Alterant (Belador #2)(42)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

“In case you can’t come back to see me, please give this to Nicole.” She reached around her neck and untied the leather thong holding Nicole’s amulet. She wouldn’t think about how this could be the last time she ever saw Tzader. When she held the amulet out to him, he reluctantly opened his hand. “And make sure that Feen—”

Her voice broke. She’d thought she could say his name.

Tzader wrapped his arms around her. When he spoke, his voice sounded as if he’d eaten rusty blades. “We won’t abandon you.”

She pulled in a shaky breath, determined to get this out. “I know.” She licked her dry lips, searching for the strength to make sure her baby was cared for. “Take Feenix … to Nicole … so he won’t be alone. Tell Feenix … tell him—”

Her baby would go berserk when she didn’t return.

The first tear charged down her cheek.

Tzader hugged her. “We’ll take him to Nicole’s tonight as soon as I finish all the VIPER meetings. We’ll tell him you love him and take care of him until you get back. I swear it.”

More tears rushed to join the first one, but she squinted her eyes tight.

The door to her cell opened on its own.

She pulled back from Tzader and tried to smile. “Thank you for all the times you’ve been my friend and believed in me.”

“Don’t talk in the past tense. I will find a way to get you out of here. Quinn and I won’t stop until we do.”

Should she tell Tzader about Kizira’s claim that Quinn had shared information about Evalle? Not without proof. Evalle could only live with so much guilt, and she’d hurt enough Beladors for one day.

She trusted Tzader to know who his allies were.

She couldn’t spend forever in here thinking Quinn had betrayed her to Kizira.

Tzader stepped away, looking back once more before he walked out.

The door swung shut and dissolved into a rough-cut rock wall again.

Her heart dropped with the sudden empty ring. Her watch emitted a loud tick … tick … tick every time a second passed.

Sen’s doing, no doubt. He wanted her to be aware of every second she spent in this cage.

He’d made sure she’d spend all those seconds in agony thinking about Storm and everything she’d lost in one day.

THIRTY-SIX

The watch had become Evalle’s nemesis. She tried to stomp out the noisy thing, but the timepiece was indestructible, so she put it beneath the thin mattress on her bed.

The blasted thing ticked louder.

She finally gave up and put the watch back on her arm, where the sound of each second ticking returned to a normal level that echoed off the hard walls.

Energy began forming inside the chamber.

Evalle backed up to the wall facing where the door had appeared last time, but no door took shape.

The energy gathered power until an explosion of light ended with a woman who glowed from head to toe in an angelic dress of sparkling white pearls.

But that was no angel giving her the death stare.

Evalle hadn’t expected another guest so soon, and never this one. “Good morning, Goddess.”

Macha slid a perturbed look down her narrow, but perfect, nose. “You have caused our tribe a great deal of trouble, Evalle.”

The Celtic goddess over all the Beladors took time out of her busy schedule to come here and state the obvious?

Or had Macha dropped by to turn Evalle into a smoldering block of charred Alterant for getting Brina in a jam?

Macha started to pace, took one look at the cramped cell and shared her disgust in a loud sniff. “I should destroy all the Alterants as they become known, and I would if I thought that would solve my problems.”

Not feeling the love right now.

Evalle considered everything that had happened and decided that if Macha wanted to toast her for speaking up, she had nothing left to lose. “What’s the point of this visit, Macha?”

The goddess studied her as if Evalle had surprised her and proven more interesting than a wounded roach. “My point is simple. If I challenge the Tribunal’s ruling against Brina, I put the entire Belador tribe in conflict with VIPER. The risk is too great for that.”

Evalle noted that Macha hadn’t mentioned the ruling against her. “I understand the predicament we’re in.”

She probably shouldn’t have used “we” in that sentence based on the way Macha’s gaze scolded her.

The goddess said, “Tzader came to me and shared everything he’d learned by Quinn probing a possible traitor’s mind, as well as what you told him.”

Had they decided Conlan O’Meary was a traitor?

Or had Macha decided Evalle was a traitor after she’d dispersed the fog?

As Grady liked to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Evalle said, “I assume you heard how I used a gift given me by the Tribunal to destroy the fog, too.”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe I’m aligned with the Medb?”

“If I did, we would not be having this conversation.”

That sounded like confirmation that Evalle could have ended up as Alterant charcoal briquettes.

But the goddess had more to say. “More importantly, I believe what you told Tzader.”

That was good, right? “About what specifically?”

“That the Medb are trying to bring these half-breed Belador Alterants into their fold and use them to harm Brina. I can’t allow that, nor can I allow Brina’s hologram to remain in Tribunal custody.”

The goddess said nothing about throwing her help Evalle’s way, but if she freed Brina’s hologram form, Evalle would be thankful for one blessing. “I’m glad to hear you can fix some of this.”

“Some? I’m a goddess. I don’t fix some of anything. I will not be held at the Tribunal’s mercy for any reason.” She touched her flowing golden-auburn hair with a beautifully manicured nail, and her hair shifted into an even more perfect shape. “Listen carefully, as I do not repeat myself.”

Not a lot inside this box to distract me, but whatever.

“Only a deity can approach the Tribunal regarding the viable status of a race. As such, I will open a dialogue with the Tribunal to formally decree that you have given me cause to believe Belador Alterants should be recognized as a viable race. That once the Alterant origin is clearly established and proof of their loyalty to my pantheon has been delivered to the Tribunal their race will be established and protected under the laws of our world.”

Evalle’s jaw hung slack.

“Do close your mouth.” Macha paused, then continued. “In the interim of establishing this race, I will offer amnesty to any Alterant who comes forward willingly to swear allegiance to me and does not harm a coalition member, a Belador or a human while the origins are being researched.”

Evalle cut her eyes around the room, searching for this to be a trick.

“Are you paying attention?” Macha snapped at her. “I will not return again if we do not come to an agreement.”

“I’m paying very close attention, but what about Brina? Saving her comes first.” Evalle nodded to double stamp her words. Hope and reservation struggled for equal space in her heart.

“Brina will be freed once this clears the Tribunal.”

Evalle had learned hard lessons about the devious ways of gods and goddesses, which spurred her to pin Macha down more precisely. “I have the feeling what you’re talking about involves me doing something, but I’m not going to be a lot of help in this cell.”

“Tzader led me to believe you were bright. Did you think I came here to exchange fashion tips?” Macha sniffed at Evalle’s ragged clothes.

Didn’t get a chance to pack for this trip.

“Once I open the charter for a new race with the Tribunal, that decision supersedes their judgment, as you will then become responsible solely to me and my laws.”

There was a loophole in Tribunal rulings?

Macha angled her head and pursed her lips as though she’d heard that thought. Then she continued, “I am designating you as my coordinator for this undertaking with the Alterants. You will be released under my custody and responsible to me while the Alterant race status is being documented. You will continue to serve as a Belador agent for VIPER and will be protected from anyone in the VIPER alliance harming you.”

Did that mean Sen couldn’t screw with her again?

Part of Evalle wanted to demand that Macha show her where to sign on the dotted line, but another part—the one tired of being used as a pawn in everyone’s personal games—had her hesitating to jump up and shout.

Macha said, “If you need some time to think about it, go ahead. You have the rest of your life to ponder while I’m gone.” She lifted her hands.

Evalle feared she would teleport away. “Wait. Please.”

“Does that mean you’ve come to a decision?”

Deals with a god or goddess were irrevocable. Evalle didn’t want to lose this chance or spend the rest of her life away from all that mattered to her—Tzader, Quinn, Grady, Nicole …

What about Storm? No one would search for the truth behind his disappearance if she didn’t.

Feenix’s face swam through her mind, sealing the decision.

Evalle would face much worse than the fine print in a goddess’s contract to hold Feenix again. “I’ll do it.”

“Big surprise,” Macha said under her breath, then went on instructing her. “Do not speak of this to anyone, and do not fail me, Evalle. Brina is far more forgiving than I am.”

Macha lifted her hands in a swoosh of movement, vanishing.

End of meeting.

What now?

Evalle would like to think she’d just gotten a reprieve, but she had a strange feeling that she might have only stuck both feet into quicksand.

Once Macha departed, Evalle paid attention to her empathic senses, which had been busy deciphering the meeting. She fingered what had been nudging her to take notice at the very end.

Macha had given off a potent emotion. Exhilaration.

Why had she been so excited over this agreement?

Or had all this been nothing more than a cruel way to punish Evalle for getting Brina into trouble by coming in here to offer Evalle what she most wanted?

Then disappearing and never coming back.

Honor might be a lonely cellmate, but hope was a vicious mistress that would kill her over and over every minute she believed she would be freed.

“Faith is not a learned skill … but the blossom on the vine of hope,” the soft female voice whispered in the silent room.

Evalle asked, “Why won’t you tell me who you are?”

No one answered.

THIRTY-SEVEN

We need to talk, Tristan.

The telepathic contact broke Tristan’s concentrating on where to take his band of Alterants tomorrow. After facing off with that black-ops group and walking away from Evalle, he had no doubt Tzader Burke would unleash the fury of the Beladors on him.

Tristan’s only regret in all of this was leaving Evalle to face the Tribunal. When the black-ops team had burst on the scene, all Tristan had been able to think was that she had betrayed him.

In hindsight, he began to have his doubts.

At least he’d taught her how to survive in whatever place the Tribunal would send her so she wouldn’t die of an animal attack or snakebite.

You need my help, the male voice said again.

Really? Tristan leaned back in the hotel room office chair and looked out the glass at Hartsfleld-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. What makes you think I need anyone’s help?

Because you’re on the run from the Beladors and VIPER. I can offer you refuge.

If you’re speaking to me telepathically, then you’re one of the Beladors.

Yes, I am. Or at least I was until they decided to treat me like a criminal. You can’t run far enough to protect your sister.

Tristan’s eyes shot to the second bed in the room where Petrina slept. Exhausted, but safe. He relaxed back into the chair. If I believe what you say, then the Beladors are after you, too.

True. There’s only one place safe enough to hide, and I’m in that spot with full protection.

That sounded tempting. Tristan had his doubts about his ability to keep Petrina and the other two Alterants safe. He couldn’t link with Webster and Aaron in a fight, and he didn’t want Petrina in a risky situation.

The voice said, Don’t panic at what I’m about to tell you.

Tristan laughed. I doubt you could say anything that would panic me.

Excellent. I have people waiting outside your hotel, watching the same airplanes take off and land.

That drove Tristan to his feet. He searched the ground below his window but saw nothing. Where are they?

Close enough to keep watch over you. Wait a moment … I understand you’ve changed clothes and are wearing a pale yellow button-down shirt.

Tristan touched his shirt as if the damned thing had told on him. Who are you?

We can meet in person to allow you to decide for yourself. My people will not bother you. They’ll make sure no Belador or VIPER agent comes near you, but they will let you depart the hotel only upon my authority.