Gates of Rapture (Guardians of Ascension 6)

He looked into Kendrew’s eyes and held his gaze firmly. “You will be with Grace again, I promise you that with all my heart.”

“How do you know, Papa, when everyone leaves?”

His chest hurt as though a boulder now sat on top of him. “Because I saw it in a vision, that you would be camping with her one day.”

“When did you see the vision?”

“While I was in Auntie Beatrice’s pool. And you know how wise and powerful your auntie is.”

At that, the wrinkles began to soften. “She can make butterflies appear with a wave of her hands.”

Casimir smiled, but the smile cost him because it stretched the skin of his face. He didn’t stop, though. What a small price to pay, this pain he was feeling, for all that he had done in his long wretched life, for the way he had failed to protect their mother from something so simple as a car accident on Mortal Earth. He had heard her screams between dimensions, but because he’d been enjoying himself with another woman, he’d ignored her and she had died.

Oh, yes, his sins were legion.

But he was atoning, and he would continue to atone until the last second of his life, so help him Creator. He opened his arms therefore to his boys. “Come to me. Let me kiss those beautiful foreheads.”

They were too young to understand that he was in pain, so as they scrambled over him, he took deep breaths and refused to release the bellows that hung low in the depths of his lungs. He could have screamed for the agony, but he didn’t.

Instead he drew his sons close, one to each side, and cradled them, ignoring the fire on his skin and instead savoring that what he loved the most was close to him in this moment.

He talked with them and laughed with them, until they began to slumber. He saw the stars through the sheer drapes. He gave thanks for the beauty of this night and for the path he was on. He ignored the darkness of the future. Above all, he promised himself that he would fulfill the destiny he had foreseen. In a few hours, when he was better recovered, he would pay a visit to Endelle, offering his services as a Guardian of Ascension.

As he slumbered, a dream came to him. He saw an elderly man sitting on a park bench feeding sunflower seeds to pigeons clustered around his feet. The man looked up at him with eyes that shone as he said, “Well met, Casimir. You will attend me tomorrow at the portal to Third Earth.”

“How do I find the portal when it’s been closed for so long?”

“It’s above White Lake on Second Earth, but you have sufficient power to follow the coordinates I give you now. You will awaken in a few hours completely healed. You must come to me then.” Casimir felt the information drop into his brain. He bowed to the old man, and the dream faded.

* * *

Grace stood in front of the mirror in Leto’s upstairs bathroom. She’d taken her time showering, then afterward drying and curling her hair, dressing, putting on makeup, just being a girl. She lifted a hand to flick her eyebrows a little, shaping them. All the silver bracelets jangled, the ones she had crafted herself during her stay at Beatrice’s home.

The bracelets made a pretty sound, a relatively new sound in her ascended life.

She was nervous. Leto hadn’t exactly seen her like this but she thought maybe she needed to be forthright—not just about Casimir and Fourth and her intentions now that she was back, but about everything.

She’d changed her manner of dress, something Leto wouldn’t have noticed since he’d been in his beast-state when she arrived in his basement. Later, at the hot spring, her makeup was gone and her hair plastered to her head, no curls, no beads, no stars, no blue sapphire, no adornments.

She moved to the window of the bedroom and looked down into the open backyard. Two Militia Warriors were standing close together and laughing. If she extended her hearing, she’d be able to hear the gist. But then they were warriors. She probably didn’t want to know what they were talking about.

Okay, so she was stalling.

She put a hand to her stomach. Her bare stomach. The full-length muslin skirt hung low on her hips, and the top was cut long at the sides but high at the middle of the waist to allow a peekaboo of her navel. Though the blouse had long sleeves, the neckline plunged and she was very much on display. She fingered the small sapphire in the loop just above her belly button.

Her heart tapped a little tremolo.

Would Leto even like this version of her?

“Move it, Grace,” she murmured.

She could have folded outside to the warriors, but they’d probably all draw their swords. If she understood their positions, they’d surrounded the house. Also, Leto had talked about folding to the landing platforms, which meant that dematerializing in the colony right now was being monitored carefully.

So she walked down the stairs and loosened up by shaking her hands a few times.

She opened the front door, and four warriors turned in her direction. The nearest was almost as tall as Leto. His brows rose and he seemed to freeze as he stared at her. The rest did as well.

“I’m ready,” she said. When no one said anything, she felt a slight blush rise on her cheeks. She’d spent a hundred years in a convent, covered from neck to ankle. She often forgot what the display of a certain amount of skin could do to a man.

She also knew that for this event and among the colonists, she was dressed properly for an outdoor, festive occasion, held at night.

The tallest one, who seemed to be in charge, blinked a couple of times and lifted his chin as though studiously refusing to drop his gaze lower. Yes, she was definitely showing some cle**age, and, yes, her stomach was bare.

“Good evening, ma’am. I’m Warrior Gideon. My squad will see you safely to the landing platforms in the valley proper. I understand you’re familiar with the valley and with the Seattle hidden colony?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Warrior Leto wanted me to tell you that platforms have been set up on the far western side of the competition zone. That’s where we’ll be going from here.”

She smiled. As though she hadn’t been folding all her two thousand years and into tens of thousands of different localities, including Fourth Earth. “You’re very kind, but I think I can handle a little fold through the forest and across a fairly narrow glade.”

At that, a glimmer shone in the warrior’s eye and his lips twitched. “I might have made mention of that fact to Warrior Leto.”

“And?”

“He might have scowled at me.”

Grace smiled. “Then allow me to take your arm for the fold.”