by Lisa Beeson
I can fix that.
Landing right in front of him, she picked him up by his neck with one hand and slammed him up against the trunk of the tree. He was still taller and larger than she was, but she was strong enough to lift him with her sifting strength.
Still, he said nothing and did not raise a hand against her. All the one-sided crap was completely unfulfilling and only made her angrier.
“Fight back!” She slammed him again in aggravation, then punched him square in the face with her other hand, feeling a satisfying crunch.
He sifted so fast that she lost her grip on his throat and felt herself thrown back against the trunk of another large tree. The impact left her stunned, having knocked the air from her lungs.
He stood back, keeping some distance between them as he wiped at the blood dripping from his broken nose. Seemingly, more irritated that blood had gotten on his shirt than the fact that his nose was broken. A swollen crook in the bridge of his nose now marred his once perfect face.
Good.
“Are you done?” he asked before spitting out some blood, finally deigning to speak to her.
Ari shook her head as she took a second to catch her breath, staring at him with the promise of more violence. She pushed herself up. Leaning her back against the tree, she feigned cool insouciance to cover the fact that her weakening muscles needed the support. The oppressive humid heat of the jungle was swiftly becoming unbearable and making it harder to breath.
His sharp eyes took her in, reading imperceptible clues that anyone else would easily miss. He sifted close and his hand was on her forehead, searching her eyes.
“Don’t touch me!” She pushed him away and sifted over to lean against a large rock jutting up from the ground.
“You’ve started your transition,” he stated, sounding like an accusation.
“You knew,” she panted, refusing to let him control the conversation and throwing back an accusation of her own. “You knew we shared blood and said nothing the whole damn time.”
“Of course I knew,” he said in his infuriating unflappable tone. “I knew the first time I saw you back in Savannah.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything? At literally any point?” she grated out. “I was lost and alone and searching for answers. Does family mean nothing to you?”
He tensed. His eyes bored into hers like an auger into wood. “It didn’t make any bloody sense,” he growled, then paused to regain his control. “How could a young Daizan child, disguised as a human, carry my bloodline? It was impossible.”
She could tell he was holding something back. Her mind flashed to the look in Vrahnon’s eyes back at the temple, and the hateful jeers of the crowd in that market square.
“In other words, you couldn’t understand how such an abomination could possibly be related to you…? So you rejected it and pushed it away as some kind of fluke.”
“At first, yes,” he admitted.
Too weak to attack him again, Ari let out her hurt and outrage with a sharp bitter laugh.
“But then I realized–”
“…what I could do for you,” Ari finished helpfully.
He closed his eyes with a sigh of patience. “…that whatever the connection, you were still of my blood. And that was all that mattered.”
“But you left,” she said, fighting the emotion rising in her throat to choke her. “I needed you. And you left in the night without a word… like a coward.”
“I left to hunt down and destroy the bloody bastards that dared to harm what was mine.” A fire burned behind his eyes. A fire she had only seen when he had talked of Sanriel’s death. “And I did. I severed all their ties, cut off all their financial means, and shut down every auxiliary unit. Did you know that they were bribing governments to make it legal for them to collect and test citizens DNA? They were going to use it to search for more Progeny and figure out ways to sterilize the undesirables?”
Ari dared not look at him as her disgust and horror warred with her righteous rage.
“My men and I put an end to that. We saved this bloody world from a deranged mad man. And this,” he said motioning around them, “is all that’s left of Anaximander and his Cause, and soon it will all be ash.”
Kael and his men were the terrorists targeting Anaximander… It explained why Cam and Myles had teamed up with him, and why Myles had said they were on the same side. But it didn’t change the fact that Kael cared more about punishing the people who had wronged him than he did about her.
“And once this place is ash, your vendetta will be fulfilled and you’ll be free to go,” Ari said with fatalistic resignation. The fight in her was draining away with her waning endurance. This had been a mistake and a colossal waste of time and energy. Kael was who he was and she would never be able to change that. He would never be what she wished him to be. She had to accept it and move on. Lesson learned.
She felt the pull of his stones coming from one of his pockets. If he wanted to go, then she would let him go. Taking the blue stone out from beneath her shirt, she held it firmly in her hand. Concentrating, she focused her will on coaxing the molecules back to their original state, mending the cracks and restoring it to its former capabilities. Once she felt the stone become whole and warm once more, she tore it from the chain and tossed it at Kael’s feet. “There,” she said. “Take it and leave. I’ll finish things up with the Cause on my own. There’s nothing left for you here.”
He looked down at the stone at his feet then back at her, his eyes narrowed.
“Go on. It’s the last one you needed, right? I know that there’s a gate here. Just take it and go back to Esharet. My promise to the Xjaamin is fulfilled. We’re done. Good luck taking down Consul Prai on your own.”
Pushing off the large stone, Ari headed towards the path leading back up to the top of the plateau, forcing her legs to keep moving instead of buckling beneath her.
Kael sifted close and grabbed her arm. “What are you talking about? I never told you Manok’s full name. And what do you mean Consul Prai? Tell me what you know.”
Ari yanked her arm from his grasp and continued towards the path. If she had the energy to sift the rest of the way, she would have.
“Speak to me!” he demanded. “What do you remember?”
Ari continued to walk, even though her head throbbed painfully with each step. She had to end the Cause and get back to Absolem before she deteriorated any further. Kael had everything he needed to get back to Anu on his own. Her conscious was clear.
“Who’s the coward now?” Kael called after her.
Ari stopped.
Against her better judgement, she turned back around to see the challenge in his glare.
Focusing-in her vision, she saw that he had left the blue stone on the ground where she had tossed it. She was genuinely surprised that he hadn’t already snatched it up. It pissed her off as well. That stone meant a lot to her and it had been hard to give it up. It had cost her a lot of precious energy to fix it, which she hadn’t even known that she was capable of doing. How dare he be disinterested in it now!
Dammit, Kael! Can’t you do anything I want you to do!
“Cam said that you started getting your memories back after the accident.” He took a few tentative steps towards her, as if she were a skittish animal. “What do you remember?”
She looked him straight in the eyes and said, “I remember everything.” Then turning back around, she continued towards the path.
With a grunt of frustration, Kael sifted in front of her, blocking her way.
Ari stopped short to keep from walking into him, but she kept her gaze straight ahead, looking through him, instead of up at his glowering face.
“Tell me what you remember.” His voice was low and strained, as if he was having trouble controlling rising anger and frustration.
Ari refused to be intimidated by him anymore.
“Why should I be completely open and honest with you when you have never been completely h
onest with me?” she said, still staring straight ahead.
She felt him let go of his anger and frustration as he had taught her how to – letting it slip away so his mind could think more clearly. Then he put his finger under her chin to raise her gaze up to meet his. It took everything she had not to break that finger, and she wasn’t quite sure why she was bothering.
“Please. Tell me how we’re related.”
The “please” nearly undid her. She’d never seen him humble himself like that for anyone before, but she held her resolve. He didn’t deserve to know. He did not deserve Oan.
“No.”
Using the last bit of her strength, she sifted for a fraction of a second to pivot around him, and then slowed to continue on her way. Immediately, a pincer of pain and dizziness gripped her head as she staggered on rubbery legs. The ground listed like the deck of a ship at sea.
Digging in her pocket, she took one of the cubes from the beaded pouch and shoved it into her mouth. Justifying to herself that she had pushed herself too hard, and she needed another one or she would collapse on the spot. She could not be weak right now. Pushing away the guilt, Ari vowed to be wiser and more judicious from now on.
The cube melted on her tongue, and immediately the pain dissipated away and her limbs became strong and nimble once more.
“Fine.” She heard Kael say behind her. “You want me to be honest? I’ll be honest.”
Oh boy, here we go…
Kael sifted in front of her again, his burning eyes searing into hers. “You want to know the real reason your existence made no bloody sense to me, and I resented and rejected the hell out of it?”
“Yes,” Ari said with more courage than she was truly feeling, preparing herself for the cruel and brutal truth.
“Nearly seventy years after I lost everything and was banished to this primitive bloody planet… seventy years after rage and grief hollowed me out and tempered me into what I am today… a Daizan child appears out of nowhere with my blood running through her veins and a dead woman’s eyes.
“Every time I looked at you, it was Sanriel’s eyes staring back at me – judging me, resenting me, disappointed and wanting me to be more than what I am.
“I was broken when I arrived here. Nothing mattered except getting back home so I could exact my revenge. Everything I did was working towards that end. And I was this close to reaching my goal,” he pinched his fingers together, leaving the barest space between them, “when you showed up.” He let his hand fall. “…a brilliant, generous, and resilient child, who had more power than she could handle. You wheedled your way into a heart I thought was long dead, and breathed new life into it. And my life became more than just revenge, it was to guide and protect you.” He paused to take a bracing breath. “Then when I thought I lost you… drenched in your blood and holding your broken body in my arms…” his eyes darted to her scars and robotic leg, then darted away. “I have never felt fear like that before… It was like losing her all over again. Everything I held dear was torn away from my grasp once more. I had let it happen again.”
The impenetrable formidable exterior he had built around himself, was breaking away to reveal a vulnerability that was almost too much for Ari to bear.
“I felt myself in that dark place of rage and revenge again. But this time I could actually do something about it. I could crush the bloody bastards so they could never be a threat again.
“So once I was sure you were healed and safe with Cam, I went after the threat… Not knowing I had left you in their very hands. I was angry. I was rash. I made a costly mistake.”
His eyes shined as his guard completely crumbled away, and Ari was able to feel the magnitude of his pain. It stole the air from her lungs as she read everything he had held back from her – his love for her, his worry, confusion, and will to be better even though he knew that he was lacking.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I’m sorry I couldn’t be what you needed or wanted. But please… please tell me…,” his voice choked. “How do you have her eyes…?”
Ari watched an errant tear escape to slide down into his beard, as everything she thought she knew about him crumbled to dust. She had to swallow her own bitter pill of humility and admit that she had been wrong – that she had been too blinded by her own hurt and pride to see things clearly. People do what they must to survive, each of us in our own way. From his perspective, every time he had opened his heart to someone, it had been ripped from his chest. Who was she to keep his son from him?
“I have my father’s eyes…,” she said, meeting his gaze. “He inherited them from his mother.”
Kael fell to his knees.
“I … have a son…”
Ari nodded, kneeling down in front of him. “You are my grandfather, Lothan Kael.”
Joy, anger, and heartache fought for dominance in his heart. His and Sanriel’s child had survived, but he had missed his son’s precious, fleeting childhood.
Eventually his eyes cleared as he took her in once more, finally seeing her for what she truly was to him. Finally knowing what a gift he had in front of him. He gently held her face in his hands. “My granddaughter… my girl…” He brought her into a fierce embrace, fully accepting her as his own.
“I’m so sorry,” he said into her ear.
“I’m sorry too,” she admitted.
“But how…?” he asked drawing back, reluctant to hope for the impossible. “Manok sent people to fetch her remains and return them to Esharet. They forced me to look at them. She was little more than ash, but it was her,” his voice was hollow and his eyes distant.
“It would be too hard to explain,” Ari said. “I don’t know everything, but I can show you what I was told…”
He hesitated for only a moment, preparing himself. Then he nodded.
Ari connected their xjaasai, beginning with a memory from the Inbetween. Back when her parents had told her the story of their meeting and her eventual existence. She showed him how Absolem had been guiding their family’s fates for generations.
She shared with him flashes of her childhood on Nann. Then the attack on the temple, her and Vrahnon’s trek to the market, and all that had happened in the square. She showed it all. For not only did they share kinship, they shared a common enemy. Consul Manok Prai.
Lastly, she showed him what happened to her after she left Scion’s Keep – the Shades, the Xjaamin Garden, and everything she had learned about herself. If anyone would understand, it would be him. Secrets and distrust would not mar their relationship anymore.
As she shared, she couldn’t keep herself from assessing his injuries and healing them before she broke the connection. Not only had his nose been broken, but there had been a large contusion that spread across his chest from the double-fisted blow she had given him, and abrasions across his back from everything else she had done. He hadn’t said a thing. He let her keep beating on him because he knew she needed to fight against something, and he knew that he could take it.
Once Ari broke the connection, she sat back, letting him ruminate over all she had shared with him and what it all meant. She felt him fighting to control his anger and hatred for the man who had wronged his family in so many ways. And the pain he felt for everything she’d had to endure in her short life.
After a moment, Kael was able to separate himself from emotion to focus on a strategy of action.
His eyes speared hers with awareness. “How much time do we have?”
“Not much,” Ari said with a clinical honesty. She knew she didn’t have the restraint to stop using her powers. “I have to get back to Emuria to find Absolem as soon as possible.”
His mind, a finely tuned weapon, perceived everything that the information she had given him signified, and was already thinking of ways to accomplish what needed to be done.
Ari smiled, finally feeling a bit of confidence that things might turn out all right, and relief that it wasn’t all on her. There was nothing better than truly having
Lothan Kael on your side.
His hand went to the smooth bridge of his nose and then to his chest. His eyes narrowed on her. “Did you heal me?”
Ari’s smile widened and she nodded; amused that it had taken him this long to notice.
In a blur of movement, he sifted away and back. Taking out a black velvet pouch from a pocket on his right leg, he opened it to place the blue one inside, his eyes widening at the glowing brilliance of all the stones shining up from the mouth of the pouch. She didn’t even have to be touching them anymore, just her nearness brought them to life.
“Come,” he said, helping her up and then placing a quick kiss on her head. “We have much to plan.”
Chapter 26
As a means to conserve her energy, Ari and Kael used the time it took to trek back up the plateau to plan what to do once they reached Esharet.
Walking into the hangar, they found a crowd towards the back whooping and cheering something on. Roche was leaning against the side of a Blackhawk, a cigarette sticking out of the corner of his dark grin. The grin held no mirth in it, not even petty glee, only danger. He was not the kind of guy you wanted to meet in a dark alley.
“What is going on?” Kael’s thundering voice cut through the noise like a harbinger of doom.
The men stilled as Roche flinched and quickly staggered to attention, while tossing the cigarette on the ground and grinding it with his boot. “The men are just letting off some steam, sir,” Roche answered, with more respect and deference than she had yet seen in him. “Randall has fully defected to our side and wanted to confront his cousin about the ship explosion. We didn’t see any harm in it.”
Kael’s eyes cut over to the crowd, who immediately parted to reveal Randall standing next to Gregory tied to a chair. Randall looked visually shaken by Kael’s presence, but he stood his ground, panting and knuckles bloody. Gregory’s head was hanging forward as bloody saliva leaked from his mouth. The right side of his face was covered in angry welts and already starting to swell and discolor.
“They tried to kill me,” Randall explained, his nostrils flaring. “My own family…,” he looked over at Gregory in disgust. “They knew I was on that ship and they blew it up anyway.” He kicked Gregory’s shin, causing him to grunt out in pain.
