out as planned.
I wanted to tell June everything, but I didn’t know if Praznoor might use his sorcery to spy on us, so I kept my mouth shut. For now, I simply let myself relish the feeling of having my sister back in my arms.
As for the rest, it was up to Soren now.
21
Soren
Maya had only been gone for a day, and I was already at my wits’ end. I had no way to communicate with her, no way to know if she was okay. And most worrisome of all, I had no idea when I would be hearing from her next.
Through Niall’s and Priux’s connections with the IEP, I, at least, knew she had arrived safely, and the location of Praznoor’s home on Tracorox. That wasn’t a lot to go off of, but it was better than nothing.
Maya had been insistent that she do this, and to prove to her I trusted her, that I wasn’t the type of man that would control her life and make her decisions for her, I’d gone along with it. The alternative would have been worse, because there really would have been no stopping her. At least she’d agreed to let me help her, finally.
Now, though, as I sat in a conference room in the palace with my brothers—my Raider and Macros friends with us via holoscreen—I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been a mistake.
“What if she doesn’t find a way to send out a signal when it’s time?” I asked for what had to be the tenth time.
“She’s a smart woman, Soren,” Brittany said. “She’ll figure it out.”
It wasn’t Maya I doubted. It was that vile sorcerer who had harmed Dylan. If he was willing to inflict pain on his own flesh and blood, the man likely had no bounds to lengths he would go.
“My contacts at the IEP are keeping tabs for any unusual movements,” Niall said, rubbing his chin with his knuckles. “If there’s anything suspicious, they’ll let me know.”
“My concern is for what’s happening inside right now. None of us have any idea if she’s okay. What if she’s been hurt? What if she’s being held captive? She may not have a way to contact us at all.” I clenched my fists. “Maybe we should just abandon the plan to wait for her signal and storm in there.”
“No. Not yet.” Wisteria’s soothing voice swept through the room, and when I glance up at the holoscreen with her and Rahl’s images, she had her eyes closed, a serene expression on her face.
“Do you sense something, Wisteria?” Rahl asked softly, almost as if he didn’t want to disturb her.
I watched, my chest tight, as Wisteria held up a hand. The rest of the room, including the holoscreen with Kain, Abby, and Dordus from Raider, went silent. In my distress, I hadn’t even considered the seer might be able to glean some insight into Maya’s well-being.
Wisteria’s delicate red brows furrowed, and she wrinkled her freckled nose in concentration. I exchanged a look with my brothers, whose faces were pinched, looking nearly as tense as I felt.
“Just breathe, brother,” Aiken whispered. “Maya needs you to be calm and collected, thinking clearly, not acting on impulse.”
He was right, but that was easier said than done. I was on the edge of my seat as I waited for Wisteria to go on, fearing the worst and hoping for the best at the same time.
“She is alive,” Wisteria finally said, opening her large, bright green eyes. “She is biding her time, waiting for the right opportunity. But she is unharmed.”
I let loose the breath I’d been holding, my shoulders relaxing slightly. It was something.
“Look,” Kain said, pinning me with his ice-blue gaze. “This is no different than any other battle, even if it isn’t being waged on a battlefield. We need a solid strategy. So far, what we have is good, but it isn’t enough. We need to plan for contingencies.”
He was right. In the days since Maya had agreed to let me help her, we’d formulated the bare bones of a plan, enough for her to know what her job was—to find her sister and scope out the place while she was in Praznoor’s home—then signal me when the time came for us to intervene. But we were supposed to be using the time now to properly flesh it out. That’s why I’d called this meeting. But not knowing what was going on, on Tracorox, had made it hard for me to properly