Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (reading eggs books .TXT) 📗

Confidence crept into my spine, mingling with the fear. I owed Carter my life several times over, but it wasn’t merely that. We were married. We’d decided to take what was meant to be a temporary, dissolvable union and make it real. This was what marriage meant—backing each other up. Taking care of each other. That bond couldn’t die before it had a chance to strengthen and grow.

“Yes,” I answered. “I’m sure. I’m absolutely sure.”

Chapter Fifteen

James met Carter outside the front door of the mansion, on the edge of the circular driveway. Walking up the driveway towards his friend, the one person Carter hoped he could trust to have his back right now, Carter studied the scene, letting it take him back to that November night where he’d stood behind Ellie in the doorway of the mansion, watching an autumn breeze tease her blonde hair, watching headlights splash off her. He’d been momentarily caught off guard and unprepared for the vicious attack that had followed. Amazing how the course of your life could hinge on literally one second. That one instant had changed him and who he was and what he would do forever. It had set him off on a path he otherwise would never have taken. All because of her.

“James.”

He stopped in front of his longtime colleague. In typical James fashion, his hands were in his pockets and his shoulders hunched, as if from the cold. It was chilly this morning, but that was simply James, whether it was the middle of summer or winter.

“Carter,” James nodded back. His black eyes scanned the area behind Carter. “You walk here or something?”

“Hired a car. Let me out at the gate.”

“Ah. Gotcha.”

“Yeah. So…do they know I’m here?”

“Not yet. At least, not that I know of. Tried to keep it quiet, like you said, to give you a few minutes to prepare. On the other hand, I can’t say who Dave may’ve told.”

James had spoken to Dave after signing off with Carter back at the gate, ordering the man to keep his mouth shut. Whether he had or not remained to be seen. However, nobody was here with guns, blades, fangs, or claws to fend him off, so maybe the man had obeyed. James didn’t look like it, but he wasn’t somebody to cross. You had to keep on your toes around him. Most folks didn’t want to mess with a guy possessing James’ particular skill sets.

“If it’s quiet right now, that means I may have a few minutes,” Carter surmised, “but not if we keep jacking around.”

“Get inside and get ready, then. I’ll give Sean a heads up.”

“Thanks. Where’s Ciara?” Carter inquired as they made their way to a side entrance where he was more likely to go unnoticed.

“She left about eight this morning. Errands to run. I didn’t keep up with it. That’s Darla’s department.”

Darla was Ciara’s personal assistant and bodyguard, a phoenix shifter.

“Is Darla here?”

“No, I think she went with.”

“Probably to meet Nosizwe then, or something,” Carter growled. He opened the door to his own suite and passed inside. James followed.

“Maybe. But it works for you, wanting to see Sean.”

“Yeah, but if they get those Stones…”

“What can they do with the Stones as long as you’re here and they’re there?”

Carter paused in his hasty search of fresh clothing. “True,” he acknowledged. He next fetched a couple of the weapons stashed in his room. With precise motions he checked clips and ammunition, making sure he wasn’t walking into a potential battle unarmed.

“Surprised Ciara didn’t take those,” James observed from his perch on the arm of the oversized armchair.

“Probably didn’t think about it. She also probably didn’t think I’d be coming back from wherever the Stones sent me. At least not this soon.”

“Where did the Stones send you?”

“Damned if I know. Looked like—I don’t know. Like ancient Greece or Rome or some similar civilization. Or a movie set. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear it was.”

James narrowed his eyes. “Rome? Greece? You don’t think it was…”

“Was what?”

“Atlantis?”

Carter’s eyes narrowed. In the back of his mind, he recalled standing in the city streets of wherever they’d been while Ellie was still in the cottage, asleep. Feeling like someone was there. Catching glimpses out of the corners of his eyes, but nobody was around. Practically hearing the whispers of human voices, seeing the ghostly forms of human shapes.

Something close to a shiver slithered down his spine, but he rolled his neck and shoulders to brush it off.

“That’s what Ellie thought,” he admitted to James, “but it sounds pretty crazy to me.” Weapons secure, he gathered up his clothes and headed for the bathroom.

“Watch my back while I clean up. Out in five.”

It wasn’t a request. While he was in the bathroom, the shower, for those hasty five minutes, his mind spun in circles so fast he could hardly catch one thought before another struck. What if that’s what this was all about? The Stones, reconnecting shapeshifters to their origin. Atlantis, lost to human civilization, but still existing—somewhere. Either back in time or in a parallel universe. His blood, a bridge between what had been and what was now. The Talos, the key to it all. What kind of responsibility did that mean he bore towards his fellow shifters if he had the ability to bring them home? Or guide them back to their original destiny? Was he required to sacrifice himself to open the way? Should he open the way? And what about the humans, like Ellie, that were bound up in all of this? What if those presences and voices at the edges of his consciousness were real, live people—people like him, shapeshifters—living at the fringe of reality? Was he tied to them too? Duty-bound to release them or find them? Why him?

Again, he remembered Ellie telling him long ago that he was self-sacrificial in what he did. That the very core of her religious beliefs hung on one person sacrificing himself