Page 13 of Keeping Sarah

I laughed at her. “Glad to see you too.”

The four conduits piled in, but before the cargo bay door had shut, I heard, “Hey, wait up!”

Lowering it again, I grinned at their additional member. Gram Skir, Omen’s living brother, hopped into the cargo hold. He was short for a Ladrian, like his cousin, Drift. But he was spry and ran a black market for bone weaponry on Halla after we faked his death on Orhon.

I was glad to have him on board. “It is especially good to see you, Gram.”

He tipped his head curiously. “Whyespeciallygood?”

“I figured Omen had made good on that threat to feed you to her drecks for telling me where she lived not long ago,” I pointed out.

He chuckled. “I had to talk Omen out of it.”

I laughed, too. “As if you could talk your sister out of anything.”

“Pleasantries later, men, we have a queen to save,” Omen insisted, pointing toward the cockpit.

I would have balked, but she was right. “Later, Gram.”

I jogged there, unsure what conduit ability she might decide to turn on me if I didn’t move my ass. Of all the conduits I had known, Omen was the most secretive about her gifts. She might have turned me into a cina, for all I knew.

We took off and I was surprised when Omen knocked on the cockpit doorway. “May I join you?”

I glanced back at her. “Since when do you ask permission for anything?”

“I have known some pilots to be sensitive about their cockpits. No sense in starting a riot when I don’t need to.”

“Come in, Omen,” I said, welcoming the company. “Co-pilot seat is open.”

She sat to my right, where Sarah had once sat. The terrible day I had taken her home when life on Halla had overwhelmed her. The memory of driving back without her was still fresh in my mind, especially in her absence now.

I cleared my throat and asked, “What can I do for you, Omen?”

“It’s not what you can do for me, Jac. I…” She paused, and her eyes were unsure, which was unsettling. I had never seen Omen unsure about much of anything.

“What is it?” I persisted. “Is Gram okay?”

“My brother is a weasel, but he’s fine otherwise.”

I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, but he’s your weasel.”

She almost smiled, but the sentiment faltered. “I’m worried for Sarah.”

“Of course you are. That’s why we’re going to save her.”

“It’s not only her absence that disturbs me, Jac,” she said, frowning. “It’s what she did. What she’s doing.”

Confused, I asked, “How do you mean?”

Omen sighed before she spoke, like she had to gather her thoughts one more time before she could say them out loud. “Sarah’s powers have steadily, exponentially increased since I met her. She is the contra, the thing all conduits feared, the one who can rule us all. She should have a lot of powers, but,” she swallowed, “there is nothing in the holy text about the contra being able to possess a ghost.”

“It’s a holy text.” I shrugged. “It can’t account for everything—"

“It does. The holy text tells us everything that has ever happened since creation. It is an evolving, self-editing book written by the gods, Jac. There is nothing in it aboutanyonewho can possess a ghost.”

I thought for a brief moment. “If it’s writing about everything that has ever happened, then I bet it says something about that now.”

She grabbed my forearm—not an insignificant gesture from a ghost. They had to concentrate all their energy to touch anything that wasn’t bone. “Jacaranda Cozz, I need you to hear me,” she said imperatively. “Sarah is off the map with her powers. She is not just the contra. She issomething else.”

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