Earth

by Jaymin Eve

  “You scared me, Abbs.” Her tone was light, but the gold flashing across her sky-blue eyes spoke of how turbulent her emotions were. “Don’t do that again.”

  She was trembling.

  “I’m sorry,” I managed to gasp out.

  Breathing had to take priority over talking right then. Brace wasn’t hurting me, but his hold was firm – yeah, very firm.

  His grip loosened even more, and some of the red anger faded from his mind.

  “How did you know I needed you?” I asked Lucy.

  She hadn’t been on the main battlefield. She’d been with Colton and her mother, fighting on the other side of the field. Brace had kept tabs on them for me, so I’d known she was okay. But still …

  “She had a vision and took off before I could catch her pixie butt.” Colton crossed his arms across his chest, stretching out the well-worn, fitted shirt he wore. “I wouldn’t have stopped her from coming across; Lucy and Brace would be impossible to live with if you kicked the bucket, Red. But a heads-up would’ve been nice.”

  Lucy’s eyes narrowed, anger darkening her features. “You’re in my head, asshat. I was pretty sure you would catch up eventually. And we all know who’d cry the most if Abby died.” Her head swung around to me. “I would cry the most, but Colton would be a close second. He loves you like a sister.”

  Our light-hearted banter was helping Brace. The calm he usually possessed was filtering back through the bond, and I sensed some of his control returning.

  Colton growled. “You’re ruining my reputation as a hardass. I would not cry. I might sniffle a little, possibly even get choked up. But I would not cry.”

  I snorted. This conversation was ridiculous. “Well, don’t despair, you two, I haven’t fought the Seventine yet. You might still have the chance to find out who would be the saddest upon my demise.”

  Colton’s icy-blue eyes twinkled at me, and I couldn’t help but reach out with my one free arm and pull the big wolf-Walker and my pixie friend in for a hug. Of course, Brace was still wrapped around me, but none of them cared. Walkers were okay with dudes hugging, especially if there were two females in the midst. One big puppy hug.

  Lucy was sniffling again. “You will beat the Seventine, Abbs. I’ve yet to see a single thing you can’t do, and you never give up.”

  She wasn’t exactly right. I had given up a little with Que. It had taken more than a simple nudge to bring me back.

  Lucy must have read that in my expression. “You don’t give up in your heart. Of course you’re going to have moments of doubt and fear. Gods know, we’re all effing tired, so you must be almost dead. But if you’d truly given up, it would have taken more than a hard word from me and Brace to jolt you back. You did that all on your own.”

  “I love you, Luce.” I had to tell her right then. “I couldn’t have done this without you. None of it, from the first moment we stepped through Quarn’s portal into the royal forest.”

  “Love you more.”

  Brace finally released me; he still hadn’t said anything, but I sensed more than darkness in his mind now. When Que had me, when he was draining my life essence away, Brace had almost lost himself to that darkness. His animalistic side took over, and I think I was lucky that he returned to me so easily. There was some scary stuff going on in his head.

  Luckily I’d survived, and it was this fact alone which returned some of his light. It was well established that for Walkers their mates were the light in their lives. Kept the darkness at bay, caged the predator. I was genuinely worried for the worlds if Brace lost me.

  I opened my mouth to saying something reassuring to him, but before I could, he dropped his head and warm lips captured my own. The kiss was a little hard, brutal even – just enough heat to have me pressing myself closer to him. The desperation of this kiss said everything. I tasted his anger, fear and overwhelming love.

  I love you so much that it scares the shit out of me. He was finally talking. I’m not sure I can ever go through that again, almost losing you …

  He trailed off, and I knew that he was thinking about the Seventine. Heck, we both were. Que was child’s play compared to them. Our kiss deepened further and Brace’s emotions said everything else that his words hadn’t covered. I answered, hoping he’d sense my true regret at hurting him again. Even though I hadn’t been the one to touch Que, I’d put myself into the position which allowed the Walker to get his hands on me. So it was still my fault.

  Finally we pulled away. I didn’t want to. In fact I could have quite happily kissed Brace for the next few hours – or days. But this stolen moment was all we had. Everyone around us was trying to give us a semblance of privacy, which was near impossible in this crowd.

  With a sigh, I untangled myself and my eyes shifted across to where I’d left Que – yep, he was still in the same spot. No one had gone near him; no one even cared enough to check if he was dead. That’s what happens when you’re an asshole in life: no one gives a shit about you in death.

  Brace wrapped his arms around me again, as if he couldn’t stop touching me. Reassuring himself I was alive. Lucy and Colton stepped in closer too. Not to mention Cerberus, who towered over us and rested his huge heads on both boys’ shoulders. Again we were like a puppy pack all huddling together in love and comfort.

  A throat cleared behind us. “I hate to break up this bonding moment. Trust me, we’re all basking in the love-shine from your little pack, but I think we have a problem.” Fury had our attention now.

  She stood there, dirty and sweaty. Her clothes were torn, white hair tangled all over the place.

  Lucy had been right before: we were all tired and worn down. But no rest for the wicked, and it was now time to move on to the next disaster.

  The Crais half held out a hand, and it took Brace a moment but he did finally let me go to her. My place right then was with the half-Walkers.

  Fury’s hand was hot as I placed mine into it. Heat was her natural state, and when she used her element, her body temperature rose even hotter than Walkers’. I was just about to ask what our new problem was when a voice called out and halted us.

  “Abby!”

  I recognized the smooth tones, and as the beautiful male with his chocolate-colored skin dashed into view my heart started pitter-pattering harder. Whatever the Gai princeps was about to tell me could make or break us in this battle.

  “Jedi.” I released Fury to cross the distance toward him. “What did you find out?”

  He wasn’t out of breath, even though I knew the research tent was pretty far away. Dark eyes flashed as he quickly detailed his findings.

  “The ritual is the same, but so much more intense than we anticipated. I’m … I’m not sure you can all survive, but I can’t find any other way.”

  His brow was so furrowed his eyebrows had formed a single line.

  “I have every available Walker researching. There’s just no other solid theory on how we can imprison them. The originals tried many different ways to lock the Seventine away, and this ritual was the only one that worked. The sacrifice of power. The loss of the life-giving blood. It was a transference that basically sucked the Seventines’ energy into the prison and secured it to the wall.”

  “Sacrifice was the key,” I sort of murmured.

  Jedi nodded. “Another little obstacle is that the Seventine must be within the round room of the prison. Now that they’re corporeal, this closer proximity to the prison is required.”

  Awesome, that should be totally easy. I’ll just ask the first to come with me right now.

  He grinned at me. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not as impossible as it might seem. I’ve gathered some of the white energy stones. We can use them to form a barrier. If you trace the first into the round room, we’ll trap him inside the barrier. He’s the first. He’ll draw in the rest of his brothers. Their energy is linked strongly, and that’s an advantage to us in this situation.”

  “I just have to touch him long enough to
trace, right?” I double-checked the details.

  Every time we’d tried to engage against the Seventine they’d ended up with the upper hand.

  “I believe so,” Jedi said. He reached forward and grasped my forearm. “Good luck, Abby … and look after Sapha for me.”

  His depthless eyes flicked up over my shoulder, and I knew he was searching for the Dronish half. The bond between those two had sprung up fast and was quite mate-like. I doubted anything physical had happened between them yet. Sapha was not used to that sort of relationship. Jedi had his work cut out with her, but she was worth it and he knew that.

  His eyes touched on me one last time before he turned and exited in the same way he had arrived. Full sprint. He wouldn’t waste any time. He’d head straight into the cave and set up that energy cage.

  So now all I needed to do was find, touch and trace the first. Easy as.

  I crossed back to Fury, who was waiting for me. Her hands were on her hips and her foot was tapping, but she didn’t say anything.

  As we turned toward the royal forest, I noticed the half-Walkers were now standing in a line with their backs to us. The sacred guides at their sides. The girls and their animals were staring out across the field.

  A flickering of unease trickled down my spine. Then I felt the surge of power; it was distinct, and I recognized the energy. It was the first of the Seventine.

  Those bastards had finally decided to show their faces.

  Through the gaps in the five half-Walkers – who stood shoulder to shoulder – I could see shadows across the plains. I squinted and leaned forward. Why was my view so distorted? For some reason it was all shadowy out there, and I couldn’t find a spot to focus on. It wasn’t until Fury and I joined the line of girls, stepping in next to Delane and Lina, that I finally understood the problem.

  The Seventine were surrounded by a dome-like bubble, a bubble of shadow and smoke and wind. It was a weird kaleidoscope which both drew my attention and repelled it. I couldn’t focus my eyes and yet I couldn’t turn away either. I didn’t know what they looked like. There was no way to truly see their forms through the smoke.

  I somehow knew that this dramatic entrance was courtesy of the first. He’d be trying to create an unparalleled level of fear. Fear turned sane beings into crazies, and crazy people made mistakes. They were trying to throw us off before we even started to fight.

  I wondered if they had forgotten that we were from original power too, and we had our own shadow fighter. This didn’t scare me and, even though I wasn’t connected to the girls right then, I could tell by their hard expressions it didn’t scare them either.

  The rest of our army was another story. I could hear the whispers from close by, all the way back to the dark mountain. Fear was filtering through and, for some of them, it was too much to handle.

  Walker doorways opened and those of weaker disposition disappeared. Surprisingly enough, most of the pixies, faeries, sprites and First Worlders stayed. Most of the Walkers did also, and at least we knew who the weak were now. The princeps would take note. They could sense those that had deserted ship, and they would not forget. Honor was a badge you could rarely re-gild once it was tarnished.

  “I vote that we end their little shadowy drama show right now,” Eva said, her New York attitude shining through. “This sort of crap is for the theatre, not the battlefield.”

  “Word, sister.” Fury high-fived her, and Eva looked surprised by the Earth slang coming from the alien-like, red-skinned Crais half.

  I chuckled. “Lucy,” I said. There was no other explanation needed.

  “Yes, my awesomeness is catching,” I heard the pixie trill from where she stood a few yards behind us.

  “Join us together, Abby. We can blow away their little storm, no problem.” Delane interrupted our joking. Forcing us back on point.

  My tether sprung to life with barely a thought from me. It was almost developing a life of its own, and thankfully I didn’t feel as if some alien worm was living inside me. It was still me, just more connected to my subconscious thoughts and needs. Which saved a lot of time. At the last second, before the tether connected us, I realized that we weren’t touching our sacred animals. Holy crap. I tried to reel it back in, but it was too late.

  We connected.

  I rocked back on my feet at the sheer force of the energy. I had so much already rattling inside from Que. Thankfully, though, the original power was locked away in my filing cabinet. So I didn’t have to deal with that too.

  We didn’t black out this time, although it took a few moments for our equilibrium to right itself. For our bodies to adjust to the sheer force of energy blazing between us. But we did it. Somehow we were strong enough.

  The moment we had the power under control we moved, starting at a slow jog before we were all-out sprinting toward the Seventine. We had mentally agreed that there was no more time to hold back or hesitate. This was our chance. We needed to subdue them and get them into the cave. Jedi would be waiting for us. I knew he would be. Everything was prepared, and we would perform the ritual.

  The animal guides kept pace with us. Even if we no longer needed them to connect, we still needed them. Most of us had lost our weapons. Only Delane and Eva still held their precious stabby-objects. Those two slept with their blades, so they weren’t going to be letting them go easily.

  Our pace picked up as we dashed across the land toward the Seventine. My heart pounded so hard I could hear the rush of blood in my ears. I was afraid, but I was also angry. My sorrow about Francesca, the pain I knew my mother would be in, I wanted – no needed – to do something to take my mind from that. And fighting the Seventine was definitely the ticket.

  Although, I did take a second to be grateful that Josian and Lallielle had missed my ‘almost dying’ at the hands of Que. That was a stress no parent needed to live through.

  We were fast, moving as a single unit of seven girls and seven majestic animals. Brace and the others followed; my mate would always have my back. I also noticed that Dune, Ladre and Lucas had joined our small group. Looked like the other girls would be going into battle with their mates by their side.

  We might be the ones with the power to beat the Seventine, but our interconnected network of mates and family were important too.

  As we closed in Delane drew on our collective energy. Her winds whipped out and crashed against the barrier of the Seventine.

  The moment our energy touched theirs, a cold and biting power slapped out at us. It was the antithesis to our warm and living energy, the true opposite. Repelling and yet wanting to be joined with each other.

  The wind whipped across the shadows and, with very little effort, we blew through the scary aura surrounding the Seventine. Delane’s wind started to round up the shadows, like a sheep dog would its flock. Once she had it all in a tight ball, the darkness was zoomed off into the atmosphere. Then, just like that, after all the time we’d been fighting them in their ghostly specters, the Seventine were revealed.

  In all their ugly glory.

  Chapter 17

  I couldn’t stop looking at them. It was ironic really that those morons thought the shadow and smoke show was scary; their actual faces were worse. Much worse. They were like the messed-up version of a garden gnome. For reals. One part of me wanted to laugh, but for the most part there was nothing funny about the fact that they looked like that freaking doll. The one which used to come to life and creep around stabbing people. They were unsettling and wrong – just plain wrong.

  “Of all the bodies they could have chosen for themselves, they went with demon munchkins,” Lucy said from behind us. “Just the way they were in my fake vision.”

  I remembered her vague descriptions of them from the vision she had had during that battle on First World. Three slanted eyes, holes for a nose and slashes of mouths. She was pretty spot on. They were also shorter than all of the half-Walkers. Around five feet. Wearing black yoda-style robes which skimmed their calf muscles. T
hen, to add even more creep to this creeptastic image, they were all carbon copies of each other. Except for their hair.

  They had the same freaking hair as each of us half-Walkers. What the eff?

  The first had red curls, the second had an emerald-green mop, the third’s was white and flyaway, and so on with the rest of the girls. The seventh of them was particularly cute with his blond waves.

  “Methinks that they’ve been stalking us in our sleep or something,” Talina said with an extra snort in her tone. “Stealing strands of hair so they can make themselves some wigs.”

  I don’t know why, but at that moment I almost lost it. Laughter bubbled up through my throat and tried to exit out of my nose and mouth. It took quite a few sternly repeated reminders that this was a serious end-of-the-world situation, and laughing wasn’t appropriate, before I got myself under control. Stress was getting to me or something.

  “We ready to do this?” Delane swung her weapons. “Let’s not give them time to figure out our plan. We attack as we practiced.”

  I was totally down with that.

  “Sapha,” I said as I shifted my weight forward, arms hanging loosely. “Shadow us, girl.”

  Just like that we were the ones cloaking ourselves in the shadows of First World. The sun hid behind a few dark clouds that marred the purple-hued sky, which helped with the camouflage tremendously.

  Right then my one aim was to get close enough to grab onto the first. I could try to do what I had done with Que, trace straight into him, but that was my last option. Mainly because they were all together at the moment and I wasn’t sure what would happen if all of them got their hands on me. Would they have enough power to prevent my trace? Could they sever the tether of my life? Risks I couldn’t take.

  So, I’d bide my time and wait until they split from each other. I only had one shot at this. The moment the first knew what I was doing, I’d never get close enough to touch him.

  Before we reached them, the ground started to rumble beneath us. I almost bit my lip off when ruptures appeared and these huge ass pincers and antennae emerged. What followed was like a giant tick, or armored bug. I had never seen anything like this before.