Gates of Rapture (Guardians of Ascension 6)

“Jesus,” Marguerite said. “If we’re busy folding Greaves’s army to new locations, I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”

Thorne nodded. “Then that’s what you’re going to practice today.”

“Right,” Marguerite said, but she’d paled.

He put a hand on her shoulder and held her gaze. “Listen to me. Leto knows where Greaves’s artillery is. He’ll know when it lights up or if it lights up. I’ll get him on it, and we’ll arrange a signal, okay? We’ll figure this thing out.”

* * *

By the time Grace arrived at the workout center, Marguerite and Fiona were already there with Thorne. “I’ve sent for Leto,” he said. “We’re going to need him.”

Her gaze shifted beyond Thorne’s shoulder, and she saw that the corner of the room had come alive with all sorts of computer equipment, including several large monitors.

“What’s going on?” Her chest grew very tight.

Marguerite explained about her obsidian intuition firing off about Greaves, even though she couldn’t find anything in the future streams about him or a possible attack at the spectacle event.

Grace. Leto’s voice was suddenly in her head, and a second later she could feel him. She turned, and as he had done the day before, he strode across the mats looking like a god. Her heart seemed to flip in her chest, and without thinking she ran to him. He caught her up in his arms and held her tight, her feet dangling off the floor.

What’s wrong? he sent.

Marguerite thinks Greaves will attack at the spectacle review.

When he remained silent, she pulled back and he lowered her to the floor. She asked, “I mean, do you honestly think that Greaves would attack even though it would ruin him in the eyes of the world?”

“I know his mind. I know that right now he must feel that all his ambitions, his centuries of planning, are threatened by the triad. If Marguerite has that instinct vibrating through her obsidian power, I can only say that I think it’s not just possible, but likely.”

Grace lowered her gaze to the mats. “This is what I feared,” she said, “that by coming back, I’d be getting this close to weapons and bombs. I don’t know if I can do this. I thought it would just be a spectacle parade.”

He drew her against him and held her tight, but he didn’t say anything.

Grace took one breath after another. She knew it was too late to change things, and part of her didn’t want to. But she’d seen the war destroy Thorne for centuries. The same war ripped her sister, Patience, out of the air, taking her who the hell knew where.

Now she was part of a power-based triad, and because she’d been so very clever, she’d placed herself at the center of what could be a bombing.

Leto’s voice was once more in her head. You can go back. You have a right to the life of your choosing. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Leto, you always say what I need to hear. And yet …

It’s not simple.

You’re right, our decisions are never simple.

She’d had the life of her choosing for many centuries, and during all that time she’d never really found a place to put down roots. She had searched the ends of the earth, even Mortal Earth, looking for some sort of spiritual enlightenment, but nothing lasted, nothing satisfied.

In the end, she’d chosen to come back to Leto and to stop avoiding the war. She thought of all that was at stake. She remembered Leto’s speech at the warrior games about how everyone had a part in the war, because it wasn’t just about swords and guns and bombs. It was about building a better future going forward and that all ascenders had a role to play.

She didn’t like the role she’d been given to play. But what did that matter?

She chuckled softly and drew back. “I don’t know what I expected when I returned, or what I thought would happen when I said we should use a spectacle event as a ruse to move an army. I think I was naive.” She smiled ruefully. “I’ll be okay. I just keep needing to get used to this new reality.”

She turned to walk back in Thorne’s direction. Leto joined her with his arm around her waist.

Both Fiona and Marguerite comforted her, which of course caused their shared power to flare. However, in this case, it helped. “I kind of lost my nerve. But now that I feel all that massive obsidian vibration, I’m okay. We can do this, can’t we?”

“Of course we can,” Marguerite said. “Or as Endelle would say, ‘Shit yes, of course we f**king can.’”

Grace started to laugh, and her obsidian sisters joined her.

Leto drew close, kissed her on the cheek, and said that Thorne had moved computer equipment to the workout room so that he’d be nearby if the triad needed him. “I’m locating Greaves’s artillery. I have one of Marcus’s computer geeks, which is code for ‘hacker,’ to help me break into some of the Commander’s files.”

Knowing that Leto was working on the bombing issue also gave her some comfort. But it was her brother who helped the most when he said, “We’re going to practice the rest of the day, here and out at the parade grounds as well, until all of you feel comfortable. The first thing we need to do is to find out if the triad can gather its power while in flight and without making physical contact. I feel confident it can be done, but we want to be sure.

“Also, we need to find out what happens when obsidian flame folds someone while in flight, which would include the swan and geese handlers, Endelle, and any of Marcus’s in-flight video operators. Though I have a feeling that the triad’s power will protect everyone, we need to know what we’re dealing with.

“Finally, I want to do an emergency run while in flight, to simulate Greaves’s firing his artillery. I want to be assured that I get a signal from the computer operator, and that I can alert the triad that an emergency mass fold is necessary for the parade grounds, then have Grace perform one very fast. How does that sound?”

Somehow having her brother break the challenges facing obsidian flame into specific skill sets and practice drills helped Grace a lot. She could even take a deep breath without feeling like she was being strangled. She realized that she was working with warriors who knew a lot about the value of regular workouts and drills on every level.

The first thing the triad did was to separate and focus on the obsidian flame power, causing the vibrations to rise without making physical contact. After a few false starts, a simple form of telepathy, from Grace to Marguerite then to Fiona, set the necessary sequence. Marguerite even suggested they use the word scorpion to focus on in order to prompt the experience. After an hour of practice, scorpion brought the power flowing within seconds each time the word passed from woman to woman.