Gates of Rapture (Guardians of Ascension 6)

“Are you streaming any of this to Marcus?” Endelle asked. “He’ll want to send this out to our allied High Administrators all around the globe.”

“He was my third phone call after you and Seriffe.”

“Good.” Something inside Endelle began to ease. She had hated her break with Thorne when Marguerite entered the picture, but right now she saw the results. Thorne in this position, essentially commanding all aspects of the war against Greaves, was exactly what she had needed.

As for Marcus, who headed up her PR, he would be eating up the videos. Ever since he’d returned from a two-hundred-year vacay on Mortal Earth, he’d been piling the electronics. She now saw one of the results: He could mobilize his PR crews within seconds of any situation. She approved. On the other hand, one of the other results bugged the shit out of her since she now had a website called MadameEndelle.com, and all the other crap that Marcus called “a critical social media platform.” Thanks to a thing called “tweets” that Marcus and his breh, Havily, formulated on her behalf, Endelle was enjoying a surge in popularity.

How f**king precious.

“So what do we think all this means?” Endelle asked.

Thorne turned to meet her gaze. “Besides the obvious?”

“That’s right, besides the fact that Greaves has attacked two of the colonies on Mortal Earth two nights in a row and risked our world becoming known to the human population. Besides all that, what the f**k is the bastard up to?”

But it was Grace who answered. “He’s testing everything without showing his hand on Second Earth: the strength of Diallo’s mist, response time of the Militia Warrior army, what, if anything, obsidian flame would do if he attacks, perhaps even my own power.”

“She’s right,” Thorne said. “This isn’t an overt battle. If Greaves had wanted to do that, he would have launched at Apache Junction Two at any of your allied Territories around the world. But he knows if he does that, he opens the war. He’s not ready yet to go full-out, but I don’t think he’s going to wait very long.”

Endelle turned to Grace. “Where’s your man right now? Alison said you completed the breh-hedden. Can you find him?”

Grace nodded, then blinked a couple of times as if she was concentrating. Finally, she said, “He’s just sent a squad of sixteen deep into the forest after three death vamps. He also said to alert Jeannie that he’d want to start moving corpses and clearing debris in small bursts. I told him I’d relay the message.”

Thorne held the mouthpiece of his headset, clicked a couple more buttons, and Jeannie’s voice filled the space. “Jeannie here.”

Thorne gave her Leto’s instructions. “Shall I let Gideon know?” he asked.

“I’ve got it,” she said. “Later.”

Endelle heard the softest click. She was f**king impressed. This was a massive team that Thorne had built. “What do we think Greaves’s next move will be?”

Thorne turned around to face her. “This worries me the most because we just don’t know, and according to Marguerite, that bastard Stannett is working his ass off blocking Greaves’s movements in the future streams. She has four teams of Seers working with high rates of accuracy, but none of them is able to find out much about Greaves or his generals or his army. I can tell you what my biggest concerns are.”

But Endelle already knew them. “You’re worried about the colonies falling to Greaves, because Leto a built a force of a hundred thousand.”

He nodded then glanced at Grace. His brow was furrowed. “And I’m worried as hell about obsidian flame.”

Peace, though sought from every corner of the universe, Can only be found deep in the heart.

—Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth

Chapter 11

Greaves once more stood on the viewing platform. Stannett reclined with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling, waiting for Greaves’s orders. He had a new set of Seers strapped down on the chaise longues. He was such a powerful bastard that the women were dying right and left, literally, and yet he looked refreshed.

Greaves recognized some of the women from Johannesburg. All had their eyes closed. Apparently Stannett kept them in a stupor in order to control them. Smart thinking, but then Stannett had been in charge of Seers for centuries. He knew what to do.

Greaves was disappointed that the attack at the Seattle Colony had unraveled as it did and now cleanup was in progress. He had watched events from a levitating position in the sky behind his mist. He had to admit that Thorne and Leto had created a tremendous amount of discipline in their forces, and especially in the citizenry of the colony.

Though Greaves had effectively eliminated the security system’s electronic alarm, he had not been prepared for the pounding of drums that had alerted most of the citizens to his attack. He’d been stunned to observe how many colonists simply vanished—all prearranged, of course.

Despite the achievement of pure vision, no doubt Marguerite had somehow discovered the attack as well and alerted the colony. Earlier, he had spent time with his generals, setting his strategies—especially where the hidden colonies were concerned. He knew that Leto would have trained all the Militia Warriors in all the colonies. He knew Leto’s mind and his skills. He would have been perfect for the task. The warrior games had no doubt been a culmination of his work.

Greaves wasn’t certain exactly how large a force the hidden colonies had, but his generals had put the estimate near eighty thousand and Greaves really didn’t want to be surprised once a battle began. He hadn’t come this far to lose to something as ridiculous as an army built of colonists. More than anything, he wanted to eliminate the colonies as a factor in what would become a major showdown over the next several days.

His other concern, of course, was obsidian flame.

He’d decided to shift his strategy just a little and try one last time to eliminate the triad as a force in the upcoming confrontations. All he needed to do to solve this problem was to render Grace harmless, and he’d formed a plan that might just work. But he thought he’d check it out with Stannett first. Maybe the future streams could give him an edge on this one. That’s all he needed, just a slight edge.

He called down to Stannett. “Are you ready?”

Stannett unloosened his hands and met Greaves’s gaze. “Yes, master.”

“Good. I want you to search for a time when I’m alone with Grace and I want to know where and when.”