Page 82 of The Vampire King's War

Julian could not sit. Tension had him standing rigid. Energy thrummed through him. Daemon still held his hand. Still traced that symbol of eternity on it.

“So what’s our plan?” Balthazar asked, looking gray and ill.

There was a soft knock on the door. Daemon called, “Come in, Seeyr.”

Julian swallowed. But only his eyes flickered to the door. He was holding himself so rigidly that it felt like he might break into pieces if he attempted to move. Seeyr would determine whether he went to get his parents or not. But he sensed that maybe she might be determining whether his parents were gotten at all.

Sophia preceded her Mistress. Seeyr had a hand on Sophia’s right shoulders. Julian suddenly worried that her health had taken a turn for the worse. Her ability to see the future normally allowed her to know where the obstacles were before her! But she was very much using Sophia’s eyes.

She smiled at Julian then, picking him out in the room. “Do not worry, Prince Julian. Sometimes when one is looking farther ahead one does not see the obstacles directly in one’s path.”

“How far are you looking ahead, Seeyr?” Fiona had stopped her pacing.

“Very far and very near. This is a crucial moment, I’m afraid. One of those points that changes everything,” Seeyr explained as Sophia led her to a seat.

Daemon pulled the seat out for her and slid it back in place beneath her. She thanked him.

“It’s about my parents, isn’t it?” Julian rushed out. “Kaly left the soul gems in Moonfall and--”

“And you wish to go retrieve them, of course,” she finished for him with a smile.

“Yes, but…” Julian licked his lips. “Daemon doesn’t see me leaving that place. If I go in, he doesn’t see me come out.”

“Ah, correction, he doesn’t see anything at all once you go there,” she stated.

“That--that sounds worse.”

Julian’s shoulders stiffened. He had a momentary qualm then about going after his parents. He hated himself for it. If they were dead and truly could not be brought back he could accept that. But they were trapped in the soul gems. They would be there forever unless retrieved.

“No, it is an important distinction. Daemon has told you before that he cannot see his own future,” Seeyr said gently. Her elegant, long fingers played over the highly polished tabletop. She looked to be making a symbol but he couldn’t tell what it was at first. “So he cannot see what happens beyond that point in time, because what happens after that is… well, I don’t want to say it is his story, because it is all of ours. But he is king.”

Those words that had always brought a smile to Julian’s face or sometimes a roll of his eyes now seemed… Well, he was starting to understand what they meant.

“Julian does not have to go there at all,” Balthazar said stoutly. “I will go with a few others. Fiona, you have no objection to going, do you? We could bring Arcius, Elgar, and--and even Caemorn.”

Caemorn lifted his head. He had been studying his interlaced fingers. He gave a graceful nod at Balthazar. He would go. Julian gritted his teeth. He wanted desperately to get to his parents, but if so much was at risk if it was him to do it then--

“Julian must go,” Seeyr said softly.

Sophia lightly petted her shoulder. She looked up at Julian sadly. What did that mean?

“Why?” Daemon asked.

“Indeed, why? I’ve been to Moonfall!” Balthazar frowned. “Between Caemorn and I we can find where that little shit left the soul gems and--”

“No,” Seeyr said just as softly and she, too, looked sad.

Balthazar banged the table with one hand. “Why the hell not?! Julian was just turned. He’s strong. He’s got balls. But sending him into Moonfall on his own when--”

“Not alone, Eyros. With one other person,” Seeyr interrupted, her voice still so terribly soft.

“With me,” Christian stated more than questioned as he straightened.

“Good grief, no!” Balthazar was sitting rigid in his chair. “Absolutely not! The two of you are not yet ready to do something like this on your own and--”

“We’ve been training for this all our lives,” Julian found himself saying. He and Christian smiled at one another. “We’ve risked our lives countless times when we were mortal. We’ve even fought monsters from the Ever Dark, though we didn’t know it at the time. But we did it and made it back. We can do this.”

“We can do this,” Christian agreed with a nod.

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