Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (27 page)

The bedroom was just as it had been
after Nare left three weeks ago. The double bed was made up with a
handmade quilt over it, the boxes of stuff that had crowded it
stashed along the far side of the room. A single window with white
drapes let in the light of the day.

Nare closed the door after her with a
quiet snick. "Can you tell me now?"

Raea leaned on the metal bed frame,
squeezing her hands around it for security. Telling Nare was harder
than she expected, but it had to be done. The shard was no longer
safe on Earth. "There are more than four shards of the
Starfire."

"Impossible."

"It's true. I confirmed it with Saffir
after learning of it myself from the Starfire. They showed me the
mission to Earth. Mine was present when the Eye was left here. It
started when a man with an Inari symbol on his hand came to town—a
human man…like in the vision Elis gave me. When you walked Josh
home the night I came back from Inar'Ahben, he told us he was a
protector of the Eye and that others like him were
disappearing."

"A fifth shard on Earth," Nare
muttered and stumbled to the bed to sit. "I can't believe
it."

"Believe it. There are more than five,
and Saffir knows it too. The risk of all of it being on Inar'Ahben
was too great."

Nare straightened and blinked to focus
on Raea. "Then the Shirat Empire will never bring Heffin's Gate to
full power, even if they obtain the four known shards."

Yeah. Raea had considered that, but
one shard alone could create a portal by the will of a Keeper, or
by the focus of the machine. Who knew how much power it really had.
"I…don't think they need all of them to threaten the
world."

"You don't?" Nare's shoulders sank.
That she didn't argue but accepted Raea's statement was bad; Nare
understood the repercussions. The Shirukan had used one shard to
open a portal to Earth. What stopped them from using the machine to
threaten the cities? "We can't let them know…of any of
this."

"Too right."

The silence of the house came between
them, each lost in their own thoughts. Raea cringed at the
consequences of that information in the hands of the Shirat
Empire.

"What do we do?" Nare
asked.

"We find the Eye." Elis had been
right. Only a Keeper could protect it now. Whoever sought it must
have known of its power; and, sooner or later, one of the
protectors would give it up. She couldn't let that happen, or Earth
was in trouble. They were far from prepared to manage the power of
the Starfire.

"Then what?"

Raea met Nare's questioning gaze. "You
test it."

"What? Me?" Nare jumped to her feet.
"No. I won't. I have no desire to fail."

Interesting, especially coming from
Nare. "You don't think you're worthy?"

"I didn't say that. I just don’t want
the risk."

Or didn't want to know she wasn't
worthy. "But we have to do something. It can't stay here. Someone
is looking for it. If it's the Shirukan…"

Ah. Nare shuddered. Yes, she
understood the consequences.

"We can't let them get it," Nare said
in a low voice. After a few seconds, she let out a heavy sigh.
"What if it rejects me?"

"Let them know the stakes. I think
they'll understand, until we find a new Keeper. The entities are
intelligent. Even if it's only temporary, I think they'll accept
you." In theory it sounded convincing, but doubts lingered in
Raea's mind, doubts she dared not speak. They had to finish the
task she and Elis had set out to complete. "You can take it back to
Inar'Ahben or to the others here on Earth. One of them would be
worthy. I'm sure of it."

Nare bit her lip and paced the small
area before the door. A battle waged within. Raea saw it on her
expression—the desire to claim a shard and the reverence of being a
Crystal Keeper against the fear of being rejected or the fear of
the Shirukan claiming the shard. Raea could only wonder which
argument would win and let it play out in Nare's mind. She had
stated her reasons.

Except for one more forming in the
silence.

"And," she said quietly, "together we
could fight the Risaal and retrieve Elis's body." She swallowed the
emotions threatening to choke her. The least they could do was to
honor Elis properly.

After a few indecisive seconds, Nare
turned to her with a frown. "You said the Risaal killed him and
that the Risaal attacked the homeworld twelve thousand years ago
because of a gift to the Inari they wanted to reclaim, and that
Lady Atia and her son Lantis escaped the Risaal. What did the
Risaal want with you and Elis?"

Raea stared at the door. Josh had
promised to join them to hear the story also. It might take him a
while, though, and she wanted to convince Nare to help her
immediately, before Nare could back down. If she was going back for
Elis, she needed help. She could repeat the story for Josh when he
came.

"Atlantis." After a deep breath, Raea
told her the story of the first Starfire and the gift to the
Risaal. She continued with how Lady Atia had planned to seal the
crystal in the mountain on the island on Earth when her plan
failed. She continued with how Lantis took over and described the
device sealing the crystal from detection and how it had disrupted
their power and caused the whole island to disappear.

Nare closed her eyes and grimaced. "I
can't believe it. A whole intact Starfire crystal. Two!" She
wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. "And it made a whole
colony disappear. There were rumors, hints of a lost colony, but it
was only a legend. It's real, all of it. Just…gone."

"Atlantis's disappearance was an
accident. They wanted to go home, but the power was redirected
because of the shielding. They haven't tried again since. They need
us to free them."

"And the Risaal are determined to find
it…the crystal."

Raea nodded. The Risaal were willing
to kill. "They have it but don't know it."

"We can't let anyone have it. It must
return to its own dimension, before the Risaal or Shirukan get
their hands on it." Nare let out a heavy sigh and shook her head.
"You win. I'll do it. We have to free the crystal, or we all
lose."

Although she should feel pleased in
her victory of convincing Nare to help her, Raea's insides twisted
into a mess. Neither of them won in this case. They only did what
had to be done, and neither of them liked it.

"The sooner, the better," Raea said.
She didn't want to leave Elis's body for them or anyone to pick
apart. She had wasted enough time.

"Agreed. Before the Shirukan learn of
it."

Yeah. That. "After you become Crystal
Keeper of the shard in the Eye." Raea and Nare would both be
targets once Nare possessed the shard of the Eye, but they would
need all the power they could use when it came to freeing the other
crystal. "Just don't tell that part to Josh." If she knew him, he'd
try to stop her.

"Not a word. Where is he?"

Good question. "Eating, probably."
She'd seen a lot of food go into Josh at lunch, yet he never put on
weight. Then again, it hadn't been long since he'd left, and he had
four blocks to walk home from her house.

A knock on the front door startled
her. "That must be him."

Raea hurried from the room and down
the stairs, careful to avoid the loose step. Josh should have come
in without knocking. Was he trying to wake up Evelyn?

Raea opened the door. "Why didn't
you—" That wasn't Josh.

Of all the people, what
did
she
want,
especially at that hour of the morning? Didn't she
sleep?

"I thought I'd find you here," Anita
said. "May I come in?"

"Shouldn't you be talking with
Debbie?" The possibilities for graduation at this crucial time
baffled Raea. What was Anita doing there at that hour?

Anita glanced aside at Nare, the
strict lines of her mouth twitching with indecision, and she looked
back to Raea. "She sent me here."

"Why?" And what was Debbie doing
calling Anita that early? Graduation was the last thing on her
mind. "Where is she?"

"This doesn't concern her, although I
suppose it does as she is your 'aunt'. I'll explain inside…if I
may?"

"This isn't a good time."

"I suppose it isn't, but what I have
to say concerns your…nightly excursions."

Raea's breath stopped in her lungs.
Did she know?

A smug grin curved up those fine lips.
"I don't think you want the world to know."

Raea stepped back, her eyes on the
woman as she entered, and closed both doors tight behind her. In
the black, fitted, frock-length coat, Anita could have been
Shirukan.

Was it possible?

Nare stepped around her, placing
herself between Raea and Anita with her hands on her hips. She must
have noticed it too.

"Anita Cross. You must be Nare." The
woman held a bare hand out, a gesture no Shirukan would offer to a
Keeper—the Starfire in them could be detected by touch. Not
Shirukan, but she could still be a threat.

Nare hesitated to accept it and
grasped the offered hand. Anita's lips curved into a sly smile with
the lift of one finely plucked eyebrow. "Satisfied?"

"Of what?" Suspicion leaked heavily
form Nare's voice as she dropped her hand.

"That I'm human."

Anita Cross

"Why wouldn't you be?" Caution carried
in Nare's voice.

Anita wasn't looking at Nare but
focused on Raea. That gaze pulled at Raea, along with her curiosity
about the woman's words.

"Because you're not…Neither of you
are."

Panic swept through
Raea.
Stay calm. She's only fishing. She
doesn't know.
Words stuck in her throat and
she swallowed them down.

"What makes you say that?" At least
Nare could speak.

Anita's eyes stayed on Raea. "Your
mother came to this world nineteen years ago this month, escaping
the Shirat Empire to save her unborn child…and the
crystal."

Oh, my God! She does
know.
This was the
worst
possible timing.

"Who are you?" Who did she work for?
Why was she there? Raea drowned in a sea of memories from her
childhood, her mother's face before her in beauty and sorrow. How
did this woman know about her mother? Why did she have to bring
this up now? Why not sooner, or later for that matter?

Amusement briefly softened the stiff
lines of Anita's face, replaced a second later by something stern.
Her eyes darted to Nare, who crossed her arms with a defiant
air.

Anita's lips pressed together, her
eyes shifting from Nare to Raea. "I'm with a special agency of the
U.S. government. I was sent to track activity in this area since
the gravimetric atmospheric disturbance two years ago, especially
since we knew you were here."

Two years ago…Elis's arrival. Wait;
that wasn't all she'd implied. "You knew about me?" She didn't even
know what she was until recently. How did the government
know?

The government knew. End of story. So
much for secrets, but that explained why she and Elis hadn't been
disturbed in their flights or training. They were already being
watched.

"Yes." Those sharp eyes could have
been needles pricking Raea's skin. "Nineteen years ago, your mother
was involved in an incident in which the bones of a victim were
discovered. Those bones were like nothing seen before. The FBI
questioned Padina and Scott, who said nothing, until my
predecessors took over the investigation. They came to an agreement
in which she was allowed to stay, but she would be monitored, along
with her child."

Her child. Those words sobered Raea.
"Me." She wrapped her arms around herself. So much for no one
knowing. Her world shrank a little smaller. "Why are you telling me
this now?"

"I spoke to Debbie the other day
because of the reports of frequent gravity anomalies in the sky.
They've attracted the attention of several agencies, from the Air
Force to NOAA and who knows who else."

Yeah. Raea hadn't considered that, or
she had but no one had said anything so she pushed it from her
mind. Apparently she'd been wrong about it, about many things. This
all felt like an admonishment, as if she were a child caught with
her hand in the cookie jar.

"I knew Debbie understood, but you
disappeared later, before she could tell you. You must cease
whatever you're doing, or nothing we can do will cover your
secret."

Nare turned to Raea. ["Have you been
practicing portals?"]

"Mm, hmm."

"We understand these anomalies are
interdimensional portals generated through the crystal. This was
how your mother arrived on Earth. She told us
everything."

"She did?" What use was denying the
truth when Anita already knew everything? "Wait. The other day?"
Then Anita’s visit with Debbie wasn't about graduation.