“Well, that’s certainly an interesting image.” The man had seen some history.
But he didn’t smile. He just stared at her and grimaced then turned once more in the direction of the window.
Okay, something was wrong.
She moved from the doorway of the bedroom to stand opposite him, blocking his view. She crossed her arms over her chest. He looked hot as hell sitting there in a black leather kilt. The traditional warrior harness put his heavy muscled arms on display.
Again …
focus
. “Marcus, what’s wrong?”
He huffed a sigh. “We need to complete the
breh-hedden.
”
“The
breh-hedden
? You’re thinking about that right now? I thought you were worried about security for the spectacle.”
He shook his head. “The entire time I was out there, all I could think was that if Greaves got his hands on you, or that bastard Crace, I wouldn’t be able to find you. So yeah”—he lifted a mulish chin to stare at her, his lips in a grim line—“we need to complete the
breh-hedden
and we need to do it now.”
Well, how romantic.
She shook her head. “Uh …
no.
I thought I made it clear that though this has been nice, and at times quite extraordinary, I can’t, I won’t become that involved with anyone again and especially not at the level of the
breh-hedden.
”
He rose up, his fists bunched at his sides. “Dammit, Havily, we don’t have a choice here. My instincts are firing off grenades right now where you’re concerned. You’re in danger. I can’t explain it, but I know. And if we’re bonded, wherever you are, I’ll be able to get to you, to protect you. Right now that’s all I care about.”
Havily took a step back. She wasn’t going to be pressured into completing the
breh-hedden,
not by him, not by anyone. “Well, tough shit, Warrior. The hell I’m going to bond with you when I have little doubt you’ll be headed back to Mortal Earth as soon as your ‘instincts’ tell you it’s okay to leave again. Or did you think I’d forgotten about that?”
His face paled and his slash of brows sank low. “So that’s it? That’s the sum total of your opinion of me? Even if I say I’ve returned, you’ll always see me as a deserter, nothing more?”
She had really screwed up. Marcus had more than proven himself over the past few days, as well as the enormous thirty-eight hundred years before exiling himself to Mortal Earth. She wasn’t even sure why she’d dragged all that out again, except that he’d gotten in her face, her heart had started hammering, and she’d met his aggression head-on, the way she’d been meeting Endelle’s aggression for the past four months.
“I didn’t mean it,” she said.
A cold light entered his eye. “You didn’t?” he asked in a way-too-soft voice. “Then what did you mean?”
Thoughts flooded her head—that she was too frightened to complete the
breh-hedden,
that she was too attached to him already, that if anything happened to him, if he died, she’d have to bury someone else she loved.
Someone else she
loved.
Oh. God. She squeezed her eyes shut and put a hand to her chest.
So there it was, the hideous truth she’d been avoiding from the first. She’d fallen in love with Warrior Marcus, head-over-heels, 100 percent, fallen in love.
She felt his hand on her shoulder. When she opened her eyes, he shook his head back and forth. “Don’t sweat it, sweetheart. I think I understand what’s going on in that head of yours. You don’t respect me. Fine. No
breh-hedden,
no nothing. You’ve been a good lay and you’re right, as soon as I can manage it, I’m back to Seattle One, right where I fucking belong.”
He moved past her and left the bedroom.
Her head wagged as though she had no control over it. What had just happened? How had they gone from congenial to breaking up in the space of about a two-minute conversation?
Great. Just great.
* * *
Two hours later, dressed in a mid-calf, silk sundress against the June heat, Havily stood in the most centrally located of the security command centers. Colonel Seriffe oversaw the entire operation from this tent, which had been set up on the Bredstone Hotel grounds. This command center was the hub and drew in feeds from all the others. It was essentially the control room for the entire operation.
Seriffe sat in a chair and wore a headset.
The main concern involved the fireworks stations set up throughout the White Tanks. The video displays off to the right showed a continuous revolving feed of the various batteries.
Marcus stood near her, off to her left side and back a foot or so. She hadn’t exchanged but a handful of polite words with him since the argument about completing the
breh-hedden.
Which was just as well. She needed to be focused on the spectacle. Although she didn’t seem to have much cause for concern as her gaze shifted over the vast array of screens in front of her. The colonel had everything in hand.
Spectators had arrived from all over the world. They filled the several hundred grandstands up and down the lake, enjoyed private parties on hotel balconies, and those who couldn’t afford the pricier tickets spread out blankets lakeside. Sporadic cheering erupted from the southern reaches as the spectacle, conducted on and over the lake, reached the various hotels and stands.
The decorated barges arrived first, ten in all. Each barge carried at least eight ambassadors. Thirty Militia Warriors, in full-mount, flew in protective formation around each barge. The vessels moved swiftly over the water and would reach the north end of the lake within an hour. With the sun still present in the western reaches of the sky, every barge was fully visible the length of White Lake.
Havily watched the monitors, her eyes flickering back and forth constantly. The hour seemed to drag from the time the last barge began its journey and ended at the North End Command Center. When Seriffe received the report that the last of the ambassadors had folded back to a secured landing platform, Havily released a sigh of relief. One event down. Two to go.
Cheers coming from the south indicated that the spectacle performers were nearing the Bredstone location.
She glanced at Marcus, forgetting for a moment that they were at odds, and smiled. He seemed to understand since he dipped his chin, a very approving gesture, and smiled in return. He then moved a little closer and whispered, “Sorry I pressed you earlier.”
She turned into him. “I really am sorry for what I said. I spoke defensively and I apologize.”
“Apology accepted.” But he didn’t touch her, not even a brush of his hand against hers. The disconnect
hurt
.
“This is fantastic,” Seriffe cried. “Havily, you should go outside and watch the show. I’ve got things here. Look at those swans in formation. How the hell do they do that?”
The monitors provided ongoing footage from dozens of stationary cameras all along the route. Images were fed into the command center and managed by three ascenders working from computers.
“I’d love to,” she murmured. Only then did Marcus take her hand.
“Come on,” he said. “These events don’t happen every day and I haven’t been to a spectacle in decades. And no, Alison’s arena battle does not count.”
She glanced at him. “Okay. For a little while. Seriffe, I’ll be just outside the tent if you need me.”
He waved a hand but didn’t take his eyes off the monitors.
Once outside, Havily set her gaze to the skies. With the last of the sun’s rays setting a golden glow on the performances, she didn’t have the heart to move from the spot. Spectacle performers had the courage of the warriors matched with tremendous artistry to do what they did while in full-mount. Their elegant tumbling maneuvers through the air as well as their ability to handle squadrons of DNA-enhanced swans, geese, and ducks was beyond comprehension.
In addition, each act that passed by included a light show executed mostly from the ground but occasionally with floating robotics. Accompanying music blasted from speakers all along the lake route.
After a few minutes, she started to relax as she applauded one performance after the next. A few minutes more and Marcus had his arms around her waist from behind. She didn’t hesitate, but leaned into him. Nothing was settled, of course, nor was their situation in any way simple, but for this moment they were together and, oh, damn, she
loved
him.
She also suspected that though Marcus had tried to force the
breh-hedden,
his heart wasn’t in it. He was just a warrior trying to do the right thing. For that, she could admire him and appreciate his most basic character, but she wasn’t persuaded to go any farther than this.
As she waited for the next act to appear, Marcus leaned low and planted a kiss on her neck. An accompanying swell of fennel sent shivers over her shoulders. She turned into him and his lips met hers.
“We need to talk,” he said. “I came off like a Neanderthal earlier. I’m sorry, Havily.”
She met his light brown eyes, glittering in the fading sunlight. “What I said, Marcus, I don’t believe of you, I really don’t. I fell back into an old pattern.”
“I would never abandon you. What happened two hundred years ago—” He broke off, took a deep breath. “How can I explain it? I’d served in the war for almost four millennia and when Helena died, my heart broke. I just couldn’t go on and I would have hurt Kerrick. I need you to understand that. I completely blamed him for my sister’s death and the deaths of their children. I … I still haven’t truly forgiven him.”
She searched his eyes. “I believe you. I’m not that old, but what I’ve experienced of life in only a century has made me wary. Four millennia? Maybe my actions wouldn’t have been so different from yours.”
Applause and cheers erupting from the south indicated another act nearing the Bredstone.
He squeezed her again. “When we’re done here, we’ll go back to the villa and talk. How does that sound?”
“I’d like that.”
He growled softly. “If I can keep my hands off you.”
Since clouds of fennel now enveloped her, she said, “Well, maybe we can talk
after.
”
He growled and hugged her harder.
She laughed then released another deep sigh.
At last the flight performances ended and the final act of the spectacle began—the fireworks.
But Havily felt compelled to rejoin Colonel Seriffe. As much as she would have loved to watch the skies light up, this was the section of the program that concerned them all the most. Bottom line, the fireworks display would provide the best cover possible for the use of incendiary bombs. If Greaves or his minions intended to disrupt the Festival, now would be the time.
However, watching the display from the enormous monitor, and all the monitors below, became an event in itself. Colorful dragons, whales, schools of fish formed above the mountains and dipped as though flying over the waters. This was one of Second Earth’s finest advances. The fireworks were amazing. The cheering from the crowds had never been louder.
As minute succeeded minute, Havily had to remind herself to breathe. She didn’t know what she expected to happen but her fingernails were pressed into her thighs through the thin silk of her dress.
Fifteen minutes passed.
Half an hour.
Forty-five minutes.
Only fifteen minutes left to go.
Ten. Nine. Eight …
She started to breathe. Was it possible all their worrying was for nothing?
The grand finale began to form on the screen. The fireworks opposite the Bredstone suddenly shot up great walls of color that took a new shape in the form of brilliant blue and green flames topped with pink and lavender. They almost glittered. “That’s magnificent,” she cried. And …
familiar.
“Something’s not right,” Marcus said.
Havily suddenly recognized the flames from the night Luken had been burned in the air by an incendiary bomb!
Colonel Seriffe shouted, “Those aren’t fireworks!”
The entire sky over the lake was on fire in a several-hundred-yard arc directly in front of the command center. The incendiary device had just arrived. What had started as an astonishing display became a nightmare of showering sparks and fire.
Explosions followed and Havily watched in horror as the monitors showed people scattering everywhere, whether escaping from the grandstands or racing away from the banks of the lake. Even the hotel balconies were deserted in no time flat as fiery particles rained down from the sky. The screams came from everywhere.
“What do we do?” she cried.
Colonel Seriffe was talking madly into his mouthpiece.
But before another question could rise to her lips, dozens of fireboats raced across the waters. Within seconds of the call to arms, massive amounts of water were propelled from the boats to douse the flames. Several of the major gardens were on fire.
“Thank God,” she murmured, but tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can’t believe this is happening.”