| |
––––––––
Rayen dropped down in front of Callan and let his weight fall against her. She shouldn’t turn her back on Thylan and his TecKnati scouts, but if she hadn’t killed them yet and they attacked, then she would die with Callan in her arms.
“Callan, can you hear me?” she asked, her voice breaking.
His eyes had closed, and his breathing rasped worse by the second. She bumped his mind. Callan, let me in.
When he replied, his words came into her mind hoarse and lacking strength. No. Too painful for you.
I don’t care.
When Callan didn’t answer her, she bumped harder. Let me in or I’ll force my way in and that will hurt both of us.
She feared hurting him more, but if that was what it took to keep him breathing, she would barge through his mental shields. He had entered her mind more than once to save her. He’d showed her how to use her power to heal. She could do it again.
But she didn’t have his experience. She might do it wrong and kill him, but he wasn’t going to survive this way.
His arms hung limp at each side of hers that were wrapped around his back, holding on to him with everything she had.
“Please, Callan,” she begged in a raw voice, terrified he’d draw his last breath any second. “Don’t make me hurt you more by forcing my way in.”
One of his arms moved slowly, lifting to grasp her waist. No strength in those hands, but he finally entered her mind and said, Prepare yourself.
When he opened the passage fully between them, she rushed past his shields, ready to wrap her power around his.
But it was like diving into the inside of a fire monster. Hot claws and spiked teeth ripped at her. She sucked in a breath, fighting for air, and fighting to not scream.
He tried to push her out, but she was stronger than him right now.
Speaking softly in his mind, she clamped her jaw against the moan threatening to escape and reassured him. I’m okay. Show me the worst injuries first and don’t waste time arguing. I’m not leaving.
Unless she passed out from the pain. She was only getting part of what he endured. She didn’t see his power anywhere so he couldn’t push her around his body to help.
Recalling what she’d learned following him when he’d healed her body, she sent her power first to his heart and gasped at what she found. His heart had been slashed repeatedly by the attack. How was he even alive?
See? Callan whispered telepathically. You can’t fix me.
She was not giving up. What if we bond, Callan? Gabby and Jaxxson are stronger now that they bonded.
If we bond ... A pause followed his words. He was struggling to even speak telepathically. He finished, saying, You will die if you’re inside my mind when I draw my last breath.
You’re not dying.
I am, Rayen. I won’t take you with me.
If she lost him now, she’d never find him again. But if they were bonded, their souls would hunt for each other.
That was what Callan had been trying to explain to her about bonding. It was all so clear now. Why had she refused?
Because it might not work with her being C’raydonian. It might leave his soul unable to bond with another.
But if it did work and they both died, their souls might find each other again in another life.
More than all that, she was willing to do whatever it took to keep him alive.
She made her decision and had to form the bond now before Callan died. Air sucked from her lungs at the idea of his lifeless body.
Do this for me, Callan, she begged, still speaking in his mind where it was easier for him. Bond with me.
No.
Please. I want our souls joined forever. I don’t care if I die today or tomorrow or any other time if I know that our souls will always find each other. Don’t leave me alone to never find you again. Do this for us. Do this for me. Tell me what I have to do to finish the bond.
He shuddered with another racking breath.
She pulled her hand around to barely touch his chest at the spot of his heart. I love you, too, Callan. Please don’t leave me alone.
After a quiet moment and the terrifying possibility that she’d lost him, his fingers at her waist squeezed gently.
Or was that all of his strength?
He explained, I started the bond when I pierced the veil in your mind so we could fight the Frazzle Vine. You must pierce my veil ... then we blend ... powers.
His voice was fading. She was losing him.
The pain in his body continued to leach into hers, eating at her with jagged teeth. Callan wouldn’t be able to tell her much more or show her anything. She had to get through the veil in his mind and blend with his power.
But how?
What had her ancestors told her?
Look inside yourself for the answers, Rayen.
Closing her eyes, her thoughts blurred with images. She forced her presence further inside Callan until she could see all of him at once and not just one or two spots. What she found was heartbreaking. She touched where a wound had gone to the bone and clenched her teeth against the pain it caused.
A hiss wheezed out of him.
How was he still here? The damage was everywhere and devastating. His heart fought for each ragged thump.
His pain overwhelmed her, flooding more misery into her mind. She steeled herself against it, ignoring everything so she could search for the veil. Where was it?
The next second stretched until it felt like an hour, and finally translucent colors shimmered into view. They moved softly as a butterfly wing in a gentle wind. That had to be the veil.
She swallowed and pushed on the protective wall.
For as sheer as it looked, the filmy membrane was resilient and denied her entrance.
No one was stopping her, least of all a veil. Backing up, she surged ahead and broke through.
Callan groaned and sagged.
No, no. Tell her she didn’t kill him. She clutched him to her, waiting on a sign he was breathing.
His shallow breath brushed against her skin, barely noticeable.
Rushing now, she delved deeper inside him, hunting frantically for the core of his power that should be glowing bright as a beacon. Where was it?
She sensed Callan barely nudge her once more in another direction, then she couldn’t feel him. His hand fell from her waist.
Stay with me, Callan. Please don’t leave me, she begged with tears pouring down her face.
He couldn’t be dead. She would not allow it.
She fought past the panic paralyzing her.
Had he tried to push her toward his power that last time? She dove in that direction, refusing to accept his death until she had the cold evidence of his power extinguished.
It was so dark and quiet inside him.
Her heart hurt at every empty turn she made.
Then she saw it. A glimmer of the force that had to be his power. There was barely enough pulsing to keep him breathing.
The tiny ball of bluish light brightened then dimmed. It glowed again then dimmed even more, shrinking.
He said they had to blend their powers.
She had no time to question her actions or to fear doing the wrong thing. Not trying was the only wrong choice.
Calling up her bright red power, she brought it slowly inside Callan, past his mental veil. Her power obeyed, moving carefully and in sync with her for once. She would forgive all the times her power had failed her if it performed now. When she drew it close to the core of Callan’s energy source, she closed her mind to everything except their two powers.
Red swirled around and around in a gentle stream toward the ball of blue light that began to spin slowly.
Bright red spirals continued swirling.
She felt Callan’s chest move with one shallow inhale. He whispered, “Rayen.” It sounded like his last breath then he went perfectly still.
She wasn’t doing something right or fast enough.
It was now or never.
She shoved more power into the stream. The red ribbons of energy wrapped around the blue glow faster and faster until blue light disappeared inside a fiery circle.
No, that couldn’t be right. Her power would consume his.
Everything she did was wrong.
Heat flashed in an explosion of red flares.
Brilliant blue light burst through the red circles and detonated into silver-blue shards.
A surge of energy flooded her with an overwhelming sense of happiness, peace and contentment all rolled together. She knew with a soul-deep certainty that she’d never experienced anything like this before. She was floating and didn’t care where she was, only that she was safe and loved.
Then everything went dark.
She couldn’t see. Was she blinded? Or had Callan died?
“Callan! Callan!” she shouted out loud.
“I’m here, sweetheart,” he whispered.
Arms she recognized were around her back. She opened her eyes. Two gorgeous brown eyes flecked with blue-green chips looked at her with undisguised love. His face was still cut and bruised, but the swelling had gone down, and cuts were closing.
She leaned back to look at his chest. Pink skin replaced the open wounds and blood had dried. She touched him to make sure this wasn’t some dream. “You’re alive, right?”
“Yes, because of you. Because of our bond.”
Lifting her gaze back to his, she saw a flash of worry and hesitation. She shook her head at him. “Don’t even wonder if I regret that. I should have agreed last night. Now all I can think about is hoping the bond will really help me find you again somewhere in time.”
He reached a hand up to the back of her head and pulled her to him. He kissed her lightly but held tight. She would never get enough of him, ever. His mouth loved her and told her how much she meant to him.
Rayen gave that back two-fold.
His fingers slipped down to her shoulders, gently massaging the muscles that whimpered from what she’d put them through. With a tender squeeze, he pulled back and said, “We are connected forever and that is all that I could ever want.”
“How do you know the bond took, Callan?”
“Look inside me again. You have only to think it and you’ll be there, now that we’re bonded.”
She closed her eyes and slipped inside him with an ease that surprised her. What she observed shocked her. Both of their powers had turned into a dazzling purple glow.
She searched further to see his body rapidly repairing itself.
Withdrawing, she smiled at him. She would never get tired of this view. His eyes held a peace and happiness she hadn’t seen before, and she would give anything to continue seeing for the rest of her life.
He used a finger to wipe a stream of tears off her face. She hadn’t realized she was still crying. He kissed the path he left. Pulling his head up, he whispered, “Thank you.”
“Did you really think I was going to let you get away from me that easily?” she teased, needing to breathe a moment now that he would live.
At least until dark. They still had to face the wraiths.
Was reaching eighteen this hard for everyone?
She bent her head back so she could see the moon’s position in the sky. “We’re getting close to moonset, Callan.” Bringing her head forward again, she said, “I’m not giving up on getting you out of this Sphere alive.”
Callan got to his feet and pulled her up.
His clothes were still shredded, but now revealed a slightly battered, yet still powerful body. One she had every intention of keeping out of the hands of those miserable wraiths tonight.
He glanced past her. “Are any of the TecKnati still alive?”
“I don’t know.” She didn’t want to look at Thylan and his people—at what her power had done—but she had to at some point.
With Callan alive, she could face anything else.
The transender sites were gone. Even if Tony had the computer operating, they didn’t know what the prophecy meant. No one could leave the Sphere at this point except the TeKs who’d come through Thylan’s transender if they had survived her counterattack.
Callan took her hand and they walked across the fifty yards to where bodies were scattered over the open field. He frowned as his gaze scanned the fallout. “What happened to their hair?”
She’d been avoiding looking down until he said that.
All the TecKnati had white hair and eyebrows. Huh. She watched their chests move slowly. “They’re breathing.”
“More’s the pity,” Callan muttered.
She nudged him gently, but his body was back to rock hard again and not easily moved. “I don’t like the TeKs either, but I didn’t want to kill them. Well, maybe Thylan. But the others were raised to believe in their leaders like you were raised to believe in yours. From what you’ve told me, both TecKnati and MystiKs need new leadership. If we solve the prophecy, maybe that will be possible.”
He squeezed her fingers. “There’s Thylan. I want five minutes alone with him.”
“No. We need him alive.”
“Why?”
“Because I have a plan.”
Callan wasn’t acting too keen on allowing Thylan to live, so she laid out what she was thinking. “The TecKnati have the only transender location that can transport out of the Sphere. I’m betting that SEOH is capable of setting up all the original transenders again. We’re going to hold Thylan hostage. If we don’t solve the prophecy, then he’s our backup plan.”
Now, Callan grinned. “I love that devious mind of yours.”
One little compliment from him and her insides turned into a gooey mess. “Can you use your kinetics to move Thylan into the village?”
“Not yet. I need maybe an hour to fully rebuild my body and power, but here come Kaz and Kenja.”
She turned to catch the pair running toward them and glanced over at the red moon. There wasn’t much space left between it and the horizon. “We might not have an hour.”
