Page 125 of Gates of Rapture
Grace blinked.Had she moved out of the shadows?Was she more than a ghost?
And yet, as she thought about all that she’d done over the past four days, she realized she had never been that person before, taking charge, formulating enormous plans to alter Greaves’s ability to take over the world, then actually following through with the spectacle event and the mass fold of a million warriors.She was no longer the woman who’d lived in a convent for a century.
She was obsidian flame.
Which meant… that she already had the tools in her possession, had been learning them for the past several days, all that she would need to defeat the monster.
What came to her was so pure and so simple that she rose up in her apparition-form, kissed Beatrice on the cheek, then folded, not to the cabin but to the palace.This time, she wanted Endelle.
Beatrice had said she needed to make more experiences.Well, who had more experience than the scorpion queen?
Grace found her walking through the rotunda nearest her rooms, where she stopped and stared at Grace.
“So you can see me?”Grace asked.
“Of course I can see you.What the fuck are you doing here?I thought all you cared about was getting Leto to go beast for you.”
She told her about Greaves and how he had them both trapped and dying.Endelle put a hand to her forehead.“That bastard.Okay.What do you need me to do?I can try blasting through the shroud.”
Grace wasn’t convinced anything external could help at this point.“I need something from you.”
When Endelle once more suggested an assault, Grace said, “Just trust me right now to take care of this, Endelle.Please.I can do this.I just need something from your soul, and once I’ve acquired that ability, I’ll want you to bring the rest of obsidian flame here to the palace.And then, as soon as I can, I’ll bring Leto to you.”
Endelle became very still.She grew relaxed, her shoulders dropping.Opening her hands wide, she said, “Take whatever you need.”No more questions, or suggestions, no complaints, justtake what you need.
And here was the truth about the hard-bitten ruler of Second Earth: Endelle always came through.
“I need to capture your skill of living out loud.I mean, I think I’m already getting the hang of it, but I’d like a booster just in case.”
Endelle laughed.“You sure you’re ready for that?”
“Oh, yeah.It’s time.It’s been time for two millennia.”
“Then hit me, baby.”
Grace pierced Endelle’s mind and once more sank deep toward the woman’s soul.She found the lock she needed all lit up and inserted her blue flame key.The lock gave way, the door opened, and it was as though all of Endelle’s life poured over her: all the ways she met every challenge head-on, all the ways she could be cunning, all the ways she manipulated with sarcasm.
Grace drank it in.
Street smarts.That’s what Endelle had.And courage, mountains and mountains of courage.But mostly, Endelle had experience, that which Grace lacked the most, experience dealing with Greaves.
She thanked Endelle telepathically and sped back to the cabin.She moved to stand in front of Greaves.He still couldn’t see her or even perceive that she was near him, and he still sat in that chair, as if he had all night to finish them off.
Good.Although in this moment, she had to resist a very Endelle-like desire to slap the bastard silly.
She smiled.
Then she looked around.She let all of Endelle’s experience flow through her mind.She picked up one strategy and threw it out.She picked up another and turned it over in her mind.She felt more substantial in herself, more weighted, more real, as though having all of Endelle’s experience backing her up had sharpened her focus.
She apparitioned across the room to stare down at Leto.She blinked.She needed to do something with him, but what?
***
Greaves sat in the chair near the head of Leto’s bed.He’d barely broken a sweat and two powerful vampires lay facing each other in a tangle of burned and broken limbs.Neither was dead yet, and he would need to bring in a few death vampires to get the job done, but not just yet.
He savored this precise moment in his life, in his long career, in the brilliant path of his ambitions, because with just a little patience, he would see this pair good and dead; obsidian flame would be eliminated as a threat, and he could at last allow his plans to unfold.
He leaned his head back and he smiled.
