Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,6
And of those, you’ll want to send the best,” Cam insisted.
“Which would be me,” Casey retorted, her gaze on him and the room silent as the siblings hashed out their grievances.
Rather than argue, he conceded. Kind of. “Yes, you are the toughest of the two of us, but you can’t go. You have responsibilities now. Almost everyone in this room has a role that can’t easily be filled.” He met their gazes briefly one at a time. “Except for me.”
“You can’t be replaced,” she said, her tone harsh.
“You seem to be assuming I’m going to die. And I’m not planning to. You, of all people, know how tough I am. I’m going, and nothing you say will stop me.” Cam glanced at Riella. “I’ll be by your workshop later so you can show me this Burton and we can discuss the necessities to stow on board.”
With a nod to the king, whose wry expression said good luck, Cam left. He didn’t get far before a tiny body slammed into his back. Casey’s arms wrapped around his neck and squeezed, putting pressure on him.
He waited as she gripped tighter and hissed, “Fall, you annoying bastard.”
Instead, Cam plucked his sister from his back and set her down. He regarded her sternly with his arms crossed. “Putting me to sleep or tossing me in a cell won’t change my mind. I’m going.”
Usually the stubborn one, Casey looked more pissed than sad. “It’s a suicide mission.”
“Wouldn’t be the first one I’ve gone on.” He’d done many dangerous things in his life.
Her lips flattened. “It would be the first one without me.”
“Says the woman who left Haven to protect a king by herself.”
“That was different,” was her mulish reply.
“Not really. There was danger, and you wouldn’t be deterred, nor would you accept help. Besides, weren’t you the one saying we needed time apart?”
“Apart yes, but I don’t want you dead.” Her voice broke on the end.
“I am not dying.” He grabbed her in a hug that lifted her off her feet and cracked her spine in a ripple effect.
“Put me down!” she squealed.
The moment he did, she slugged him in the gut. It only hurt a little. Damned tiny fist.
“Promise you won’t go.” The words emerged thick with emotion.
“I have to do this,” he said softly. “I can’t stay here.” He didn’t mention the crone and her strange words.
“If you don’t want to live in Eden, then return to Haven. You know Axel would welcome you.”
He shook his head. “I can’t explain why it has to be me.” How to describe the feeling he had, the certainty in his soul, that this was something he had to do? She’d laugh if he mentioned the prophecy. “Trust me when I say I have to do this.”
“I should go with you,” she insisted.
“You know you can’t.”
“But I wish I could.” Her voice cracked, and her eyes glistened with tears. Shocking from his tough sister. She threw herself at him. “If you die, I’ll never forgive you.”
He hugged her gently. “If I die, I promise I’ll come back to haunt you and make sure you never have sex again.”
“Asshole!”
He was ready for the love jab this time, but she couldn’t escape the extra-long hug. He held his sister tight and wondered if it would be the last time. Was this a suicide mission?
That same day, he met Riella in the expansion shop that was more like a garage with various vehicles in states of disrepair. The two-story structure had recently been built outside the city, which had begun to outgrow the walls. It and a few others had sprung up on the drier spots. With Eden thriving, it wouldn’t long be before more joined them.
Riella rolled back a pair of doors on a pulley system and revealed the tank. It was bigger than expected.
Cam whistled. “Damn, that’s a sweet machine.”
“This is Burton,” she said with a proud grin. “Once a relic of the underground tunnels, now revamped to adapt to the outside world.”
She showed him some of the exterior features from the bulletproof shielding and windshield to the heavy-duty tracks that couldn’t be cut or punctured. Inside the tank, it was as sparse as she’d claimed.
“Since it spent a bit of time in water, I had to strip everything out of it. Burton’s got a new engine made to run on combustibles, or you can flip it to water fuel. I plan to give it solar panels, too, once I get my hands on some.”