“The Source may be compromised,” she said.
Humanity escaped him. Just vanished. His skin crackled and went solid. Limestone pushed out of his skin, then he seemed to realize what had just happened and he snatched back the human form.
“You called me away from the Source to tell me this?” He started to twitch, to pace.
“As I said, I can’t go there. Too much is at risk.”
She told him everything that had happened at the Senatus—everything but her own agenda.
“You let her go after the Source.” His voice was very dark. “When you know what damage she could cause.”
Aya folded her hands in front of her, the short cloak of pebbles swinging around her body. “No. I made a strategic move to keep our position solid within the Senatus. I have every confidence in your ability to protect what your line has always kept safe.”
Please believe me, she silently begged.
Nem planted his hands on his hips. “Are you as confident in this Ofarian? That he’ll capture her before she finds it?”
Aya shrugged. “Does it matter? We have the advantage and the victor’s spoils, no matter the outcome.”
He started to shift on his feet and she knew he longed to dive back into the earth. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize what showed on his face just then, but she knew very well what it was.
Intent to harm. Murder.
She came forward to calm his frenetic movements with a hand to his arm. He stopped instantly, his eyes snapping to the place where they touched, human skin to human skin. The first time for him, likely. The second for her, after a brief moment of contact from Keko over a year ago. His dewy lips dropped open and he swayed on his feet. Aya removed her hand.
“I need you to promise me,” she said, “that you will not go after Keko before she reaches the Source.”
“What?”
“I need you to promise me that you will let this play out, that you will let Griffin do what he must do. If he fails, if Keko finds the Source, then she is yours, but not until then. I need your word. I need you to understand what I’m asking. That’s why I called you here.”
Nem inched away until his back struck the limestone. His skin started to shift on its own, silver-white cracks smearing over his shoulders and around his waist.
“You’ve changed,” he said.
“That’s what happens when you evolve.”
“I didn’t mean your body.” As he said it, his gaze swept from her face, over her shoulders, and down her torso. His mouth slackened when he came to her breasts. His brow furrowed when his gaze skimmed over her bare legs and the covered junction between them.
She didn’t quite understand her revulsion, only that she didn’t care for this very human reaction from a man who wasn’t entirely one yet. It made her feel uncomfortable. Unwelcome. Unsafe.
She knew of human mating, how it was done, the physical aspects of it. But Nem knew nothing, only what his human body was telling him. She didn’t want that with him. Not one bit.
With a gasp, Nem glanced down at himself, down to the place between his own legs. Uncertainty twisted his features. Then anger. His head snapped up and he pinned her with a severe, glittering stare.
“I didn’t mean your body,” he repeated. “I meant your mind. What’s happened?”
She started to panic and desperately tried to maintain her composure. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He pulled himself away from the cliff with a hard clink of broken rock and a dusty shower of pebbles. “Is it that air elemental?”
Her stomach felt funny. “What?” And her voice sounded odd. Too breathy, too scared. Too out of her control.
Nem advanced another step, but she couldn’t back up or else she’d go over the cliff and into the waves. Oxygen dwindled, like she was trapped Within again.
“That’s what I thought,” he said, nodding.
Aya tried desperately to recover. “What air elemental? What are you talking about?”
“The new one the premier brought in recently to wipe the minds of humans. The man with the curly hair.”
The only way Nem could possibly know about that particular air elemental was if Nem had been in Canada last month when the premier had summoned Aya to his race’s compound.
Now it was her turn to advance, anger and fear roiling through her body. “You followed me? To a private meeting with the Senatus premier? The Father will have you locked Within—”
“You won’t tell him.” Nem’s voice dropped, and she’d never heard him sound so utterly human. “Because then I will tell him how you revealed yourself to the Senatus. How you compromised the secrecy of our entire race. I’ll bet you didn’t mention that part to the Father when you told him the rest. You made the mistake of telling me.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“And then I will tell him that once you become human, you will not be interested in mating with another human, but a Secondary, an air elemental. That, above anything, will see you trapped Within until you wither and die as flesh and not of earth. Alone.”
Aya’s entire body shook with a rage and frustration that was completely new to her human mind.
She tried to fight it, but that air elemental’s face stabbed into her vision. His haunted, distant pale blue eyes, the hair Nem described . . . She’d only seen him that once, over a month ago, but the memory taunted her with a need and want she didn’t know how to hide or react to.
She thought she knew this new world. She thought she knew how to live within it. A Son of Earth had proved her wrong.
“It seems,” Nem said, turning away and speaking to her over one broad shoulder, “that for once in our existence, we have reached a mutual understanding.”
He punched a fist into the limestone, half his arm instantly disappearing. Then he stepped through the cliff face, the earth swallowing him easily, gracefully, to return to the island place Aya could not go.
EIGHT
Hiking on three hours’ sleep. What rest Keko didn’t get was counterbalanced by the constant reminder that Griffin Aames was on her tail.
Griffin. Who had come to the Big Island to stop her.
Another shudder passed through her body, and it was like food or water, giving her energy. Nothing like a good, angry chase to push her onward.
Nothing like the knowledge that the Queen’s prayer was so close.
Her pace was slower than it had been yesterday, but it was still a good one. She was still moving. When she’d left him, Griffin had been absolutely wiped. Even in the darkness, even though he was trying his best to hide it, she’d seen the steep slant of his shoulders, and heard the wheeze and fatigue in his voice. He’d probably passed out on that ridge last night. But as soon as he woke up, he’d cross the ravine and hunt her all over again. She would be stupid to discount someone of his determination and focus.
She had to keep moving.
She ate the last of her granola bars as she trudged on. She was desperate for water, but she didn’t want to backtrack to the stream she’d crossed a few hours ago. Although backtracking could possibly throw Griffin off, her time and resources were running out. She would press on. She was fire, after all, and fire didn’t need water.
She hadn’t been fooled by anything Griffin said to her—did he really think she believed he was here for any reason other than the Senatus? For anyone but himself?
He, however, had been fooled by the chief.
It made sense Chief would send Griffin after her. If Keko did find the Source and survive, if she brought back the cure, she would be venerated above the Big Island ali’i and all the other island chiefs. She’d be above the Queen. Of course Chief wanted Keko stopped before that could happen. He had other Chimerans covering his weakened ass, after all, and could still live as he had been.