Chapter Twenty-Four

 

She was standing about thirty feet from his location. Pandora. He could smell her as if she were pressed against him, fingers clawing at the back of his neck. The memory of her lips against his had him aching inside.

"We're here to kill her, right?"

"What? No," said Kuma, turning on his friend. "Why would you say that?"

"I knew it," said Camina, gesturing across the cavern. "There's something between you two. That's why you didn't kill her in the duel. Don't fucking lie to me, Little Bear. I've known you your whole life. I know what it looks like when you have a thing for a girl. You might be a strong waku, but you have a shit poker face."

The way his friends were staring at him had his stomach in his knees. He felt like he'd betrayed them even if he'd had the clan's interests in mind.

"She was spying for me."

Pandora made no motion to speak. She watched from her perch passively.

"Bullshit."

"I'm serious. I was following her last year and saw her kill one of her own. I made her a deal. I wouldn't expose her if she'd spy for Razor."

"Seriously?" asked Tick, glancing between them.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," said Pandora, "but our two clans have a big problem right now. Much bigger than a little spying."

"What's that?" asked Camina, stepping forward with her hand on her hilt. "Is it that you're a traitor to your own clan?"

The comment brought a twitch to Pandora's jaw as if she'd been smacked.

"There's a war coming."

Camina stepped forward, her blade whispering out of its sheath until only the tip remained.

"And when it does, Razor's going to be the last clan standing."

"Neither clan is going to be alive unless we wake up to what's really happening in the Undercity," said Pandora.

The parallels with what he'd learned with Leesa had him surging forward with his hand on Camina's arm.

"What do you know?"

A cloud of conflicting thoughts passed through Pandora's black eyes, too quickly for Kuma to understand, even with his amber. The only thing he knew was that she was a boiling cauldron of emotion. The urge to collect her in his arms was strong.

"Only pieces. I just watched a batch of Eclipse being handed over to the Blue Daggers. A prepayment on what I can only assume is some action on the alliance's part."

"Eclipse?" he asked.

"Right. You don't know. It's an elixir that helps with attunement. Not a guarantee, but you can almost ensure you have the right stones with the right waku."

The implications staggered him. Even his friends saw the possibilities.

"Imagine if Duro had a black diamond," said Tick with a shiver. "He'd be unstoppable."

"Duro's the least of your problems," said Pandora. "I don't know what's going on in your clan, but someone hit ours in a way that only spilling Razor blood can satisfy. We're being manipulated."

Camina turned to him. "Why would she tell us this? She's the one manipulating us. She's trying to get us to reveal something we shouldn't. She's the enemy. We should kill her and be done with it."

"Didn't we just determine that someone's trying to get our two sides to scrap? If she's right about the Blue Daggers, then we should go back to Razor and tell my father."

Tick scratched the back of his head. "He'll never believe you. You said it earlier. He has to go to war. Without proof, he won't lift a finger."

"Fuck," said Kuma, realizing his friend was right.

"There's an alternative," said Pandora.

"If it's you dying, I'm all in," said Camina.

Pandora kept her eyes on him. "We could go after the Blue Daggers. Kill them and take the Eclipse for ourselves. If we each take half back to our clans, then maybe they'll understand the real danger."

"Half?" asked Camina incredulously. "There's three of us and one of her. She should get a quarter at best."

"You want to go after Blue Daggers?" he asked.

Camina screwed up her face. "I wasn't suggesting that. You know, if we did, we should get more."

"What do you think, Tick?"

He furrowed his brow. "She could be leading us into an ambush."

Kuma couldn't explain that he knew she wasn't doing that, but the question was valid. He looked to Pandora.

"If my presence worries you, then I'll stay in the lead. If there's an ambush, then I'll be the one to trigger it, but if we're going to track them down, we'd better hurry. They have at least a ten-minute head start on us."

He turned to his friends. "We already know we're being goaded into action. If this is true, then the alliance might be taking this opportunity to hit us while we're distracted with Drops." He glanced back to Pandora. "If we get the Eclipse, we can halt whatever the alliance planned to do and bring back a valuable elixir for our clan."

"She'll have some too," said Camina, her upper lip curled in a snarl.

"Sounds like they already have some," said Kuma, catching a twitch of recognition. "But more importantly, this will help prove that we're being manipulated."

"I'm not sure it does that," said Camina.

"Let's get it and find out."

Camina checked back to Pandora, then shook her head. "This feels like a really bad idea. The clan might go to war soon and here we are, working with the enemy."

"The enemy of my enemy..."

"I hate that fucking saying," said Camina, scowling.

"There are three of us," said Tick with a shrug. "And Kuma already beat her once. It's not like we have anything to fear."

"Sounds like Tick's in. What about you, Camina?"

She looked from him, to Pandora, and back to Tick. "Fuck."

"I think that's a yes," he said to Pandora. "Where are these Blue Daggers?"

She described where she'd seen them make the handoff. Tick spoke up right away.

"I know a shortcut that gets us there faster, but once we're on their tracks, you should lead, Kuma. Your amber is the best."

"I thought she was supposed to lead?" asked Camina.

"I'll see any ambush with my amber. You two can keep an eye on her."

"Fine," said Camina with a sign. "Let's get moving before I change my mind."

As Tick headed in a perpendicular direction that would skirt around the Terreno, and Camina fell in behind him, Kuma gave Pandora a slow nod. She held up her arm, and he felt a ghostly tug Pull on his hand from her Sapphire. She smiled and they turned their attention forward.

The chase was on.