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“I’m joining the team. Maybe it’s not my first choice because I do know what kind of life I want to live. But apparently, I’m not meant to have what I desire just yet, maybe not until the war is over.” When the leader of the colony, Diallo, and his wife, Mei-Amadi appeared in the backyard calling for her, she added, “And I definitely can’t continue jeopardizing my neighbors like this.”
“No, I guess not. But, Rachel, I’m really sorry about your house. Hell, I’m sorry about everything.”
“Me, too.” She forced herself not to think too much about the loss, at least not right now. She’d break down, otherwise. She needed to stay focused on the reality that she was being hunted by a madwoman.
When Mei-Amadi kept calling for her, Rachel asked Duncan, “Hey, can you fold us some clothes from your Paradise Valley home? Mine just got blown up and all I would need from you is one of your t-shirts since it will hang to my knees.”
“You got it.”
Barely a minute later and dressed in one of Duncan’s black t-shirts, Rachel released her shield and called to Mei-Amadi. She had a lot of explaining to do to the woman who’d never quite accepted her presence in the colony. But she’d also be leaving Mortal Earth for a long time, maybe even forever.
~ ~ ~
In a state of shock, Yolanthe stood near her pearl-colored chaise lounge, in the cream-and-rust marble of her living room.
The impossible had just happened: Duncan had broken her mind-link, something he shouldn’t have been able to do. And that act alone confirmed her belief Duncan had always been the key to finding Rapture’s Edge. He had so much power, more than he knew.
The game wasn’t over, however. She was a woman of great ability and power and the mind-link had been just the first expression of her will in this situation. She would get Duncan back or if she couldn’t, then the Second Earth bastard would die for having used her so badly.
After all, she’d offered herself to Duncan. All she possessed would have belonged to him, including her body and maybe even her heart. But he’d rejected her.
The fourth son of Chustaffus, Yolanthe’s younger brother and the son their father had thought long dead, paced slowly in his awkward gate. He moved back and forth, his deformed wings in need of yet another reduction, his distress clear. “What do you plan to do, Sister?”
His voice had a childish sound, even though he was nearly nine-hundred-years old, ten years younger than herself. He was the last child her mother gave birth to before Chustaffus had her killed.
Yolanthe had stolen the baby with the mangled wings and bribed the slave to say he was dead. Yolanthe still paid for the slave’s silence. She would have killed the woman outright, but then Chustaffus might have suspected Yolanthe’s treasonous act.
Her father hated anything deformed.
Zander wasn’t just a brother to Yolanthe. Because she’d reared him, even though she’d been a child herself, she felt as though Zander was her son. And she would do anything for him.
When she and Zander finally had the location of Rapture’s Edge they would go together and tell Chustaffus of their shared venture and success. Then Chustaffus would embrace his malformed son, and finally appreciate them both as having value in his life.
“What do I plan to do? I was going to ask you the same thing. Have you had a vision yet about their next move?” Zander had a powerful connection to the future. He was the one who had seen Duncan in a vision, not Yolanthe.
“A very brief one, involving the team Warrior Luken has built.”
“I suppose Merl will be part of the squad.”
“He’s always been faithful to you, Sister.”
“As faithful as a viper.”
“And now,” Zander said, smiling, “Will you tell me at last whether you intend to kill Merl’s sister or not?”
Yolanthe waved a hand. “He will always require proof-of-life to keep going so for now, the woman stays alive.”
“I suppose she must.”
“Just keep encouraging your visions, because I suspect Duncan is coming for me.”
“And that was always the chance you took in pursuing him.”
“I know, and you did warn me. But he’s still worth the risk.”
“Yes, but now he knows where you live.”
Yolanthe laughed. “But I would love to see him try to get anywhere near Mexico City Three and he just a Second ascender.”
