Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1)(79)

I heave, suddenly needing air, the walls closing fast as the room around me spins. But Kai wraps me in his arms, making soothing noises. Something inside me collapses. I want to be sexy, want to be wanted by this gorgeous, kind man. And instead I’m a fucking basket case.

I step back, putting some space between us. Get my breathing under control. Rest my hands on my hips until I can speak.

“Why did you lie for me out there?” My voice is soft, a question not an accusation, but he looks up, startled.

“What?”

“To Hastiin. Why did you tell him that you heard Neizghání say those things?”

He hesitates, looks down before he finally meets my eyes again. “You know I’m on your side, right? That whatever it is, I have your back.”

“What if I’m wrong, Kai?”

“Does it matter? Either way, you’ve got to face him, Maggie.”

“Didn’t I just do that? And it didn’t turn out too well.”

“Not in front of a crowd,” he says, “and not when it’s a surprise. I mean you confront him on your own terms. When you’re ready. When you have a plan.”

“And what if I can’t kill him?”

“You have to. It’s the only way that you’ll ever be free of him.” He runs a finger across my scar and I know he’s right. He says, “Turns out Grace has batteries, and while you were sleeping, I had a chance to listen to those CDs.”

I’d forgotten all about the CDs. “Anything new?”

“Remember Ma’ii’s hoops?”

“The directional hoops?”

“I think I know what they do. And I think I know how to kill Neizghání.”

I close my eyes, suddenly tired. Part of me has been too afraid to hope I could ever be done with Neizghání, and part of me is afraid of what I’ll do, who I’ll be, without him. But I’ve been without him for months, in body at least. So what am I afraid of?

“Hey,” Kai says, pulling me close. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there with you. You won’t be alone. And this time we’re going to beat him.”

I want to believe him, and the lie is so sweet that I let it stand. Give us this bubble of peace before the coming storm.

“So tell me about the hoops.”





Chapter 34


We leave Grace’s All-American in the dark hours before dawn. I lead a small army. Clive and Rissa ride point, primed for speed and agility on their motorbikes. They will arrive first, scout the location, and radio back on the walkie-talkies Grace provided us. Kai and I follow in my truck, and Hastiin and thirty of his Thirsty Boys bring up the rear.

The western sky is an inky black above the open desert. Cloud cover is a blessing that keeps starlight at bay, and the moon is waning to little more than a sliver. The easiest path leads us through Tse Bonito, but we all agree it would be safer to circle well south of town, even if it eats into our time.

“We’ll skim the southern Wall,” Hastiin offers. “No way Law Dogs are searching that far south. Not enough man power.”

“Look on the bright side,” Clive says.

“Which is . . . ?” I ask.

“You’ll get to see the southern Wall.”

Hastiin gives him a nod. “You bet your ass. Two hundred–odd miles of solid turquoise, fifty feet high. A goddamn wonder of the Sixth World.”

And it’s everything Hastiin implied it would be. At first, it’s a glimmer of blue in the morning twilight, looking more like a distant ocean than anything else. But as we get closer, I can see it for what it is. The work of the Diyin Dine’é.

Hastiin raises his hand and we all pull forward and kill our engines, a consensus to stop and marvel.

“Other side of that Wall is a damned Big Water nightmare,” a Thirsty Boy says to his friend, loud enough for us to overhear through the open windows of the truck. “Makes you feel lucky to be Diné, doesn’t it?”

“No,” Kai says, his voice low so only I hear. “It makes you feel small.”

I don’t say anything, but Kai’s close to the truth. It’s a reminder of the power we’ll be up against in a few hours. Because if the Diyin Dine’é can do something like this, what chance do we really have against Neizghání?

“Let’s go,” I say. Shove the truck back into gear and pull out first. The Thirsty Boys and the Goodacres fall back into formation and we move west, keeping the Wall to our left for another fifty miles, until Hastiin signals for us to cut north.

Time passes quickly, the excitement of seeing the Wall up close and general nerves keeping us alert and keyed up. For a while there’s a lot of banter on the walkie-talkies. The twins calling out every arroyo the truck might accidentally careen down. But after a while they settle. The wind whips through the open window, and the cool stillness of the early dawn fills the cab. Kai and I are quiet, each wrapped in our own thoughts. The silence between us is thick, surprisingly tense.

“You sleep okay?” I ask, concerned. I’m well aware he expended so much of his energy healing me, and I’m about to ask even more from him.

For a moment he stares at me, stunned, like a deer in the headlights. But then he seems to shake himself. “Yeah, just bad dreams again. Can’t get rid of them.”