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Me, too. So much.
Endelle’s voice cut through their telepathic conversation. “Okay, you two, knock it off. We have things to discuss.”
Leto released Grace and set her on her feet.
Grace, however, turned toward Fiona. “Thank you,” she said earnestly. “Thank you, for all that you’ve done to be able to work with me as you have just now. We would have died otherwise. Fiona, how will I ever repay you?”
Fiona shook her head, and her cheeks turned a rosy hue. “I don’t feel like I did anything except lend a hand.”
Grace laughed. How like Fiona to diminish her contribution.
But Endelle was tapping a stiletto. “All right, Grace, enough with the chitchat. Where’s the Geneva bastard, and what do you think I should do about him?”
The entire group fell silent.
Leto couldn’t believe his ears. Endelle asking advice of anyone? Especially of Grace?
“Uh,” Grace murmured.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. You did good, and so I’m asking, what do we do next?”
Grace blinked a couple of times, then turned to Marguerite. “I think this might be a job for your Seer skills. My intuition is yelling at me that we fire up obsidian flame and use the power this time to look into the future streams.”
Fiona seconded the plan, and the three women moved together at once.
Leto could feel the surface changes that Grace experienced, the flow of vibrating power over her body. Beyond that, he watched and waited.
The women looked peaceful with their eyes closed as they worked through the process.
He also felt the moment the triad completed what they’d set out to do because the soft rumbling vibrations disappeared, flowing back into the earth.
Leto turned to Grace. Her eyes were wide as she met Marguerite’s gaze then Fiona’s.
“All right,” Endelle said. “Cut the suspense. What are we up against?”
Marguerite moved to stand beside Thorne. She took his hand and held on hard. “First, Stannett isn’t blocking the future streams anymore. He’s just not there. I think he might be gone, as in dead.”
Silence held the room for a moment, then Endelle said, almost somberly, “Well, thank the Creator for small favors. So, what did you see?”
“Greaves is preparing to attack the hidden colonies, all of them, in about fifteen minutes. He succeeded in mapping every single one so he knows where they’re located. In the vision, he’s using his own power to sequentially torch the colonies, after which he intends to fold his death vampires to each location to attack the colonists. It’s very organized.”
Leto struggled to breathe. He had always known it was a likelihood that Greaves would go after the colonies, but now that the moment had come, he felt sick in his gut. The logistics seemed impossible. How could they get enough Militia Warriors to each site at this late hour?
He was ready to contact Seriffe and to start issuing orders to gather the necessary squads at Apache Junction Two, but Grace put her hand on his arm. “Hold on, Leto. I think this might be something obsidian flame can help with. Marguerite has already seen what we need to do. We’re to set up as a triad in Diallo’s courtyard so that we can be as close to the mossy mist as possible.”
“What exactly are you going to do?” he asked.
“I’m not sure, but once we engage as a triad I have no doubt we’ll know what needs to be done.” She turned to her brother. “And, Thorne, it appears you will have a larger role in the process as well. Just wanted to give you a heads-up.”
At that, Thorne smiled. “If it means saving the colonies, my pleasure.”
Circles are the ultimate perfection.
—Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth
Chapter 19
Greaves felt the future flow toward him like a dark wave, foreboding but exciting. Stannett was gone, so he had no one at the helm at the Illinois Seers palace to block his next moves. His only shot was to act quickly.
He contacted the war room at Estrella and had his generals ready to initiate the attack on the colonies once he was assured that he could burn all the mossy mist away.
Grace and Leto had somehow made their escape. He still wasn’t sure how, except that suddenly a miraculous healing had occurred. Even then he should have been able to blast them all to hell, but they just disappeared and he had no idea how they’d gotten past the shroud he’d created.
Unless of course obsidian flame was involved in a way he still didn’t understand.
He thought about folding back to Estrella, but the location within the Seattle Colony served his purposes better and he could monitor the results of his efforts right away.
He sustained the shroud over the cabin, settled back in his chair, and redirected his hand-blast energy. With great care, he began gathering kinetic energy; in a few minutes he’d be able to ignite the moss-based mist of the Seattle Colony. He’d worked out the sequence, and once he fired this special hand-blast, the burning would ignite all the colonies, one after the other, in quick succession.
He had only a couple of minutes, and then this part of his plan would unfold.
* * *
Grace stood on Diallo’s patio, her hand tucked into Leto’s. He was still in his beast-form, and she loved it. He kept looking down at her from his increased height, looking into her eyes as she looked back.
The world was new, different, better, brighter, even though she still wasn’t sure what had happened between them.
I love you, she sent.
I love your hand in mine, the beats of your heart, your smile, your infinite worth.
Love flowed from Leto now as it never had before. She could feel it, a warm, almost liquid sensation of caring and belonging. That was the difference—or at least one of them, since she felt changed as well.
Whatever strange shields had existed before now lay flat, dissolved, obliterated.
He leaned down and kissed her, apparently still not caring that everyone gaped at either his size or his affection for her. When he drew back, he whispered, “I love you so much.”
Her heart expanded, and she sighed.
“I love you, too.”
“Grace,” Thorne called softly.
She could hardly tear her gaze from Leto. She blinked and turned. He put his hand on her shoulder, the expression in his eye tender. “Marguerite has had a second vision about the colonies. It’s time.”
She nodded, but she wasn’t sure she could feel her feet. As she relinquished Leto’s hand and turned toward her obsidian flame sisters, though, she felt her power vibrate deep in the earth and once more rush up her legs and into her being.
