“A little, but I’m not sure why. It’s all so new, I guess.”
“You mean the breh-hedden?”
She pivoted to look up at him. “Not just that. Everything. These powers that just seem to keep expanding and being part of obsidian flame. I still can’t believe we folded over two hundred thousand warriors—”
“—and don’t forget the birds.”
She laughed. “And the birds. But we got everyone to safety. I mean, who can do that?”
“A team of powerful ascended women, that’s who.”
He leaned down, caught her lips, and kissed her. She kissed him back, pushing herself a little farther up his chest, wondering just how far down this road they really were.
She loved Leto, so very much. Her heart was given, that much she could feel within herself. Maybe she did have parts missing, but she had a powerful instinct that time would make those ghost-like parts of her more real. At least, she hoped so.
She was about to make a comment on how much everything was changing when a sudden light filled the room. A moment later, Greaves was just there, standing at the foot of the bed, his hands behind his back.
“My, Leto, how you’ve grown?”
“Greaves. What the f**k are you doing here? And how the hell did you get through two layers of mist and one of them Endelle’s?”
The Commander simply lifted a brow. “Are you kidding?”
Then he began to pace.
Grace couldn’t reach the sheet to cover her body so she huddled next to Leto. He sat up, leaning over her, shielding her with his massive chest. Her heart started thumping.
She couldn’t believe the enemy was in Leto’s bedroom.
She waved a hand, and now wore yoga pants and a tank top. Good enough. She put her hand on Leto’s shoulder. I’m clothed, she sent.
He didn’t relax, not even a little. Clearly, nudity wasn’t their biggest problem.
“I think I’ve been amazingly forbearing and gracious,” Greaves said. He slid his hand along the smooth edge of the footboard. “Nor did I need to announce my presence. I could have struck and slain you both, but that hardly would have been gentlemanly, now would it?”
“You won’t kill us,” Leto said. “COPASS, by law, would be forced to take action. Endelle would insist on it. You still don’t have a majority of Second Earth Territories in your camp. COPASS would have had to submit to the majority’s will.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps.” He wore his usual immaculate dark wool suit. His bald head gleamed. He stopped pacing and turned toward Leto. “Perhaps I don’t care anymore. I think you and I both know exactly what is at stake in this room right now. Do you think I don’t know that you took half my army away from me? Or that Warrior Marcus has turned my less-than-successful bombing attempt into a PR nightmare?” He waved a hand toward Grace. “Or that her return hasn’t made my life a nightmare?
“But there is something more, Leto. You wounded me. I trusted you and you betrayed me. I had wanted to believe in our friendship, I even had thoughts at times that we could become more than friends. I know it’s foolish of me, but you hurt my pride and that is the truly unforgiveable sin.”
Grace extended her thoughts to Casimir. Why wasn’t he here? He was supposed to be Leto’s Guardian of Ascension. Yet she could tell he wasn’t in the cabin, wasn’t anywhere near.
Greaves rocked back on his heels, then smiled. “No, my dear Leto, I’m finishing this tonight. Don’t bother trying to fold or use your telepathy. None of it will work. I didn’t just add my mist, I shrouded your cabin. No one in. No one out. Not even Casimir, I’m ’fraid.”
Grace still had her hand on Leto’s shoulder. He was still in his beast state, but his body had heated up, almost burning beneath her fingers. She could feel his rage vibrating along his skin. Even if he had wanted to hold back, to try to reason his way out of the situation, she knew that he had suffered too much, endured too much, to do much more than engage in battle with Greaves right now.
Leto rose from the bed, his chin low. He folded on battle gear without flexing a single muscle. He lowered his body into a fighting stance. “Bring it,” he growled.
Greaves had thrown down the gauntlet, and because Leto was a warrior first, he had to do battle by every honorable code in his body. But he was no match for Greaves.
He would die in this battle.
And Grace would die with him.
Worse yet, the world would fall to this monster because obsidian flame could not function without her. With the triad out of the way, Greaves would gain the advantage. Over the centuries, he had gathered enough weaponry, turned enough death vampires, created a big enough army, and garnered sufficient support from enough territories to complete his dominion of Second Earth.
Grace felt her obsidian flame power rumbling deep within the earth. She sat up and allowed the power to flow up through her legs, inhabiting her more forcefully than ever before.
She wasn’t sure yet what she meant to do or even what she could do, but before she could act or even contact her obsidian sisters, Greaves threw something at her and a searing pain sliced through her shoulder.
She turned to look at the source of the pain, but movement was incredibly difficult and hurt like hell.
Her right shoulder was now pinned to the wood headboard with a long thick dagger.
A loud, heavy growl flowed through the room, a beast enraged, and Leto began flinging powerful hand-blasts at Greaves one after the other. But Greaves barely broke a sweat as he met each one with the open palms of his hands, apparently absorbing all that energy.
My God, the power Greaves had.
Get out of here, Grace! Leto shouted within her mind. Do what you can to escape. Now.
She reached for the knife and, grinding her teeth, pulled it out. She screamed and fell forward. She tried to fold but couldn’t, just as Greaves promised. She didn’t know what to do, or what else she could do given the situation. And she was in so much pain her mind had turned to mush.
But she had to focus. She worked at ordering her thoughts. What about her power to acquire abilities? Could she somehow make use of it now, in this terrible situation?
Maybe if she joined forces with Leto, but my God her shoulder her hurt. She could barely move her arm.
She reached deep for her healing abilities. Her obsidian power amplified them so that the wound began to close. She whimpered in relief.
And what of obsidian flame? Could she bring her obsidian sisters through Greaves’s shroud?