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I knew as well as she did that that wasn’t her name at all, but at least I
had something to call her now.
“And what is it that brings you all out here?” she asked.
Her empath skills could help her read our feelings and emotions, enough to convince her we weren’t on Gavriel’s side, but they obviously couldn’t fill in the exact details of what the hell we were doing tromping around in the deadly wilderness of the underworld.
Glancing around, I shared a look with the guys, silently asking how we should proceed. Jayce shrugged and gave a half-nod. Xero pursed his lips and shook his head slightly. Kingston frowned. Kai smiled in a smug sort of way.
Awesome. So helpful, guys.
I decided to give her part of the truth and see if she could help us. Nothing about her seemed overtly threatening, and her interrogation of us earlier had revealed as much about her as it had about us. She might not think much of the Custodians, but she hated and feared Gavriel as much as all of us did.
“We’re looking for Temple Stones of the First Order,” I said.
Vee’s spine stiffened. She narrowed her eyes at me. “And what would you possibly use those for?”
“Do you know where we could find them?” Xero leaned forward, shifting in his seat next to me.
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No. I won’t be involved in this. Whether they’ve been mined or are raw, those stones are property of Gavriel alone, and he protects them fiercely. If I tell you where to find them, I might as well stake my own head.”
Xero winced, which told me that those words meant exactly what they sounded like.
“I understand your position,” Kai said coolly. “But your name would never enter into this. Or your location, for that matter. You’ve made sure of that, since we know neither your true name nor our current location. No one would know that we’ve been here at all.”
Her black gaze flitted back and forth across our faces. I could almost feel the tension vibrating off of her. She shook her head, and for the first time since I’d woken and seen her face, I caught true panic in her expression. A fear so deeply ingrained in her that it’d become part of her DNA.
“No. No.” She shook her head emphatically. “They’ll catch you and cut you open. You’ve eaten my food. They’ll trace it back here, then I’ll be no better off than you are.”
“We won’t get caught,” I assured her. “We could even stay here, eating our own provisions, until there isn’t a trace left of yours. Just to be safe.”
Jayce looked at me in horror. I patted his hand. It wasn’t going to happen, but I knew a pragmatic soul when I saw one. She needed the contingencies accounted for if we had any hope of getting her help at all.
“But you’ll know where you are when you leave,” she argued. “Under torture, you could lead them back to me.”
“I lived here for decades before I escaped to earth,” Xero told her. “I went through the whole breaking cycle and came out of it clean. I’ve trained with my friends, who have all been taught to do the same. We won’t give you up.”
I fought the urge to look at him. We hadn’t had any such class, though in retrospect we probably should have. Or maybe that’s what all that love and light centering bullshit had been about. I really needed to start paying more attention in class.
“Also,” I added, knowing that it was a lot to ask for her to trust in us. “You could blindfold us or magically blind us and lead us out of here. Or—” I hesitated and shuddered. God, please don’t pick option number C. “You could always put us back in the bubbles.”
She looked pleased at that idea, and I squeezed Jayce and Xero’s hands hard. I desperately did not want to go back in there, but if it would give us what we needed, it would be worth it. I hoped.
“How many do you need?” she asked.
“Twenty-four in all,” I answered.
Her jaw fell open. “Twenty-four?! What are you trying to move, a mountain?”
Kingston and Xero both shot me warning looks, but I knew it was time to give a little to get a little. Despite our reassurances, I couldn’t deny that she’d be taking a massive risk if she agreed to help us. And although she seemed to have no love for the Custodians, I could only hope her dislike of Gavriel trumped those feelings.
“Fallen University,” I told her. “The Custodian training school. One of Gavriel’s minions sabotaged it, untethering it from earth and sending it back here. Now the Custodians are working blind, and their supply of new recruits has been cut off.”
A new kind of understanding lit her eyes. Then she closed them with a long, controlled sigh. “I see.”
I cocked my head. “I think you do. I think you see more than we do, actually. Do you know why this specific attack happened? What’s Gavriel planning? Why did he want his minion to move our school?”
She rubbed a hand over her face and bit one long red claw between her glistening teeth. “Pointing you in the right direction is one thing. Speaking out against the dark lord—that’s an act of treason. A declaration of war.”
