Shadowstorm (Sorcery and Science Book 6) (3 page)

“Bellflower, stage two!” Lord Adrian exclaimed, and in a flash she was at his side.

The Avans looked at them curiously. Even Nemesis had seemed to succumb to her own curiosity, forgetting all anger. Well, most of it. Her pale yellow halo was speckled with red dots.

At the podium, Lord Adrian tapped a few keys on his computer, and an unnatural breeze whistled through the room. The rows of seats began to vibrate. Louder and louder they buzzed until one flipped open with a bang. The next and then the next opened, and soon a gust of Phantom power brushed through the rows, throwing each seat open in succession.

Lord Adrian turned to the Avan congregation, whose eyes were wide with shock. Looking particularly pleased with himself, he said, “The power of the Elition Phantom, right at our fingertips.”

Everyone was silent for a few moments, but as soon as he’d taken his seat, the room erupted with accusations.

“Selpe thieves!” Sarah Avan exclaimed angrily, her beautiful face twisted into that of an enraged harpy. She appeared to have gotten over her initial shock.

“
We
are the thieves? Spectacles, indeed! What a cheap knockoff!” roared Lord Adrian.

“It is a rather pitiful copy,” Aaron agreed.

“I will kill you for defiling my empress with your trickery!” Nemesis blared at Bellflower, her eyes burning redder than ever.

“Lies!” hissed Sarah Avan. “Selpe espionage!”

“And then I will kill you again,” added Nemesis.

“Sarah Avan, what exactly did you hope to accomplish by coming here with a clear copy of our Elition project?” Aaron asked calmly, though his blood was boiling. Those stupid Avans had ruined what should have been a perfectly good demonstration of Selpe supremacy.

As the Avan empress sprang up, her chair tumbled to the floor behind her. She growled, “I will not be spoken to in such a manner, Selpe.” Then, after pausing to motion to her party, continued, “We’re leaving. This Summit has accomplished nothing but to showcase the Selpe capacity for thievery and espionage.”

Aaron glowered at her. “You know this means war, Avan.”

She smiled sickly. “I thought you would never ask.”

And with that, over a decade of unsteady peace was broken.

CHAPTER TWO

~
Hope ~

527AX January 8, Hope

A SOGGY WIND whistled through the hollow husks of crumbling high-rise buildings that lined the main street of Hope, once the capital of the now-fragmented Rev civilization. The seasonal rains had washed away the blood, but even seven months after the Selpe attack, the ruined city still looked like a graveyard. Spread across the road, like a new skin, was a layer of crushed glass coated in the powdery residue of concrete and the green sludge of plant decay. As Terra Cross sidestepped wobbly piles of steel beams, scattered like fallen tree branches after a storm, she was well aware that the Selpe military’s fondness for blowing things up had turned her path into a hazardous obstacle course of a thousand possible avalanches.

It was just another reason to loathe them.

The unbroken grumbles of colorful curses gushing from Everett, walking just steps behind her, summed up pretty well what they both thought of the Selpe Empire. Before the attack on Hope, Everett Black had been a Rev. He probably always would be, even long after the Revs’ scattered survivors had been absorbed by a dozen other groups. Like Terra, Everett lived in the Elition town of Eclipse. But unlike Terra, he was human.

Eclipse was hidden away behind a portal masked by old magic. It was about as safe a place as you could get. Selpe soldiers shot all Revs on sight, and they would shoot
one another
for the chance to personally march Terra up to their emperor. It just might have been smarter for both of them to stay put in Eclipse.

But Everett had received a note from a man named Ryder, one of his old mercenary guild friends. Hinting at some new information he’d discovered about the attack on Hope, Ryder called for a meet in the city ruins. Terra knew Everett well enough not to be surprised when he’d decided to go. The Rev had been surprised, however, when she’d offered to join him. He needn’t have been. She looked out for her friends.

Oh, and maybe she was starting to go a bit stir crazy in a town of only a few hundred Elitions—busybodies whose favorite pastime was dishing gossip. They followed her around every second of the day, bombarding her with questions of ‘what it was like spending a decade of your life pretending to be someone else?’ and ‘when do you think the power of Prophecy will finally drive you mad?’. If she hadn’t bolted, she would have gone mad right then and there.

So, she’d set off with Everett to Hope, knowing full well that Jason was going to kill them both when he found out. Terra’s relationship with Jason was…complicated. As children, they’d been best friends, but their reunion as adults had been fraught with deception. She hadn’t even told him that she was Terra until just a few weeks ago. He’d forgiven her—or so he claimed. But the revelation had stirred up some irrational protectiveness in her assassin friend. He went as far as banning her from leaving Eclipse. For added effect, he’d even used his favorite Phantom trick of making his dark eyes smolder obsidian. It was enough to make most people run for the hills, but if he thought she was going to submit to his tyranny just like that, he didn’t know her half as well as he thought he did.

Elition Phantoms got their kicks drawing blood and playing nonsensical games of dominance. The Elite Phantom—Jason—had an aura dripping with so much raw power that even the most belligerent Phantoms thought twice about pissing him off. He was also an egotistical control freak who preferred knives to words. And he had about as much tolerance for dissenting opinions as he did for whimsical thoughts. Sometimes Terra really felt like punching him. Too bad he was built like a boulder. She would break her hand long before she’d even made so much as a dent in that stubborn mountain.

“Are you all right?” Everett asked, moving beside her.

Terra looked at him. “Sure. Why?”

“You keep pumping your fists,” he said, pointing to her hands.

So she was. Terra relaxed her fingers. “I was picturing hitting Jason.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“It hurt.”

He snorted. “I’ll bet.” Smiling, he set a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve got it bad. You know that, right?”

Terra shrugged him off. “I don’t need relationship advice.”

Everett chuckled.

“Especially not from a man who’s been unanimously termed the town’s resident ‘sexy pirate’ by the entire female population of Eclipse and yet—”

“Maybe that’s a reason to listen to me then, don’t you think?”

“I wasn’t done,” she told him. “So despite his sexy pirate status, this man is utterly stuck at the giving-puppy-dog-eyes stage of his relationship with a certain temple priestess.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Her brother is overly protective. And I’d like to keep all of my fingers.” He wiggled said fingers. “I’m being discreet.”

“It appears we share a common problem,” she said.

He nodded. “Jason Chanz.”

“Jason Chanz.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “So, did he tell you to stay away from Lana?”

“Not in so many words. Or any words at all. But his stony glare made it abundantly clear what would happen if I went near his sister.”

“So you’re going to fold?”

“Nah, what’s the fun in that?” He grinned. “I figure what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“You mean, you.”

“You?”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt
you
,” she said.

“Yeah, that too,” he agreed.

“Jason is an assassin. He notices things. Whatever is going on between you and Lana, he’ll eventually find out.”

“Yeah, well, I also figure that maybe if he’s sufficiently distracted, he won’t notice other things so much.”

“I take it this is where the relationship advice part of the conversation comes in.”

“No need to be shy about asking, Isis.”

“I’m Terra now. Or again.” She frowned. “Or something like that.”

“It sounds like you have more than one problem right now.”

“Yeah, what else is new?”

“Ok, Terra, I would be more than happy to help you with your Jason problem,” he said with a smile and wrapped an arm around her.

“Gee, thanks. I really wanted to talk about it.”

“That’s why I’m here,” he replied, giving her shoulder an amicable squeeze. “Tell me what happened. You’ll feel better if you share.”

Terra wasn’t sure about that, but she had to tell someone or her head would explode. Besides, it’s not like talking about it with Everett would make things any worse than they already were.

“Ok, fine,” she said. “Jason kissed me.”

Everett pressed his lips together, and it took him a few moments to dampen his expression into an only-moderately-shocked one.

“When did this happen?” he asked smoothly, but the subtle crack in his voice gave him away. He’d probably been less surprised to learn she was Terra Cross than to learn that Jason had kissed her.

“It happened twice. Once in Everlast and then in Eclipse, about two weeks ago. Just after I’d fled Orion. The second kiss was more…lingering.”

Everett didn’t seem to know what to make of that. Finally, he swallowed a hiccup to say, “You know, two times is a pattern.”

“Meaning?”

“He’s made his intentions clear. So I’m not sure I see the problem. Unless you’re concerned about the logistics of sleeping with an assassin who comes with a dozen knives strapped to him, in which case I can’t really help you.” Everett chuckled.

Terra felt her cheeks go warm. “I wasn’t looking for
that
sort of advice, Everett.”

“Then enlighten me.”

“The day after he kissed me in Eclipse, he came to my door packed to leave. He believes someone is experimenting on Elition children, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of it. I asked to come with him, but he insisted it was too dangerous. He
commanded
me to stay in Eclipse, where I ‘would be safe’.”

“He’s probably right about that,” commented Everett, his eyes scanning the broken city line.

“And then he just turned around and tried to leave without another word. Without another
anything
.”

“Did you expect another kiss?” he asked.

“I expected…I don’t know. Something. A few words. Maybe an acknowledgement of his feelings.”

Everett snorted. “Jason Chanz is a cold-hearted assassin. He wouldn’t have made it as far as he has in his profession if he were burdened with pesky things like feelings.”

Terra feared he was right, but she pressed on. “Instead, he acted as though nothing had happened. And when I stopped him from leaving, he then had the nerve to say I am like a little sister to him.”

“Well, as long as he didn’t say ‘let’s just be friends’.”

Terra shot him a hard look.

“He didn’t,” gasped Everett. “Idiot.”

“I beg your pardon?”

He smiled at her. “Jason, not you. I’d beat some sense into him for you if I thought I could take him. Maybe you could try that approach yourself. It might work with someone of the assassin mindset.”

“I’m no match for him in a fight.” She sighed. “Oh, we practice together, but it’s kind of a joke. He’s so paranoid of hurting me that he doesn’t really take the fight seriously. And he still beats me. It’s quite infuriating actually.”

“Well…” Everett looked thoughtful. “Have you tried using your feminine wiles on him?”

“My what?”

“Feminine wiles. It’s generally how women draw a man in.”

Terra considered the idea—and decided she had no ‘feminine wiles’ at her disposal.

“I did talk to him about how I feel,” she said. “That’s when the ‘you’re like a sister to me’ part came up.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No talking. You of all people know that words have little effect on Jason, that master orator.”

Terra smiled to herself. It was true, after all.

“Jason is a man of action, and therefore it’s actions that sway him.”

Tell me something I don’t know.

“So you just need to create a situation that makes it easy for Jason to do what we both know he wants to do.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ve noticed there are a few things women do that tend to nudge these things along. The right outfit, for example.”

She could do that. Jason had seemed to appreciate the sight of her in the coldsuit. Maybe if she found an excuse to wear it again…

“Party music,” Everett continued. “Heavy bass. Bump and grind.”

“Bump and what?”

His hazel eyes twinkled. “Never mind. Jason probably isn’t the dancing sort anyway.”

On that they could agree. Not to mention that it was impossible to bring Everett’s idea of party music into Elitia, where things like stereo equipment didn’t even turn on.

“Though what really works best is copious helpings of alcohol,” he told her earnestly. “You need to get him drunk.”

“Alcohol doesn’t work on us in the same way it works on humans.”

“Terra, I’ve seen firsthand precisely what the smallest drop of alcohol does to you.”

Terra blushed. “Yes, well, Prophets are different. While alcohol has little or no effect on other Elitions, its effect is quite potent on us. Especially for me, given my…unique situation. You know, how I’m absolutely mad and all,” she added. “But it’s not drunk. It’s…high, I suppose you would call it? Alcohol is a stimulant for Prophets.”

“And what is a stimulant for a Phantom like Jason?” he asked.

“A few things. Winter’s Mint would be the most potent. But I don’t think—”

“Look, I’m not suggesting you spike his drink,” he cut in. “You just invite him over and make him a cup of Winter’s Mint tea. He’s not an idiot, just stubborn. He will know what effect the tea would have on him, and he can decide if he wants to drink it.”

“He won’t,” she insisted.
That would involve giving up some of his precious self-control.