She turned to smile at him, but Samuel caught her eye and glared. He’s flirting.
Now she smiled at Samuel. No he’s not. He’s just being himself and he’s funny.
What-the-fuck-ever.
She chuckled some more, but squeezed his hand. I think he wants to meet Endelle more than anything else.
Ya think?
Then you should stop worrying about his designs on me.
He’s the kind of man who has designs on every woman.
This time, she met his gaze as they moved into Thorne’s Command Center.
And you don’t?
This time, his lips curved and he didn’t quite meet her in the eye as he said, Used to.
Just as I thought, though she squeezed his hand again.
Thorne left one of the nearest stations and led them once more to Endelle’s private suite explaining that Jeannie had already let him know what was happening and that Endelle was on her way.
Vela moved to the far end of the couch, but Samuel chose to stand near her off to the side of the adjacent purple chair.
Samuel introduced Merl, who had planted his feet opposite the couch, his arms folded over his chest.
Thorne held Merl’s gaze forcefully, like he knew exactly what game Merl played. But Merl stared back unaffected.
Given the stature of each, the stare lasted a long time.
Merl appeared to enjoy pissing contests.
She wondered what Endelle would think of Merl.
Samuel thought Merl had probably jumped from the womb playing with fire because the moment Endelle entered the room, he turned the force of his flirtations on the leader of Second Earth.
Merl made a long speech, saying things about being humbled to meet She Who Would Live and that he’d looked forward to this moment for five decades.
He took her hand, kissed her fingers.
Samuel had heard Endelle had hooked up with the Sixth ascender, Braulio, who, rumor had it, was also the Sixth ascender, James. Weird f**king times on Second Earth.
What the hell is he doing? Vela slipped into Samuel’s mind easily. And he liked it.
He glanced down at her, met her gaze, and shrugged. Hell if I know. But Braulio had better make an appearance pretty quick.
No, shit.
Samuel withheld a smile, but he met Thorne’s astonished gaze. Thorne shook his head as though he couldn’t figure Merl out either.
A moment later, Alison and Fiona entered, looking puffy-eyed but beautiful from being awakened in the middle of the night. At first, Samuel thought Merl might attempt to spread his charms in their direction, but he remained fixed on Endelle, a predatory glint in his eye.
Endelle, however, turned a shoulder to the interloper, made the introductions to Alison and Fiona, then had Vela lay out her plans.
The women listened quietly, eyes wide.
“Can you do this for us?” Vela asked.
“Of course,” Alison said.
Fiona nodded.
Vela addressed Alison. “And you think you could reconfigure one of the shotguns?”
“I’ll know as soon as I approach one.” Alison repressed a yawn and blinked a couple of times. She had a flying toddler at home and needed her sleep.
“We’ll want Leto as well,” Endelle said. “You three women need to work on these skills and see what you can figure out. We’ve got to get a wrecker weapon, one that will take down a darkening grid wall, so that we can pull Duncan out of his cell. Are we all clear on this?” Nods and murmurs followed.
Samuel had to admit he felt oddly comfortable in this room, as though his dark power recognized the other ascenders. Which sparked other thoughts, not so pleasant, like his deepest fears that somewhere in this necessary exercise, his currently dormant streams of energy would hurt one of these people accidentally.
He corralled his thoughts, however, and focused on Vela. She appeared calm, but her foot bounced, not surprisingly. His role to support and defend was one thing, but Vela led the charge.
Endelle’s voice intruded. “All right, let’s give the women some space to work.” Thorne led the way for the men and Endelle to leave the room. Once well into the next rotunda, he drew the party to a stop and asked for more details about the darkening grid, the explosions, and Duncan’s cell.
Samuel knew the drill and gave as many relational points as he could; length of travel time, dimension of the cell, the changing state of the floor as one location surpassed the next, the size of the grid tunnels, and anything else that came to mind. Merl added what he knew as well.
Thorne listened intently, his hazel eyes shifting between both men.
When Samuel finished his account, Thorne called out to Jeannie and requested Leto to join them right away.
Leto had taken Thorne’s sister, Grace, as h i s breh, so that essentially they were brothers-in-law.
Leto arrived within the next few minutes but Endelle’s first words were, “We’ll need you in your beast-state. You, Thorne, and Samuel are headed to Third in the darkening.” Leto’s brows rose and though he stared back from faintly astonished blue eyes, he merely nodded. With a blur of movement, he morphed into what he called his beast state, although he appeared exactly the same, just bigger.
And taller.
Samuel hadn’t seen him this close up, but even he could agree the warrior looked like a god. “Fuck,” he drawled.
“Get used to it.” But the words came from both Merl and Leto at the same time.
“I take it this kind of thing is common on Third Earth?” Endelle pivoted toward Merl.
“It is.” Endelle held his gaze. “So we’re really in this.” His crooked smile spoke his compassion. “Looks like it.” Endelle glanced at Samuel. “Bring Leto up to speed.” Samuel laid it out, all that had happened as well as the current plan. But it was Merl who picked up the thread and gave the missing details about the wrecking squads. He explained what the warriors would be up against, how quickly the squads could move, how powerful they were, the nature of the weapons, and the odds looked pretty bad.
“What about you, Merl?” Endelle said, breaking the theme of this can’t really be done, with, “You gonna help out with this party? You got a pair of balls in those snug leathers of yours, or are you just a handsome face and all talk.”
“Wish I could, but I’ve got a grid death warrant on my head put there by every faction involved. You’d have several squads after you the moment my signature lit up the darkening.” Alison appeared at the doorway and called to them. “Please come back. We’ve got something going on in here. Vela’s feeling a call to the Illinois Seers Palace?” Samuel moved fast and found Vela trembling as she stood near the glass coffee table. “What’s going on?”