Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (free biff chip and kipper ebooks .TXT) 📕

He’s hidden away in a safe place with people I can trust until all of this is over. No matter the outcome, even if I die, you’ll never see the boy again. My people have instructions on where to take him and to whom if I don’t make it. I won’t have him raised—ruined—by you.”

“I’m his mother,” Ciara ground out, pushing herself upright in the wheelchair, her arms and neck tight with strain.

“You’re a lying, deceiving, conniving witch!” Sean shouted back.

“That’s enough.” Nosizwe physically stepped between the two, blocking their eye contact. “We didn’t come here to play family court. Let’s stick to the matter at hand, shall we? If both of you survive, you can actually fight for your son in family court. If one of you survives, the winner gets him. If neither of you survives…” She stopped, a tiny smile quirking the corners of her lips. “Maybe it won’t come to that. That’s why we’re here, after all. To work together. To figure out a solution. To stop the feud once and for all.”

“Or to kill you once and for all.”

Sean wasn’t joking. There was no humor in his voice.

The shifter leader raised her eyebrows and tsked her tongue condescendingly.

“Always a quick leap to violence for you, isn’t it, Sean?”

Carter couldn’t restrain a derisive snort. “You’re one to talk,” he muttered.

Nosizwe’s head turned his way. She’d caught the remark.

“I can be brutal when I need to,” she admitted, almost carelessly. “Speaking of, how is your girl, Carter? How is Ellie?”

Images flashed before his eyes of Nosizwe, transformed into her alter, the Lightning Bird, standing over Ellie, drenched with Ellie’s blood. Fire seared his vision. He gritted his teeth to shut out the memory, get control of himself. He’d sworn that day to kill Nosizwe. There was nothing stopping him from keeping that promise now. He could lunge for her, be on her before anyone could stop him. He could break her neck in mere seconds. That’s all it would take. Mere seconds, and Nosizwe would be gone and all of this finished.

Sean must have read something in his gaze, his posture. Possibly he’d started forward without knowing it. One second he was staring into the haughty gaze of the woman who’d nearly succeeded in murdering Ellie, picturing her death, feeling her neck snap in his hands, and the next Sean’s firm, unyielding grip was on his wrist.

“Don’t let her bait you,” his boss said quietly. “That’s what she wants.”

The warning was enough to shatter the delusion. He came to, caught the mocking glint in Nosizwe’s eye, and realized what he’d nearly done. He possibly could have reached her and killed her that quickly, but more likely she and her shifters would have been all over him in an instant. They would have had the Talos, the Talos and the Stones, and the war would have been over before it began.

Carter physically took a step back, blowing out a breath, reminding himself that it wasn’t worth it. This would all play out one way or another. He’d have his chance.

Nosizwe saw him step down and laughed, turning back to Sean.

“What about it, Sean? What are we going to do here? Are we going to reach an agreement about the Stones, the Talos, your wife, or are we going to fight? Winner takes all?”

Sean folded his arms and stared her down. “What did you have in mind?”

She lifted and lowered one shoulder in a shrug. “I see no reason we can’t work together. Your Talos agrees to give us more of his blood. We open the Stones again. This time, we make sure nobody goes through—we wait and see what happens with the magic as it builds. Either that, or we both send someone through. Or, hell, you and I go through. We test it ourselves.”

Sean was shaking his head. “You’re insane. Only the Talos can survive the journey between this world and that.”

“How do you know? His wife survived it,” one of Nosizwe’s lieutenants spoke up.

“Because she was with him. She’s bonded to him,” rebutted one of Sean’s people.

“We’re not bonded,” Carter scoffed, but Sean had a thoughtful expression on his face.

“In a way, you are,” he said. “I ordered you to defend her. You’ve done so from the start. It’s your nature to defend those you’re commanded to defend.”

“That’s not a bond like...”

“It’s a type of a bond. A very unique bond.”

Sean was rubbing his bearded chin with a finger, thinking. Carter sensed a shift in his mental processes, one that made him slightly uneasy, although he covered it.

“What are you thinking, Sean?” Nosizwe must have sensed the shift too. She edged closer, betraying her eagerness to get something started. To move on from the talks and pursue a course of action.

“What if…” Sean began. Stopped. Cut his eyes to Carter. Hesitated, then said aloud, his gaze on his head of security. “What if the rest of the Stones are there, in the other world, the other dimension? What if to access the full power of the Stones we have to have all of them?”

“Go on,” his enemy urged.

Sean wasn’t looking at her, he was looking directly at Carter, almost like he was pleading with him to understand what he was about to do.

“Would you be willing to help?” he asked. “Would you be willing to take us there?”

“Take…who?” Carter inquired cautiously. He really didn’t like the direction this was heading. It wasn’t supposed to go this way.

“Perhaps…” Sean took a breath, as if steeling himself to say her name. “Nosizwe and myself.”

All sorts of excited exclamations and murmurings from both sides. No one could believe what had been voiced aloud. Carter couldn’t believe it. Nosizwe kept her cool, but despite the imperfect lighting Carter could see her calculating expression. Her mind was spinning as to how she could use this to her advantage.

“Sean, are you sure—” Carter stopped. “Can we talk about this?”

Sean didn’t step away as Carter had hoped. Instead, he placed a hand on