Alterant (Belador #2)(38)

Her chin bounced down, up and back down again.

She saw stars, lots of them.

Breathing hard and still dazed, she pushed up and squinted to clear her vision in order to figure out what had happened. Then it registered how she’d ended up sprawled on the ground.

She turned back around and looked down. Not the ground.

Her hands pressed against a wall of chest muscles.

Tristan lay beneath her, unconscious after taking the brunt of their landing.

She could live with that.

Wait a minute.

She glanced around again. No, please, no.

But there stood the tree that had been half in and half out of the spellbound walls.

Based on the proximity of that tree, Tristan’s prone body had crashed on the wrong side of the invisible enclosure.

Another Alterant had escaped.





TWELVE




Evalle scrambled up from where she’d landed astride Tristan. This capped a crappy day so far.

He hadn’t roused yet from hitting the ground so hard.

Good. She needed a minute to think. Blood and adrenaline pulsed through her veins with enough force to send a rocket into space.

That would have come in handy if she’d been able to strap Tristan to the rocket. She had to get him back inside the spellbound cage even if doing that a second time twisted her gut. The Tribunal would not show mercy on him if they found out he’d escaped.

Using her kinetics to carry him back inside might kill both of them the minute her power crossed the barrier. And what if he came to in the middle of her moving him?

Having him wake up on this side would be worse.

Holding her hands out toward him, she drew on her kinetic ability and lifted his body. Tristan’s entire length hung limp in the air. When she had him a few feet from the barrier to his prison, she tried to throw him back inside the cage with a hard shove.

He smacked the wall of invisible energy and bounced backwards, landing on the ground.

Oops . . . my bad. She cringed at the painful sound that slid from his throat.

Tristan’s chest moved when he drew a breath. He groaned on his exhale, but he was still out cold.

Served him right for pulling that stupid stunt. Had he thought he could go airborne like an out-of-water porpoise and land on hard ground without having the air knocked out of him?

Of course, slamming him against the equivalent of a steel wall hadn’t helped either. Or the fact that he’d taken the brunt of the fall with her on top when he’d jumped out.

Had he landed that way intentionally?

Maybe, maybe not, but he no longer needed her now that he’d escaped.

But she needed him.

She tensed, ready for battle the minute he opened his eyes.

How had he gotten out of the spellbound enclosure? Worry about the mechanics of his jailbreak once he’s back on the other side.

She had three gifts from the Tribunal and no clue what they were other than she could not ask for a gift unless it was being used specifically to fulfill her agreement to return the other escaped Alterants.

Technically, putting Tristan back inside his cage would not meet the criteria, since he would refuse to help the minute he was in captivity again.

Would have been nice if the Tribunal had given her an operation manual for her so-called gifts . . . one with a troubleshooting section.

Tristan groaned louder and rubbed his head. One eye slid open and peered over at her, then he pushed up on his elbow.

She kept very still, watching for any aggressive move. “How’d you get out of there?”

He smiled. “You broke me out.”

“No, I didn’t.” She hoped.

“Oh, yes, you did. Remember when I held your arm to take off that bug?”

“Yes,” she answered warily.

“I shoved my foot past the barrier while I was touching you and I broke through to my ankle, then it stopped me. I figured if I could do that while holding your wrist I should be able to push my entire body through if I was holding all of you.” He rubbed his head. “Wasn’t quite as simple as I thought. Damned near killed myself finding out.”

She was a dead Alterant the minute the Tribunal found out about this.

Tristan chuckled. “Looks like the worm has turned, eh?”

She wasn’t sure what powers he possessed or how strong he was out here, but as of now her powers were locked and loaded. “I don’t know about the worm, but your being out here puts us both on a level playing field.”

He stopped rubbing his head and looked at her. “You think?”

“You might kill me, but you’ll crawl away missing vital parts.”

“Fighting each other would waste time we could use finding those three Alterants.”

She paused. “You’re going to work with me?”

“Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Sure, but his easy compliance reeked with suspicious intent. “Why’re you willing to help now that you’re free, Tristan?”

“Let’s just say I believe you’re telling the truth about getting me an audience with the Tribunal. I don’t think you can corral the three missing Alterants without me, and I don’t want them killed. I’ll help you, but you can’t hand them over until I get to see the Tribunal.”

She’d offered to request a meeting for him. She hadn’t said she could do it for sure, but mentioning that right now would not be the best way to move ahead with a potential alliance.