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

part, right? Against his better judgment, he’d tried to use his blood to open the way between worlds. What was missing? He didn’t know. Ellie? But that didn’t make any sense. Ellie was human, so she couldn’t possibly be tied to this. Could she?

“I don’t believe a word he says.”

The voice was cold, familiar. It was Ciara, and she was speaking for the first time. It was enough to slice through the heated exchange of words, like ice water dousing a fire, smothering the flames. Both Sean and his rival turned from each other to her. Her face was hard as marble in the weak light, and her eyes pools of blackness as she glared at her husband.

“He had something up his sleeve all along,” she continued. “I know him. I know he wouldn’t have agreed to any of this if he didn’t have something else in mind. What was it, Sean? How were you going to con us this time?”

Sean’s jaw worked from side to side as he stared down at his wife. Carter couldn’t tell if he was trying to form an answer or restrain one. He also didn’t believe the man was as hardhearted towards her as he’d claimed. Would Sean kill her? Possibly. If it absolutely came to that. Did he want to, in spite of her betrayal? Carter stared at his mentor. His eyes were fastened onto his beautiful, younger wife. No, Sean didn’t want to kill her. He’d talked big, but the ugliest words usually came out of pain. Sean was hurting, but that didn’t mean he truly wanted her dead.

Finally, Carter’s boss spoke, and Carter could hear the strain in his voice.

“No trickery, Ciara. I wanted it to work too.”

“Did you?” Ciara’s voice rose with frustration. “I know you, Sean. If you had wanted it to work, it would have worked.”

Sean took a menacing step towards the woman in the wheelchair. “Really? Do I control the Stones? Do I control magic? Do I control the Talos’ blood?”

“In a sense.” Ciara matched him glare for glare. “You control Carter. You always have.”

Carter felt a sting. “That isn’t true.”

Both of the Costases turned to look at him. “I’m not controlled by him,” he said. “There’s a difference between working for someone and being controlled by them.”

“Is there?” Ciara challenged him. “Look at your life, Carter. Really look at it. Everything you’ve done up to this point, including offering your own blood—again—to try and open the Stones. You’ve done everything Sean wanted. You always have. He told you to protect Ellie; her being a total stranger. You did it, to the point of marrying her to keep her safe. Who does that? Who, in this day and age, does that?” Ciara threw her hands in the air to make a point. “You’ve risked yourself for her time and again. You have two weak spots, Carter, even as the Talos, and they’re Sean and that girl. And one is that girl because of Sean. Don’t stand there and tell me he doesn’t control you. He owns you, and we all know it.”

Now it was Carter’s turn to stand there staring at her, his jaw working clenching, trying to formulate an argument or a defense. So many words crowded his brain that it was impossible to set them straight.

Around them, the two different crowds whispered nervously. For once, Sean and Nosizwe were doing the same thing—glancing back and forth between Ciara and Carter. Neither of them seemed to know how to respond.

Ciara rolled her wheelchair a few feet further towards Carter.

“I understand,” she said quietly, looking up at him. “My parents told me to marry Sean for the sake of the Stones. Marry him, merge the power of our Stones, keep all of our people safe. I questioned, but I obeyed. I knew leaving my home by the sea for a life in Texas was not a good idea. I knew what would happen—that my soul would eventually wither and shrivel and die, like the wildflowers blasted by the damn heat in this place.”

Her voice, already strained, cracked on a sob. She turned away to regain control of herself. When she looked back, her skin was as pale as before, but her eyes and jaw were hard.

“I tried to be happy. I tried so hard. For a time, when my son was born, I was happy, but that high quickly faded in the face of postpartum depression. Then everything grew worse. I knew there was something in me, in you, Carter, in all of us…” She swept her hand out in a circle, encompassing all of them, “that cried out to the innermost me, the real me. In the end, I couldn’t deny it. Just as you can’t deny yourself.”

Carter swallowed hard. “Where are you going with this, Ciara?” he asked gruffly.

She stared him dead in the eye. “I’m saying you couldn’t open the Stones a minute ago because you didn’t want to. You are the Talos. You have to want to in your innermost heart, your innermost being. The first time it worked since you were sacrificing yourself for Ellie. That was what you truly wanted. Both you and the Talos. Sean controls you in a sense, yes, like he’s controlled me all these years, but the real you can’t be controlled by him any more than the real me could. What I’m saying to you right now is you—the real you, your alter, the Talos—has to make the choice what he wants. What you really want. Then, and only then, can you reopen the Stones.”

Taken aback by the explanation, Carter stared down at his former employer, speechless.

Slow claps broke the silence. Carter looked up to see Sean standing there, clapping his hands together, his manner sardonic.

“Well done, my love. Well done. Never let it be said a Merrow lacks tremendous power. When you talk like that, you could convince any man to do whatever you wanted. Poor Carter never stood a chance.”

Carter blinked several times, feeling