29

CONTACT

 

I WATCHED REVIK check a security panel by the study doors. Eddard hovered near him. Jon and Cass stood out of sight of the tall sash windows, looking down onto the street where I could hear the activity ramping up once more. Maygar did the same by a third window, an automatic rifle gripped in his hands.

While I watched, Jon shoved a gun in the back of his belt, holding another in his good hand, what looked like one of Revik’s Glocks.

My brother the pacifist.

I glanced back as Revik passed by where I stood, aiming for the china closet. He moved aside a vase on a nearby accent table and slid a key off the wood with his fingers. I watched him unlock the double hutch doors, pressing a button concealed behind a faux wooden panel.

The panel slid back, pushing out a velvet-cushioned tray.

I could only stare as he pulled another handgun off the blue, velvet cloth, checking the magazine for how many bullets remained, then the chamber before handing it to Eddard. He picked up a second gun, then a third. He checked them all, shoving one in his belt before passing the other to Eddard, as well.

I saw him motion towards me then, still muttering to Eddard in a voice too low for me to hear, and I looked away.

I held my stomach with one arm. I was having trouble breathing. My brain seemed to have short-circuited somewhere between the conversation over lunch and the two helicopters exploding over the London streets below. Some kind of delayed reaction, maybe...to being fired on by jets, prolonged stress, almost zero sleep in two days, and finding out my best friends were alive and that I was still married to a guy who couldn’t bring himself to look at me.

I felt a push to move my limbs. I think I meant to walk over to Jon and Cass, but my body must have had other ideas, because I only got as far as the china closet and the exposed tray of guns. Revik no longer stood there. I don’t know when he left, but by the time I reached the tray, he bent over another wall panel on the other side of the room.

“They changed all my codes,” he said. “We’ll have to take the stairs.”

I stared at a gun on the tray I recognized. It looked just like the one Revik held all those years ago in Germany. I picked it up, hefting the weight of the metal in my hand. It was so small. It looked like a toy.

“We can’t take the elevator,” Revik said. I felt his attention on me, but I didn’t turn around. “We have to get to the stairs...now. There’s some chance we can still make it to the basement.”

“Revik.” Clearing my throat, I shook my head. “No.”

Everyone paused.

I thought they’d forgotten me in their panic, but when I turned around, the whole room seemed focused on my face. Even Eddard stared, his expression a mixture of curiosity and pity. It occurred to me that he probably thought I’d snapped. I didn’t look at Revik, but felt his mind slide past my words, still thinking about how we would get out of the building.

He turned to Eddard. “Get the charges from my room. If I have more clips—”

“Revik,” I said. “No. We won’t get out that way.”

He didn’t look at me, but I watched him put a hand on the wall. He turned towards me, still without looking at me, his face closed.

“Allie. We don’t have any choice.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Not that way. Please.”

I saw his jaw harden. He still wouldn’t look at me. “Please trust me on this, Esteemed Bridge. I am not being disrespectful...but I know our options here. This is my home. Let me protect you in it.”

I saw Jon and Cass stare at him, as if they didn’t recognize him. Then they both, seemingly at the same instant, looked at me.

“I do trust you,” I said. “But I can’t let you take us out that way.”

“Allie!” Cass said.

I looked at her. My whole body was shaking. I stood there, in the middle of the room, barely able to stand upright from the pain in my chest.

“Allie, what are you doing?” Jon said. His voice sounded shocked.

Revik stared at me, his eyes flat now, wary.

I didn’t realize at first I was pointing the gun at him. It wasn’t until I looked at Jon, saw his mouth hanging open, his hazel eyes wide, that I realized something was wrong. I looked down at my hands. They gripped the gun, steady.

“Allie.” Revik held out a hand. “Please. Give it to me—”

“No.” I took a step back. “Please, Revik. You have to listen to me. He expects you to do this. He’s counting on it.” My voice lowered, growing angry, but not at him. My eyes blurred as they filled with tears, but I couldn’t care about that either. I knew I was right. I had no idea how I knew, but I did.

“Please,” I said, my voice thick. “Please, Revik. Please...just listen to me.”

“I’m listening, Allie,” he said. “Put the gun down...”

I shook my head, gripping it tighter. He wasn’t listening to me. I could feel it. I’d become a threat in his eyes, a dangerous animal. But I knew he wouldn’t listen to me if I gave him the gun.

“He wants to shoot at you,” I said. “He knows I’ll do something. Fold something, or break something...or light something on fire. I can’t control it. He must know that, too. It’s gotten worse, Revik...”

“Allie!” Jon’s voice rose, pulling me to look at him. “Jesus, are you going to shoot Revik? He saved our lives!”

“Who, Allie?” Cass said. Fear leaked into her voice. “Who wants us to do it? Do you mean Terian? Is Terian here?”

“No.” Revik’s voice sharpened. He held out a hand towards Cass. “We’re all right, Cass.” He looked at me, and now he felt angry. “Put the gun down, Allie!”

I heard all this, and it affected some part of me, but I didn’t take my eyes off his face.

“Please, Revik...”

“Please, what?” he said. “What do you want me to do?” He looked at Maygar, and the anger in his face worsened. “What do you want from me, Allie?”

I shifted my weight, and felt my resolve falter. “Did you give me those numbers?” I said. “On the ship. I thought you were dead...but you did it to keep them from Terian. That was you. It had to be you...”

Revik’s eyes drew a blank.

I saw Maygar turn, startled. He stared at Revik.

“It’s important,” I said. “It’s really important, Revik.”

“Allie, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I would tell you, I swear I would! But we have to go now...please!”

“You helped design it,” I said. “The rotating hierarchy.”

He blanched. Then his jaw hardened more. “Even if I did. I don’t remember...”

“None of it came back with Terian?” I said. “That’s what he wanted from you, isn’t it? The succession order? So he could go after Galaith?”

Jon and Cass’s expressions grew openly startled, just before their eyes swiveled almost in unison to Revik’s face. It was enough to confirm what I’d suspected. Then Jon’s voice rose, angry.

“Did Terian help him remember? You mean when he was beating him unconscious every day? Is that what you’re asking, Al?”

I turned, staring at Jon.

I saw Revik look at Jon too, telling him to be silent with his eyes. I focused on the bruises on Revik’s neck, how his clothes hung on his long frame. I lowered the gun slowly, staring between them, then down at my hands, holding the gun.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said. All the resolve and tension left my limbs. “I don’t want to hurt anyone...”

“Maybe not shooting us would be a first step,” Jon snapped. “Jesus, Allie. Have you lost it completely?”

“Jon,” Revik warned. “Stop.”

I looked at Revik, startled. Then Maygar spoke up from where he leaned against the wall, out of sight of the high window.

“Yeah, Jon,” he drawled. “Take it easy on little sis. We need to know what we’re up against..and Rook-boy here used to be evil. Or did he forget to mention that in all of your touching inter-species bonding?” He nodded towards me, his voice openly approving.

“...About time someone went to the source for answers.”

I felt Revik turn before I saw him, felt his anger flare into something closer to hatred as soon as it found a target. His voice nearly shook.

“You’re right,” Revik said. “...she’s not completely wrong. I do remember more now...Maygar, is it? Your mother, for instance. Does she still work for them?”

Maygar’s expression turned hard as glass.

“Watch your forked tongue, Rook...”

“I remember you,” Revik said. “You were a little shit when they brought you in. A thief...half-recruited yourself. Are you the reason my wife’s got a gun on me now? Didn't I stay dead long enough for you?”

“As a matter of fact...”

“Just stay away from her!”

My eyes swiveled to Revik. I stared at his face in shock, saw his jaw clenched, his hands in fists by his sides so that the long muscles in his arms stood out. I felt my breath stop when I saw his expression. I’d only seen it on his face once before, and that was before I’d been born.

Maygar burst into a laugh. “You must be joking!”

“I’m not. Don’t push me, boy. I’ll rip your dirtblood heart out...”

“Revik!” Jon said.

“Boys!” Cass said, sharp. “We don’t have time for this! Military outside, remember? Revik, calm down—”

“You broke vow,” Maygar said to him. “You have no rights, you worm-fucking retard. I can court her if I want!”

“No. You can’t.” Revik clenched his hands. “You interfere with an attempt at reconciliation, and I’ll press charges...if I don’t kill you first.”

I blanched, looking between them. Court me? I stared at Revik, unable to look away from the expression on his face.

“Reconciliation?” Maygar snorted. “You brought your human whore here!”

Revik’s face drained of blood. He looked at me.

“Whore?” Cass broke in furiously. “Would that be me?” She turned on me. “Is that what the martyr crap at lunch was about? You really think I’d skank on your husband, Al? You’re my best friend! And for your information, he hasn’t been with anyone since you saw him! We were with him the whole time. He didn’t touch anyone for months, unless you count Terian and his—”

“Shut up!” Revik was breathing harder, staring at her. “Shut up, Cass! Right now!”

I looked between them, feeling sick. “I really don’t—”

“No!” Maygar said, holding up a hand to me. “Don’t accept anything from him, Bridge! You owe him nothing!”

Revik and Maygar were looking at each other again. Neither dropped their gaze, nor relaxed their stances.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Revik’s face, seeing the anger there, but more than that, him fighting to control himself, to remain standing where he was. Suddenly, my mind seemed to click back on. Lowering the gun the rest of the way, I placed it on the table. Giving Maygar a disbelieving look, I closed the distance to Revik.

I grabbed his arm, harder until he looked down.

“No...Revik. Look, he’s protecting me, but not the way you think.” I yanked on his arm again to get his eyes off Maygar. “Revik! Listen to me! There’s nothing going on with me and Maygar!”

Revik turned. His eyes locked on mine.

“Are you with anyone?” Pain wafted off him.

I stared up at him, momentarily speechless.

“Allie.” He gripped my arm, hard enough to hurt. “I would understand. I know I’m not acting like it, but I would. Tell me to back off, and—”

“No.” I shook my head, still staring at him. “No...no one.”

He didn’t move. Realizing I still had him in a death grip, I let go of his arm.

After the barest instant, he released me, too.

We just stood there, staring at one another. Then it occurred to me that I’d walked up to him. Before I could move away, though, he caught hold of my wrists. His fingers tightened, pulling me closer to where he stood.

For another moment, he seemed to be trying to speak.

He looked so damned thin. I watched his jaw harden, his eyes brighten as he looked at me, holding out my hands slightly, almost like Jon had when he first saw me alive. He looked longest at my face, then down the rest of me. I felt his light on mine then, cautiously at first...growing stronger the longer we stood there.

I tried to decide if I should say anything, when an intensity rose to his eyes. He met my gaze again and I nearly flinched, but I didn’t look away.

I’d seen that look on his face before, too, but never aimed at me.

Tugging at my hands, he pulled me carefully between his arms.

I let him guide me up against him, following his pull to wrap my arms around him once I stood close enough. He let go of my wrists once I had, curling an arm lengthwise across my back, gripping my shoulder in his hand and squeezing before he wrapped his fingers into my hair. I didn’t move as he pulled it out of the soft knot, caressing it away from my neck. He slid his other arm around my waist, pulling me tight against his body before he lowered his head, pressing his face against mine.

I relaxed against him. I forgot all of it in those few seconds—my mother, all those months of believing he and Cass and Jon were dead, even the military outside. He held me tighter, tight enough that I could barely breathe. My throat closed as he pulled me deeper into the curve of his body.

Then he opened...and his light nearly flattened me.

I felt him hold his breath as he wound it deeper into mine...and then I couldn’t breathe...I breathed too much. I clutched at him as he leaned into me more, and I felt him asking me, willing me to open, asking me again. I held him tighter, unable to see as his hands clenched my back. His light slid deeper, pulling on me...I think I made some kind of sound.

Then everything seemed to happen fast.

We were kissing when someone’s arms grabbed me from behind.

Revik’s hands were under my shirt and around me as someone or several someone’s dragged him off. Yet another person held my waist, pulling me away from him.

I glanced behind me, barely recognized Maygar.

“What the hell are you doing?” He was staring up at Revik, his eyes and voice furious. “Are you trying to kill her?”

I felt Revik react to Maygar’s hands on me.

I saw pain on his face, confusion as he looked at me, almost like he didn’t know where he was. My own pain worsened as I stared back, and suddenly I couldn’t bear being held away from him. I had to fight not to shove all of them off me, just so I could touch him.

“It’s okay,” I said, holding up a hand. “Revik, hey. It’s okay...”

Then my light, everything about me that was me, was ripped away from my body.

“NO!” CASS DROPPED her gun, running for Allie as she collapsed in Maygar’s arms. Revik got there before she did. Maygar tried to shove him back, but the taller seer grabbed the front of Maygar’s shirt in his fist, and suddenly a gun was in his hand. He pressed it to Maygar’s face.

“Let go of her,” Revik said. “I’ll do it. I promise you.”

Maygar released her, removing his hands. His voice shook.

“If she dies, so help me, I’ll skin you—”

“Stop it!” Cass snapped. “Both of you!”

“What happened?” Jon crouched over Revik, but it was Maygar who answered in a snarl.

“Rook-boy couldn’t keep his hands to himself! He just fed her to them...”

Cass watched Revik pull Allie into his lap. He stroked the long hair away from her face, caressing her cheek with his hand. His voice shocked her. It was quiet, but a near anguish trembled on the surface as he spoke.

“Allie...gods. Can you hear me? Allie!”

“Hit her!” Maygar snarled. “Do you think that’s going to do anything but make it worse? Hit her, or let me try!”

But Revik’s hands had gone still.

Maygar shoved Cass out of the way, grabbing Revik’s shoulders. When he turned the other seer around, looking him full in the face, he cursed, releasing him. Bending down, he slid his arms around Allie, pulling her roughly out of Revik’s lap. Cass watched in disbelief as Revik made no move to stop him. She was still staring at Revik’s unmoving form when a loud crack of flesh against flesh jerked her eyes back to Maygar.

She watched in disbelief as he backhanded Allie again. A red mark flared on her friend’s cheek, but Allie’s eyes didn’t flutter as her neck rolled with the blow. Maygar wound up to hit her again when Jon held his own gun to Maygar’s head.

“Do it again, and I’ll shoot you, you piece of shit...” Without turning, Jon aimed his next words at Cass. “What’s wrong with Revik?”

“I don’t know.” She gripped his arm, kneeling beside him. His pupils remained pinpricks, his face a wax doll’s. “He’s just...gone.”

Maygar pushed the barrel of Jon’s gun out of his face angrily, as if it were a pointed stick.

“He’s gone after her,” he snapped.

Jon looked at Cass, then back at Maygar. He lowered the gun.

“Explain to me how that’s not a good thing,” Jon said.

“Stupid worm! The construct is gone! They’re all around us...everywhere, as we speak! Staying out of the Barrier was their only protection!” When Cass and Jon continued to stare at him blankly, Maygar raised his voice. “They’re going to die! She was already dead when he pulled her in...now he’s gone to die with her!”

Seeing the anger and frustration on the seer’s face, it occurred to Cass that maybe he wasn’t the bad guy in all of this, after all.

A jet slammed by the window, rattling the glass. The roar of its engines followed, deafening in the narrow corridor between houses. Looking across the street, Cass saw the tiny figures of men in black kevlar climbing the building across from theirs, and a kind of despair reached her.

There was no possible way they could get out of this, not anymore.

NEAR TO EARTH, the faint lines of the physical can be seen from the Barrier like a lit room through water. A swarm of beings hover over three ghosting human forms. The Rooks know a third seer exists there, too, but they cannot see him as long as he remains outside the Barrier.

It doesn’t matter. The hovering shadows are little more than sentries, left behind as the real work screams above.

I barely feel this...then it is gone.

I am the real work.

I streak through a star-filled night sky, running for my life. I try to make myself invisible but can’t, so I jerk and jump, reappear and am hit, slammed, run over...all lines leading to my body snarled and confused, broken and dead-ending. Prisons appear around me, mirages that look like hard walls, bright lights, even distant stars. They pull at me, tempt me with inviting vibrations, darting closer before I manage to twist away from their hard fire.

I am not sure how I came to be here.

I remember Revik. I remember us kissing, his hands pulling me tighter against his body, the feel of his light, him asking me...

But now everywhere I turn, silver eyes glow at me, chasing me through an endless-feeling night. They appear all around me as I try to move faster. They are looking for a way in, even as I look for a way out. I try desperately to get ahead of them, looking for any door or passage or tornado-like tunnel that might lead me out of this place. I try to feel Vash...Revik...even Maygar and Chandre...but the more I call to them, the more silver bodies converge around me.

I am too late. They are closing.

All around me rustle glimpses of presence and chiseled light.

Eyes and hands appear and disappear...they belong to more beings than I can count. Precise, lifeless, they slam into me, knocking me further off-balance. I turn, change course, change the vibration of my light, disappear...reappear. I look for resonance with something beautiful, something not-them, but more appear all the time, until I feel...

ALLIE!

Relief floods my light. He comes at me so quickly it shocks me. His light collides, then coils into mine, and briefly, we are alone.

Allie!

I feel him...all around me.

Shield! Disappear!

He hands me imprints, keys to lead me out through this winding tunnel or that one. I feel his intention...

No! I twine my light deeper into his. No! I’m not leaving you here!

They don’t know your light! You haven’t spent enough time with them...

They know yours!

Allie, I have ways to evade them on my own. You need to listen—

No! My anger flares. Don’t leave me like you left Elise!

Laughter echoes around us.

I hit a wall, one I did not see, and come to a painful stop. Before I can reverse, I lose him. He is pulled away from me so fast it is like mist evaporating from my fingers. Then I am inside a blank room with four walls. I can’t feel Revik, but I hear him, for one last—

Allie! Don’t wait for me!

I throw myself in the direction of his voice, but another wall separates us. I crash into that one, too, end up bathed in stinging threads. Red eyes surround me, shimmering hands and torsos. Dozens of them hook into my light, but Galaith’s is the only presence I feel.

Let us go! Please!

I know how futile my words sound, how meaningless. There is nothing else to say.

Please, please…let him go! Please!

Galaith’s face appears, alone. The silver bodies and red eyes recede.

I focus on him as the grayish space around me grows silent. Galaith’s features flicker like candlelight. His dark eyes meet mine, without precise color or form, yet I see hints of teeth, stretched lips and facial creases.

He is smiling.

Hello, Liego, he says.