Just Breathe (45 page)

He smiled against her lips and closed his eyes. “Your singing is beautiful. Not as good as mine, but close.”

She laughed and swatted his arm.

Jack swam up, grinning. “You two lovebirds planning to help with damage control or are you gonna play kissy-face all night?”

Gavin splashed him in the face and put another lip-lock on Zoe, who giggled through it. When the kiss ended, he looked at Jack. “I leave for half an hour and come back to this.” He gestured in a wide arc. “When will you learn to clean up after yourself, Jack? You’re such a slob.”

“Hey, that’s my dad you’re talking to. Be nice to him.” Zoe waggled a finger at Gavin. She slipped out of his embrace and swam to Jack. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

Father and daughter hugged. Respect beamed out of Jack like a supernova. “You, too, Beauregard.”

Gavin snorted. “Beauregard.”

“I see you got rid of your
problem
.” Jack nodded at Gavin’s chest.

Gavin tensed. “You knew about Scarlet?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Dude, I’m a Sentinel. Kinda hard not to notice shit like a raging inferno inside a guy. Yeah, I knew. And by the way, if you plan on staying with my daughter for any length of time, you and me are gonna have a long talk about negotiating with terrorists.”

That would be one conversation he’d love to have. The thought of him and Zoe together beyond the here and now got the Water rippling anew. “I hear you.”

“What happened when you left?” Zoe slipped under Gavin’s arm. “Lily was putting the screws to Eidan, and shortly after, the entire Dreaming shook like an earthquake.”

“Yeah. There was an accident. I’ve never seen anything like it. Sinnder went fucking nuclear and took Scarlet with him. He left nothing behind but smoke. I hope to hell no Wyldlings got caught in the blaze.” The only comfort was that anyone in Sinnder’s path had died quickly. Gavin swallowed hard.

“What?” Jack startled and paddled closer, jaw quivering. “Sinnder
exploded
? Where is he now?”

Gavin shook his head. “I don’t imagine there’s anything left of him. When I said he went nuclear, I meant it literally. There’s a black hole the size of a small town outside of Hervey Bay.”

Panic lit in Jack’s usually calm eyes. “Fuck. I gotta go. I’ll catch up with you guys later.” He waved a hand and vanished from the Dreaming in a flurry of red, yellow, green, and blue.

Zoe’s brow creased. “What was
that
about?”

Gavin stared after the shimmer of light left in Jack’s wake, the weight of worry anchored to his chest. “No idea.”

A sudden onslaught of sobs snagged his attention away from Jack’s odd disappearance. Gavin straightened and searched the shoreline. A woman bent over a body on the sand, her shoulders spasming. Council member Camira.

“I’ll be right back.” He kissed Zoe and swam for the beach.

He trudged up the sand to Camira. She spoke soft words in her native Aboriginal tongue to the dark-skinned teenager lying before her. She smoothed his wet hair, then faced Gavin, tears striping her cheeks. He knelt beside her. The boy didn’t move, but his aura revealed weak signs of life.

“Can I help?” He had no idea who the kid was, but he didn’t look good.

She sniffled and shook her head. The condescension and irritation that usually tightened her face when she spoke to Gavin had disappeared. Her aura pulsed with the blue-black of loss. Gavin raised a tentative hand, then laid it on her back. He’d been here and done this before. Too many times. His thoughts wandered to Trevor lying in intensive care.

Camira stiffened at his touch, then hunched her shoulders. Another bout of tears rained down.

Gavin studied the boy’s features. He looked about sixteen, maybe a little older. A certain familiarity lined the contours of his nose and mouth. His eyes were closed, but their shape reminded him of Yileen.

Someone from their family?

“He’s still breathing. Let’s go back to Realis and get him to a hospital,” Gavin said.

“He not make it.”

“We have to try. Come on.” He took Camira’s hand and tugged her up.

Defeat saturated her weary black eyes. “I go alone. My son need me. You stay here and help Sentinels sort through mess.” She met his gaze, and something akin to mutual respect passed between them.

He hesitated. She shouldn’t have to deal with the likelihood of her kid’s death alone. “If you’re sure.”

Camira lifted her chin. “There a traitor among our kind. You find him. For my son.” She glanced at the still body, then bolted for the shredded Veil.

His heart went out to her for the loss that would surely follow. Ellie and Jack had both warned him not to get close to anyone because of the imminent dangers that might befall the family and loved ones of a Sentinel. Camira’s son was proof they were right.

He looked to Zoe bobbing on the ocean, laughing as the whales swam around her. He couldn’t lose her again.

Ellie stomped across the beach toward him, followed by the other Sentinel Council members. Great. Steeling himself for the reaming he was about to get, he faced them and pulled in a deep breath.

“Was that her son?” Kai asked, concern tightening his features.

Gavin nodded. “I don’t think he’s gonna make it. He’s in bad shape.”

Ellie’s hard gaze fell on him, the weight of it like a club to the cranium. “You let the Elementals into the Dreaming. They are forbidden from this place. You’ve reneged on the oath you swore when you became a Sentinel. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Slapped stupid by both her bluntness and her lack of empathy for a fellow Council member’s grief, Gavin stared at Ellie slack-jawed for a few seconds.

“Yes, I let the Wæters in. By
accident
. When we found the Dreamweaver—you know, the one you said didn’t exist?—who’d been chained inside a sensory deprivation tank, guarded by Fyres, I reckoned
maybe
I should let her out. I had no idea freeing her would result in…this.” He gestured to the rip in the weave of the Veil. “With all due respect, Council leader, I should think you’d be thanking me. The Fyres have been temporarily disabled, the Wæter Archelemental is in place… What more do you want?”

He scratched his itchy arms as Ellie dropped the hood of her cloak and stepped toward him, eyes glittering with submerged rage. “With the collapse of the Veil, hundreds of Elementals have entered the Dreaming uninvited. Before, we had only a few Fyres to contend with. Now all four Elemental factions have free reign to come and go as they please. We’ll
never
get them out, you fool!”

Gavin leaned forward, a few centimeters from her face. “Well, if someone on the
Council
hadn’t been selling Sentinel secrets to the Fyres, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. Maybe you should question your nearest and dearest confidants before you point the finger at me.” He glanced at his increasingly throbbing arms. The tattoos brightened in rolling waves over his skin, but the colors faded to white neon. What the hell?

Kai, Erin, and Wyland inched closer.

Ellie’s eyes narrowed. A tiny pearl of light shone through the heavy fabric of her cloak. The tattoos pulsed in time with the glow below her neck. He snatched the material down. The footprint gemstone from his necklace sparkled at him.

“It was
you
. You’re the traitor.”

Chapter Forty-six

“I can’t believe he’s dead.” Marred by streaks of tears, Vexx’s pixie-like face had lost its usual vibrancy.

Jet started to pat her on the back but let her raised hand fall to her side. Vexx was a good friend, but touching her—especially in this upset state—wouldn’t be good for either of them. The Air blowing off Vexx was already weakening Jet. She weathered the pain and stood her ground, as close as her Earth would tolerate.

“I know he was a total asshole, but…” Vexx shook her head and dropped it into her open palms. Her shoulders heaved with sobs.

Jet’s heart ached. Byrn had been like an annoying baby brother she kept out of trouble. A hotheaded fool, yes, but he had a good soul. She missed his cockiness already.

And judging by Vexx’s intense reaction to his death, Jet now knew her suspicions were correct. Vexx had been in love with him.

“I’m so sorry,” was all she could say.

Whetu wandered over from Gavin’s kitchen where she’d been watching in silence. She sat beside Vexx on the couch and took her hand. Xanthos was invisible as usual, but Jet sensed his Watery sadness churning from the far corner of the living room.

Jet, Xanthos, Vexx, Byrn, and Jack had worked as a team for twenty years. But their relationships went much deeper than the job. They’d faced life and death situations and bonded over the challenges they met. They
trusted
one another, and Jet felt as though she’d let them down—Byrn most of all.

They were family. And now they had to deal with the loss of one of their own for the first time.

The air in the room vibrated, and Jack emerged from a swirl of fog. He was soaking wet, dripping water on the carpet, eyes wide. All heads snapped up.

“It’s time to roll out.” Grim furrows etched Jack’s brow. “Get your shit together. Vexx, we need standby passage out of Australia pronto. Air or sea, whatever it takes. There was an
incident
with Sinnder outside of town. Like the others. He’s the one we’ve been looking for. Right under our noses the whole time.”

Dear God, no. Not Sinnder. Jet’s heart thumped in a frenzied rhythm. “Is he…?”

“I don’t know, but we’d better book travel for five. If he’s still alive, Eidan is gonna be beyond pissed.”

“Is there anything left?” Jet swallowed.

Jack met her gaze, his face stern.

Shit. “I’ll go look for him.” She bolted for the door. Luckily, she traveled light, so she could pack her meager possessions quickly when she got back or leave them behind if she had to—

Wait. The dingo. Regardless of Sinnder’s condition, she couldn’t leave Harriet locked up at Sinnder’s house with no one to care for her. And she’d promised him she’d look after the dog. Jet
always
kept her promises.

She paused as her hand lighted on the doorknob. “Ah, I need to deal with something else first. I’ll only be thirty minutes. Meet you at the site?”

Jack nodded. “Make it fast, Jet. It’s gonna get
real
ugly up in here.”

No need to remind her. From the sound of it, things already
were
ugly. The truth was, the world would be better off if Sinnder had gone back to his maker. His death would leave behind tragedy—a devastated land, likely loss of human lives, the difficult challenges of rebuilding, and plenty of mourning—but no additional aftershocks in the wake of it. The End.

So why did the thought of him ascending to Incendius hurt as much as Byrn’s death?

You know why.

Yeah, she did.

She’d find Sinnder, even if it killed her.

* * * *

“How could you, Ellie? We trusted you. Millions of Wyldlings depended on you, and you sold them out for
power
?” Wyland’s top lip curled into a snarl. His aura stormed with violet disappointment and blood red anger.

Sick to his stomach, but also vindicated, Gavin clutched the footprint gemstone and yanked the necklace off her. The snapped leather left a red welt on her throat. Good.

Ellie rubbed the line on her skin and lifted her chin, casting a venomous glare at Gavin. “I was passed over too many times to let the Council leadership leave me behind again. Do you have any idea what it’s like to spend centuries clamoring for position only to get there and find Yileen holding the prize?

“And he didn’t do it once. No, he did life after life, and I had full memory of being snubbed each time before. In
every
reincarnation, I was the strongest Sentinel of the lot, yet your precious Yileen stole the seat that should have been mine.”

Gavin crossed his arms over his chest and stared down his nose at the traitor. “I’m no expert on being a Sentinel, but I thought our job was to
protect
people, not to gain status or recognition. Sounds to me like your greed and pride got in the way of better judgment. Are you not bothered that your actions claimed
thousands
of lives?” He gestured to the smoking remains of the Dreaming. “What sort of sickness drives a person to sit back and watch Wyldlings being murdered by the very things we’re sworn to defend against?”

“I don’t expect a whelp like you to understand.”

“But the rest of us understand.” A puff of sand kicked up as Erin stepped forward. “We’ve
all
cycled through many lifetimes under Yileen’s guidance as leader. None of us ever broke the oaths we swore. We
care
about our charges. Rainbow Serpent entrusted us with a heavy burden, but we accepted it because we believe in the goodness of humanity, despite its flaws. You’re a disgrace.”

Waves crashed.

“I agree,” a singsong voice said behind the group.

The Dreamweaver emerged from a swirl of mist hovering above the dream sea, hands at her sides, her body weary and broken, eyes sharp and unforgiving. Ribbons of color wound in flux around her as she floated closer. The circle of Sentinels enclosing Ellie parted, and they faced her.

“Ellie, you stand accused of treachery and betrayal of the Wyldlings you are sworn to protect. What say you, Sentinels? Shall Ellie remain on the Council as your leader?”

The Dreamweaver’s gaze lighted on each face, and one by one, the councilors replied, “No.”

Gavin smiled. Served the traitorous bitch right.

“Judgment is passed. You are not fit to be a Sentinel.” Pointing at Ellie, the Dreamweaver was a moving portrait of beautiful neutrality, despite the dried blood caked to her skin, the hunched back, and the atrophied muscles.

“I no longer acknowledge you as a Sentinel.” Kai straightened and turned away from Ellie in a symbolic gesture.

Erin repeated the words and did the same.

Seth and the others followed suit until Wyland was the only one left. He spoke the words, spat on the ground, and stomped his foot on the sludgy sand as he whirled away from her.