Page 105 of Gates of Rapture
“I’ve been unsettled about Greaves.And it’s not that I’ve seen this in the future streams, because I haven’t, but I have a gut feeling he intends to attack the spectacle event tonight.”
Endelle grew very still.She even stepped off the platform and held Marguerite’s gaze for a long moment.“The one thing I trust right now is instinct, especially from obsidian flame.So you think there’s a serious risk of attack?”
“I do.”
“You know, when Grace first suggested her idea of a spectacle, I really assumed that Greaves wouldn’t dare attack.I mean we’re filming the damn thing and putting it on the web for the whole world to see.If he attacked, it would turn a good portion of Second Earth against him.
“But I think you may be right because if I were in his shoes, with an opportunity to destroy the one thing standing in my way of taking over Second Earth—dammit, I’d take it.”
She called out, “Hey, Carla, would you get Thorne over here?”
Carla’s voice sounded through the room.“You bet.”
Endelle smiled.“Love this security system.I have a direct line to Central Command at all times.It’s voice-activated.All I have to do is say ‘Carla’ during the day and ‘Jeannie’ at night, and the women have to respond.”Both Carla and Jeannie had worked at Central forever.They were Endelle’s link to the Warriors of the Blood day and night.
A few minutes later, Thorne arrived.Endelle would have started in on the issue at hand, but the moment he saw Marguerite, he had to have his arms around her and give her a kiss.
When the embrace lingered Endelle made her usual gagging sounds until the twobreh-mates knocked it off.She then told Thorne what Marguerite had shared with her and that she agreed.“So what do you think, Thorne?What’s your take on this?”
“I think Greaves would be a fool not to try it.”He then glanced from Marguerite to Endelle several times and finally addressed hisbreh.“Do you think obsidian flame could fold the review to safety if needed?I mean, it would have to be done with split-second timing.”
“Jesus,” Marguerite said.“If we’re busy folding Greaves’s army to new locations, I don’t know.I honestly don’t know.”
Thorne nodded.“Then that’s what you’re going to practice today.”
“Right,” Marguerite said, but she’d paled.
He put a hand on her shoulder and held her gaze.“Listen to me.Leto knows where Greaves’s artillery is.He’ll know when it lights up or if it lights up.I’ll get him on it, and we’ll arrange a signal, okay?We’ll figure this thing out.”
***
By the time Grace arrived at the workout center, Marguerite and Fiona were already there with Thorne.“I’ve sent for Leto,” he said.“We’re going to need him.”
Her gaze shifted beyond Thorne’s shoulder, and she saw that the corner of the room had come alive with all sorts of computer equipment, including several large monitors.
“What’s going on?”Her chest grew very tight.
Marguerite explained about her obsidian intuition firing off about Greaves, even though she couldn’t find anything in the future streams about him or a possible attack at the spectacle event.
Grace.Leto’s voice was suddenly in her head, and a second later she could feel him.She turned, and as he had done the day before, he strode across the mats looking like a god.Her heart seemed to flip in her chest, and without thinking she ran to him.He caught her up in his arms and held her tight, her feet dangling off the floor.
What’s wrong?he sent.
Marguerite thinks Greaves will attack at the spectacle review.
When he remained silent, she pulled back and he lowered her to the floor.She asked, “I mean, do you honestly think that Greaves would attack even though it would ruin him in the eyes of the world?”
“I know his mind.I know that right now he must feel that all his ambitions, his centuries of planning, are threatened by the triad.If Marguerite has that instinct vibrating through her obsidian power, I can only say that I think it’s not just possible, but likely.”
Grace lowered her gaze to the mats.“This is what I feared,” she said, “that by coming back, I’d be getting this close to weapons and bombs.I don’t know if I can do this.I thought it would just be a spectacle parade.”
He drew her against him and held her tight, but he didn’t say anything.
Grace took one breath after another.She knew it was too late to change things, and part of her didn’t want to.But she’d seen the war destroy Thorne for centuries.The same war ripped her sister, Patience, out of the air, taking her who the hell knew where.
Now she was part of a power-based triad, and because she’d been so very clever, she’d placed herself at the center of what could be a bombing.
Leto’s voice was once more in her head.You can go back.You have a right to the life of your choosing.Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
