I knew that if we didn’t start doing something, Lasandra, who was tapping her foot on the floor in an agitated manner, was going to lose her shit.
Brace took a step forward and placed a hand onto Colt’s broad shoulders. “Sorry, old friend, I understand your need.” His eyes flashed to me for a moment. “I really understand it … but we have to deal with this room first. You’ll have plenty of time for everything after we lock away the Seventine.”
I loved Brace’s confidence, but I wasn’t sure I shared it. All of us could very easily be destroyed in the next week. Especially if the Seventine managed to free their last brother before we found the Earth half. The Walker stories certainly indicated that a full-strength Seventine would annihilate us. I wasn’t sure if that was true, but right now we had an advantage, as they were limited in what they could do.
They could only sever certain tethers – generally those of important landmarks across the seven worlds. They then used this stolen energy to break the bonds holding their brothers in the prison. There was just one brother left in the dark mountain. To free him would require an astronomical level of energy, not something they could just gather from one tether, so I was reasonably confident that we had time to spare.
Of course, one could never forget how nefarious the Seventines’ plans often were. Like severing one of the suns of Crais. Sure, we’d managed to circumvent that, but in the end they’d still ended up freeing two of their brothers. I needed to check in with Fury about how her world was coping with their single ball of energy. I hoped the loss of a sun meant Crais was now a more hospitable place for the tribes to live. My gut told me that taking Crais’ sun’s energy and releasing it on Dronish had been the right thing to do to restore balance. But only time would tell.
Fury and her world weren’t the only ones I worried about. Talina and Ladre were on Spurn, dealing with clan wars. Ladre had stepped down from Baroon, the strongest of the clans, but they weren’t letting him go easily. I hoped Talina wasn’t copping it from those assholes again. I took comfort in the fact that Ladre would have her back.
At least there didn’t seem to be anything further on the possible Seventine energy setup on Spurn. It seemed that the only problem the water world was experiencing was political. The Yerks were upsetting the balance, fighting against their position at the bottom of the clan chain.
I hated that my girls were not here with me. There was so much that had to be done and so little time that it wasn’t feasible for us to stay together. But the uneasy churning in my gut which generally warned me of impending danger had been off the scale the last few days. As if my body knew we were on the countdown to the convergence. The countdown to the possible end of the seven worlds in this star system. So many innocent lives.
We could not lose.
The first life I needed to save was Josian’s.
“So what’s the plan?” Urgency laced my tone. “We just break this energy cage and deal with whatever comes out?”
Colton snorted. He was calming now that Lucy was tucked back under his arm. “This is a cage powered by the ancient crystals of the originals. Breaking it will be near impossible.”
My brows furrowed as I squinted for a better look. I was sure the stones were exactly the same as the ones I’d absorbed on Nephilius, but maybe I had missed something. Lasandra caught my eye and gave me a single nod. Okay then. And with the evil-mother-in-law confirming my thoughts, it was time to get my father out.
“Step aside, boys,” I pretended to roll up my sleeves, “and prepare for the creepy-crawlies to emerge, because I’m about to bust down this place.”
Lucy cracked up, glitter fluttering around. “The power’s gone straight to her head. It’s official. Abby’s lost it.”
Ignoring their decided lack of confidence in my abilities, I threw out my tether. The power-well inside me gave a jerk, and I knew the greedy little thing had been feeling all left out and lonely. I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit that a very small part of me was starting to crave the rush of energy flowing through my body. I wanted to take it all in and store it inside my well. Then when my well was full I’d move on to the section which I called my ‘filing cabinet’. I’d recently learnt that I could lock excess energy into that compartment. So this time, unlike on Nephilius, I was not going to ground off the energy. I was going to store some of it. You know, for future dramas.
My knees locked into place as the first surge of power hit me. It was strong – but nothing compared to what I had experienced on Nephilius. I was pretty sure I could take this one on my own.