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

have the exact same answer I do. You simply don’t want to say it.”

No, he didn’t want to say it. He couldn’t say it and wasn’t going to. But the practical implications were there. Ugly. Real. Unspoken, until Sean uttered them aloud.

“She has to die.”

Carter didn’t consider himself a weak man or somebody who quailed at the unpleasant side of life, but even he flinched at hearing a man say that about his wife.

“You’re talking about the mother of your child,” James put in quietly.

“I know.”

“And your wife.”

“I know, dammit, I know!” Sean roared, slamming one fist against another. “Ciara was and has been the best thing in my life since I first laid eyes on her. I would have given anything for her, done anything for her…except the one thing I can’t do, can’t give.

“Power,” he added. “Control over the Stones. The chance to destroy the fate and fortunes of every single one of us. If it were anyone else, it wouldn’t even be a question. We’ve taken out people for far less who threatened the family or threatened our shifters. Even threatened our business dealings.

You,” he said to Carter, who hid a wince at the last line, thinking of Ellie and her accusations of Sean as a mafia don, a mob boss, who would destroy those who stood in his way. “And you,” he added to James. “We’re vulnerable. We always will be. If Ciara and Nosizwe get the Stones, get Carter’s blood, obtain the power they seek, they’re going to start a war with humans that will rain down hell on all of us.”

“They did have the Stones. And they did have my blood,” Carter put in quietly.

That stopped his employer in his tracks. Some of the anguish melted off his features, replaced by curiosity.

“They did?”

“Last night. Two nights ago. However long ago it was. That night at the Chesterfield Country Club. Ciara said I’d gone rogue? Not true. Ciara and Nosizwe had me. They had the Stones.”

Quickly, he filled in the rest of the story, including sacrificing himself for Ellie, the doorway of fire the Stones had opened, and Ellie’s reaction, shoving him into the flames and through the portal. He told the rest of it too, of the alien world, of the strange sword with its hidden writing, of the living beings in the city that he could sense but not see, and even of the prophetic sounding title, Repairer of the Breach. He finished with the tale of the fight, he and Detective Ewing’s scrape to escape the warehouse.

James was quiet. Sean was dumbfounded. Carter didn’t blame them. It sounded like something out of a fairytale—and he knew lots of shifters who actually embodied fairytale creatures.

“What do you think it means?” he inquired once he’d laid out the entire story. He was curious for their opinions.

His boss had gone from looking pained over the decision to kill his wife to contemplative after hearing the tale.

“Shoot. I wouldn’t want to be you,” James muttered. A twinkle of his old humor was back. “Of course, I never wanted to be you anyway,” he went on. “Since I’m the good-looking one. The good-looking one with all the personality.”

“The looks and personality of a horses’s as—” Carter started to say, but Sean broke in.

“Alright, James. Jokes aside, this is a conundrum. They had the Stones, they had the blood, and the blood did something, but not what they expected.”

“They didn’t have all the Stones,” James pointed out, serious now.

“True. Did you think to search for the other Stones while you were there?” Sean inquired. “Two are still missing and have never been found. Maybe you were in Atlantis and the Stones are still there.”

“I didn’t look,” Carter admitted. “I didn’t think about it. All I was thinking about was surviving and getting Ellie home.”

“Understandable,” Sean nodded. “The Talos will protect her. But what if you went back—alone? Or not alone, possibly with backup, just not with her. What if you could search for the Stones? What if you could find them? What if we could have all of them under our control?”

“You’re forgetting Nosizwe has the other four right now,” James pointed out.

“Yes. Thanks to Ciara and those who sided with her. Which brings us back to the original quandary.”

His steely gaze fell on his two subordinates. “There’s no choice, is there? She’s a traitor. She and my enemy have the Stones. They must die, along with everyone who supported them and betrayed me.”

“And if we do take Ciara out, along with her accomplices, what then? That still leaves Nosizwe. We’ve been trying for years to kill her. Now she has the Stones, and she has your wife,” Carter said.

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Beg pardon?”

“She has Ciara’s loyalties, but she doesn’t have Ciara bodily. Ciara cannot physically leave me. Not yet. I have our son. More than that, I have her cap. Without it, her Merrow self can’t return to the sea. She won’t leave me until she has it in her possession.”

“Which means she’s got to come back to the mansion,” James stated.

“Yes.” Sean gave him an approving nod. “Moreover, she doesn’t know Carter is back.”

“I’m sure she does by now,” Carter argued grimly. “There was no mistaking who I was last night, breaking the detective out of the warehouse where the Stones were kept.”

“Well, yes, I’m certain she knows from Nosizwe that you’re alive, but she doesn’t know that you’re here. With me.”

“Won’t she guess that’s the first place Carter would go?”

“Likely. But guessing and knowing are two different things. Were you seen, coming in here?”

Carter and James exchanged glances. “By Dave, and a few others in the hallway. I guess we’ll know soon if they’re playing for the other side.”

“Then we wait,” Sean said, rising, walking to the window to look out at the lawn. We wait for Ciara to return. We hold her—use her to get Nosizwe to come to us.”

“Do you think she’ll come?”

“She’ll come,” Sean said. “I’ll have Ciara.” He swiveled to glance over