided to stick around. As Trevon put it, the Alliance officials could be real bastards, and none of them would have dreamed of leaving her to deal with them on her own.
Her gaze slid to where her comm lay on a side table, silent. She’d sent Levi a message yesterday, letting him know that she would be leaving in two days. One now. He hadn’t replied.
“Do not worry, shopa. He would not let you leave without saying goodbye.” Mo’ata’s hand smoothed over her arm and down to her hand, fingers linking with hers. “There is much to arrange in Lianka with the sacrifice of the Chief Elder.”
That was their story. Guard Brini had agreed, and the truth would hurt more than help. Phillip had been more cunning than any knew and coerced Blue into going with him, threatening the lives of her friends. Levi had joined them, knowing someone needed to be working from the inside. Spencer, Forrest’s guard, was also keeping his mouth shut, saying only that they had received a message to take Jason and Forrest into custody and that Dimo had gone too far, causing the cubs to react to protect Forrest. Blue had seen Forrest talking with him soon after they’d arrived back at the village. Whatever they had said, the guard seemed satisfied, if not content.
Then, while in the crystal cave, the Chief Elder had chosen to sacrifice herself—with Blue’s help to draw the plinar in—recognizing that Blue would not be strong enough. Thus she had saved her people.
It was wrong, so wrong, and part of Blue wanted to shout to all the worlds that the monster had been their own leader, that they’d been tricked, manipulated. That in the end Phillip had redeemed himself, to a degree. She recognized the need for a different tale, though, and held her silence.
The Prizzoli were slowly finding their equilibrium. Elder Ivan, who Blue had not met, was chosen to advance and become Chief Elder, leaving his name behind. The rotation of the troops had started again, with the Forank relieving the Kalder. The guards had also rotated, the old ones moving to Muor and fresh ones coming in from Fimai, to the south.
Life, as they said, went on. And none of the Prizzoli knew, really knew, how close they had come to being ruled by a true evil.
Blue herself was ready to put it all behind her. She had left Earth to build a life on Karran, and she was ready to do just that. Tomorrow she would return to Tremmir. She would start her studies at the Academy and learn to control the portals. She would figure out this new life. And as Mo’ata had once said, when she knew the language and when she could hold her own in a fight, maybe then…
That was a while off, though, and she had two slightly more immediate worries. One she would make sure was addressed soon—if not today, then certainly once they were back on Karran. The other…
She sat up and reached for her comm.
“Blue…”
“I know, I know. I just… he should have answered by now, right?” She didn’t know what she would do when she saw Levi next. This was his home, he had duties, and his people needed him right now. But… “I’m going to miss him,” she told Mo’ata.
He rubbed her back. “I will miss him as well. He—” A sigh. “I had begun to think of him as family. It will be strange to not have him with us.”
“We could ask him to come.” Before she could second-guess herself, she typed out the message and sent it. A horrible thought struck her. What if he no longer had the comm? What if he wasn’t getting any of her messages?
All she could do was wait.
Mo’ata stood. “Come. Forrest is taking the cubs on a walk around the embassy. We should join them.”
Blue pushed to her feet and got her boo
ts on. Leaving their rooms, they encountered Felix just leaving his as well. He fell in with them as they searched.
“We comm to Forrest?” Felix finally said after they had wandered nearly the entirety of the lower floor.
“Now where would be the fun in doing it the easy way?” Blue teased.
Felix grinned at her and pushed open another door. This one led to a hallway with three more doors off of it. The one at the end was made partially of glass and looked out on a small garden.
“Outside?” she asked.
“Probably,” Mo’ata replied, and they set off once more.
Pushing open the door, she breathed in the clean air, scented with something almost like grapes. Pink flowers bloomed in even rows, and well-tended trees sported thick green leaves. She wound through them, more wandering for the sake of wandering than looking for Forrest or the cubs at this point.
This was what she had missed; this was what she had needed—the freedom, the space, to explore and discover something new, even if it was just a simple garden on a strange world. “This is nice.” She glanced over her shoulder, catching first Mo’ata’s hazel gaze, then Felix’s green. “Not having to worry if one false move will be the end of the universe.” She ran a hand over the bark of a tree, rough under her fingertips. “Think anyone will ever know the whole truth? What we did?”
“What did we do?” Forrest stepped out from behind another tree. Vivi crept along a branch overhead.
Garfield leapt from behind a bush, pouncing on Felix’s boots, and the mercenary let out a deep laugh, reminding her of the first time she’d met him. He looked… happy. They all did. The situation with Phillip was over, and they had accomplished something amazing.
They had accomplished something amazing because Phillip had found a piece of selflessness inside himself.
Blue looked at Forrest and the shadows from the swaying tree branches danced over his face. “He had a choice, there at the end.”
Forrest stiffened, his face going blank. He had avoided this conversation, but she was going to push the issue. It was the other thing that needed addressing. If he pushed back, she would let it go, but she couldn’t let this sit. No one had asked her what had happened when she collapsed. No one else really needed to know anything other than the fact that Shardon was contained and she’d made it out.
But Forrest needed to know this.
“He could have let me do it,” she continued. “He could have let me make the sacrifice. It was what Brika expected. Even Shardon assumed it would be me. Phillip could have let me be the one used and left—he had the opening. He could have healed his throat wound, escaped, and continued on in some way. He could have left me in there. He didn’t.” She closed the distance between them and reached up to stroke his cheek. “He did a good thing, there at the end. Phi did a good thing.”
Forrest was silent, staring at her. He licked his lips, then reached up, taking her hand in his. “It makes it worse, in a way. Should I have been able to save him too? From the crystal? From himself?”
Blue looked away and swallowed. “Like, maybe he could have been redeemed?”
“Yeah.”
She watched the cubs playing with Felix and Mo’ata for a moment. It was so normal. The last month of her life had been a crazy whirlwind of escapades, danger, and intrigue. “He told me something as he pushed me out and back to myself. He said, ‘Tell Fo I’m sorry. For everything.’ For a moment I’d thought he meant sacrificing me. But that didn’t make sense, and then I was waking up.”
Forrest remained silent, and Blue let him have his time.
Vivi twisted away from Felix, then leapt again. Garfield tackled his sister, rolling over and over until they fetched up against a tree. Mo’ata ran toward them, then leapt, evading little reaching paws.
A pack. That was how Garfield saw them. A family.
“It couldn’t have ended any other way, could it?” Forrest’s soft words pulled her attention back to him.
“Well, it could have, but I don’t think I would have liked it.” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. That had sounded bad.
“No, I don’t think I would have liked it either.” Forrest laughed, though it was wry. “Phillip finally cleaned up one of his own messes.”
She relaxed. “Too bad we never made him give us a penny that we could have redeemed.”
“What he did... I don’t think he would have taken the penny back. I mean, I don’t think he would have let us redeem it.” Forrest reached out and took her hand, threading his fingers through hers. “I think...” He let out another laugh, this one softer and filled with sadness. “I think he would have seen this as winning. A real ‘look what I did; I protected her, not you’ kind of moment. I don’t know what happens after this life—”
“But how much do you want to bet that Phi and Derrick are off somewhere bragging about how they were the ones to save me.” She grinned even as her throat tightened. It was a nice thought.
He gave her a sharp look. “You’re not guilting yourself over this, are you?”
She snorted, and the threat of tears retreated. “No. I thought I would… but no. I feel like—” She cut off, seeking the correct words. “I feel like I’m finally ready to get started.”
LEVI
Levi pulled a small roll of paper from where he had hidden it on his trip home to brief the Elder Council after he’d recovered the other crystals. He’d had to set out again the next day, returning to Mo’ata and Felix and his search for Phillip, but he’d wanted this safe.
He unrolled it. The paper curled back in on itself, and he eventually laid it out on the table top, holding the corners down with what he could find: his dagger, a stone, and a small carving that Felix had given him of the hoppers. The items framed the simple and stark lines of the drawing in a way that was strangely appropriate.
Blue looked out at him, her features depicted in charcoal.
Forrest had captured her amazingly well. She wasn’t quite smiling, but the tilt of her head and the amusement captured in her eyes told him that she would at any moment. It was a look he’d seen her wear many times, both amused and exasperated, like she was telling whomever she looked at to “lighten up” while admonishing them to cease their delays and begin the next venture.
He traced a finger along her jaw, for a moment wishing she were before him and it was her skin he touched instead of paper.
He had a choice to make. Not whether he was going to protect Blue and fight for her freedom. No, he had a choice to make about himself, about his own future, and about his own freedom.
What did he want his life to be?
He stood, his eyes lingering on the image stretched out before him. There was such life captured there. It was a life he wanted to be a part of. A selfish want, maybe, but he’d served his people well his entire life.
And maybe the elders were correct. Maybe he’d been corrupted in his months away from home. Things were settling again for the Prizzoli. But he wasn’t. It wasn’t that the other guards distrusted him, though an underlying sentiment to that effect lingered. It wasn’t that he had turned against his people, despite his actions in getting Blue away from the village.
He moved away from the table and sat on his mattress, yanking off first one boot and then the other, placing them in their spot at the foot of the bed. Next he removed his belt, wrapping the leather and golden silk together into a tight bundle. This went in its spot on a small stand to the right of his pillow.
He smoothed his hand over the rough weave of his blanket, a brown to match the walls, pulled tight across the bed and tucked in with neatly folded corners. The barracks were unlike the rest of the village. They were regulated, controlled, and... dull. Lying back, he didn’t bother to finish undressing or to get under the covers. His eyes slid closed, but he didn’t sleep.
What had Blue said about deciding to come back to Karran? That she knew she wouldn’t be happy unless she at least tried, that she would always wonder.
<
br /> Levi was afraid he would always wonder as well.
BLUE
The next morning they gathered in the transportation hall in the Ministry branch attached to the embassy. Bags and packs and boxes piled around them.
Blue had received two messages the evening before, neither from Levi. The first was from Dean Gravin, informing her that he looked forward to meeting with her to set up a schedule of classes tailored to her needs—reading, remedial language, and technology classes. The second was from Dorani Faust, conveying her delight that Blue’s “situation” had been resolved and inviting her to visit once she was settled in and had the time.
And life continues. I wanted to get on with it, didn’t I? Blue had to laugh at herself. Maybe we could get on with a vacation?
Mo’ata had arranged for them to stay at the same inn from her first time in Tremmir, at least until they could find a place that was a reasonable distance from both the Academy and the university and would take pets and house a quorin. Beast had not been pleased at being left behind. He would probably storm his way through the streets of the capital if they tried again.
The door whooshed open, and a new figure stood there. With dark skin and light eyes, dressed in dark armor, he should have been intimidating. Instead, hesitation pinched his face, and he hovered on the threshold.
The knuckles and tendons of his left hand stood out as he gripped the handles of his pack. In his right was a dark leather case. He nodded once and strode forward.
“I am so mad at you right now,” Blue hissed at Mo’ata, who was stacking yet another box onto the pile.
He glanced up as Levi approached. “I did not know if he would accept. He was offered a place with the Order.” A smile grew until it was the wide, beautiful one she loved. “I am glad he did.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Was I wrong? You were so worried. I did not want to get your hopes up.”
For a Pixie in Blue (The Adventures of Blue Faust Book 4) Page 22