Page 62 of The Stone Survival
“He just saved us,” Levi pointed out, backing me up. “That’s proof enough.”
“He said you were his mate,” Shar said. “Cameron…”
I couldn’t do this right now. “When I consummated with Serath, I might have bonded to Ubron too. I don’t know how it works. How messed up the connections are. But there is a connection.” That much I couldn’t deny.
“That seals it,” Shar said. “We wait.” She glanced about as if searching for something.
“What is it?”
“Derek.”
“You think he’s gone back to the wilds?”
“No. He’s here. I can feel him through our bond. I just…I can’t see him.”
While my connection to Derek was weakening, hers was growing, as it should be. But the transition of him becoming his own entity, separate from me, able to fuel himself, to survive without needing me, was going to have some teething problems.
And I was totally distracting myself from the issue at hand. Ubron. Serath. Me.
Long minutes passed, and I was beginning to get antsy when we spotted Serath running toward us. My heart lifted then plummeted because that was Ubron, not Serath, and what the fuck should I be feeling right now?
“You waited,” Ubron said.
“You saved us,” Orix replied. “Now you owe us answers.”
Ubron’s gaze flicked to me. “Yes. I suppose I do.”
I smashed the orb, splintering the world and taking us home.
Back at the tower,we surrounded Ubron, backing him into the lounge and into an armchair. Touron and the twins joined us, and Shar quickly filled them in on what had happened.
All the while, Ubron waited patiently, and I did my best to avoid eye contact with him because there was stuff swilling around in my head: a memory of last night and the hope that I was wrong.
Please let me be wrong.
“Talk,” Orix demanded. “How are you still here?”
“I don’t know,” Ubron said. “Serath took the driver’s seat somehow. But we don’t have much time. You need to know that I am not a threat. My people are not your enemy. Something…someone has us under their control. We’ve tried to fight, but resistance causes pain and in some cases death. We’re trapped in a cycle we have no control over. But the fact that my essence is free of this enemy’s hold gives me hope.”
“How did you get trapped?” Palia asked.
“You’re infernal, right?” Curi said.
“Yes, I’m infernal. We were pulled into your world when the rift opened, torn out of our bodies, and before we could return, somethingothertook hold of us. It was a web of some kind. One that bound us to it. There is a voice, and it tell us what we must do. If we disobey, there is excruciating pain that has led to the death of many of my people.”
“How many of you are there?” Orix asked.
“There were scores of us, but now there are only a handful. We desired to go home, and the voice promised us freedom if we obeyed, but when we realized that going home would mean decimating this world, we tried to fight back, and then…Then there was the pain. We soon realized our lack of autonomy.”
“This voice, this person controlling you, have you seen him?”
“No. And I was at a point where I had given up hope of fighting him. But now…” He looked at me with Serath’s eyes, and my stomach trembled. “Now that hope has returned. Together we can overcome them.” He leaned forward. “We have a common enemy. He needs this body, this host, for his plan to open the rift, and together you have the power to free us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have listened, and I have learned that your graynites, therealgraynites that are bonded to shedim, have an alpha. Onewhom they are connected to mystically. If he dies, then the shedim lose their grip on their hosts. Your elite team has the power to end him.”
“So?” Orix said.
