Fierce Dawn (4 page)

“
Lyric, you promised,” Holly warned.

Lyric’s smirk faltered.

Elijah felt oddly territorial. As though a secret lay within these walls that Lyric didn’t deserve to know. A secret Elijah should protect. Was it Sadie? Or was it all the time he’d spent combing for the Book of Sorrows? Or would sharing his suspicions expose him to criticism he couldn’t take? Evidence of a conspiracy, clues to where Crusoe had disappeared to. Truths he couldn’t face
.
"Holly told you Crusoe is still missing,” Elijah said at last.

Lyric looked away, flexing his hands. “As if I wouldn’t already know, yes. She told me.”

Anger pricked up his spine. He didn’t trust Lyric. Mortals wouldn’t be able to fully perceive a battle, should it come to that, but he never sensed immortal eyes
watching
, too. It could be an Enforcer.

“
Crusoe’s name has been linked to the Illeautians. We think they have him," Elijah continued. Lyric's unchanging expression told Elijah this wasn't news either. "We followed leads here and seem to have hit a wall. I don't know where to look next. Holly is hoping with your unique…gifts…you may be able to help."

Lyric's eyebrows shot up at the word "gifts". Elijah ignored it and prepared for fat gloating. Instead, Lyric rubbed his jaw in thought. Silent moments passed. The year since they'd last seen each other, strangely, felt more like days. His wiry form, his long
-
slab straight hair, the dark glint in his obsidian eyes all appeared unchanged. If going rogue scarred a man, Lyric hid his well.

"Holly mentioned the Book of Sorrows."

"Yes." Elijah quirked a brow Holly’s way. She shrugged.

Lyric laughed humorlessly. "Elijah, you’ll need to be a bit more forthcoming if you expect me to help. I knew this would be awkward, at a minimum, but you reek of hostility, my brother."

"You’ve lost the right to call me brother, Lyric. And you'll have to forgive me if I won’t forget.” Elijah took a steadying breath, his wings shivered. “Crusoe is what matters now. Not you. Not me."

"Fine by me.” Lyric smacked his lips. “So then, what led you here? The heat?"

"Something Crusoe said." Something Elijah wouldn't be sharing.
We all must die, Elijah. But some of us will be reborn from the ashes.
Not exactly a common statement among immortals well versed in realm lines. Crusoe had meant something else. Being linked with an invisible faction who loathed mortals and sought to collapse their realm made those words all the more cryptic.
What were you telling me, Crusoe?

"Did he specifically speak of the Book of Sorrows
?
" Lyric asked.

"No. But if we find the Book before they do, we will find the Illeautians and thereby Crusoe." Out loud, it sounded naïve. Fantastical.

Lyric nodded soberly
,
though. “And if he’s joined them rather than been killed or held by them?”

Elijah's stomach cinched tighter. Lyric's reaction mattered more than he'd let himself believe. “I can’t believe he’d join them. He has no reason to hate humankind.”

Plenty questioned if the Book even existed beyond myth, despite it being the foundation of all immortal code. Crusoe never had, though. Neither did the Illeautians. They’d gone to great lengths to try to find the Book, to prove its existence. No wonder since their entire society’s value system stemmed from the Book.

“
Find the Book, understand why they want it…I get it,” Lyric said. “But you’re thinking like a seeker, Elijah. You’re hunting.” His hand stroked his nearly black goatee and Lyric strode to the rooftop’s edge. “What if we approach it in reverse?”

“
From the outside in, you mean?” Elijah said. Interested, he bit. “How?”

"What you need is a messenger," Lyric called past his shoulder, keeping his back to them. The sun was setting, creating a silhouette of billowing duster and hair.

Holly’s vibration changed at the mention of a messenger. Either Lyric had just validated her plan for Sadie or they’d plotted this conversation to a tee.

"A messenger could help locate Crusoe,” Lyric said, breaking the silence. “Rather than seek, a messenger would find. The Book of Sorrows too, I suspect."

Not a single blur of an airship’s cloak marred the cloudless expanse of desert sky. The Renegade, Orena’s modified airship, was likely long gone and his former flame with it. Holly kept her arms crossed and her gaze on Elijah. The sense of danger in his gut abated a degree.

“
Messengers aren’t exactly easy to come by,” he said, testing Lyric. Virtually all messengers, a rare immortal breed, were ensconced in High Council, who they didn’t want involved, particularly if Holly was right about Sadie. More than realm lines, strict laws separated mortals from immortals and for a multitude of reasons.

"Feeling like flirting with enforcement?" he directed at Lyric, another test.

Holly rolled her eyes but didn’t speak. Good. A messenger’s unique ability to act as medium between realms, to read objects, sense the past, could
mean
finding Crusoe .

If Lyric thought of the idea separate from Holly, Elijah would mark it as more evidence that Holly could be right, if not about Sadie, about the idea itself.

“
What if we had one?” Holly asked quietly, anticipation ringing in her smoky voice.

Elijah waited, watching for a sincere reaction, feeling for it. Lyric blocked him well, though, as always.

“
First, I’d be shocked.” Lyric came away from the building’s edge. “Next, I’d ask how you got to one and lived to tell about it.” Lyric turned away
,
his hair spreading and whipping in the wind like a cloak. “Next, I’d be stunned if you bent a rule far enough to get to one.”

“
Are you saying I wouldn’t risk bending a rule for Crusoe? I’ve been pursuing the Book these last months. I'm sure I don't have to spell out those risks."

High Council held that the Book itself had been lost
—
destroyed in the separation of realms. And searching for it was forbidden. Realm lines stood in place for a reason. Mortals and immortals could not co-exist. Both kinds learned as much thousands of years ago.

Lyric laughed. “Not at all. I know how much you can take. Besides, have you ever known me to quibble over a gray area? I didn’t think you’d take me seriously, but if we can get a messenger’s help, all the easier to get Crusoe back. What are you thinking? Bribery? Blackmail?”

Holly's anticipation pulsed higher. She stepped closer to Elijah. Her bronze skin glowed in the diffusing light. He noted
that
regret rang in her vibration as well. Over what?

"As far as I can see, if you haven't located the Book by now, you won't,” Lyric continued, his tone growing sober. “I don’t mean that as insult. I doubt anyone ever will, the Illeautians included. How many centuries have they been bent on the very thing?”

"Instead of searching for the Book, we need to focus on finding the Illeautians and thereby Crusoe. Somehow."

“
Exactly,” Lyric said. “Rather than deal with supposition and myth, get facts. A messenger can get us facts. Names of members."

Elijah ground his teeth. Locating the Book had been a long shot. Having it spelled out still rankled. Sadie could be the answer. That left only whether she
should
be. Who were they to interfere? Who were they to assume? Elijah strode to the ledge where Lyric had stood and crouched there. The breeze cooled his forehead, pushing back the stink of oily concrete from below
.
What he wouldn't give to apport into another place, to leave the whole issue behind. To find time and space to think. He was running out of time. He felt it.

Bitterly or not, he had to face that Holly and Lyric were right. A messenger, someone to find Crusoe. Maybe even locate the Book, decipher the past, perceive possible futures, expose the Illeautians and all their secret members for the human haters they were.

If Sadie
could
transform…. Lyric's hum grew in beats. Anticipation, like Holly’s. Why? Elijah waited. Crusoe's last words echoed through his mind once again. Elijah should have recognized the despair in his brother's soul. H
e’d
felt too betrayed and resentment had blinded him.

“
There are stories,” Holly said, speaking each word with care. “But have you ever witnessed or known of a mortal who transcended realms?”

“
What? A human?” Lyric snorted. “You’re not serious?”

Elijah didn't turn around. ”She isn’t stable enough.”

Lyric didn't seem to hear him. "You found a human messenger?"

Did Lyric not know? Hadn’t Holly already told him as much and this was simply part of the trust game? The knot in Elijah’s guts tightened. Rather than face Lyric and Holly
,
his legs
were
rooted to the ledge.

“
I believe I’ve found a mortal who can become an immortal, a messenger changeling,” Holly said.

Sadie. Her bereft brown eyes, the longing in her every move. Her mind, pressing against reality, so close to the next realm
,
yet
altogether too
human. Wouldn’t he sense some otherness about her?

“
We aren’t certain,” Holly said. “Elijah thinks I’m wrong.”

“
A changeling. Huh.”

"No." Elijah hardly heard his own voice. Speaking unstuck his limbs
,
though. He stood and faced them. Lyric, for once, looked deadpan. "Sadie is not an option."

Holly's gaze pinned him. "I suppose we're out of options then. I guess we’re supposed to walk away, to let Crusoe die or worse, live in torture?"

"She is not an option. I won't risk her life to satisfy our guilt."

Lyric interrupted. "Who is she? Where is she?"

Elijah shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We’ll find another way, I’ll think of something else.” He looked at Lyric "Holly thought together we could force her transformation. I tried to read her. I can’t. We can’t be sure she is strong enough.”

“
If you’re very careful, and I help, could you read her?” Holly asked Lyric.

“
It’s a bad idea,” Elijah said.

Lyric frowned. "What made you consider forcing a transformation to begin with? How could we do it?" Amazingly, he neither smiled nor hummed with glee, and both gave Elijah pause.

“
I think she exists between realms,” Holly rushed on.

“
It’s not possible,” Lyric said. “There’s human and there’s us. The occasional half-breed thrown in like Orena, who is barely tolerated. Is she half-bred? No? Then aside from a quantum leap, from instantaneous evolution, it’s unheard of.”

“
If you met her, Lyric, you wouldn’t think so,” Holly insisted. “I can’t explain it. She’s different.”

“
She could die from it. Mortals aren’t built for that kind of shift.”

“
No. I don’t think so.” Holly’s aura burned bright. “She’s already changing. She’s stronger than you think.”

“
Some sort of mutation?” Lyric posed. “Why do you think she’ll be a messenger?”

“
Because of what I get from her energy. I can’t explain it. I’ve never known a messenger so I’m guessing here, but if you got a good read….”

“
It’s exploitative,” Elijah said, feeling foolish, childish for considering any of the myths as truth. “It’s making a decision that isn’t ours to make. Say what you want about rules but realm lines exist for a reason. Besides, we don’t know how to force it.”

"Would we need to?" Lyric asked Holly.

“
I don’t know yet.”

"Exactly. We don’t know," Elijah said. “For a reason. Because it can’t happen.” Or shouldn’t.

"You’re wrong. Between the three of us, we can manage it.” She chopped her palm with her hand, emphasizing each point. “Elijah, you can sense her frequency, you can help push the transformation. Lyric can feed her what she needs to know. He can extract the stress. Don’t forget our resident healer. Astrid could help, too. I can read Sadie’s energy and…I don’t know, protect her.” She threw her hands up. “Something. It’s worth trying, Elijah. Crusoe is worth it."

Elijah’s chest ached hearing his brother’s name.

“
Sometimes, I think if I hadn’t left....” Lyric stared toward the darkening horizon. “This is big. Is it bigger than us?”

Would they have wanted this were they in Crusoe’s shoes? Would he? “We can’t know the consequences. It’s never been done before.”

“
Never? As far as we know. How much do we really ever know? I don’t care. I’m in,” Lyric said.

"She’ll need you, too, Elijah," Holly implored quietly, her gaze penetrating his.

Elijah couldn’t help but recall crystal blue depths staring back at him. What would they be risking if they attempted such a thing?

"Look, if, as you say, the girl isn't an option, Elijah, what harm will reading her be?"

Because Lyric would see Holly was right. That was his fear.

Would tampering with realm lines send Enforcers after them? Would they harm Sadie or help her? Could it even work? Time closed in on him--on Crusoe's life.