And taller.

Samuel hadn’t seen him this close up, but even he could agree the warrior looked like a god. “Fuck,” he drawled.

“Get used to it.” But the words came from both Merl and Leto at the same time.

“I take it this kind of thing is common on Third Earth?” Endelle pivoted toward Merl.

“It is.” Endelle held his gaze. “So we’re really in this.” His crooked smile spoke his compassion. “Looks like it.” Endelle glanced at Samuel. “Bring Leto up to speed.” Samuel laid it out, all that had happened as well as the current plan. But it was Merl who picked up the thread and gave the missing details about the wrecking squads. He explained what the warriors would be up against, how quickly the squads could move, how powerful they were, the nature of the weapons, and the odds looked pretty bad.

“What about you, Merl?” Endelle said, breaking the theme of this can’t really be done, with, “You gonna help out with this party? You got a pair of balls in those snug leathers of yours, or are you just a handsome face and all talk.”

“Wish I could, but I’ve got a grid death warrant on my head put there by every faction involved. You’d have several squads after you the moment my signature lit up the darkening.” Alison appeared at the doorway and called to them. “Please come back. We’ve got something going on in here. Vela’s feeling a call to the Illinois Seers Palace?” Samuel moved fast and found Vela trembling as she stood near the glass coffee table. “What’s going on?”

“Another call.” As soon as the rest of the party entered the room, however, she addressed Endelle. “Something’s going on and it’s big and it involves the Seers Palace, the one that Greaves built.”

“We shut it down.”

“Are you sure?” Endelle took on her best scorpion look, ready, apparently, to take Vela apart for questioning her, but one of Thorne’s assistants arrived and spoke in a low voice to him.

“All right,” he murmured. He stood very still for a moment, his gaze stricken.

Finally, he said, “I have to check on something. I’ll be right back.”

“Thorne, what the hell is it?”

“Let me find out what’s going on.” He disappeared into the hall beyond.

The entire room fell silent, tense, waiting.

No one spoke.

Vela gripped Samuel’s arm. This can’t be good.

No.

He sent nothing more, just a flat ‘no’ that echoed through her mind.

She kept her gaze fixed on the doorway, as did everyone else, but grew even more anxious when Thorne’s footsteps sounded in the rotunda beyond.

She pulled the top corners of her sweater together with her free hand.

Thorne arrived on the threshold, his lips in a tight, grim line.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on?” Endelle asked.

Thorne just stared at her.

“Did one of Greaves’s former generals attack?” Endelle’s chest rose and fell, the seashells clattering softly.

“All three of them. Looks like it was a coordinated, planned assault.”

“How many Militia Warriors did we lose?”

“Over two thousand.”

“Aw, Jesus.” She shaded her face with her hand.

Vela gasped.

Samuel murmured a low, “Oh, God, no." Leto shook his head, but glanced at Thorne. “And we knew nothing about it?

How is this possible?”

“I just spoke with Marguerite. Her crew, who works the Future Streams twenty-four-seven, saw nothing. Not a hint, a whisper, nothing.”

“Jesus. What the fuck does this mean?”

“Marguerite took a few seconds to dive in to take a look at the Illinois Two Seers Palace and she couldn’t get a reading.”

“What the hell?” Endelle’s voice carried a bit of resonance and that made Fiona groan. Fiona really couldn’t handle resonance.

Vela knew that the Illinois Seers Palace had been one of Greaves’s primary tools against Madame Endelle. Owen Stannett had harnessed Seers together and provided unparalleled information until he lost himself in the pleasure of the experience and Greaves got rid of him.

Her instincts began to thrum heavily as she thought about the Palace. The call returned, a kind of strong pull of her entire body into the darkening.

“Let me take a look,” she said, drawing all eyes to her.

“Go,” Endelle said.

She heard Samuel setting up a protest, but she knew this would be quick and easy, very different from a jaunt to Third.

She flowed straight back into the grid and began hurtling through the tunnels but not in the direction of Third Earth.

Suddenly, she reached her destination and knew she was deep inside the Illinois Seers Palace.

She remained very still, something her instincts told her would buy her some time.

She looked around. The chamber was made of black marble tile, with a viewing platform that looked down into a sort of pit. Seven chaise-longues were set in a row and reclining in the middle was a man she’d never seen before, but he had three braids on either side of his head looped into a clasp with the rest of his long hair.

He had a prominent nose and a carefully trimmed black goatee. She knew this was the man who’d hurt Samuel: Sharav.

Oh, God.

She didn’t want to be here. If he was, who Merl said he was, then one of Chustaffus’s henchmen had taken over the Illinois Seer’s Palace.

He held a cell in his hand and every once in a while spoke into the cell. Vela knew he relayed information, but to whom?

Strapped to the chaise-longues were six women, of varying ethnicities, each wearing a white linen robe, and each grimacing as if in pain, eyes closed, sunk in a trance.

Her instincts pushed her forward until she pressed her mind against Sharav’s and slid in, just as she had with Endelle earlier. The image stunned her, of herself naked, in the darkening, lying on a stone floor.

The image meant something, but what?

Sharav opened his eyes, so she quickly pulled out. He looked in her direction, but didn’t make eye contact which meant he still couldn’t see her. He rubbed his goatee. All the women relaxed and many whimpered in relief.

“Who’s there?

Great.

More darkening shit. I don’t need this.” He reached out his hand and folded a second strange looking cell-phone into it.

The words he spoke chilled her to the bone. “I need a wrecker here. Now. ” Vela didn’t need a further hint. She turned and headed back the way she’d come, but shortly after she started moving, a blast sounded not far from her.

She returned to Endelle’s sitting room, sweating and trembling. She sealed the doorway again, her arms high and spread out, her power flowed, but she knew she didn’t have enough juice to complete the job.

“Merl,” she called out. “Need your help here.” But Merl was already there, hands planted on the wall and she felt the entry point seal up.

She stepped back, staring at the darkening wall, watching it fade. In the great distance, she heard another blast but the wreckers were too late.

When she turned, Samuel took her by the arms. “Where the hell did you go?

Vela, don’t take off like that again. At least take me with, for Christ’s sake. Fuck, you’re shaking.” He drew her into his arms.

She held onto him breathing hard. He slid his hand beneath the mass of her hair to the back of her neck and rubbed, which helped, but she struggled to process what she’d seen, how close the wreckers had gotten to her. Beyond that, what about the vision of herself lying naked, in the darkening, on a stone floor?

She couldn’t seem to calm the hell down.

Endelle turned to Alison. “Can you help us here?” Alison moved in and placed her hand on Vela’s head. The most wonderful warmth and compassion flowed and she finally took a deep breath. In slow stages, Vela began to calm down until she pulled away from Samuel.

An odd vibration passed through her, a kind of knowing, as she shifted in Alison’s direction. Suddenly, she felt Alison, all that the woman experienced on a deep level as she applied her healing gift. She felt Alison’s fatigue, her level of anxiety for her young daughter’s safety, that she worried about her breh, Kerrick, all that time.

On instinct, Vela met Alison’s gaze and as though flipping an internal switch, she turned the same compassion back on Alison, as though she reflected the woman’s power.

Healing warmth reversed, flowing out of Vela’s mind and heart into the woman whose hand still rested on Vela’s head.

Alison drew back, her brows lifted in surprise. She’d broken the contact and now stared at her hand. “What is that?

What just happened?” But the power still flowed, so she extended her palm toward Alison. “May I?” Alison stared at Vela’s hand for a long moment, then finally nodded.

Vela placed her hand on Alison’s forehead and as more healing flowed, the powerful ascender breathed a deep sigh of relief and murmured, “Heaven.” Vela kept up the process, wondering how this was even possible, how she could actually give back what Alison had given.

When the sensation dimmed, Vela drew her hand back.

“What the hell is going on?” Endelle barked. “We have a warrior to save. What did you just do to Alison?” Vela stared at her own hand. “I’m not sure. I felt she was distressed and offered the same comfort she had just given me.”

“That was amazing.” Alison shook her head, her lips parted, brows raised.

“And I actually feel at ease for the first time in a long time.”

“And that’s what you just gave me.

So, thank you.” Alison smiled, her blue, gold- rimmed eyes full of light. “I’m just amazed.”

“Okay, knock it off with all this touchy-feely shit.” Endelle’s voice rang through the room. “Vela, what the fuck happened when you went into the darkening just now? And by-the-way, you sent your man into a shouting fit. I’ve never heard so much profanity bounce around a room before, unless I’d launched it.” Vela glanced between Endelle and Alison then back. She knew something significant had just happened, more than just giving comfort to Alison, but the scorpion queen demanded answers now.