him a small fortune, but it was worth more than ten bars of Three gold.
“What is this?” Merrick asks reverently.
“Can you jump us?”
Merrick’s disdain is clear.
Shouts and snarls float to the cell. Merrick glances behind Slade. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I need you to jump us to the lake. Beth has hopped.”
Merrick's face pales. “Where? Without me?”
“She thinks you are getting Rachett.”
“I can't trust you, Bloodling.”
“Nor can you trust Ryan. He knows, Jeb Merrick.”
Their eyes lock.
“He'll find her.” Merrick holds out his hand.
The ribbon tied around his wrist, Slade hands the mirror to Merrick. “Then jump us.”
Merrick stares at Slade. “I'll kill you slowly, Bloodling.”
Slade nods. He would do the same. “Kill me later, but for now—let us save Beth.”
Merrick's eyes jump to a point behind Slade's shoulder, and he whirls.
Ryan looms large, a flail raised and swinging. It makes a whisper's call in the sudden silence.
The cell is tight; there is no room to evade.
The swing is true, sweeping for his head in a precise arc of fluid motion.
Heat engulfs Slade, and he watches the spiked ball pass through his body as though it’s happening to someone else.
Ryan opens his mouth, veins standing out on his forehead like twin pulses. And then the vision of the enraged Reflective recedes until he is the size of a seed in stone.
The Reflective winks away as Slade spins, traveling with a male who means his death.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Beth
Beth lands hard.
Gunnar holds her fast, his other arm around Maddie. His grip on Beth’s wrist jerks her hard against his body.
Beth's breath punches out in a whoop that leaves her on the ground, in desperate need of air.
Loose clouds flow overhead like escaped cotton while Beth's lungs burn.
Jacky's face appears above her.
“Got the wind knocked outta her,” he says helpfully and jerks Beth up. She staggers, her arms flailing.
Jacky beats on her back, and dots swim in front of her eyes.
Gunnar appears, his black irises swallowing the expression in them. He runs a fingertip along the side of her face, and breath eases inside her lungs.
Beth is ashamed at her weakness—that his help allowed her to breathe.
Gunnar curls a large arm around her body and holds her.
“I—” She coughs. “I can stand.”
Gunnar releases her, and Beth lands on her ass. It hurts, but she feels better.
Maddie approaches and Beth instantly knows where they've landed—the woods outside of where Jacky's parents visited the grave of his dead brother, Chase.
Bright sunlight fights through the canopy to throw chunks of light around the forest floor like the pieces of a discarded puzzle.
Beth can hear the forest breathe and knows it's alive here on Three, as it was in One.
“Is this—is this an enchanted wood?” Beth manages as she stands, dusting off the seat of her pants.
“Ah—yeah. Check it.”
Beth cranes her neck. Eyes spring open from tree trunks indiscernible from the rest.
“Oh Principle,” Beth says, hating the tremor in her voice.
“They didn't hurt us before, Beth,” Maddie says.
Beth blinks, looking at Maddie in the dim light beneath a canopy so thick that the air appears green.
Maddie doesn't fit so well within Three norms. Then she looks at Gunnar.
Beth fights her emotions then finally gives in. “I am here to return Jacky and Maddie to their home world. That is all.” Beth looks at the trees silently watching them.
Her veins surface, gently revealing themselves like cobalt lace beneath her pale skin.
She feels their hunger, the hunger of the trees. Yet they do not attack or ask for blood.
Beth gathers her courage, gazing down at her feet for an entire minute. She would give every mirror in Papilio for one minute with Jeb. She feels naked without her partner.
And Beth won't even allow herself to think of the void left behind by Slade's absence.
She chose to jump from One while the two males rescued her leader. Beth won't examine why it was so easy to do.
She lifts her chin, looking directly into Gunnar's eyes. “I know you mean well. And I thought I wanted to know who my parents were.”
Beth shakes her head as Maddie rests a light hand on her shoulder. Beth turns to look at her, momentarily drowning in eyes not found in Three, but right at home in other sectors.
Gorgeous eyes like iolite gems gaze back at her. “It's okay, Beth—let it out.”
“Yeah, blubber away. It's just us and the trees here,” Jacky cracks.
Beth laughs. Once she starts, she can't stop.
When she begins to cry, Gunnar takes her in his arms. “I did not know there was