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She would have been damning him to a fiery death. Leah wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if that had happened.
“It’s Quillon’s best-kept secret. I couldn’t reveal it to you when I felt you were hiding something,” he said, sounding just as guilty as she’d felt.
Honestly? Leah understood. She wasn’t expecting him to trust her at the drop of a hat, and spill everything. She hadn’t.
But this was huge news. Like-altering news.
Leah already knew she didn’t want to leave Taryn–but who would take care of Nana? Yes, she had the doctors and the nurses and apparently had guards at her door now, but no amount of playing Bridge with her hospital friends could make up for Leah’s absence.
Perhaps if Nana came to Quillon? But could she survive the trip? Could Leah make a commute between Quillon and Earth every few weeks? But the one-way trip lasted two months.
It was a serious situation, which needed serious consideration to solve.
One thing she knew for sure–she was glad he told her about the Blaze. Now she had all the information she needed to formulate a plan.
“The question is…” Taryn began, his deep voice snapping her out of the whirlwind of thoughts and fears she’d fallen into. “How did Flint know?”
“Maybe your brother told him,” she said.
Taryn had asked her about the Zavorian, but Leah hadn’t learned his name. She’d described him as best she could, and Taryn still wasn’t one hundred percent sure which of his relatives had tried to intimidate her.
“Then…how did the Zavorians know?” he asked, the question lingering in the air. “I need to talk to Zandyr.”
“And I need some fresh air.” Because universe knew she had a lot to think about.
They exchanged one last glance before they both got out of bed. Leah borrowed–fine, stole, because she wasn’t giving it up, ever–one of his plush tunics, and wandered outside into the long hallway, as Taryn’s invisible bracelet flickered into view.
The stillness leading up to the garden did nothing to calm her mind.
Whichever way she turned the issue in her head, someone had to suffer. If Taryn was in danger because of the Blaze, that meant she couldn’t leave him alone for long, right?
But she also couldn’t leave Nana to spend the rest of her days in loneliness.
By the time she reached the garden, she still didn’t have an answer. The hidden paradise was much calmer than usual. No sounds, no swaying, no dancing vines. Quillon’s twin moons reflected up above, their light creeping in through the crevice.
Hold up.
Chills raced down her spine.
What was that vine hanging from the edge of the ceiling hole?
It wasn’t a vine.
It was a ladder.
Before Leah could run or shout, someone grabbed her from behind, the barrel of a laser pressed firmly against her temples.
“Scream, and you die.”
26
TARYN
“The Zavorians know,” he said to Zandyr’s hologram, which was passing right in front of him. “And they want to use it.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” the Ambassador said, sounding uncharacteristically rattled. “But your family is giving me a headache.”
“Imagine what this is doing to me.”
