Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (23 page)

Keepers, Inari blended with the
Starfire in their bodies; but in Atia's case, an Inari
consciousness blended with the Starfire. Why had she never spoken
to warn Raea of the Risaal before it happened?

[I could not, until you
contacted me.]

What? Who was she? They were the
same.

No…maybe. Who was
she
?

[Raea. I'm sorry. You are
not me. It seems so real to you. Remember who you are…]

Remember. Yes, she was Raea Dahlrich,
an Inari born on Earth and she—

No. She didn't want to remember. So
much loss. So much pain. She wanted to forget.

[Raea…]

Lantis's face returned, hardened by a
steel determination overlooking the construction of a large disk in
a room below. A wheel glowed within the framework while technicians
covered head to toe in gray protective suits made adjustments and
studied panels.

["Lord Lantis. It pleases my
ears…Mother would be proud."] He glanced down at the crystal on a
table next to him.

[I am proud. I always
was.]
If only she could tell
him.

["She believed men to be equal to
women."] She recognized the deep voice. Although it came from the
shadows, it could only be Darus. ["She gave us the opportunity to
prove ourselves."]

["Only because her heart guided her."]
Lantis's voice softened.

Darus stepped into view, his features
cast in the soft light from the room beyond the glass. ["Her
heart?"]

Without looking back, Lantis said,
["She liked you. I saw the way she watched you, and she talked in
her sleep…but she couldn't let her needs get in the way of our
people. Mother was strong."]

[I should have allowed
some pleasure. I was attracted to you, Darus…but Lantis is right.
Once I made the appointment, I could not give in to my feelings. I
could be close, but it was never enough. I wanted to tell you.
Now…it's too late.]

["Lady Atia was…special. I won't
forget the first time I saw her. We were on the Miru ship and she
flew down to you. I was alone and had to say something, but when I
realized who she was, I knew I would never be worthy. But I always
wondered. Those times when she knew no one could see us, I thought
I saw…something in her eyes."]

Lantis turned, his wings lifted
slightly. ["You should have told her how you felt."]

Darus shook his head and stared down
through the glass. ["It would have been inappropriate."]

[No. No. No.]
Had she her body, her heart would have stopped.
Darus had felt the same attraction and said nothing. All those
years that they could have shared together in happiness they had
spent apart. If only she could go back and change everything. If
only she had known sooner.

Why now, when she could not share her
feelings, did she learn all this? It wasn't fair.

[It never
is
.
]
Raea's thought echoed through her head.

["Regrets will not bring her back. The
memorial will endure in her honor. No one will forget her
sacrifice. We must look to the future, Lord Lantis. This is your
city now."]

Lantis straightened, his
wings tightening to his back. He stood proud, a young man ready to
lead. No young woman could match that. ["
Our
city."]

["She would be proud of
you."]

[I am!]
So very, very proud. Her son had grown into a finer person
than she could have hoped.

The corner of Lantis's lips crooked
up, despite the deep sadness in his golden eyes. ["Thank
you."]

Silence surrounded them, thickening on
each second. The women below sealed the power source for the disk
with another piece before removing their hoods.

Through a speaker, a voice said,
["It's ready, Lord Lantis."]

He picked up the crystal and paused
before stepping past Darus. ["Join me?"]

Darus bowed his head. ["I am honored
by your request, Lord."]

["The honor is mine. You served my
mother well and brought honor to House Mikael through your
dedication to Lady Atia's ideals."] She couldn't have said it
better. Pride swelled within her, washing through the core of her
consciousness to share with the beings now blended with her. She
might be blended but still retained her individual thought
processes.

The two men left the room and traveled
in silence through a corridor and down a staircase to another door.
After a code by Lantis, it slid open and the two men approached the
large disk, its center rounded as if scooped out.

One of the faces lifted from the
opposite side of the large disk, which formed a sort of table top.
["Lord Lantis, you brought the crystal?"]

He held it out to the woman and she
took it in her gloved hands. ["This would have been easier if you
had allowed me access sooner."]

Lantis's wings shifted behind him and
his face hardened. Good for him. He recognized the criticism in the
woman's tone. She had no right to question his judgment.

["This crystal is my responsibility,
Mara. Until it is secured, I would not risk anyone else's life
defending it."]

[Well said.]
Her son would not be forced into submission to any
woman, nor did he insult the scientist, except for neglecting her
title. Confident and diplomatic. Atia had taught him
well.

The scientist's lip twitched but her
covered wings made no movement within the confines of her
protective suit. ["The shield harmonics should block detection of
the crystal's radiation. It is minor, so it didn't take much
adjustment."]

Block detection? That didn't sound
good. Rather, it did but not for her.

["Should? Make it happen, Mara. My
mother gave her life to protect this. I won't fail
her."]

The scientist's throat flashed with a
swallow, a hint of annoyance in her pinched brows. ["Of course,
Lord."] She stretched over the disk with the crystal to deposit it
into the scooped center.

[What are you doing?
What's going on?]

After setting the crystal into the
pit, Mara touched a few buttons around the edge of it. Something
red slid over the view, clouding and discoloring everything and
muffling voices. Liquid oozed over the crystal. The shapes of
people brought large objects, which they settled around the
view.

[The monolith!]
Realization rang through Raea's head, but
everything Raea had experienced felt like a dream compared to the
reality of sharing Atia's life. A Starfire crystal was at the heart
of the monolith. A whole other crystal.

It made sense. Memories slammed back
of a vision her shard had shown her of their exodus from their home
dimension to explore the universe of the Inari and other creatures.
Another group had left before the cluster from which her shard had
originated.

Two Starfire crystals.

She couldn't believe it.

[It's true. What you call
the Starfire is the
D'Nuvar
sought by the Risaal
.]

Lady Atia?

Yes, it was. She
remembered. She was Raea and had been experiencing the life of an
Inari dead for…for twelve thousand years.
[This is impossible.]

[No. When you touched the
shield, I—they—sensed the presence of their own kind and tried to
communicate. I was able to transfer to you…You must help them,
Raea. They're trapped. Lantis succeeded beyond expectations, but
they cannot escape, and they tried once.]

Raea found that hard to
believe.
[Tried? Then they
failed.]

[Yes. They tried to return
to their dimension, but the shield blocking their power redirected
it…]

A scene formed before her showing a
city rising into the sky. It gleamed in the sunlight while Inari
watched from the island across a small harbor.

[HOME…]
The entities' sentiment sharpened from Atia's emotions. She
wanted to go home, but she could not. The entities also wished to
return.

In that moment, they tried to connect
to their own dimension. Power crackled and flashed around a black
ball forming in the sky. Screams reached them. Several Inari took
flight.

The portal grew out of
control.

[Stop it! Stop! You're
killing them!]
Atia was too
late.

[CANNOT.
INTERFERENCE...]

No! Rage burned through
Atia's consciousness.
[Murderers!]
The black ball exploded outward briefly and
imploded into nothingness. Ocean water lapped violently over the
view, and after it settled, her worst fears were
confirmed.

The island and the city were
gone.

[It was as if the city
never existed.]
The images faded with the
return of Atia's voice.

All the theories of Atlantis were so
off base—it was impossible to find Atlantis because it had
disintegrated into the Starfire's home dimension, where matter was
broken down into pure energy.

Raea's stomach twisted. All those
colonists had died, leaving their efforts at a new life in
vain.

Atia paused for a few
seconds.
[I thought our kind had
disappeared from existence, until I touched your mind. That
Inar'Ahben survived gives me hope.]

[Don't get them up too
fast
,
]
Raea warned
. [The Risaal
want their crystal back after all this time, and the monolith with
your crystal is in their possession.]

[How is this possible?
Their technology was limited.]

[I don't know, but they
killed my mate].
And she didn't want to go
back to that hellish reminder of Elis's demise.

[I am aware of that and am
sorry. My partner was murdered for fathering a son and as
punishment for my rebellion.]
Sorrow
carried in the words and the feelings of the Lady connected to
Raea.

That was wrong by
everything Raea believed and so different from the Inar'Ahben she
knew from her visit and from the Starfire visions.
[They changed. The homeworld is different
now.]

[So I see through your
memories. It survived. We survived…but another crystal almost
destroyed us. How fortunate that yours blended with the
Inari.]

Fortunate? Not the word she would use.
Raea wished it hadn't blended with Inari, but she couldn't change
what she was or the past. She couldn't bring Elis back with the
power of the Starfire. What good was it?

[They blended with you
rather than blending you with them…They are good. They
are…different, but they learn. They wish no harm. It's hard to
explain, but you will understand one day.]

One day, but not that day. In Raea's
experience, they brought only misery.

[I'm sorry. It's not the
Starfire but those who seek their power for control who create the
misery. They have tried to prevent it. This I know from those
attached to you. You've done well by it, Raea.]

Okay. Fine.
[What do you want?]

[You must return to the
monolith, the memorial, and free them.]

How could she do that? She didn't know
how to operate the shields housing the crystal. Returning would be
the easy part. She would bet the Risaal were already on their way
for her. But to reveal the crystal within it would be another
matter.

[There will be a
way.]

Easy for Atia to say. The monolith was
covered in stone. How would she reach the controls?

Wait.
[How did the stone and writings get put on it?]

[The details are blurry
from the shielding, but I believe it's a composition much
like
cement
. Lantis
had them engrave the story of our arrival and the rise of our new
civilization. I remember hearing him give instructions to leave
markers within the stone where the controls are
located.]

Atia made it too easy to cooperate;
Raea hated that. She didn't want to go back, but she couldn't let
the Risaal reclaim the crystal. If she returned, she would risk her
life but she could free the entities to return to their dimension.
Why didn't they do so in the first place? Why did this crystal
allow itself to be misused?

What would happen to Atia?

No answer.

She was already dead but not, her
consciousness caught in limbo. All right, so Raea would have to go
back, but she didn't want to go back alone.

[I will assist
you.]

Great. Another "guide". Like the
Starfire entities weren't bothersome enough in their interference
in her life.

Atia's exasperation radiated through
Raea.

All right. So she hadn't suffered
nearly as much as the poor woman, but she had lost her soul mate,
the one man who had ever truly loved her. After all they had
survived together, it shouldn't have ended like that. God, she
didn't want to think about it. She wanted to just be Atia or
someone else, to forget how much it hurt.