Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (19 page)

I clenched
my fists tightly as my heart froze in my chest. What was he going
to tell me now? The previous month Jedi had come to me and
explained about something called
convergence
. The moment where the
tethers of all seven worlds would join, allowing the Seventine to
sever them in one fell swoop. And this was as serious as it
sounded. Instead of giving us time to fight them and save the
worlds, they would be able to absorb all energy in a single moment
and end life as we knew it. Jedi had been doing some research to
figure out the date this might happen.

And judging by the look on his face, he
wasn’t going to give me good news.

Best case scenario was that the convergence
was set to happen soon, because all seven of the Seventine needed
to be free to have the strength to sever the cord. And at the
moment only four had escaped their prison. But deep down I knew
that the entity who’d set this entire chain of events in motion
knew the exact convergence date and had planned all of this
accordingly. We were the ones chasing our tails, trying to find
information and play catchups. We’d been behind since the start and
I wasn’t sure we’d made any ground yet.

“What’s Jedi doing here?” Brace said,
expression unchanged but his tone hard.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. He might have
some information about the Seventine.” I was happy that my voice
sounded calm. “I’ll see you in nine or ten hours?”

It was a pretty obvious hint. I wanted him
to stay, but it was better if he left for so many reasons.

“I do need to check on the Abernaths, but
I’m happy to stay if you need me.”

He was eyeballing Jedi now, his gaze pinning
the handsome, dark-skinned Walker to the spot. No one messed with
Brace, not even other princeps.

“I’ve got her back,” Lucy trilled,
fluttering her wings. Her voice was so much more singsong now. “You
and Colt head to your planet, sort the peeps and make sure you get
back in time for Nephilius.”

Bossy little pixie.

Colton, who
had been standing across from her, stalked closer. “Are you trying
to get rid of us, pretty girl?” He cupped her chin when she rose to
his height. “Because I think it’s my duty to bitch and moan, right
before I work
very
hard to change your mind.”

Lucy leaned in close, her mouth brushing his
cheek. “I can think of many things I’d rather be doing than letting
you go to Abernath.” I could just hear her breathy whisper. “But
duty calls.”

“Screw duty,” Colton all but growled. “I
don’t want to leave you.”

“It’s just for a few hours and you’re
Brace’s second and best friend. He needs you too.”

Resignation crossed the perfect planes of
Colton’s features. His full lips were pressed into a straight line,
but that didn’t stop him placing a gentle kiss on her cheek.

“You stay here and out of trouble,” he said
as he pulled back. “No adventuring and no pixies.”

I knew by the look on Lucy’s face that this
was about ten seconds from flaming into an argument. And sure
enough, as I turned to face Brace, four-letter words were spewing
from her mouth.

Ignoring this, I gave Brace a smile. “I’ll
just head over to Jedi now, see you tomorrow?”

He nodded, the brown of his eyes darker than
usual but not black. “Call if you need me, Re …” He broke off with
a shake of his head.

Had he almost said Red? The nickname had
been unsaid since the lalunas broke our bond.

“Call me if anything happens, Abby,” he
finally finished, confusion warring with his unease.

I nodded before forcing my gaze from him. It
hurt to turn away, as if I’d run my face across sandpaper. I had to
gulp down the tears, but since Jedi was watching me closely as I
crossed the green grass to him, I didn’t have the luxury of
breaking down. I was halfway across when I felt Lucy at my
back.

“You’re doing great, Abbs, the boys are gone
now.” She wrapped her smaller hand around mine. “You can relax a
little.”

I already knew they’d left; Brace’s power
was unmistakable. It was always obvious when he was close. Or gone.
And both ways hurt more than I’d ever imagined. I just wanted to be
able to breathe again. It felt as if something heavy pressed on my
chest, and exhaling every single puff of air was hard work. If I
wanted to stem the impending waterworks, it was definitely time for
a change of subject.

“Good or bad news, do you think?” I kept my
voice low. We were about twenty feet from Jedi now.

“Despite my pixie powers of premonition, I’m
getting nothing from Jedi.” Lucy snorted. “He’s a closed book. How
unusual for a Walker.”

I wondered where Josian was. Usually he’d be
out here too, with his sneaky need to know everything.

“Aribella of Doreen.” Jedi moved forward
from where he had been leaning against the railing. “You’re looking
well.”

His eyes appraised me, but not in a creepy
way. He was just one of those men who oozed sensuality. It was hard
not to respond, but my heart was so firmly Brace’s that Jedi didn’t
even register. Unfortunately, he didn’t know I was taken anymore,
and half-Walkers were a rare and prized catch in the Walker
world.

“Thank you. It’s nice to see you again.” I
was polite, but made a point to avoid the Walker handshake, which
was too close to a hug for my liking. “Do you have some news for me
on the convergence?” I got right to the point.

I don’t think I’d ever noticed before, but
Jedi’s eyes were very dark. They were unusual, though, seeming to
have a ring of silver around the pupil, distinguishing it from the
iris.

“Should we venture inside for privacy?” he
asked, not taking those distinctive eyes off me.

I shook my head. “No, between Samuel and
Francesca, who come and go at random, I don’t trust words spoken
inside those walls right now.”

We knew someone was betraying us, and as
hard as it was to think my own home might be compromised, my
instincts were urging me to be cautious.

“I’d prefer if we moved further toward the
ocean. I want to see if anyone is sneaking up on us.”

“You’re starting to think like a warrior,”
he said as we moved away from the house. “A large responsibility
has fallen on your shoulders, and unfortunately, no matter what way
this plays out, it will change you. True challenges always do.”

Since I barely remembered the naïve girl I’d
been when I left New York all of those months ago, he made a good
point. It amazed me how unaware I’d been, never knowing who I was
or where I truly came from. Maybe ignorance is bliss to some, but I
preferred knowledge. We stopped when we reached the open space
between the house and ocean. I was glad that the crashing waves
muffled our words to any curious enough to listen in.

Jedi
detailed his information straight up. “I’ve been continuing my
research since we last spoke, combing through every archive and
scroll I could find.” His onyx eyes stared out into the flashing
colors of the ocean. “I had no faith that I would
discover the information we needed, searching
for facts on the dawn of our race … I was fumbling in the dark.” He
turned back to face us. “But then I found it. I don’t know where
the scroll came from, or how I had missed it the million times I
searched before, but this appeared in my stores.”

He reached into the large side pockets of
his shirt and pulled free a rolled piece of what looked like old
parchment, or skin maybe. It was a dark tan, ragged around the
edges, but did not have a frail look to it. Solid and thick
instead. He unrolled it slowly, and unfamiliar writing and figures
emerged as each layer was revealed.

Lucy and I leaned closer. “What does it
say?” I asked, examining the dark print closely.

I felt like I should understand what was
here, but I didn’t. My mind was searching for the answers, but they
seemed to be just out of reach. Like slippery soap, I couldn’t
grasp the thoughts. And then suddenly I was reminded of the book
from pixie lands; the same sort of familiarity struck me.

“This is the first scroll,” Jedi said,
reverence layering his tone.

When we didn’t react, his eyes flicked
quickly between us. He must have been expecting a woohoo or
something.

“Awesome, the first scroll.” I nodded a few
times. Get on with it.

“Yep, the very first,” Lucy added.

We both glanced at each other and back at
him. “We have no idea what that is?” we said together.

Our response seemed to both amuse and
frustrate him, but still a smile curved up his cheeks.

“
Our stories
indicate that the original seven Walkers didn’t record anything of
their time and history in writing … well, not for the first few
centuries. But when the Seventine
threat
emerged and had to be contained, they decided there needed to be a
record of what happened, in case the prison needed to be
strengthened. There are lots of scrolls from this time. I have many
of them, but no one had ever seen the first scroll. This parchment
is the backstory of Walkers, recording all of the moments from the
birth of our race.”

I had to clench the side of my jacket to
stop myself reaching for the scroll. This was the most important
piece of information we had to date.

“
Keep in
mind the
reality of this scroll was
legend. We had all heard of its existence, but I had never met a
Walker with actual memories of viewing it.”

Adrenalin flooded through me. “Are you
saying this is literally the scroll that no one has ever seen? The
scroll that gives the complete origins of Walkers.”

He held his free hand palm up to us. “Don’t
get too excited. This is the scroll, but there are two
problems.”

“Alright, hit me with them,” I said, trying
not to let my fear and excitement show.

Most Walkers
did
n’t treat me like a child despite the
hundreds or thousands of years between our ages, and I often found
myself trying to act serious and mature around them. Brace and
Josian were an exception to this rule.

Jedi held my gaze for a few moments – any
longer and it would have been pretty awkward – before he started
speaking. “Some of the scroll I cannot decipher. It’s either
written in code or in a language I’m not familiar with.” He ran
that free hand over the top of his head. “And I thought I knew
every language dead and alive.”

“And number two.” Lucy hurried him
along.

“The bottom part is missing.” He smoothed
the parchment all the way to the end, lying it completely flat
between his two hands, and I saw immediately what he meant.

The bottom was cut away, tattered edges
leaving no doubt that there used to be something more attached.

Our faces
must have looked pretty crestfallen, because he clicked his tongue
a few times. “But I’ve salvaged some useful information. I plan on
sharing it with the
princeps at the next
meeting, but since you’re out in the star system, risking yourself
daily in tangles with the Seventine, you deserved to know straight
away.”

I stood taller, my upper body leaning toward
him.

“This contains calculations which allowed me
to get a definite timeframe for the convergence, or to confirm what
I already knew. From the release of the first Seventine, they have
fourteen First World months to finish the freeing. They have used
almost eight of those months – over half – and it looks as if the
convergence will be at the twelve-month mark.”

That would be around my nineteenth birthday.
I couldn’t believe that so much had happened since my Walker
enlightenment, and to think it might all be over in a year. I
wanted longer; it was not enough time.

“
So the
First World calendar that exists, the one which marks December
31
^st
and January 1
^st
, comes from the actual
date the original seven were formed?” I stared at him, before
rubbing at my temples.

It was hard to wrap my mind around the fact
that so much of Earth and all of these worlds originated with the
Walkers. My people had their hand in basically every important
aspect.

Jedi
chuckled at my expression. “Yes, as far as I know the beginning of
time-recording started with the Walkers, and
even with time differences, the calendars are essentially
the same on each world. And this scroll confirms these
calculations.”

“What else does the scroll say?” Lucy was
fluttering higher; she was eye level with me.

“
It has
instruction on how they planned on locking away the Seventine. I
don’t know
which theory worked, because
after the originals disappeared there were no more notes.” He was
rubbing his thumb over the ragged end of the parchment. It was the
type of nervous twitch Walkers didn’t usually display. “According
to the broken words I managed to translate, the original and
Seventine weren’t always enemies.”

“What?” I gasped, his words reverberating
around my head. “They’re evil … the enemy. They want to destroy all
the worlds.”

Jedi
shrugged. “That’s what we were always told, but according to this
they were definitely power crazy and had some grandiose ideas that
they were gods sent to control all sentient beings, but in no way
do the originals depict them as pure
evil.” He paused for quite a long moment. “They refer to
them as their brothers.”

Oh, hell no. I’d been in their presence too
many times. They were definitely crazy and evil.

“
What was
their main theory on locking them away?” I finally
asked.