She stepped ahead of him, whispering, “Follow me. I can see changes in the terrain. I’ll let you know when to step over or around something.”
When she reached a landing type area the soldier stopped moving forward and turned to face Tristan as if Evalle didn’t exist. “The witch poisons our world . . . I ain’t goin’ no further. She ain’t allowed to come this way with you. She knows we’ll stop her.”
That worked for Evalle.
The soldier added, “Follow the lanterns. You’ll find her.”
Evalle asked the soldier, “Can we get back to where we started today?”
His sleepy eyes finally noticed her. “I reckon it’s possible.”
What kind of answer was that? “Do we still have time before she kills a hostage?”
The soldier stared straight through her to the point Evalle thought he’d zoned out, but then his eyes focused. “Mebee a quarter hour. You’re ’bout two stone throws away.”
The soldier began fading until he turned into a glow of light the size of her hand and blinked out.
Tristan wouldn’t be any more motivated than right now to talk, and he couldn’t afford to leave her behind.
Evalle put a hand on his chest to stop him when he made a move to leave. “We’ve got fifteen minutes. I want two of them.”
Tristan argued, “He might be wrong about when she’s going to start killing people.”
“Then you need to talk fast. Why did Kizira bring your sister here?”
He took too long to answer. “I don’t know, maybe some kind of insurance that I wouldn’t try to trick her. We’re wasting seconds.”
“Before you go off half-cocked again, we need a plan. We can’t just waltz into a nest of Medb warlocks and Kizira.”
“I’m trading myself for the hostages. You’re getting them safely out of here.That’sthe plan.”
“If that’s your whole plan, it’s time to tell me how I go through several feet of concrete to reach the subway again, wise guy.”
He shook his head and scoffed at her. “Thought you’d already have this figured out. I’ll tell the Alterants to go with you if you swear you’ll do two things. First take my sister somewhere safe, get her out of Atlanta and don’t tell anyone she’s associated with me. Second, make sure that Tzader cuts a deal for you to accompany the Alterants to the Tribunal before he tells Sen where you are.”
She wasn’t agreeing to anything now that she knew Tristan had a sister in here to rescue. “Still listening.”
“As for getting through concrete, the minute you’re far enough away from Kizira, call Tzader or Quinn telepathically and first make sure they’ll protect these Alterants then tell them to bring in Sen, who can teleport in where we entered and take you out. Tell everyone my sister is an innocent bystander, that she was dragged into this by mistake.”
“That’syour plan for me to escape?”
He pulled back. “Yes. Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“I can’t use telepathy in here. I’ve been battling to keep my mental shields in place to block out any Belador telepathy since I got back to Atlanta. The minute you brought me into the maze the attack on my shields stopped. I lowered them to see if anyone’s voice came through. Haven’t heard a peep.”
“Maybe the Tribunal won’t allow anyone to contact you.”
“Nothing would stop Tzader or Quinn from trying to find me, and Trey has been trying to reach me nonstop. He’s so powerful that his telepathy thumps against my shields. Trey’s like a supernova of telepaths. If he can’t get through, no one can.”
Tristan had that sick kicked-in-the-balls expression again, but it was his own fault this time. He should have discussed this with her earlier.
She cocked her head, arms crossed. “Here’smyplan. I say we rescue the hostages and get out of here using your teleportation once we make it back to the access wall.Ifyou can find the right spot again.”
His body practically vibrated with the need to head toward the hostages. “I’m sure I can find one of the places to teleport out if the ghosts don’t block us.”
“Sounds like they’ll help us if it means Kizira goes, too.”
“The question is what you intend to do when we land on the other side?”
