Imperial (Insight #8)(36)

I squeezed him before leaning back and staring up at him. “You’re not mad at me for trying to kill you, are you?” I said as I playfully punched his rock hard gut.

“Me? Mad? Never. What does such an emotion feel like?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad to see your humor is intact.”

“Just have a reason to smile now.”

“Right, then. Well, drop the formalities. To do what I have to do, I’m going to have to be what I was in the Veil. Formal words and grace are not going to be in play.”

“Oh, so you mean you have to be real? That blows,” he said with a playful smirk. “But hey, if that is your will, maybe you can work on bringing back my best friend to that level.”

“Has Vade been really intense around you?”

“Intense,” he said, widening his eyes. “You could say that.” He sighed as he brushed off the past. “So what is the plan? Looking for a Fated?”

“I’ll find him when I touch the springs. That is not the hard part.”

“Na, the hard part is that he’s brainwashed.”

“Blind to his true existence. I’m proud that he was claimed.”

“That you should be, but that boy is fierce. He dared to take on two of our Fated at once.”

“And he is alive,” I said, angling up my chin in mock supremacy.

“Because one of yours stopped ours.” He smirked. “With a glance and a word or two. Must run in the line, that appeal you have.”

“Glad to see you find wrath seductive.”

A hum echoed from his chest, along with a sinful smile. “That I do, but she did not use such a power.”

“Then maybe I should ask for her help with Silas,” I mused aloud.

“Not a good plan.”

“Pray tell,” I breathed. The best way to get clear information out of Rasp was to keep him in a playful mood.

“She is the reason that the one he carries a fever for left him.”

“You’re joking.”

“Wish I was. She told Silas’ girl that she would adore one of Vade’s, and she was very right about that.”

“That is downright unnatural,” Mazing said, finally finding her strength again. She had pushed Colton’s memory deep down inside at this point, and she was still breathing; that was a good sign.

Mazing was right. The last thing anyone in my line would do would be to encourage heartache, and for that ache to be caused by another line, even if they didn’t know they were Fated, to me they should have felt that deep inside.

That green-eyed girl of mine must know something that I am blind to just now.

“Nothing about those peeps is natural, I can assure you of that,” Rasp stated with a bit of humor.

“Nice vocabulary,” Mazing said to him with a playful glare.

He shaded a smirk. “Did you not tell me to chillax an hour ago?”

I could not hold in my laugh. When you linger with the dead from across time, you pick up a few words. I kinda adored slang, and I was a bit stoked that they were acting normal with each other again.

“Let’s do this,” I murmured once the light mood between us began to fade.





Chapter Ten





I gazed at the dim streams and called forth the image that Vade had given me of Silas, then carefully stepped forward and touched the wall of water. As the rush of my energy met this sacred spring, it rippled and a low rumble was released. When the water became still again, I saw my lost Fated Escort.

It was not a pleasant sight. Silas was in The Realm on the third level. There were masses of beings around him. He was in a raging war with two others. Black smoke, which was the sign of pure evil, was filling the air at toxic levels. I could sense a mix of aromas that belonged to other kings among those Silas was fighting.

My sharp intake of breath caused Rasp to question me.

“Eyes,” he stated evenly as he and Mazing stretched their long, lean muscles, a silent gesture that stated their warrior essence was flooding to the surface.

“War. A horrid war in The Realm. He is surrounded. Two other Witnesses are with him.” They could not see what I was seeing in this spring.

“What do the adversaries look like?” Rasp asked.

“Men. Black suits. Not formal, but nice. They are moving in uniform. With each that fall, more descend.”

He nodded once, as if that were nothing odd.

I had a problem here. Every ounce of my being wanted to send one thought to those men in suits and smite them where they stood. But if I did so, whoever their king was would know that I had. I wasn’t even sure that with the restraints on my power that I could do such a thing, or fight the consequences of that act.

“Whom do they belong to?” I fumed.

“Several. I wouldn’t even call them real,” Rasp stated. “The Realm is infected with evil emotions. Those emotions have manifested these famished beings. They have no solid connection with their sovereign because the acts of the kings have been mingled.”

“How many could I kill before the kings would feel it?”

“In a single blow?” Rasp questioned, raising one brow. “A thousand or so.”

Both Mazing and my eyes grew wide. That was a massive number for any race of beings.