“She’s been Maxis’ slave since she was eight,” Ramsay said. “Considering how jumpy she was when we found her, I hope to histus she’s a lot different.”
Ian shook his head and drilled them each with a serious look. “No, it’s not that. She’s not just calmer now, she’s…curious.” He tapped his thumb in an absent, steady rhythm. “Kind of like a toddler who’s figured out how powerful their fingers and thumbs are and sets out to use ’em everywhere…even where they shouldn’t.”
Ramsay relaxed back into the couch. “I’ll talk to Eryx. See if we should—”
“Leave her alone.” Ludan steepled his fingers. A contemplative pose for those who didn’t know better, but the whites of his eyes burned neon vivid around his already bright blue eyes. That signaled one thing and one thing only for men of Shantos and Forte lineage: time to defuse the situation before earth, fire, water, and air all clashed in a cataclysmic event.
The study door opened.
“I cannot fucking believe it.” Lexi stormed in, her cheeks a mottled red. A testy breeze that shouldn’t exist in an enclosed space swept in behind her.
Eryx ambled in afterward and flicked his hand toward the door, shutting it with a thought. He gripped her shoulder. “Rein it in, hellcat.”
Calm words delivered casually, but the tension in Eryx’s shoulders made it obvious he wasn’t too far behind his baineann in the pissed off department.
“They give the verdict?” Ramsay asked.
“Oh, they gave it all right.” Lexi paced to the tall window at the back of the room and scowled at the packed streets. “Idiots.”
“Reluctant accomplice.” Eryx stalked to the sidebar and uncorked the strasse. “The council totally fell for her shit, but even more than that, they’re relieved she took out Maxis. They confiscated the assets that passed to her on Maxis’ death, and ordered probation for the next five years, her first year under house arrest with supervised excursions. If she violates probation, she’ll be stripped of her powers and banned to Evad.”
Jagger perched on the edge of the conference table, hands curled around the edge. “Histus, if that’s the case we need to celebrate. Five years of probation? For Serena? She’ll never make it.”
Wes and Troy, both in at-ease stances behind Jagger and trying to look inconspicuous in the middle of the drama, chuckled.
“When’s the verdict coming out?” Ian asked.
Lexi gave up her view of the crowds and rested one hip on the sofa. “Five more minutes. The ellan are on their way back now. They want this over with so they can get straight to this afternoon’s session.”
Ian whipped his head to face her. “Another one?”
“Status update on how our sideshow in Evad is playing out.” Eryx strolled toward his mate.
Sideshow meaning the public display of Myren powers in Evad when Maxis tried to swipe a bunch of humans to fill his slave farm. Also conveniently the night Serena drove a dagger through his heart.
“We’ve covered that with them already,” Ramsay said. “The only video that made it through you frying the electronics is too blurred to show anything meaningful. We give it time and the humans will move on to something else. Hell, the new Kardashians series starts in another week. It’ll be fine.”
“We can’t ignore this, Ramsay. The tenets were broken, and the prophecy has people primed for panic.” Eryx pulled Lexi in and kissed the top of her head. “If a regular report makes ’em feel better, then I’ve got no problem with keeping up surveillance and giving them a rundown every now and then.”
“Who’s the unlucky bastard doing surveillance?” Jagger asked.
“That would be me.” Ian crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in the chair with a shrug. “I don’t mind. Jilly’s curious about Evad, and it lets me get an Internet fix. I never thought I was much of an electronics junkie, but even an old man like me can get used to cell phones and Google.”
Easy laughter moved through the room, diffusing what remained of the tension. Ian seemed to have that effect on people. Probably a gift honed through his years as a cop dealing with unsavory assholes.
“We’ve got to get back.” Eryx stepped away and guided Lexi toward the door. “Ludan, do your mojo on Serena’s memories as soon as she’s released. Ramsay, I want detailed recon on Maxis’ properties. The sooner we uncover his secrets and disassemble his infrastructure the better.”
Fuck. Probably the right course of action where the Rebellion was concerned, but a kink in his plans for digging deep about Little Miss Sunshine. If Trinity worked a straight Monday through Friday shift, then he only had about five more hours to catch her before she left for the weekend, and patience was a pain in his ass.
Eryx glowered at Wes and Troy. “Get the word out. Any person suspected of participation in Rebellion activities will be brought in and tried. Those willing to come forward of their own volition to share what they know will be considered for special dispensation. Otherwise, they’ll be marked a threat to the race.”
Eryx opened the door, and Ludan and Jagger filed out in front of him and Lexi.
“Eryx.” Ramsay shoved from the couch and followed his brother into the hall. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”
From the main hall, voices filtered down the dark corridor, their two somos already standing sentry at the exit.
Eryx watched the ellan file past and let out a weary exhale. For a split second, the composed mask he held in place for the world slipped, fatigue weighting his features. “Yeah?”
Lexi laid her palm on his chest and nestled in the crook of his arm, as though she sought to bolster his strength through touch.
News of Trinity and her mysterious pendant shriveled on his tongue. Adding more to his brother’s plate would only make it worse, not to mention yank his new shalla around with the possibility she might have relatives. “Just thinking you two should probably take a little time away from the limelight for a few days. I can cover here, and you can get a change of scenery. Maybe head to Evad.”
Eryx squeezed Ramsay’s shoulder and started down the hallway, Lexi at his side. “Another week or two and I’m gonna take you up on that. Assuming no more flaming piles of shit get tossed in our direction.” He waved over one shoulder without looking back. “In the meantime, handle Maxis’ estate.”
Ramsay nodded, but it went unnoticed. The newlyweds were too close to register anyone else in their last few moments of privacy. They looked right together. Comfortable. And The Great One knew Eryx had worked his ass off to earn it. Tracking a woman you weren’t one hundred percent sure existed took huge amounts of patience, not to mention a little insanity.
Not his kind of gig. Relationships were messy. Cumbersome. Dangerous.
He shook his thoughts off and took two steps into Eryx’s private chambers where Wes and Troy waited. “You two with me.” He spun and headed down the corridor, his warriors’ heavy footfalls behind him. “We’ve got three hours to get squads put together and assigned out. Wes, you’re on point to lead everything at Maxis’ estate. Troy, you’re on the warrior camp.”
Wes piped up at his left. “Thought you were going to head this up?”
“I am heading it up. I’m just delegating the grunt work.” And freeing himself up for reconnaissance in a whole different arena.
They stepped out of the gray stone council foyer and into the bright Myren afternoon. Curious citizens spread out in a peaceful swath at least two blocks deep in all directions. Vendors made the most of the situation with their bright, covered carts.
“If we’re the grunts, what are you doing?” Troy asked at his right.
A heady, almost urgent impulse pounded his feet. “I’m going hunting.”
* * *
Trinity squeezed the steering wheel, focused on the pretty gold flowers fronting her mother’s tidy white house in lower Greenville, and replayed her new life mantra for the fifteenth time.
Show up. Listen. Speak your truth. Let go of the results
.
It was time to maintain her boundaries with her mother. Being kind didn’t mean she had to let her mom walk all over her or pummel her with negative crap about her life. She was a single woman out on her own now. No strings. No rules but her own.
Yeah, how’s all the positive jive workin’ for you?
Trinity puffed out an exasperated scoff at her mind’s negative jab and snatched her purse from the passenger seat. A healthy mental attitude took too much damned work.
After a click of her car alarm and a quick check left and right, she trudged across the street toward the homiest version of hell on earth. Her necklace lay heavy on her chest beneath her crewneck sweater set, but she checked the neckline to be sure it was hidden. God forbid her mother find out she was still wearing it.
Her fingers drifted higher, circling at the hollow of her neck as her heels clicked against the sidewalk. The memory of Ramsay’s touch last night was as sharp under the noonday sun as it had been when she’d finally drifted off to sleep last night. She still couldn’t decide if running had been the smartest or stupidest thing she’d ever done.
Probably smart. Questions, shrewd eyes, and her telltale warning tingle? The whole thing had danger danger written all over it.
Still, he’d been able to touch her.
She groaned and rang the doorbell. All this mental back and forth was exhausting.
The white painted door opened and rattled the old screen door.
A familiar woman with short dark hair and a kind smile pushed the screen door open, Trinity’s mom hovering behind her. “Trinity!”
Trinity scrambled to place the woman and, without thinking better of it, shook her outstretched hand to cover the awkward moment.
The world dropped away.
A tidy but sparse and aged study, the decor at least two decades old.
The woman in her mother’s doorway stood beside a man whose dark-haired head was bowed over a large desk.
“Please, don’t make me go there,” she said. “God forgive me, but she’s the most judgmental, sanctimonious person I think I’ve ever met.”
The dark-haired man looked up. “I need you, Lisa. You can reach her. Someone needs to. She’s making the rest of our parishioners nervous.”
Trinity dropped the woman’s hand and reality rushed to greet her.
“I’m Lisa O’Dell. My husband’s the minister at your mother’s church.”
That’s why she seemed familiar. Trinity had only been to her mother’s church-of-the-month a few times, much to Mom’s dismay. “That’s right. I remember now. It’s good to see you again.”
Lisa stepped out onto the stoop, making room for Trinity to pass through. “Such a nice daughter to come and spend a quiet lunch with your mother.”
Behind her, Trinity’s mother scoffed.
Lisa didn’t seem to notice. “Now remember what I said, Carol. I know you mean well, but the church is about tolerance and love. Take a few days to think it through, and if you feel you need someone to talk to, I’ll swing by for another chat.” Her words were sweet and her smile was locked in place, but she bee-lined it to the car before her mother could answer.
Trinity pulled the screen door closed and shut the main door behind it, blocking out the cheery noonday sun. The dreary room matched everything about her mother—thinning, dull blond hair with ample gray, and clothes in every shade of drab. “What was all that about?”
Silly to ask. After all these years with her mother, the routine seldom changed.
“I simply shared with the minister my concerns about the youth at church and their wanton behavior.” Her mother crossed her arms and frowned, the wrinkles around her mouth etched deep from years of scowling. “Evil must be stomped out before it can take root. The smallest amount of tolerance can lead to ruin for their souls.”
Trinity sat her purse aside and glided to the small kitchen. The scent of spice and bubbling cheese filled the room. Mexican chicken casserole if she had to guess. The thought of eating while sitting through one of her mother’s vile spiels made her queasy.
She pulled her old emotional armor tight. If those innocent children were sporting evil in her mother’s eyes, then Trinity was the devil himself. “Lisa’s right, Mom. Let their parents handle it and know that The Gr—God—will see to their needs.”
Carol opened her mouth to argue.
“So, anything else interesting going on at church?” Trinity grabbed plates from the old white cabinets and set the table. Her mother’s social life consisted of worship service, charity functions, meddling in the lives of churchgoers, and praying for her adopted daughter’s soul.
Her mother shuffled to the kitchen sink with the dated, cornflower blue Formica surrounding it, and washed her hands. “They’re holding a pot luck and a silent auction tomorrow night. I told them you’d be there after the library closes down.”
Show up. Listen. Speak your truth. Let go of the results.
“I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m working extra to get the hang of my new job.” Damn. Not the truth. Speak the truth. “And after a long day of good work, I want to go home and get my new place settled.”
“Well, that’s a little selfish, don’t you think?” She dried her hands on a faded green towel nearly as old as Trinity and leaned one hip on the counter. “You can unpack your things after church on Sunday. I’ll come help.”
Shit. At this rate, she’d have to speak her truth with a baseball bat to make an impact. “Mom, I appreciate the offer, but this is something I want to do, and I want to do it tomorrow after work. On my own.”
Carol dropped the casserole she’d pulled from the oven to the maple table with a clunk. “You’re awfully quick to distance yourself from me and the church. Ungrateful, if you ask me.”
Well, I didn’t ask you.
The television on the side table in the corner soundlessly streamed the midday news and the clock on the wall showed twelve-twenty. Twenty more minutes and she’d have an excuse to leave. “How’s your back feeling?”
“Hard to get around. I spent most of yesterday resting in bed, but doing a little better today.” She spooned enough casserole onto Trinity’s plate to feed a lumberjack. “Of course, if you’d been here, I never would have injured it in the first place.”
Twelve twenty-one. Note to self: seriously re-think visits to Mom and limit to no more than thirty minutes.
“A mother shouldn’t have to bribe her daughter with lunch to see her.”
“I offered to come, Mom. I wanted to check on you, find out how your back’s doing, and see if you needed anything done while I’m here.” More like ease her guilty, mother-fueled conscience for moving out in the first place. Boy, was that plan a bust.
“I don’t need anything from you, Trinity. I’m fully capable of taking care of myself.”
Ah, backhanded guilt. Awesome. Well played.
Carol’s gaze locked on the television. A frozen video clip stretched to cover the whole screen, a black Pegasus with its wings outstretched and ready for flight on a silver background. At least she thought it was a Pegasus. The detail was horrid. Beneath it the caption read, Clues Emerge in North Texas High School Phenomenon.
Without so much as a blink, her mom snatched the remote control and upped the sound.
“For nearly a month now, forensic video analysts have been combing through blurred images captured at what dozens of Friday night football spectators claimed was a preternatural combat in the North Texas High School parking lot. Government and military officials engaged in researching the footage when witnesses claimed that the fighters, all large in stature and comporting themselves in a way consistent with military training, cast either flame or electrical strikes from their palms.
“Today reports surfaced indicating that the image you see on your screen has been identified as a type of insignia on more than one of the men in question. Facial recognition is still unavailable, but authorities assure they will continue to identify and locate the men in question.”
>
The remote clattered from Carol’s hand to the kitchen table. “Devil’s work.” Face tight with fear, her gaze slid to Trinity.
Tingles started at the base of Trinity’s neck, cupping the back of her head like a specter’s hand. A roar filled her ears.
Bad news. Very, very bad news. That fanatic gleam in her mother’s eyes never boded well. Combined with Trinity’s built-in warning radar, she could only expect something close to emotional Armageddon.
Her mother’s lips firmed, her frail body nearly shaking with whatever fury was gaining speed beneath the surface. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”
Damn it. She should have expected this. “Mom, I’m just a girl. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Normal girls don’t see the future.”
“I don’t see the future.” Well, not yet anyway. Only if she caved to Kazan’s urgings and accepted her gifts.
“Then tell me how a seven-year-old girl can warn her father not to leave the house on the same day he gets killed.”
“It was a fluke, Mom.” Not that her warning had helped save David’s life. It was also the last time she’d ever opened her mouth to share such a feeling in front of her mother. “I just didn’t want him to go.”
“Devil’s work. I knew it then. I thought I could do my part to save your soul, but I was wrong.”
God, she was so tired of this. Maybe Kazan was right. Maybe she should accept her mother’s tenuous grip on reality and let her go. Carol had always been a little intense, even before David died in a car wreck. After that, it turned into something more. Something sick and scary. But she’d still cared for Trinity, despite her inability to touch.
The weatherman droned in the background, promising fall’s first cold front. Twelve thirty-two. Close enough to call lunch finished. She could fathom her next steps with her mother in the sane, controlled safety of work. “It’s time to get back to work. Do you need me to do anything before I leave?”
Carol shook her head, gaze aimed through the big window overlooking the small, plain backyard. “Go.” Her hands opened and closed over and over into tiny, nervous fists. “Get out and let me get on with what I need to do.”
Waking Eden (The Eden Series Book 3) Page 4