Page 66 of High Noon

The back of Yarrow’s chair cracked under my grip and she leaned forward and looked back at my face. “Easy,” she soothed. “I’ll bring them home when you say the word go, and I’ll make sure you are their target. But it has to be done on the fly. If I tinker with any of the settings now, they’ll know what you’re up to.”

“I need to figure out who’s leaking information to Kael.”

“Yes, you do,” Yarrow agreed. “Because whomever it is will know when the Assets and Maru land, and they’ll go straight to Victor or Kael with the information.” She sighed. “I’m hungry again.”

“Go find someone to feed from,” I advised, “and then watch for any more information I might need to know. If you intercept anything, yell for me. If any of their data changes, yell for me. If—”

“Enoch, I’ll yell for you,” she promised and stood up.

“Yarrow?”

“Hmm?” she answered, righting her glasses once more.

“If I find out that you are the cause of the leak, you will beg for death before I’m done with you. And so will Maru,” I promised.

She swallowed. “I wouldn’t do that. I hate Victor and Kael as much as you do.”

“Perhaps you’ll get to show me how much one day.”

She smiled, her fangs gleaming. “I certainly hope so.”

“I’ll be back when it’s time to pull them.”

* * *

Enoch 1868

For over a year before Eve arrived in this time, I’d been more or less roaming around the west, most often with Hotah, Kohana, and their people. Hotah told me that Eve would not be welcome among their people, which was the reason why Tanuk left them to meet with her away from the tribe.

The thing that kept clawing at me was that Tanuk was always accurate with her predictions. She’d seen two paths for Eve, a rarity according to Kohana. I knew Eve would want to take the path that was self-sacrificing, but I wanted her to choose to be turned. If she let me turn her, she could live. We could finally be together without limits or boundaries. No more interference from people born centuries ahead of us; neither of us beholden to anyone but ourselves. I just had to convince her – finally – to stay with me. To choose me.

In the meantime, we had to find a temporary place to stay.

Eve seemed fine, though she was pensive as she rode and hadn’t told Titus or Maru about Tanuk’s prediction yet. I wondered if she planned to tell them or wanted to keep it to herself.

She looked so healthy from the outside. I watched as she swayed back and forth in the saddle, rocked by the motion of the horse. She caught me staring and offered a slight smile. I could almost see the thoughts churning in her mind. Mine churned as well. There were a thousand things I wanted to say, and I was quickly running out of time to say them. Even if Tanuk was wrong about Eve, Kael was preparing to bring her home.

The ride wasn’t long or physically demanding, but it simultaneously felt like years and seconds had passed before we reached our destination.

Asa was still at the saloon when we arrived back in Falling Branch. We rode in on horses I’d borrowed from Kohana, who insisted on coming with us and staying near Eve. He claimed he wanted to help her if she got to the point where she needed it. Though he did have a satchel full of herbs, I didn’t like the way he watched her. I’d hunted with him often and saw him watch prey the same way.

Hotah chose to stay with Tanuk at their camp tonight, promising to ride back to rejoin the rest of their people after dawn. When we dismounted, I took the reins of the borrowed horses as Eve asked for a few moments alone upstairs to tell her friends what Tanuk told her. Which meant she believed it was possible.

I can’t let her die.

At the same time, she seemed healthy enough. She had a weak spell after being shot, but who wouldn’t? While the sick spells she’d had were bad, I didn’t think she was in imminent danger of dying. Though I knew that traveling, and landing in particular, were hard on her. I managed to catch her in this time. I vowed to catch her in twenty-one fifty-seven, as well.

Asa’s eyes latched onto the ceiling as he eavesdropped, swiping a wet rag across the top of the bar. When he had heard enough, he paused. “You should turn her,” he said out of the blue.

“No, I shouldn’t.”

“You should.”

“No, I should not,” I argued.

“I would.”

“I’m not you, Asa.”

---