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She nodded as though his explanation made perfect sense. Oh, hell, since he was from Sixth, he could probably appear in the guise of a troll or an asteroid if he wanted to. But right now she had one f**king question he’d better answer. “Who the hell has held up my ascension? I should be in Fourth by now, at the very least. Maybe even Fifth. Why have I been stuck in this God-forsaken, shit-eating dimension for all these millennia?”
That smile appeared again, the one that looked both bemused and pleased as hell. “I have a message for you from Braulio.”
She couldn’t have heard right. Braulio was the most powerful Warrior of the Blood ever to battle on Second Earth. He was a legend in his time and she had seen him die, struck down, sliced up by a death vampire. That had been five thousand years ago and Endelle had killed the vampire afterward, but Braulio was still dead.
“You need to get your facts straight, Shorty. Braulio died. I watched him die.”
James shook his head but didn’t say anything.
“You’re telling me he’s alive?”
“Yes.”
At that, her knees gave way and she fell straight down, not onto the chaise-longue, but straight on her ass on the cold marble floor. “He’s dead. That bastard is dead. I saw him die.” Shit, her eyes grew stinging hot.
“He’s not dead.” James ground his teeth.
“I watched him die.” If there’d ever been a man for her, he’d been the one. But when he’d died, she’d given up the hope that Second Earth could ever hold any joy for her, any real pleasure. She’d wised up, then she’d toughened up. But Braulio alive? Shit. Her head wagged back and forth.
“Luchianne pulled him into Third and healed him. It was against the rules but she did it anyway. She’s only done it one other time … for me. So I know what I’m talking about.”
She remained sitting on the floor, the marble cold through her linen gown. “Sweet Jesus, Braulio alive.” She didn’t want to think about him, not about him. He was the finest warrior who had ever lived and she’d grieved his death thousands of years ago. If she could admit the truth to herself, there was a small slice of her heart that still hurt. So, yeah, shit!
She stared at James for a long hard moment. “Let’s say I believe you. What the hell is this message he has for me?”
“Here it is, word for word. Hang in there … I’m coming.”
“What the hell does that mean, I’m coming? You mean like the second coming of Christ?” She laughed at her joke, but James’s blue eyes looked serious as hell.
“He’s coming back for you.”
“When? When the f**k when?”
“Near the time that Alison assembles her team and opens the pathway to the third dimension, he’s coming back for you.”
She’d been right, the second coming of Christ. She laughed, and yeah, her voice sounded bitter.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, but she didn’t f**king believe him. You didn’t get to be nine thousand years old without understanding a lot about life and all this dimensional shit. Politics had always been, would always be, the order of the day—who could gain as much power as possible first so he, or sometimes she, could piss on everyone else. When Owen Stannett had stood in her office a few days ago and made his little speech about “taking it deep,” she knew exactly what he meant. She might hate the bastard, but she sure as hell understood something of what he’d endured over the centuries.
So f**k her but she was just a little f**king skeptical.
“Whatever, Shorty.” She used a little old-fashioned levitation to gain her feet since there was nothing pretty about trying to create leverage with a stiletto.
She planted her hands on her hips and stared down at James again. “No disrespect intended, but I’ll believe the whole Braulio thing when I see him. Right now we have other fish-ass to fry. When Alison first told me about you and … him”—she jerked her thumb at Leto—“I thought maybe we were going to see some real action, get some real help. Hah. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but according to the future streams we’ve got one assfucking coming any minute now and I ain’t got the troops to pull off a win here. Then there’s this whole thing about Alison leading a charge into the third dimension and right now she’s turned into the pregnant-bitch-from-hell. You read history much? When has a pregnant woman ever been fit to beat down the gates of Hades?”
The expression that overcame James’s face made her frown. She didn’t understand what she was seeing. His light blue eyes seemed full of clouds. He smiled but it wasn’t a smile. He looked lit up with a thousand lightning strikes. She almost thought she was looking at some bizarre version of … affection … but that was just stupid. He also didn’t look like he was going to give an answer to what was for her a really serious question.
What-the-fuck-ever.
The clouds disappeared and the blue of James’s eyes returned, but he shifted his gaze downward to the marble floor at his feet. He blinked several times. His attention seemed focused elsewhere. Maybe he was thinking or maybe someone from Sixth was shouting into his head. She’d like to shout. She’d like to shout at this Council he referred to until she was as hoarse as a nymph servicing Zeus himself.
Finally, he met her gaze again. “I can’t give you a definitive answer. What I can tell you is that the Seers of Sixth still predict that Alison opens the pathway to Third—but other futures, darker possibilities, have been predicted as well. This is a delicate time in the history of the dimensional worlds, and the hour of fulfillment draws near. You must be careful, Madame Endelle. I beg above all things that you will be careful. Some of our Seers have also foreseen the demise of Second Earth, a fall to the Commander that will last longer than a hundred thousand years.”
She leaned forward. “Then help us, goddammit! Give us what we need to get rid of this bastard forever!”
She felt the heat in her face. If she felt even a little more than she did right now, she was certain she would pop some blood vessels in her eyes.
James appeared to grow an inch or two, or maybe he was just lifting up on his heels. His nostrils flared. “Don’t think for a moment I haven’t considered it, not just for Second but for Third as well. The Council, for all its preternatural power, is weak, ineffectual. They can move mountains but they will not help the human soul.”
