Free Sentinel's Hunger by Gracie C. Mckeever Page A

being paramount.
    She had already lost Xevera’s mother Sala to the hunger, and since had vowed never to lose another sentinel to the insidious syndrome again.
    Nahemah had been using the Inanna tracking practice to pick up her former Sentinel-in-Command’s spirit signal since the retrieval team had returned sans one member the evening before. She had only 66
    Gracie C. McKeever
    met with minimal success.
    Normally, Xevera was a master at shielding and could have completely obstructed any tracking at will. Either she was too weak to attempt a total blockade, or she was too distracted.
    At the latter thought, Nahemah had her ideas about what was distracting Xevera. She could only hope the Inanna had found the mate to cure her hunger.
    Tenebrion turned her to face him and planted a kiss on her lips before he pressed his forehead against hers. “You know I am here whenever you need me.”
    “I know,” she murmured, sliding from his embrace to leave the bed and the comfort of his nearness to prepare for her day.
    Normally, she would have started her day hours ago but allowed herself the rare indulgence of enjoying a spontaneous evening and early morning of lovemaking with her betrothed. For a brief time, Tenebrion’s nearness helped keep her guilt and demons at bay, but now the morning was here.
    Tenebrion followed her lead, leaving the bed and using enchantment to dress himself in his official Gaiam attire as Nahemah clad herself in the formal blue tunic of Emsharran royalty.
    She led the way through the bedroom to her palace office, and almost on cue, her aide-de-camp knocked on the door and entered.
    “Highest, your great-grandson and his helpmate are here to see you.”
    “I will be with them shortly. Tell them to wait in the outer office, Irkalla.”
    “Yes, Highest.” Her assistant ducked out of the room and closed the door.
    “That is my cue to leave.” Tenebrion reluctantly pulled away from her, and took her hand as she walked him to the door. He paused near the threshold and turned to her. “Whenever you are ready to share what is troubling you, I will be ready.”
    Silently, she cupped his face, then watched with a heavy heart as he opened the door and left. Were that she could put that burden on Sentinel’s Hunger
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    him, but she could not.
    Five seconds after Tenebrion left, Alex appeared at the open door.
    “Great-grandmother?”
    “Enter.”
    Alex entered, trailing Genesis as he crossed the carpeted floor to stand before Nahemah. “Have you locked onto Xevera?”
    Nahemah grinned. Her great-grandson had never been one to mince words. In this, he was much like his mother. “I do not have the exact coordinates for her as yet,” she said.
    “Nahemah, let me use Inanna’s knot to bypass the next scheduled portal opening.”
    Nahemah glanced at the medal around Alex’s neck, a brief pang of guilt stabbing her heart as she thought of his dead mother.
    She could not change what had happened to her granddaughter Kalika or Xevera’s mother Sala, but she could make sure that Xevera did not suffer a similar fate.
    “That is not necessary, Alex.”
    “You weren’t there when we left her, Nahemah. She wasn’t well.”
    Alex turned to his wife. “Tell her, Gen.”
    “He is correct, Highest. She was debilitated. I do not know how long she will last in the Great Above in her current condition.”
    “She is a former—a sentinel and a trained soldier. I am sure that she can survive another eighteen hours on her own.”
    Alex frowned. “Nahemah, is there some reason that you don’t want us to go in?”
    “I am all for you going in. I just do not think it wise for you to circumvent the portal system. It is there for a reason, after all.”
    “Is there something you’re not telling us, Gee-Gee?”
    Nahemah couldn’t help but grin at her great-grandson’s pet name for her, but before she could answer him, Genesis put in, “We cannot help, Nahemah, if we do not know the entire story.”
    How could