I shake my head numbly. “I…don’t know,” I say, seeing his beautiful face, his eyes searching mine. “I wanted to warn you—it’s Molly—they turned Molly and now they’re coming here,” I say in a rush. “I didn’t protect her and now they have her—they picked her up at a club—he said he turned her already—they made her a monster and I let them…” My voice breaks and I bury my face in his chest.
“Brennus?” Reed asks in a dark tone, resting his cheek against the top of my head. “How did he contact you?”
I manage to nod again, but it takes me a few moments before I can say, “I emailed Molly to tell her I’m alive and I found out she’s not.” Tears leak from my eyes to run down my cheeks. “Brennus made her a Gancanagh. He knows we’re in China. He’s coming. I’m sorry, I blew our cover.”
“Shh…” Reed just holds me for a few minutes and then he asks in a quiet tone. “Is that how you felt when you learned Molly was changed…sorrow, pain?”
“Uh huh,” I nod.
“Your human emotions are…excruciating,” Reed utters in a soft tone. “I had no idea you feel that much. When the image of you hit me with such raw emotion, I could think of nothing but finding you.”
“You don’t feel that…deeply?” I ask as I sniff to hold back more tears.
“I do, but I didn’t know that you do too,” he replies. “It was almost unbearable when I thought you may be gone.” I squeeze my eyes closed and hug him tighter.
“It was not intentional, I didn’t even know I was doing it. I was thinking that I needed to tell you what just happened and then, suddenly, images of me were spinning out of me,” I try to explain.
“Is that your version of a beam of light? Like the one in the Seven-Eleven? Only you send an image of yourself as light to warn us of what is coming?” Reed asks in a serious tone.
I grow still in his arms. Is that what I just did? Did I send them out of me? I wonder, feeling overwhelmed by all that is happening to me. “I don’t know, Reed. I wish I came with an owner’s manual or something.”
Stroking my hair, Reed says, “That is a book I would enjoy reading, Evie. Our timeline just moved up. We have been planning for the Gancanagh since we arrived here. We will have the superior position. Every angle has been analyzed. They will come and they will die.” I close my eyes because fear makes it hard for me to hear what he is telling me. “This changes things, though, I need to call Zephyr—ask him to return here. We have to bring in our reinforcements now. We will tell Dominion where we are, they have been demanding to send a team to protect you—”
“What?” I ask as my eyes widen in surprise.
Reed’s expression darkens. “Bodyguards. Dominion has been demanding that you have them to protect you,” he says and he sounds a little sour, like the thought of someone else defending me is making him ill.
“Do you trust them?” I ask as Brennus’ words echo in my mind.
“No,” he replies. “There will be some who will give their lives to protect you, but there will be others who will have another purpose.”
“What other purpose?” I ask.
He avoids looking at me when he replies, “I can think of several. They think of you as a weapon. You are the perfect lure to draw out evil. They would like to use you whenever and wherever they see fit to entrap the Fallen. I’m in the way of that because I will not allow Dominion access to you. I believe that some will want you to return to Dominion, with or without your consent.”
“Oh,” I say. Dominion wants me back and there will be a few of them with orders to seize the moment and make that happen. “So, my bodyguards could turn into my jailers, if given the right set of circumstances?”
“Yes,” Reed replies as if he is proud of me for understanding what he is telling me. “We have not allowed them close to you for that reason, but we may need them now that our timeline has been bumped up.”
I nod, “What about Brownie and Russell?” I ask, pulling away from Reed. Pacing the floor in front of him, I say, “They shouldn’t come back here, not with Brennus coming. He’ll kill Russell, after what Russell did to Ultan and Driscoll.” Brennus will torture Russell if he finds him because Russell killed several Gancanagh when he rescued me. Well that, and the fact that Russell is my soul mate, which seems to really bother Brennus.
“We can protect them when they arrive here,” Reed replies confidently, but paranoia is setting in now. I feel weak and vulnerable.
“Let’s go now, Reed. Let’s leave here, just you and me. We can lead Brennus away from here,” I reason. “That way, he will be forced to follow us and we can lose him—I know we can.” Then, at least Zephyr, Buns, Brownie, and Russell will be safe, I tell myself.
“No,” Reed replies. “This is the best position for us. We will fight here, and you will be safe, and so will Russell. We will protect him,” he says, reading my mind.
“I want to believe that, Reed, you have no idea how much I want to believe that, but I’ve seen what they can do. They walked right into my room at Dominion’s chateau, without any of the Powers knowing that they were there. Brennus is obsessed. He is like a spoiled child who has never been denied a toy before and he can’t stand it,” I explain, wringing my hands.
“You are not a toy,” he barks and I flinch.
“No, I’m not a toy,” I agree, as I stop pacing to look at him.
A small sound from the wooden gate that connects our pagoda to the others registers in my mind right before Zephyr’s tall frame materializes just inches in front of me. He reaches out to me, grasping my upper arms and pulling me off of my feet to dangle before him. His brown wings are stretching out, blotting out everything behind him but the menacing looking hilt to a broad sword that is strapped to his back.
“You are alive,” he states between panting breaths as his eyes rove over every inch of me, assessing me and looking for anything out of place.
“Yeah,” I nod in a soft tone, smiling sheepishly while gazing into Zee’s ice-blue eyes. “You get my message?” I add, and then I bite my lower lip as his eyes narrow.
“Explain,” he barks, but Reed steps between us, pulling me gently from Zephyr’s grasp.
“Evie has a new ability that we didn’t expect. She can send out clones of herself,” Reed says, standing between Zephyr and me. “If your message was anything like mine, then…”
“Is that what you are calling it? A message? It felt more like emotional terrorism to me,” Zephyr replies, piercing me with his stare.
“Sorry, that’s what I was feeling when it happened,” I reply, feeling ill remembering Molly’s face. I brief Zephyr on what just happened. Zephyr grills me about every detail of the email exchange between Brennus and me. I watch the corners of his mouth lift a little when he asks me to tell him again about addressing Brennus as a “walking corpse.”
Zephyr grunts when I finish. Looking at Reed, he says, “Buns should be here any minute. I didn’t wait for her after Evie’s clone ran into me. Buns tried to tell me that it was definitely not Evie’s soul, but you felt it too, didn’t you?” Zephyr asks Reed and he nods. “I have never felt that way. I did not enjoy it.”