Lucas read the answer in the subtle tightening of Cara’s mouth. “They don’t agree with you, do they?” he said.
Cara shrugged. “Some do. Some don’t. But they lack the power to insist, either way.” Her gaze darted to Nikolai. “If you do not take my offer, my hands might be tied on this.”
Aria’s eyes flashed. “Can you assure us he won’t end up locked away?”
Cara shook her head. “I’m sorry, but no. I have influence, yes, but I cannot guarantee anything. And with every incident, more turn against me.”
“Not good enough,” Aria hissed, her hand tightening on Nikolai’s arm. “We’re out of here.”
For an instant, Nikolai hesitated, and Lucas wondered if he’d resist. But then he dropped his gaze to Aria, and let her tow him away through the garden.
Lucas let his breath out slowly and lingered to match stares with Cara. “Is it just my paranoia speaking, or is this all kinds of bad?”
Her vivid eyes almost glowed. “You are not wrong. He is more powerful than any of us expected.”
“You really cannot stop him?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. But my sister Liberis are working on it.”
Lucas swallowed. “What can I do?”
“You are linked to the two of them...”
The two of them? “I don’t want to leave Aria. She’s in over her head. It’s her that’s got this weird obsession with him.”
One corner of her mouth twitched. “I have seen into his heart. There is hope. And I will not be far away.” She turned and vanished up the path.
For a moment, Lucas stared after her. Then he ran to catch up with Aria.
24
Nikolai’s inner voice was seriously pissed.
It hammered relentlessly at him as he followed Lucas and Aria along the residential streets.
You should have just gone through the gate to the Watcher’s realm.
He answered automatically, now.They would have locked me up.
They cannot keep you confined. You are too strong, and I am waiting for you. Your destiny does not lie with these people.
My destiny is what I make of it.Nikolai shoved the voice aside.
But it only went because the argument was now pointless. It had screamed at him when he diverted the gate, insisting that he just step through. Nikolai was rather proud that he hadn’t given in.
As though having an argument with an imaginary voice was a good thing. If that Watcher had any idea of just how fragmented his mind had become...
But she didn’t know, and Nikolai wasn’t about to tell her, even though it worried him. A lot, to be honest.
The moment they’d stepped through Cara’s gateway, everything had changed. Inside her sphere of influence, life was vibrant with growth as though it were early summer. Outside of it, fall had arrived. The trees had already lost many of their leaves, and the air had a nip to it that reminded him of the desert at night.
Lucas had his hood pulled up high, and now he turned to Aria. “Pull yours up too.”
She glanced at him. “Why? I look human.”
Lucas stared at her. “Seriously?”
“What?”
