"I think it lulled me out of myself." Eva looked at Caden, knowing it sounded crazy.
Even she thought it was a weird thing to think, but she didn't have any other explanation for it.
"It operates on a hive mind. What one knows; the rest do too."
Caden nodded. "That fits with what I saw. As soon as one bit Ghost, it was like the rest instantly knew we were there."
"That's not all. I got the sense they were operating off orders. That they're on some type of mission."
Caden's gaze sharpened. "Do you know what they want?"
Eva shook her head. "Only that it felt like they were searching for something."
They lapsed into silence again as Eva sorted through the tangled knots in her memories.
"That's not all. I thought I had a dream. Only I don't think it was a dream at all."
"Oh?"
Eva nodded. "We were standing in front of a wall of fog and Shea and Fallon's adopted daughter, Mist, stopped me from walking into it. I got the feeling if I had, I might not have woken up at all."
Caden body tensed lightly under Eva's before his soothing strokes along her back resumed.
"She told me something."
Eva thought hard, but it was difficult. Like any dream, the encounter faded the longer Eva was awake.
"She said war is coming and that Shea and Fallon might be among his first targets. Then she said I didn't have time to be lost." Eva couldn't help her tiny chuckle at that last part.
She looked up at Caden's to find him staring into the distance.
"Caden?" Eva asked.
He nodded to himself. "That fits."
Eva pushed up to see his face better. "What does?"
Caden's answer wasn't immediate, the wheels turning in his brain as he formed and discarded plans.
She reached up and turned his face toward hers. "What aren't you telling me? How bad is our situation?"
His reaction suggested she'd missed something important.
Caden had played a good game earlier. He'd inspired confidence in the others over what was coming, motivating them for the battle ahead.
Only Eva needed to see behind the facade. She didn't want the pretty half-truths or the illusion of safety.
If this was to be some of their last moments together, she wanted to know.
Eva looked into his face. "How worried should I be?"
Caden didn't immediately answer as he studied her, preoccupied with running his fingers along her shoulder.
"War brings death. It's a universal truth all warriors must acknowledge." Caden leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the spot he'd just touched. "No one can say which fate will be ours until it greets us."
Eva drew back, giving him a hard look. "That's not what I asked."
Caden chuckled and rolled over onto his back, bringing her with him. He made himself comfortable as Eva settled herself, half leaning on his chest.
