Star laughed. “What an odd fear to have.”
Emma shrugged. “That’s me, irrationally afraid of things. Gruesome deaths, clowns, jogging, centipedes, and whatever the hell a mothball is.”
My face actually hurt I was smiling so hard. “I hate dolls,” I admitted. “Those creepy eyes always feel like they’re watching me.”
“Yes!” Emma cried. “Holy shit, yes, dolls are creepy as freak.”
We stopped joking around when Chase reached out and touched the branches – they parted for him. “We’ll be right back,” he said, stepping forward.
Star and Emma hugged Marsil, but I didn’t feel comfortable enough with him to do that. Chase – and Lexen – felt like the next best thing to Daniel. As Emma said, they were brother figures … family. Marsil was different, but I did pat his arm.
“Good luck. Don’t die.”
Chase winked, and Marsil just shook his head. As they stepped out, I scanned across the metal area again; there was absolutely nothing out of place. Not a single Daelighter in sight. Once the guys were out of the trees, the leaves closed back across in front of us. The three of us pushed forward, all trying to find a gap to see through.
“I have a bad feeling,” Star whispered. “It’s too quiet out there. I mean, someone is always coming and going through the transporter, but…”
“Should we call them back?” I asked with urgency.Daniel, where are you?He had to be okay. He had to be.
“Just keep an eye out,” Emma said. “If they need our help, we’re going to have to figure out how to get out of these trees.”
I had a feeling they wouldn’t let us go easily, and none of us had any idea how to speak with them. For some time, we kept a vigilant watch on Chase and Marsil. They walked the perimeter of the large area. I lost sight of them once or twice when they moved out of the range of my peephole and the light, but they appeared again quickly enough and nothing attacked them.
Eventually they made their way back to where we were waiting. The branches parted under Chase’s command and Emma stepped out first. Star and I followed.
“Do you think the message was wrong?” I asked Chase.
His brow furrowed as he answered. “It’s possible. I didn’t recognize the Leights who handed it to me, but that doesn’t mean anything. One of the very outer villages is visiting for a festival, so there are a lot of different Daelighters about.”
Or it could have been Laous. What if he’d somehow figured out a way to take people from all four houses and turn them to his cause? That way he could access all four lands easily without having to go there himself. Just as I had that thought, a series of clicks and cracks rang through the air. Chase cursed and threw himself protectively over Emma and me as a blast shattered the air around us.
15
Chase was a big guy. He knocked us down so fast that I didn’t get a chance to even throw an arm out to take some of the impact. My head slammed into the ground. My ears rang, and I couldn’t focus my eyes – they watered every time I tried. Whatever they’d hit us with continued on for many minutes, ringing and shaking the ground.
Once it stopped, it took me at least fifty rapid blinks to be able to see, only to realize there was a shoulder in front of me. I tried to shift the Daelighter off me, but he was immovable.
“What’s going on?” I screamed, my ears still not recovered.
Chase’s mouth was opening and closing, but I couldn’t get much of what he said. I did manage to lip read the word “attack.” He repeated it at least three times.
“Laous?” I guessed.
He pulled his focus from me to look around and I checked on Emma. Her eyes were closed and my heart immediately stopped beating. Jiggling my arm until I managed to get it free, I reached out and shook her shoulder. “Emma,” I shouted. “Em!”
No movement or sign of consciousness. I was at an awkward angle to feel for a pulse, but I managed to contort myself into some stupid pose to reach her neck, and almost cried when there was a fluttering under my fingertips. She was alive, that was the most important thing. Hopefully she’d just been knocked unconscious in the blast. I still didn’t know what sort of bomb or attack it had even been. There had been a loud bang, shaking ground, and a burst of energy, but no heat or fire.
“We need to move,” Chase said. He was on his feet in a heartbeat; I was yanked up in the same instant. Emma was still completely out. Gently, he lifted her into his arms, cradling her body with great care.
Marsil and Star joined us. They had been thrown a few feet away, but both seemed to be okay. “What happened to Emma?” Star asked, her voice high and reedy. My hearing was finally coming back online.
“I think she must have been knocked out when that blast hit,” I said. “Her pulse felt fine to me, but I’m not a doctor.”
Star didn’t look relieved. If anything, her expression grew more strained. “We need to get her to a healer, immediately. Nothing can happen to her.”
Chase handed her to the slender woman. “Take her. Take her and go immediately to Darken. And trust no one. We were betrayed here.”
Star took Emma’s weight like it was nothing, hugging her close before immediately sprinting toward the transporter.
