Page 327 of Seer Prophet

In the end, everything he’d told me more or less came true?if not exactly in the way I’d expected or hoped.

I also felt a dense pulse of real gratitude for Kali when I learned the news, maybe for the first time since I’d met her on that beach on Sri Lanka.

She’d probably saved Lily’s life.

She’d saved a lot of lives that night.

That morning in the desert, however, staring out over the endless-seeming expanse of white sand, watching the sun rise over an uneven horizon, I didn’t know any of that.

All I knew was, I was exhausted.

Revik was alive, so was Lily.

Dalejem was alive?and Feigran?although I knew it might be touch and go with either of them, depending on how things went back on those boats.

I continued to stand there, gazing out over all that sand, when I realized someone different stood next to me now. Someone not Chandre.

I turned my head, expecting to see Jon, or Wreg, or maybe Jon and Wreg.

Instead I saw Terian standing there, his reddish-brown hair out of its seer clip and hanging around his broad shoulders. I watched as a warm breeze that had risen over the dunes tugged at it, floating it around his neck as he followed my gaze to the sun.

I studied his handsome face, probably feeling more conflicted about him than I ever had, even with the rest of what we’d just been through.

He smiled faintly as the wind gusted over a swath of pearly white sand, pulling it into small twisters and eddies. His eyes followed as a few handfuls of fine white grains twirled up into a perfect cyclone before the wind pulled them back away from one another, scattering them in different directions.

When he turned, he grinned at me, raising his eyebrows suggestively as he glanced down at the skintight black dress.

I snorted, shaking my head.

“What?” He grinned wider. “No thank you kiss?”

“Maybe later,” I grunted.

“No thank you?” he said, folding his arms as he grinned at me again.

Sighing, I lowered my hand from where I’d been using it to shield my eyes from the sun. Looking at him, I clicked humorously in spite of myself.

“Thank you, Terry,” I said, using the formal version of Prexci.

I executed the formal bow, too, lowering my head and hand.

“You’re very welcome, my dear,” he said, using the same language, and giving me a faintly mocking but mostly well-executed counter-salute.

I let myself study his face a second time, once more fighting that conflict in my light.

“It’s going to get harder now, you know,” he commented.

I frowned, shielding my eyes. “More prophecies, Terry? Really?”

“Just one.” He glanced sideways at me, that wicked smile tugging his full, perfectly-shaped mouth. “Don’t give up on him.”

I just stared at him in the silence after he spoke.

Then I snorted. “If you mean myhusband,I wasn’t planning on it, Terry?”

He cut me off.

“You’ll want to,” he said, matter-of-fact. “Don’t.” Tilting his head sideways, he winked at me, then looked back at the desert. “It’ll all be for nothing, if you do.”

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