Kings and Sirens (The Blood Falls Book 2)

Leena

“Well we can scratch the rifts off our list.” It had been a terrifying afternoon. I never wanted to get that close to a rift again. Everything about it drew me to it. The energy, the mystery, the vibrations. Like a cosmic string or a blackhole. Death. It almost lulled me into thinking it was something good.

But then we left and I came back to my senses.

“I, for one, am glad.” Kuruk raised his mug in the air, then downed half his beer in a gulp.

“So where do we go from here?” I glanced around the room hoping someone had a plan. I was too tired to think.

“We continue the scouting plan and hope before we meet up with everyone else someone has a clue where the salishan are hiding.”

If they had been Heida once, it made sense they would retreat to a den of some kind in the winter. But did they all retreat together? That wasn’t terribly Heida of them, but they had also been through a lot. So maybe they found that sticking together was their only option.

Atsila drew me into his lap and began massaging my shoulders. His frown told me he could see my exhaustion and now felt his sole mission in life was to make me feel better.

And that was fine by me. I, quite frankly, needed it. The journey itself was tiring but fine. Well within my limits. It was the time spent tapping the Plane, existing in two places at once, and using so much focus in the process. My brain alone probably burnt the same number of calories as a gladiator in the arena. Plus, add in the fact that I was tense, scared, and trying to hide it all?

Exhausted.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured against my ear so no one could hear it but me.

I tried not to groan as he pressed his thumb into the knot in my shoulder. Sex was amazing and drinking was powerful, but sometimes a good old-fashioned massage was the perfect solution.

Outside was dark. Very dark. And it had been for hours. The Heida were more used to the long nights having lived in the North for as long as they had, but it was a new experience for me and my cousin and brother. After the meeting I wanted to stand out there and stare at the sky for as long as I could before the chill set in.

Daisy’s voice drew my focus back to the discussion. “If they’re denning then we need to move the searches to the locations most likely be used for resting. Leena, do you think you can coordinate that with the other search parties?”

I nodded. “Of course. I was just thinking something similar.”

She stared at me for a moment then smiled. “Yeah, you said that out loud, actually.”

Oh. Maybe I was more tired than I realized.

“This can wait till morning. Leena has had a long day and needs rest,” Atsila said.

“We’ll rest when we’re dead,” Daisy shot back. “Can you do it?”

I felt Atsila’s disapproval but ignored it. “Of course. I’m not that tired.” I was that tired. But I’d do it anyway. Duty before sleep.

Daisy gave me a reassuring nod. “Then let’s get out the maps.”

I shifted to Kris. Rever met us in his tent.

“Kris, your team is the furthest west, so if you’ll scout out these locations,” I circled a section of the topographic map Daisy and Kuruk designated for them, “and Rever, since your team is furthest north, you’ll take this area. We’re the furthest east, so we’ve got this section covered.” I circled the two areas before sitting back. It was a good plan. I felt really comfortable with this being our next stage.

Kris stroked his chin as he nodded. “Okay. Yeah. We can do that. Today we followed the river and came up with nothing. No smell, no tracks, no kills. The only thing that caught our attention was the lack of everything. Like something was deterring any wildlife from the area, even for the coldest days of winter coming.”

That was odd. And I’d bring that back to Daisy for consideration. “Rever?”

My cousin focused on the map, a scowl on his face. “You shouldn’t have approached the rift. It could have been catastrophic. We aren’t ready.”

“I know that. But nothing I said would stop them. At least I was able to keep everyone safe.”

“You think. There’s no way of knowing what effects our presence has on these rifts. If they’re anything like the doorways…” He didn’t finish his sentence. His point was made without hurting me more.

“Look, we have multiple problems on our hands. We need to start finding answers, even if it’s one at a time.”

Kris shook his head. “Or one failure at a time.”

“You have a better idea? The plan to go grid by grid is fine. We can stick to that if that’s what the consensus is, but think about this logically. Consider what the Plane is telling you.”

Rever, who was more full-blooded Gatlin than us frowned. “The timeline is fuzzy at best. The further north I go, the fuzzier it gets. Like something is interfering with my transmission.”

I leaned forward. “What do you see?”

His eyes unfocused. “A lot of white. It sends me north, though. It takes me to a ridge and stops. I can feel a presence, but it won’t let me see what’s there.”

“You don’t think it’s the salishan?” Kris asked.

“Maybe. I’m more confused by why the timeline stops there on my journey. Do I die? Or is too much unwritten?”

I closed my own eyes and let myself sink into the timeline for the first time in days. Symbols and pictures passed by me in flashes. Kris was golden with lightning bolts shooting forward into the timeline. Energy. Power.

But when I turned my inner gaze to Rever I saw only a blank void.

Not death per say, but a place where the future didn’t yet exist. “Hmmm.”

“Well that’s not reassuring,” Rever muttered.

“Give me your hands.” I reached out blindly. Since I was half-blooded my gifts came differently, morphed by Wren DNA. Kris’s were different still. Together we could amplify our abilities.

“Fucking Wrens.” Rever shoved his hand in mine.

“Don’t knock it,” Kris chuckled. “I know us half-bloods aren’t as cool and all, but we’re not totally lame.”

“Oh, you’re totally lame,” Rever joked right back. “But since I’m a big fucking void in the timeline, I’ll let you piggyback off my far superior ability until you tell me I don’t fucking die.”

He tried to sound light, but the uptick in swearing made it clear he was unsettled. I didn’t blame him. For someone who could always see the future, having it taken away had to be hard. “Hey, just because you’re far superior to us doesn’t mean our mixed blood isn’t just as good. I bet we see things you can’t because we see the timeline in different ways.”

“Whatever,” Rever grunted, “just get on with it.”

It was like sticking my finger in a light socket. Everything I saw now was brighter, more colorful, and my heart beat a lot faster. Some of the symbols flying through my mind made no sense at all. The squiggles were things I’d never seen before. The shapes a code I didn’t know. A massive, swirling symbol came into focus, growing larger and larger, then smashed right into me and an even stronger buzzing sensation surged through my bones.

I grabbed my hands back, gasping.

“What?” Rever asked. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to memorize everything I saw, then grabbed the map, flipped it over to the part that didn’t matter to us, and began drawing what I saw in my mind. “That. Have you ever seen that before?”

Both males frowned down at my drawings. I kept going, trying to capture everything I saw, but feeling them slip away.

“That looks like some ancient shit,” Rever said. “Egyptian or Mesopotamian maybe?”

“No, not quite. Maybe they’re symbols, not words,” Kris said.

“But it’s old, right? Why am I seeing that instead of what I normally see?”

They blinked at me. Silence filled the air.

Rhiannon suddenly appeared in front of me. “What the hell just happened?” Her dark hair was a wild mess and she wore what I guessed were her version of pajamas in winter: thick sweats and a large hoodie.

“How? Why are you here?” Kris stumbled over his words.

She kept staring at me. “I felt it. Whatever just happened. I came as fast as I could.”

Kris stood. “What do you mean you felt it?”

She waved her arms around. “It was like someone just sent up a flare from this location.”

“She’s extra gifted,” Rever said.

Kris’s eyes darted back to our cousin. “What the hell does that mean?”

Rhiannon folded her arms over her chest while Rever shrugged. “I mean she can see and hear and feel more than any of us. You can whisper and she’ll hear it ten miles away.”

Kris’s eyes went wide.

“So you heard me?”

She nodded, relaxing again. “For a brief moment I saw what you saw. So I came.” Her eyes darted to Kris every so often.

And Kris, I noticed, had begun humming very quietly. “Do you know what it means?”

“No. But I can help you see it again. Slower this time so we can take it all in.”

So she was like my Aunt Bethany.

We all joined hands again. Rhiannon stood behind me, placing her small hands on my shoulders as I tapped back into the Plane. This time everything happened in slow motion. Light and technicolor, squiggles and shapes.

But then a roar ripped through the air, shaking the tent and the chair beneath me. I barely had time to gasp and return to full reality before I was ripped from my seat.