Free Awakening by Caris Roane Page A

their direction and said, “Why’d you stop the kiss, not to mention that very nice boob-in-the-hand feel-up? I would have enjoyed some in-air action.”
    Rachel shook her head but refused to take her comment seriously. Instead, she suggested, “Maybe you should call Horace because I suspect Merl is going to be in some serious pain, if he isn’t feeling it already.”
    Endelle grimaced but pulled her phone from her bustier and made the call.
    Rachel put her bra back on, then her dress.
    “Hey,” Duncan said. “We’re still covered by your shield but you weren’t touching me at all when you got dressed. I thought maybe we had to be touching, or something.”
    She looked at him and held her hands wide. “I know. And now I’m wondering how far I can stretch this.” She started backing up toward the front door and the shield held with the first step, the second, and even the third. But at the two yard point she could feel her power begin to thin. As she kept moving, the shield finally just dissipated completely.
    “Hey, Duncan is here with Rachel,” Santiago called out. “By the door.”
    ~ ~ ~
    Endelle didn’t have a lot of hopeful moments in her life. Mostly, she went from one disaster to the next, trying not to fall into a hole and get stuck there. But right now, because of what Rachel had just done – the woman who refused to be part of the war – she felt hopeful.
    She’d had a nightmare of a vision that all but predicted both Luken and Duncan’s deaths as well as the shifting of the war to a disastrous conclusion.
    But every time the breh-hedden showed up, something miraculous happened.
    And that gave her hope.
    Horace arrived in the villa foyer beyond Duncan and Rachel. Duncan turned toward him and gestured in the direction of the warriors crowded around Merl. The Third ascender sat with his knees on the grass, breathing hard, his complexion pale. The gossamer web that both created the feathers then exploded through the wing-locks, hurt like the devil when broken.
    That snap had caused Endelle to cringe inwardly. Even plucking the feathers hurt, something she did in front of other ascenders just to unsettle the room and give her an advantage. But Merl had his Third Earth abilities and he would heal quickly enough. Faster with Horace, of course.
    She had some tough decisions coming up and one of them she’d already made. But now she had to inform the recipient and it wouldn’t be pretty.
    When Luken headed in the direction of Antony’s pool to collect the grilled steaks, she followed after him, though moving slowly so she didn’t catch up right away. She needed her head on straight for this one and she knew just how much what she intended to tell Luken would grieve him.
    He’d lose regular contact with Havily, for one thing.
    And he’d have to give up his leadership of the Warriors of the Blood for another, something Endelle knew he valued immensely. And he’d been damn good at it especially with so many Militia Warriors rising in power toward What-Bee levels.
    His likely death, however, was something Endelle couldn’t share and her throat tightened.
    Sometimes life was one fucked up shitfest after another.
    She could smell the steaks and how they were charred just right. Her stomach growled.
    He saw her coming and his usual smile faltered until he was frowning. Yep, he knew her well, and that she wouldn’t have come back here for a social visit.
    He had a platter on the adjacent counter, where he began stacking up the super-sized ribeyes. “There’s been only one time in recent memory that you wore that kind of expression,” he said. “Fiona was on her knees next to a cage that held a real bastard of a prisoner and she started reciting the names of hundreds of blood slaves.” He slid a long, two-prong fork into another steak and stacked it on the others. “You have the same look right now that you had then, as you knelt beside her, so I’m thinkin’ this can’t be good.”
    For all his