Page 65 of Keeping Sarah

He hugged me again, but tighter this time. “It will be okay.”

I held him close. “You can’t know that. I can’t lose you. I can’t lose her. I can’t lose you because we’ve lost her. This is too much. All of it.”

“I know. I know.”

He patted my back until I calmed down, but it did not feel like enough. Nothing would be enough until Sarah was back with us, healthy and whole.

Jac said, “When Omen returns, she and I will go to the city. I’ll enter the fight, she can do whatever she is going to do. She’s not banned from Faithless any more than she already was, beinga conduit and all that. We will get Sarah back, Deacon. I swear it.”

I swallowed hard, knowing he would not like what I planned to do. “I know we will get her back. Because I am going to do something very, very ill-advised.”

CHAPTER 19

Sarah

Istretched out on Rex’s big, soft bed. It was the most comfortable place I had been on all of Halla, so I relished my time there. “How do you even leave this bed every morning?” I asked him.

He chuckled. “I require fabulousness in all my endeavors, or had you not noticed?”

I rolled my eyes and got up for the morning. After a shower and some of the freshest fruit I had ever eaten, we sat down on the settee in his bedroom and perused the messages left under the door. He huffed as he read the last one, which mentioned the council’s disappointment.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The one about the council,” he said in a moody tone. “They are always so sensitive when it’s been a while since our last meeting. But I do not know if meeting me in mycurrentcondition would improve that situation.”

“Who are they?”

“The oldest ghosts on Halla. They had ruled over Faithless before I made her into a proper city. Each of them ran a district and worked together to try to keep the peace. When I came here, I decided working with them was simpler than working against them. They have good standing in the community, so it was the practical thing to do. However, because they have been here for so long, they like to treat me like a figurehead instead of the authority that I am.”

I smiled at his indignant tone. “Maybe itistime for them to see your current condition. We have stayed out of the public eye for two days now. But with the people acting up and the council’s concern, hiding isn’t going to squash any of that. It’s only going to make things worse.”

He sighed. “Perhaps you’re right.”

“Plus, if they’re a bunch of stodgy old dudes, won’t it be funny to see them freak out when they see the two of us?”

He chuckled in a very wicked, Rex-like way. “They have no idea what is in store for them, do they?”

“Nope.”

Rex’s house servants had grown accustomed to my face, though none of them seemed too pleased to see me about the manor. I had sent them to the city for clothes for me, since I hadn’t packed anything. When they returned, they suggested certain items that would please Rex. The trashier, sluttier items. Not that I minded showing some skin, but I wasn’t dressing to please him, and I needed to appear respectable enough that some old guy council wouldn’t give me too much grief.

So, I picked a purple tunic and robe set that made me feel royal in some way. “What do we think?” I asked, showing him my attire by looking into the mirror in his room.

“If you’re going to seduce them, revealing clothing is the way to go about it,” he said. “Not this outfit.”

“I’m not trying to seduce them, Rex,” I said, annoyed with his reply and him wanting to objectify me. “I want them to pay attention to us, not my body.”

“It’s just as well, I imagine,” he grumbled. “Some of them had human slaves on Orhon, and they won’t see you as fuckable anyway.”

“Oh. Super,” I replied sarcastically.

“Hence my apprehension.”

I nodded and braided my hair over my shoulder. “Think we’re ready?”

“As ever.” Rex’s tone faltered.

“We can do this,” I told him. “Buck up.”

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