A Battle of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 4)

“You’ll stop it, right?” I ask Carrick, hating to force his hand in anything. But I can’t stand the thought of innocents being slaughtered and Seattle being her buffet line.

Pulling his gaze from Maddox to me, he says, “I’ll see what we can do.”

Those words in and of themselves are ambiguous and could mean a million different things. I get that he doesn’t want to promise me something he can’t deliver. But I know Carrick and my faith in him is absolute.

If he can stop her from doing that, he will.

“Maybe we need to change tactics,” Maddox suggests, and all our eyes go to him. “Maybe we just need to put her down. We have enough power among us to do it.”

Carrick’s expression turns grim. “Onyx told me that Finley is the one who has to take on Kymaris and she needs more practice and time to get used to her power. We need to know the true extent of what she has.”

Carrick had told me of this revelation when he’d returned from his service to Rune. And it’s true I don’t have a handle on what’s inside of me. Carrick and I are practicing every chance we can get, and I’m learning more and more things. But the thought of going one on one with Kymaris right now actually scares me.

Still, I don’t say a word. I don’t want my fear to be the deciding factor.

“There’s something else to consider, too,” Rainey says, garnering the room’s attention. “If Kymaris dies, hypothetically, wouldn’t she return to the Underworld in some form or fashion?”

“Hypothetically,” Carrick agrees.

“If we are going to rescue Zora at some point, I think it’s better to do it while Kymaris is in the Earth realm. Once she returns to the Underworld, it’s a complete unknown what she’ll be and if she’ll have power, but she’d have no use for Zora.”

And that right there decides the issue, as I’m not putting Zora at risk. “We can’t take Kymaris out until we rescue Zora.”

No one says a word, not even Carrick, who has been against this from the start. The tone of my voice is clear I’m not budging on this.

“But,” I add in a somewhat embarrassed voice, “I’m also not sure I’m ready to take on Kymaris just yet. I need more practice.”

Carrick smiles at me in understanding, hand going to the back of my neck as he leans toward me. “We’ll figure a way to protect the humans from Kymaris,” he promises, and I believe him. “And we’ll continue to practice and get you ready to take Kymaris down. I have total faith in you.”

That I don’t believe quite as readily, but I’m willing to accept the possibility he might be right.

“She’s still in the same place, right?” Maddox asks of Boral.

“Yup. Settled into the neighborhood nicely,” he confirms.

“Does she hold humans there?”

“No,” Boral replies. “She has a few extravagant parties a week, and by parties, I mean drugs, orgies, sacrifices. She usually sends one of her fallen out to get a human. Says it’s how they prove their loyalty to her. But they don’t need much of a carrot to do it. It seems all have bought into the dream she’s feeding them.”

My stomach turns and I push my plate away, my brain unable to stop the mental images of what Kymaris is doing. Family fajita night is officially over.

CHAPTER 21

Finley

To contact Zora, I’m going to use a different technique than I did the last time. Our first meeting of the minds, so to speak, was done down in the library. I was able to connect by imagining the maze of caves in the Underworld to somehow project myself there. I called out to her and, thankfully, she heard and responded.

Granted… she didn’t want anything to do with me after a few moments of conversation, and gave me a painful zap that sent me spinning away from our connection, so it wasn’t all that successful.

She made it clear she’s not interested in me, so I don’t expect her to be receptive.

As such, I’m not going in subtly like I did the last time. Instead, I want to try to project right into her body, sort of like I did when I first saw her in a dream. Except it really wasn’t a dream. I was asleep but I believe I was actually inside her and experiencing the Underworld through her eyes.

Yup… going to try to just jump right into her.

Now, there are downfalls to doing away with subtlety.

First, it’s going to be considered pretty damn rude to just show up inside of her rather than asking permission to communicate. She might hold it against me and increase her distrust.

Second, and this is Carrick’s concern, not mine… I might get trapped there somehow. He’s afraid my psyche might get stuck or even held there intentionally. But I seriously doubt Zora wants to share body space with me for the duration of our lives.