Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(33)

Lily smiled to herself, some of the pressure she felt lifting off her as her sister took the weight. Okay, Juliet. Consider my butt properly kicked.

You’re welcome.

“Can you see what they’re seeing right now?” Toshi asked as he watched Lily’s broadening smile with curiosity. “Are you everywhere they are?”

“I could be, but I try to go one at a time or it gets confusing. When more than one person is sharing memories or images with me there’s a strange reverb effect.”

Lily remembered Rowan teaching her how to make a mind mosaic. The stereovision had been overwhelming, exhilarating, and in Lily’s opinion, morally wrong when done without her claimed knowing she was doing it.

“Re-what?” Toshi asked.

“Reverb. Short for reverberation?” It was a word from her world. Lily cringed inwardly and tried to cover for her slip. “You don’t use that word out west?”

Toshi shook his head. “But I think I can picture what you’re saying.” He looked down at the glass of champagne in front of him. “But what do I know? It could be something completely different from what I’m imagining. I’ve never been in anyone else’s head. The way I see blue might not even be the way you see blue.”

“It is,” Lily said. “Blue is blue and red is red for all of us. I’ve claimed thousands and it’s the same.” She rethought that. “Except for the color-blind.”

“Thousands,” he breathed. “You’ve claimed that many?”

The smallest smile tilted her lips while she held Toshi’s eyes. “Yes,” she replied.

“That’s an army.”

“An army I left behind.” Lily tugged her lower lip through her teeth and took a chance. “Unfortunately,” she whispered.

Toshi looked fearfully at the flowers on the table. “Is there a limit to how many you can claim?”

“If there is, I haven’t reached mine.”

Toshi swallowed. “Claiming must be boring for you at this point.”

“Boring?” Lily shook her head slowly. “Never.”

Toshi was leaning into the table. His willstone slipped free of his collar and swung toward Lily as if beckoned. She did want to claim him, no matter what the cost. It was a craving she would never be free of, no matter how many she lost, or how deeply she felt the loss of one in particular. This was her sickness. A never-ending hunger to claim the whole world.

A squad of Warrior Sisters is leaving the watchtowers, heading east over the wall, Rowan reported.

If we could get higher, we could see where they’re going, Caleb added. He shared what he was seeing.

Lily saw Rowan trying to mount one of the few switchback staircases built into the perimeter wall. A Warrior Sister flew down and prevented him. Hovering, she flicked her whip and buzzed her wings. Her bulbous eyes shimmered rainbow-over-black—unreadable.

We’ll have to try something else, but there aren’t that many vantage points in the city that overtop the wall, Rowan said.

Roof of the Governor’s Villa, Lily suggested. Una and Breakfast, hurry.

Toshi leaned back and motioned to the server for the check. “You’re with them again,” he said, irritated.

“I can block them out—” She could feel Una and Breakfast racing through the villa, silent and swift.

“No, don’t bother.” He pursed his lips. “It’s better if we drop the subject, anyway.”

Lily waited a few seconds before asking, “Is it?”

Toshi let loose a tense laugh. “For me? Definitely.”

She and Toshi left the restaurant and started to stroll back toward the trolley line.

I see something, Una said from the top of the villa. She used her willstone to still the air around her and strengthen the tiny muscles that shaped the lenses in her eyes, improving her vision. I think the Warrior Sisters are heading toward a forest beyond the fields of flowers.

Show me, Rowan said. Una relayed what she was seeing to Rowan at the wall.

It’s hard to tell, but I think Una’s right, Rowan said. They’re headed toward that stand of enormous trees.

Let me see, Lily said, and immediately saw what Una was looking at. Those are redwoods. That’s the redwood forest. Lily passed a memory of a map of the California coast to her coven. In her world, there were several places where the ocean and the redwood forest nearly touched, as it seemed to be here in Bower City.

Ask if we can get out to see the redwoods, Caleb said.

“Do people ever go outside the wall?” Lily asked Toshi as they walked along.

“Of course. Lots of people even live outside the wall,” Toshi replied. “There are farms, vineyards, small towns.”

“I’d love to see that. Maybe you can take me to a farm, or out into nature.”

“Maybe,” Toshi said vaguely. “I’d have thought you’d had enough of nature on your journey.”

“I guess I lived in the open for so long I miss it now.”

“We’ll see,” was all Toshi would say.

Toshi knows Grace won’t let you go, Tristan said.

I bet no one with a willstone is allowed outside the walls, Juliet said. That’s what I’d do if I were in charge and trying to guard how they were made.

Then we have to sneak out. Tonight, Lily said.