But where wasmyElite parasite? I crept closer, and when I couldn’t see him through the coach windows, I did something I’d never had the nerve or inclination to do before. I reached for the link between us, plucking it with the most delicate finger of ki I could muster. “Come out to play, Captain Rawlings,” I whispered, voice drowned by the men below me.
And there he was, obeying my command. Adjusting his jacket, he stepped into the light, a crooked smirk set upon his lips.
Kas’ tail twitched.
Did he think he was safe? Did he think I couldn’t reach him simply because he was not in the forest? Because he’d surrounded himself with the general and fancy weapons?
Poor, foolish man. It wasnothingto expand the limit of my lands a few dozen feet beyond the road…Nothingto bring the seat of my power with me. Gleeful, I set my palms to the bark beneath me, senses snaking toward him through the grass. Spreading my ki thin enough to go unnoticed while Kas paced the tree line, waiting for my signal.
A cloud of white smoke surrounded Marco. “This weather reminds me of the evening breeze back home, doesn’t it, Rawlings?”
“Not quite as warm, perhaps,” the captain said, “but a nice change from all that snow in the west.”
“Well?” the general asked, thumbs hooked into his belt. “Are we just going to stand here staring at trees, or are we going to get moving?”
“Sir,” Jasper said, holding a door. “Please, you must get back into the coach. It’s not safe. The Menace—”
“Oh, stuff your silly menace,” Marco replied with a lazy flick of his wrist, ashing his smoke.
At that, the captain’s lips bloomed in a full smile, pendant catching the afternoon light in a brilliant shower of those trademark purples, greens, and blues. Obsidian eyes scanning beyond the foliage. Searching.
For me.
My mouth watered. After five years in the captain’s possession, my pendant was likely the only thing in existence capable of matching the Grandmother for power. By the dead Goddess, to swallow that forbidden Elite ki he’d teased me with for so long…
Fingers wrapped around the pendant, the captain’s brow creased. Senses trickling into the dark.
Oh, but it was much too late forthat. I let my specter fill Kas, giving her a nudge to send the lion pacing through the trees.
Inky gaze following along, he tracked the shadows concealing Kas. Blind to the ki building beneath his very feet.
“According to the maps,” Marco said under his breath, moving to the captain’s side, “we’re not off course. You think Jasper might be right?”
The captain smiled, revealing straight, white teeth. “There’s only one road to Liyas, Marco.”
Marco snorted, elbowing the captain and stamping out his cigarette butt. “You know that’s not what I meant, sir. Think it’s this wood’s menace?”
The captain’s smile widened, but he said nothing more. Merely rolled the pendant between forefinger and thumb.
“Hmm.” Joining them, General Tilcot squinted at the roadblock. “We may have to do a little gardening, boys.”
Flexing my fingers, I gazed at my little puppets all lined up, as I gathered the strength to strike…
“There’s only one way to be sure.” The general snapped his fingers at the coach. “Priestess!”
My breath caught.
“Come along, girl,” General Tilcot said, rapping his knuckles on the coach door.
The coach shifted, and as if in slow motion, a woman stepped into the clearing. Golden circlets encasing wrists and throat. Face fuller than I remembered, eyes downcast, she knelt in the dirt—on the vines—without being told to do so.
Gooseflesh erupted all over my skin.
Not just a Priestess.
ThePriestess.
“Time to earn your keep,” the general said. “Tell me, is Liyas through the trees, or have we gone off course?”
