He hugged her close and wrinkled his tickled nose. “It’s always the right time as far as you’re concerned, Momma. Shut it and hug me back or you’ll hurt my feelings. I’m a fragile guy.”
Corinne blurted, “I’m going to the bathroom.”
David backed out of the door into the hall. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”
Mez wove his neck at Kal. “If Earthlings are comfortable showing affection in our presence, is it not permissible to remain?”
Kal rubbed the top of his bald head and averted his face from Maggie and Malcolm, who were still holding one another in a silent, heartfelt embrace. “I have noticed that the younger generation seems to enjoy the denial of the older generation’s ability to copulate, Nefa.”
Chavarria watched the two Axsians discuss our alien culture with a pinched flat-lipped stare.
Silver threw up her arms. “Oh holy hell, I’m out too!”
I sent, “Chicken!”
She flipped me a mental middle finger and I spit a laugh at my own feet.
Mez clicked his teeth at his Leoght Cor’s retreating backside then wove his neck at Kal. “I find this facet of their culture most humorous, Eam.”
Kal smiled. “Apparently your Sustor Cor shares in your amusement.”
Maggie disengaged from Malcolm to stand. Her hands became busy smoothing down her shirt and a cherry tomato heat crept up her neck from her ample décolleté. Malcolm chuckled.
I changed the subject. “We need to wade Gerome’s memories before we hit the Warp stronghold, Mags. I know you don’t want to but it needs doing. Noemi and Gerome risked making me half-dead today just to nudge me in that direction so it must be important.”
A grief-dulled expression replaced her flustered aura. “Veritas vos liberabit—the truth shall make you free.” She curled her upper lip. “What do you mean half-dead, young lady? Nobody told me about this! Damnit—even from the grave Gerome’s mother is meddling…”
I put on a burst of speed and knocked ‘shave and a haircut’ on the section of wall I judged to be in the general vicinity of the women’s restroom. Maggie’s outraged sneer made an angry itch pollinate my gut, so I said, “Ipsa scientia potestas est—knowledge is power.”
Silver cut Corinne off and dodged through the doorway first. “You knocked?”
Chavarria hooked his thumbs in his belt and rocked back on his heels. “Why is wading dead people’s memories important?”
Malcolm put two massive hands behind his head and leaned against the wall. His arms looked like folded over tree trunks. “You’d need to be a Weaver, Marco. Some things don’t translate without a lot of explanation. The best I can do is state that all of our lives are backed up for posterity in the Web.”
Kal yanked down on the lapel of his duster so hard a stitch popped. “You will not be alone in this. There will be no more death today, however transitory.”
Maggie surveyed her office; no one missed the way her eyes avoided Chavarria’s. “I suppose we can sit on the floor, nieces of mine.” Her words were faint, lacking conviction.
Silver nudged past Kal. “The timing sucks, Mags, I know.”
Maggie sunk to the floor and arranged her upper body between Malcolm’s splayed legs. I wasn’t sure if it was to reassure him or so she wouldn’t have to look into his eyes before entering the Web to examine her dead husband’s life memories.
I sat next and patted the floor by my side for Silver to join me. Kara’s bony knee hit mine as Silver arranged herself in a cross-legged position that mimicked my own. I joined our shields then wedged my fingers in the soft space between Silver’s calf and thigh. The jeans were warm with her body heat and I felt a tendon flex as she wiggled her rump to get more comfortable.
Kal removed his duster and unceremoniously threw it close to Malcolm’s head on the back of the couch before kneeling on the other side of Silver. “I will merely watch for signs of your distress. Well do I know the agony of experiencing a life cut short.” His head dipped in Maggie’s direction and her eyelids fluttered closed.
My nerves were shot, and I squeezed my twin’s leg before lowering my lids on the realm of the physical. Maggie’s hearth fire was brilliant and crackling with sparks of energy. I didn’t think I was the only one suffering with a case of the jitters. Silver popped in next and her essence was different. It took me a moment, but the faint yolks on either side of her core clued me in.
“Uh, Maggie?”
My aunt caressed the outer edge of Silver’s white-hot light.
“I see it. How could this happen, Cass?”
My mental voice went sarcastic as a defense against the panic blooming inside. “I’m pretty sure it happened the usual way, Maggie.”
Silver sputtered, “What’s wrong with me? What are you guys on about?” She stilled as she picked up the extra bits in her essence. “Kal, get Mez in here right now!”
Kal chuckled. “Congratulations on a successful coupling, Cilda. I will enjoy being an Eadlefaeder to your little ones. Twins are considered a great blessing of Annis.”
Silver wailed worse than Rose had at the mass grave in the desert. “This wasn’t supposed to happen, Cass! This isn’t our body. What will James say? I’m not ready to be a mother! We’re trying to plan an attack and kill the freakin’ Soul Eater! Who has time for babies and shit? No, no, no and NO!”
My mental voice was much more sanguine than my emotions. “You just forgot to put the stops on Kara’s eggs is all. It only takes one time ya know. We’ll do this together, Sister. It’ll be okay, I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Five: Mountains and Molehills
If Silver could have predicted how this day would roll out, her pregnancy would have been nowhere in the realm of possibility. For a healer, a Weaver who could manipulate life on a cellular level, there was no way she should’ve let this happen. No way. Thoughts racing, she waited for Mez to appear.
Seemingly senseless chatter filled her until she realized it was ‘oh no, oh no, oh no’ over and over again in a long string. If she’d been in her body right at that moment the contents of Kara’s stomach would’ve rushed into her throat.
Kara!
The world had suddenly become an even more frightening place. Death she could face, violence directed at the people she loved she could defend, but being a parent? Silver wasn’t even sure what she was. Disembodied transplanted human soul or dark evil parasitic progeny?
This wasn’t her body to live in, let alone give birth in. This was something Cass was supposed to experience with her when the time was right!
Mez’s brilliant sunny orb flicked into focus, and he picked up her panic instantly. He also spied the reason for it. His normal playfulness in the face of adversity left him.
“Leoght Cor?”
Silver had no words. She tightened the band of her thoughts and sent everything inside, all the fear and outright self-loathing to Mez. He accepted it as if it were no extraordinary thing. She waited in silence. Fearful and hopeful all at once of his reaction.
Mez didn’t recoil from the sensory overload. He knew his love would falter if he did. When the Bindao struck he had rejoiced. In the back of his mind he’d thought their differences would dash any chance of children. The promise of adventure had been more than enough to compensate. Now he found the idea of his own unexpected family a puzzling and unfamiliar concept.
None of that showed in his response. “We will find a way through this, Silver. Annis must have a reason. She must.”
Silver’s voice was soft and faint with remorse. “Should I stop it?”
Mez’s response held simultaneous censure and regret. “No, Leoght Cor, you should not.”
Maggie withdrew her throbbing ribbon of warmth from Silver’s surface as Mez popped up next to his uncle. Something passed between Silver and Mez that everyone else was left out of. I only knew because I could hear a faint echo of it through my bond with Silver. Mez’s yellow crust hardened as it contracted. I felt no surprise or joy leak outward.
Sil
ver’s white essence began to shake and vibrate so much I thought it might explode until Mez enveloped her in a soothing cloud of yellow orange gas. “Life is always a blessing of Annis, Leoght Cor, no matter how it erupts into being. I could wish for better circumstances, but the world will go as it will go, not as you or I would have it.”
I interrupted my twin’s angry retort, mainly because I knew she’d regret it later. “Not to be insensitive, Silver, but we still need to wade Gerome’s memories with Maggie so you’re gonna have to pause your little meltdown.”
She broadcast loud enough for the whole alternate plain of the Web to hear, “Little meltdown! You’re not pregnant with Aniy/human half-breeds in your dead friend’s body, Cass!”
“No, I’m not, but for the time being we need to operate as if you’re not knocked up. You’re the genius who had unprotected sex! Wigging out isn’t helping the situation, Sister.” My patience was beginning to run low.
Silver shrieked and the outrage pouring down the bond was overwhelming. “So now this is my fault? Go ahead and pile on the guilt as if this isn’t bad enough, Cassandra!”
“Well, yeah it is your fault—and Mez’s. Who told you two to bump uglies in Kara’s body? No one, that’s who! Now James has to be okay with y’all’s babies growing in his sister’s husk! Have you thought about the long haul at all?” Dread at having to share this news pooled like a lead weight inside.
Maggie gave a mental sigh. “Girls! Enough! As much as I’d like to postpone I know this needs doing so let’s just do it and be done. I’m tired of wondering what else in his life Gerome kept from me.”
The sense of betrayal my aunt felt dampened my ire at Silver. “Okay, Maggie, where do you want to start?”
She sent, “What did Gerome’s note to you say?”
I felt stupid. “Um, I haven’t read it…”
My twin’s ethereal light brightened further and shame crept down her line to me.
Silver thought in a rush, “I peeked at it!” Her core relaxed at the release of the secret she’d been keeping. “You were dragging your feet, Cass, and I knew it might be important so I waited until you were distracted and read it. It’s our note and I was past ready. I figured I’d just act surprised when you finally dug it out of our underwear drawer. Sorry!”
I squashed my righteous anger in favor of expediency. “And what did it say?”
She projected a crumpled piece of white paper with my uncle’s chicken scratch for everyone to see. We could make out, “Look to the morning of the day I died. I loved you all and there really wasn’t a better way. I promise. --Gerome--”
Maggie choked on the grief that dimmed her orange firelight to a pale yellow gold.
Silver whispered a contrite, “Can you handle this, Mags?”
Our aunt picked her metaphorical head up and answered, “I have to, so I will. Are you leading the way or am I, Silver?” She paused for thought. “You haven’t already ‘peeked’ here too have you?”
“Okay I deserve that, but no. You lead.”
Maggie called Gerome’s memories and a multi-colored storm grew and grew over us. She ordered, “Latch on with our bond and don’t let go, girls. Silver, do you have the sense of time in your mind?”
“I do. I’m ready if y’all are.”
Undiluted love gushed down the pipe of our connections to Maggie. Silver let it absorb and settle in her center. I slung the emotion around until I felt as warm as Maggie always looked in the Web, and then sent it back to my aunt in a slow moving mercury ooze.
Silver’s concentration narrowed to a fine point at the same time as she pulled us closer. We merged with the nebulae of Gerome’s life. One moment we were ourselves and the next we were sunk into a life that wasn’t our own. Flashes of events skipped and jumped like a broken film projector until the images solidified to a blinding white with a corona of pink and blue starbursts. When the memory settled it was of Gerome sitting in front of the bathroom mirror in the old house. Steam encroached around the frame of his reflection.
He blinked and his chin trembled. “Maggie, I love you. I’m sorry I left you so soon. I didn’t want to go.” Gerome put a hand over his mouth to hide his emotion and bent his head low until all we could see was a vortex of water circling the sinks drain.
Someone knocked on the door and Maggie’s disgruntled voice followed.
His face came back into view in profile and Gerome yelled, “I’ll be out in a minute!”
Light brown irises focused on the mirror again. “I’m sure Corinne shared her suspicions with Cass and Silver about my gift of seeing probabilities? If not, here it is in a nutshell—things far away are blurry, the closer they get the more they firm with each decision made by those that affect the outcome. I wasn’t sure if I would die, but if you’re seeing this it’s finally come to pass. Understand, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen my own death or anyone else’s. Calling what my family could do a gift is a stretch, it’s more of a curse.” His lips curled in derision.
Gerome swallowed as if a bitter pill were lodged sideways in his throat. “Ray may have it. Reb looks clear. If no one trains Raymond he’ll either kill the gift before it starts or he’ll go insane trying to handle all the real-seeming paths he’ll perceive. It gets worse at about age twenty. Watch him and look to my memories and Noemi’s for help, Maggie.”
Maggie thought a response at the recorded ghost of her husband. “I will Gerome, I will.”
He smiled at himself as if he could hear her before continuing. “My mother Noemi was the last of her people until Rebecca and I were born. It was rare for females to inherit this gift so it skipped my twin. The Warp Faction overran Noemi’s ancestral home and killed everyone when she was only fourteen. Her father, my grandfather, engineered the tunnel for the future and let his entire clan die out for her to survive with the gift and sneak across the border to America. Mesa Verde has a side gig as coyotes, and Manuel Reno smuggled her in.”
I wanted to ask so many questions! Silver was held in check by a thin cap of realization—this was basically a recording and what we saw and heard was all we would ever get besides trolling through his life like a voyeur. It was almost like having him back and that broke my heart most of all. He’d lived with his ‘gift’ all alone after his mother died, not even sharing the pain of it with his wife. Now I was wondering what he’d seen when he’d frowned at us or put on a remote, aloof mask. It wasn’t fair. And Ray may have to go through it too? Our cousin wasn’t going to live closed up like Gerome had. We were going to make sure he knew we were there for him, no matter what.
Maggie held me in a virtual hug. We couldn’t see ourselves, but I could feel my aunt and Silver through the bonds. We were huddled against the past.
There was more pounding and Gerome grimaced and wiped off the creeping steam in a ragged rectangle. “I have about a minute before you barge in, Mags. You’re really impatient in the morning.” His smile was weak. “I’m okay about Malcolm. Be happy.” He turned to yell at the door we couldn’t see. “Two minutes! Give a guy a break.”
Maggie’s emotions went into a spiral of happiness and sorrow that mixed together until they were indistinguishable from each other. I held her even tighter to me.
When Gerome looked back at the ghostly image of himself he smiled a true smile this time. “The tunnel goes all the way to the old cellar under the kitchens. Twelve inches of cement and dirt separate you from entering the Warp stronghold. If you haven’t found the tunnel and you don’t know what I’m talking about, then the future has changed yet again and you’ll need Noemi’s memories to find it. Otherwise, happy Soul Eater hunting. It is of the utmost importance that you take Corinne whether Kara is alive or not. If Kara isn’t alive then you’ve just doubled your chances of not dying. Don’t be mad at her, she saw the future of her own life and yours with her in it. Kara made a decision based on things you know nothing of. I love you all.”
The memory ended with his closed eyes and the sound of the bathroom do
or opening. Whatever ‘memory-Maggie’ said faded and we descended together from Gerome’s past to our present.
Mez’s yellow and orange orb was jittering up and down with impatience. “What did you learn?”
Silver detangled herself from our embrace to overlap Mez and include Kal.
“We learned enough. The tunnel goes where it needs to go and we can attack from below. Gerome said Corrine has to come, but we would have taken her anyway for the tesseract.” Silver drew in an imaginary breath. “How are you, Maggie?”
Orange tongues of fire licked up her sides as if gasoline had been poured over her essence. “I’ll manage. I don’t like y’all gallivanting off to get tangled up in trouble while I sit safe with the kids and worry and wait and worry some more. I couldn’t be of much use anyway.”
Kal’s soothing mental voice broke in with a delicate but firm reassurance. “We do not know the plans of your enemy, but we have seen that they do not value life as you do. Not everyone can or should be a soldier, Magdalena Q. Johnson. You are as you are and that is good.”
Maggie’s flames lit with a pink tinge and my twin laughed at her blush.
Silver waited for the mirth to putter out. “The others will wonder at what we’ve learned. Should we share about the tunnel in front of Chavarria?”
I bowed outward, trying to ignore the fact that Kal’s words made me feel empty. I had killed four Warps today—apparently I didn’t value life. “No. We’ll tell him we have a way in and leave it at that. Is anybody else curious about Gerome’s insistence that Corinne be in on the sortie?” A nagging thought picked at me, but I couldn’t nail it down.
Maggie added, “Tell Corinne and see what she makes of it. That girl is observant and sometimes she thinks of things from an angle none of us would consider. Cora was a crazy ass bitch, but she gave birth to a good person who survived intact in spite of her upbringing.”
I felt like shouting, “Break!” to end our strategy huddle but it was far less dramatic. The sense of leaving that world behind was gentle and when my lids lifted I saw my hand tucked into the crease of Silver’s leg still. I squeezed until I had her attention, took a long look at her middle and shook my head side to side.
PHOENIX (The Weaver Series Book 4) Page 21
