He had a point. Aria flinched as the heavy exterior door clanged shut behind them. She kept a pace back from Lucas as they traveled down the hall, leaving room to swing her tail spike if anything happened.
A door stood open at the end, the room beyond spilling a square of brighter light toward them. Lucas stepped into it and froze. With a sense of resignation, Aria came up behind him.
Her senses already told her what lurked within. Or rather, who.
The energy was distinctive in that it interwove with the life that surrounded it. Although not as powerful as what she’d sensed in Nikolai, it was similar enough to confirm a couple of things: that Nikolai was connected to the one who waited for them, and that the woman seated within was a Watcher.
With the hood on her cape pulled back, she who awaited them appeared unobtrusive enough. Even seated behind the table, Aria could tell the woman barely topped five feet. Her hair was crazy long and mostly white; prominent crystals scattered through the braids. Impossible to determine her age, the coppery skin possessed only a few lines around the mouth and the merest tracing of crow’s feet around the eyes. And those eyes—they were a brilliant blue. They reminded her of something, but she couldn’t place exactly what.
She’d never met one, but she had no doubt as to the woman’s identity. Her power sat quietly on her, but the crystal remnants in Aria’s blood sang in her presence. Whereas Nikolai’s had a dark edge, the energy surrounding the Watcher was clean and pure. It told her that there was no evil in this person, and a part of Aria relaxed despite her wishes to view the Watcher as the enemy.
Lucas may not have her sensitivity, but he’d come to his own conclusions. He took a long step forward, bowed his head, and said, “Watcher.”
The woman spread her hands out to her sides, palms toward them. “Welcome,” she said. “My name is Cara, and we need to talk.”
* * *
Lucas stared at the Watcher.
Her presence here, waiting for them, should have come as a surprise. But instead, the practical side of him accepted that it made a whole lot of sense. Rather than chasing Nikolai through the nearly impenetrable forest, she’d gone straight to the only logical escape route. It was what he would have done in her place.
She gestured to the chairs across the table from her. “Please, sit.”
Lucas pulled out a chair and planted his butt on it. Aria remained standing along the back wall, with her narrowed amber gaze never leaving the Watcher.
Cara didn’t comment on it, merely faced Lucas. “It has been a long time since I met a Morph.”
Considering what Lucas had heard of Watchers, it didn’t surprise him that she sensed what he really was. He pulled back his hood. “Yeah, well, we tend to blend in.”
The Watcher smiled. The expression reached her vivid-blue eyes, and despite himself, Lucas felt compelled to trust her. But he braced himself, and asked, “You wanted to talk with us?”
She measured him with her gaze. “Yes. I think you have an acquaintance that is of concern to me.”
Lucas said nothing, but Aria moved to shut the door. Then she leaned one hand on the table.
“What are you talking about?”
Aria kept her voice even and her expression calm, but her fingers whitened when she leaned on them, and he noticed the free hand stayed close to her tail spike. She wouldn’t seriously consider striking at a Watcher, would she? Over Nikolai?
He considered. She might. There was something between her and that big guy that he didn’t understand. Didn’t want to, either.
Cara’s gaze slid from Aria back to him. “Your friend out in the forest. How well do you know him?”
At the mention of forest, Lucas’s fool mind took him there.Long legs swinging over a fallen trunk, hand braced against moss...
He yanked his awareness back to the Watcher. The woman raised a brow.
Aria opened her mouth to answer, but Lucas beat her to it. “We don’t know him. Not really.”
Aria straightened. “He saved us from the Torshin bastard that tried to enslave us.” There was an edge to her voice.
Cara’s brows lowered and her eyes sparked blue fire. “Torshin? You were enslaved by a Torshin?”
Was he imagining the sudden intensity in the Watcher? He observed her closely as he prompted, “The bastard went by the name of Demeti.”
This time, there was no mistaking the stiffening of her entire body. Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “You know him?”
The Watcher nodded, once, briskly. “Our paths have crossed. Do you know what happened to him?”
