The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension
Page 25
“That’s right. Come get me,” Tsubame taunted.
The tear grew bigger and the woman’s lips turned just so into a slight smile. Then suddenly the darkness rushed forward and MaLeila saw flashes of disaster, flashes of their world ruin. And Tsubame stood in the midst of it all, her staff in hand, long dark hair swaying just so in the wind, her disguises gone as she stared at the dark cloud while it began to descend and consume their world, no doubt with the intent of defeating it.
The darkness rushed at MaLeila again, this time pulling her out the ethereal world and into her body where she instead sat up out of her bed, startling awake. Devdan and Bastet who were lying on either side of her. If she weren’t so alarmed she’d be touched at knowing that they meant their words the evening before and were still with her despite everything, not to mention ready to never let them live down the fact that they crawled into bed with her like two children got into bed with their mother or father. She’d dwell on that later.
MaLeila tripped on her dress as she scooted out of bed, ripping it in the side as she did so. She got to her feet again and tried to summon Tsubame’s staff to her hand only to find that it wouldn’t come to her.
“Fuck,” she said as she began to rush out the room barefoot.
“MaLeila, what the fuck has gotten into you?” Devdan asked.
MaLeila didn’t answer as she stormed out the suite, both Bastet and a shirtless Devdan in hot pursuit. She widened and honed her senses specifically trying to find Tsubame. When she wasn’t able to sense the woman, she tried to find Marcel and Nika. If those two were near, she’d certainly find them. She wasn’t too concerned about Tsubame’s presence. MaLeila long figured out that there was something about the fact that they generally had the same aura that dulled her senses to the woman unless she allowed herself to hone in on the intricate detail and peculiarities that made the two of them different. If the woman was shielding her aura, even MaLeila wouldn’t be able to pick it up. But when she didn’t sense Marcel and Nika—especially Marcel since she spent the better part of a year dating and having sex with the man so even if he was hiding his presence, she’d find it if he were near—she cursed yet again.
“Where the hell is she?” MaLeila asked, louder than she intended.
“Who?” Bastet asked. She and Devdan had long since given up trying to stop her.
“Tsubame. Where’s Tsubame?” MaLeila asked. She intended to go to the woman’s room until she remembered she had no clue where the woman’s room had been, so she headed to the lobby where there were still a few of the families lingering in the lobby doing God knew what at four in the morning. Whatever it was they stopped when they heard, saw, and undoubtedly sensed her flaring aura come into the area.
Farah, who was near the check in counter, looked at MaLeila and asked, “Tsubame? I haven’t seen her since right after we took the Magic Council into custody.”
“We’ve got to find her,” MaLeila demanded. “We have to find her right now.”
“Why?” Farah asked
MaLeila’s vision flashed before her eyes, and suddenly MaLeila realized why Tsubame’s plan didn’t add up, why the woman would seemingly out of boredom decide to conquer a world in another universe when she’d already done so in order to bring another person into power. Tsubame may have been a benevolent queen of her own world, but she’d never struck MaLeila as that generous, not without having something to gain.
“Because,” MaLeila whispered as the realization dawned on her. “Tsubame did what she does best. She made us so focused on another threat, another enemy, made us all think she was helping us get what we thought we wanted when instead she was herding us to get exactly what she wanted in the end instead.”
MaLeila remembered a conversation she had with Marcel the evening after Fathi was killed, after she figured out that he knew Tsubame and was keeping people from figuring out her identity and where she was. He’d mentioned how the powers that be made people think they had their own minds, knew what they wanted, and that they were making decisions based on that when it was actually what those powers wanted them to think. Tsubame seemed to have taken a page out their book. She didn’t manipulate people and mold their desires, but she did have an intimate knowledge of how to see into people’s heart and figure out their desires and give them their desires all for her own gain.
MaLeila let out a hollow laugh and added, “Fucking genius. She made us forget that she was still our enemy and she essentially told me her entire plan and I didn’t catch onto it.”
“MaLeila, you’re beginning to sound crazy. So I suggest you tell us what you’re talking about or we’re going to have to rethink making you ruler of the magical world,” Bastet said dryly.
“It’s chaos,” MaLeila replied. “Tsubame wants to conquer chaos.”
To Be Concluded in
The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Chaos
Spring 2017
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