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

jerked up when I approached, her hand rising. The sleek, grey barrel of a gun was aimed at my chest, but I knelt, spreading my hands to show her I didn’t intend any foul play.

“Don’t shoot,” I said.

“Why not?” Her eyes were cold. “You’ve been a thorn in my side ever since you entered our lives.”

I blinked at the hatred in her voice. “I—I’m sorry, Mrs. Costas,” I stammered, caught off guard by her animosity. I guess I’d figured anything she’d done to me was business, not personal. “I haven’t meant to be. I never meant to get involved in your world or your lives or…”

“I know. I know you only meant to save a child’s life. Jackson is the sole reason I’m not pulling this trigger right now.”

I gulped down my relief, resting temporarily in the fact that she wouldn’t outright murder the person who’d saved her son.

“Mrs. Costas,” I said, glancing around nervously, “Where’s your bodyguard? Where’s Darla?”

“After her blast at the mansion this afternoon, she had to recover. That shift takes a lot out of one, you know.” She smirked at her wisecrack. “Don’t worry. Still plenty of shifters around who could tear you to shreds. What do you want, Ellie?”

“Look, we don’t have to like or trust each other to want the same thing: stopping this insanity before everyone is dead and there’s nobody and nothing left. Can we at least agree on that?”

A grim smile twisted her lips. “Who says that’s what I want? What if I want them to kill each other off? Sean, Nosizwe, and their top lieutenants. Then the Stones will be mine alone. As the last person of power left, I’ll head both factions of the clans, uniting them into one.”

I drew back a little, stunned. Had this been her game all along? This sweet, mild-mannered, beautiful, unassuming woman in a wheelchair pulling this many strings, like a puppet master, manipulating these two powerful people and their allies? Had she coerced them into this war? A final battle to slaughter each other, leaving her the last one standing, so to speak?

I couldn’t believe it, and yet…I could. But I still couldn’t give up, despite this new wrinkle in my plan.

“What good are the Stones if you don’t have the Talos?” I pleaded, reminding her that she still had to have Carter.

She flicked a glance towards the fighting, where the Talos’ bronze figure could be seen moving it and out of shadow and light.

“I don’t think Carter will die here,” she said calmly. “He is too tough.”

She didn’t seem worried by the possibility. She was the only one, between the two of us.

“But what if he does?” I pleaded. “There’s no other Talos. That’s what I’ve heard since the beginning. It’s him. He’s it. The fact that his blood worked the first time, that it took him and me to that other world…that means he’s the key. You have to have him.”

Ciara didn’t wince. Didn’t flinch.

“He’ll come through it,” she said, almost sounding bored. “He has a knack for that. Rather like one of the filthy cockroaches here that manage to squirm out from under your shoe when you try to squish it.”

I couldn’t believe she was being so blasé about this. I tried a different tact.

“Okay, you may be right. Suppose he does survive, but Sean doesn’t. Sean dies and you get Jackson…but you never find your red cap. I bet you’ve searched for it through the years, haven’t you? Had your people search for it too? Never been able to find it? What makes you think you’ll be able to find it when Sean’s dead? What good is all this—” I waved a hand towards the Stones, the battlefield, “if you’re still a prisoner on land? If you can’t return to the sea and have control over your own body?”

That caught her attention. She swung around to face me, fury in her green eyes.

“You have a point there,” she conceded. Angrily. “What is it that you really want, Ellie? There’s got to be a reason you risked your life to come over here.”

“I want you to stop this,” I said, gesturing towards the battle raging next to us. “I know you can. You’re a Merrow. Your voice has the power to coerce people—especially men—to do anything. You could charm that guy who’s controlling the cats, have him put a stop to their attack. You can end this.”

She snorted. “For my voice to work, I have to be in water. Do you see any water around here?”

I was prepared for this too. Gulping down memories that still turned my mouth dry from fear, I said, “What about the Nakki?”

“What about her?”

“Is she here? The one who attacked me that night, after I left your home? The one you sent to Carter’s apartment to kill me?”

She smirked again. “How did you like that? A Nakki is a rather gruesome way to be introduced to our world, isn’t it? I needed to take you out as swiftly as possible, but Carter’s apartment is virtually impenetrable. And with Carter there, getting anyone inside was next to impossible. The Nakki was our best option.”

“It almost worked,” I conceded. “I still have trouble taking a shower sometimes.”

She laughed like it was a big joke between friends. “I bet you do. That’s the cost of humans poking their nose where they don’t belong.”

“I didn’t exactly—never mind.” There was no point arguing the fact that I hadn’t purposefully gotten involved in her life. Rather, I’d been dragged into her schemes. This was taking far too long. Ciara might have been willing to sit around and chat while the world burned, since that suited her purposes, but it wasn’t working for me. I kept casting glances towards the battle, praying each time I did that I’d see Carter still on his feet and moving. “What I’m asking is if the Nakki is here or not.”

“Actually, she is. She’s guarding the Stones.”

Ciara pointed in the direction of the ancient tablets.