Page 95 of Gates of Rapture
“I was.”Grace rose to her feet.“But I wanted to tell you that your soul is very beautiful.I mean it’s an elegant turquoise color, which I realize makes no sense, but you have surprising depths.”
Endelle’s mouth turned up on one side.“You mean, for a scorpion queen?”
Grace grinned.“Yes.Exactly.”
Endelle chuckled.“Just don’t tell anyone.It would ruin my rep.”She glanced at Marguerite and Fiona.“I guess I’m done here.”
She lifted her right arm.Thorne reached out for her, to stop her, but she vanished anyway with a smirk and an “Oops.”
Grace covered her ears because the alarms were incredibly shrill and loud.
Thorne rolled his eyes and withdrew his phone from his pocket once more.
When the alarms stopped, Grace knew the time had come to begin practicing the mass folds.Her heart thumped now.This was what she had put into motion, a spectacle event featuring obsidian flame as a subterfuge for stealing Greaves’s army away from him.
But could the triad carry it off?Could she really do what she had promised?Only one way to find out.
***
Leto stood in the palace command center and glanced at his watch.Six-thirty.Thorne had promised him that he’d call a halt to the obsidian practice by seven-thirty.He had only an hour left; then he could head to the villa and make sure everything was ready.He had a certain plan in place involving wings and an empty house.Having checked in with Parisa, he knew she was working at the rehab center through the night, and of course Medichi was working the Borderlands with the rest of the Warriors of the Blood.
It felt strange not to be including the rest of the brothers in the war plans, but Greaves hadn’t let up on the Borderlands and a constant flow of death vampires was keeping the WhatBees and the Militia Warrior squadrons working hard every night.And that had always been a significant part of Greaves’s strategy: to wear down the most powerful warriors on the planet, thereby reducing their effectiveness.The plan had worked well until thebreh-heddenstarted bringing strong women to the warriors, changing the focus of each of their lives and adding all sorts of new powers to Endelle’s arsenal.
Leto had lived a long time, and he had noticed that when evil tried to forge a wall against that which was essentially good, then life would respond and provide a countermeasure.Maybe it was spiritual in nature, or maybe it was just the immense life force inherent within the spirit of man to ensure survival above all things.In his opinion, the arrival of thebreh-heddenwas one of those countermeasures.
And he and Grace were part of that.
He focused once more on the separate grid that Thorne had brought in for the purpose of mapping that portion of the army that would submit to Leto’s command.Leto was satisfied with his progress.His biggest concern involved those warriors among the ranks who would prefer to be with Greaves.Most of his conversations with the Division Leaders ran along that line, but the general consensus was that each leader would remove those warriors to a separate area for a specified duty.That way, when the time came for the mass fold, then those staunch supporters of Greaves would remain behind.
Because he had trained the army, especially the leadership, the troops had tremendous loyalty to their Regiment and Division Leaders.Those whom Leto contacted chose pretty quickly to align with Endelle.The generals had caused so much suffering among the divisions that the five months since Leto had left Greaves’s service had created exactly the right atmosphere for a mutiny.
Leto had asked Endelle to create two large areas on the planet that she could cloak in mist, to which Leto could begin sending the support staff and materials any working army needed: latrines, tents, an abundance of food and water, and weapons.
The logistics of his part in the battle plans had finally come together.All that needed to be done now was to make sure that the triad could locate each misted area with ease.From what Grace had told him, she would simply need to see the location in her mind, something that could be accomplished as soon as the locations were set up.
Grace.Sweet Christ, his heart had expanded over the past few days.And how his life had changed.Was it only days ago that Grace had come back to him?During that time, he’d made peace with his beast-self and learned to make the transition with ease and without putting anyone in jeopardy.Incredible.
He wanted to give her more, to give of himself fully.And he was trying.But he also knew himself, that the war had taken something from him, had made it almost impossible to give all that he had to give.He wondered if that would ever be different.
He felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise.He turned, and sure enough Casimir made himself visible.“You are really starting to bug the shit out of me.”
Casimir’s smile was rueful.“I need a word with you.”
“Okay.”Leto frowned.He didn’t know what to make of the Fourth ascender.He recalled doing battle with him in the Convent when Casimir had been acting on Greaves’s behalf.Casimir’s purpose had been to destroy both Grace and Leto, but then thebreh-heddenhad gotten hold of Casimir and changed everything.
Casimir drew in a deep breath.“I wanted to apologize for that Convent mess and for my behavior.”
Leto didn’t know what to say, but he felt angry all over again.“You took Grace to Fourth.You somehow persuaded her that you needed her.Don’t think for a moment that I don’t know how you worked to manipulate and seduce her, because I do know.She deserved better than you.”His hands were balled into fists.He wanted to hit Casimir, but the damn man just stood there—no cocky smile, just sincerity in his dark brown eyes.
“I should never have taken her,” Casimir confessed.“But I was a different man back then and I’d made a deal with Greaves.The prize was Grace.”
Leto knew it wasn’t as simple as that.Grace had explained to him a dozen times that her intuition had told her she had to be with Casimir if she was to save Leto’s hide.
But he was a man and Casimir had walked off with Grace as pretty as you please, and he’d been too lost in his dying blood fiasco to do a thing about it.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” Leto said.
Only then did Casimir smile.“Your forgiveness.”
