Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (30 page)

Or not. The memories of Elis's death
would haunt her forever, as clear as if they happened in the
instant they happened. Cursed by the Starfire, she never forgot a
detail. Her memory never faded.

He should be
here
. The room had been his. The computer
on the desk in the corner had been his. The clothes in the
closet—what little there was, since Inari didn't collect material
objects—were his.

She would go back to the place he had
died, those memories vivid in her mind, to defeat the Risaal and
release the Starfire they didn't even know they
possessed.

A knock on the door made her heart
jump from her chest.

"Sorry." Nare grimaced. "Ready to go?
It's almost sunset."

"Yeah…Yeah, just…I'll be down in a
minute." She could do this; but her fingers digging into the
cushion of the desk chair said otherwise.

"Okay. I'll meet you at the
door."

"Yeah." Nare stepped out. Her feet
thumped on the steps, including the creaky loose step Elis had
always known how to avoid.

This was it. "Only because of you,"
she whispered, taking in the room one last time, or it felt like it
would be her last. She might not survive to graduation.

Tears misted her eyes and she wiped
them away. "I miss you so much." She choked down the lump in her
throat and took a deep breath. Now was not the time to
cry.

Now was the time to act. She had a
Starfire shard to find. Hopefully it accepted Nare as a Keeper,
even if only temporarily. They would need the power to face the
Risaal.

[I've seen your thoughts,
Raea. I'm not so sure this is a good idea.]
Atia had no right questioning her.

["If you want me to finish this, I do
it my way. We'll need all the help we can get."] And that meant the
use of another shard.

If Atia had seen her thoughts, then
she knew Raea had learned to control her power and trusted Nare.
Hopefully, the Lady's consciousness would go with the others when
she released them. Raea had enough voices from the Starfire
disturbing her thoughts regularly.

Maybe Atia and the Starfire entities
would keep quiet and let her do what needed to be done. At least
the entities hadn't objected to her plan. She could only guess they
supported her. Hell, they had planted the suggested with their
revelation of a fifth shard hidden on Earth. Why wouldn't the
Starfire entities support her?

It should have been Elis that would be
the crystal's Keeper, though.

This is for you…and Stein
and Torres. None of you will have died in vain.
Raea let out a shaky breath and checked her pocket for the
spare oblong tri-comm Nare had given her—there and waiting.
Time to fly.

She stepped out of the room. Nare
waited at the bottom of the stairs, her black leather jacket
already on with the fingerless gloves. Like the jackets Evelyn had
altered for Elis, Nare's had been altered to accommodate her wings,
but a piece of leather covered the opening in the back. No one
would know with a casual glance.

Nare checked the silver watch on her
wrist while Raea stepped carefully down the stairs. "We have twenty
minutes to sunset. It'll be early morning in Cairo. We won't have
much time unless we spend the day in the desert."

"We might have to." The valley oasis
was hidden and would be hard to find in the dark. They might pass
it without even being aware.

Nare's lip twitched into a hint of a
grimace but she hid it quickly. "Then I suppose we'd better grab
some water bottles."

Good thinking, especially if they
ended up having to spend the day in the desert. Now,
where—

"Already considered that,
dear."

Raea whirled but calmed at the tap of
the cane from the dining room. She hadn't even noticed Evelyn.
Hunched over from osteoarthritis, the old woman leaned on her cane.
Sagged cheeks lifted, but sadness in those gray eyes dulled any
joy.

"I heard voices in the early hours and
couldn't help but listen."

Then they hadn't been as quiet as Raea
had hoped. "Sorry we woke you." Evelyn hadn't said anything
throughout the day, but she didn't climb the stairs
anymore.

"I wasn't sleeping well. The house was
too quiet." Evelyn's eyes dropped.

I'm sure it was.
Raea bit her tongue on the sympathy. Elis had
shined a new light into the old woman's life. Not only for her; he
had been a beacon of hope for many.

"I know I can't stop you, but I can
help. He did so much for me...Take what you need from the kitchen,
dear."

Leave it to the old widow to help
them. Evelyn had a heart of gold, and she had loved Elis like her
own son for two years.

"Thanks."

"In the kitchen under the
sink."

Raea hurried through the dining room
to the kitchen and opened the cabinet doors under the sink. There
it was—a case of water bottles in shrink-wrapped plastic. She tore
the plastic and grabbed four bottles. They couldn't carry any more
without needing a bag, but they shouldn't need any more than that
anyway; with luck, they'd be home within a day.

She reached Nare and Evelyn in the
foyer and handed two of the bottles to Nare.

"Thanks." Nare tucked each into her
jacket pockets, although they mostly stuck out.

A touch on her arm made Raea turn. Old
gray eyes misted before her. "You do this for him."

Unable to speak, Raea bent over to
embrace Evelyn, her hands still clutching the water
bottles.

"You both come back here, let me know
you're all right."

"We will." At least, Raea hoped they
would; she couldn't predict what troubles they might
encounter.

She stepped back without meeting those
gray eyes, knowing the sorrow in them would make her
cry.

Aware of Nare and Evelyn watching,
Raea hurried to slip on her shoes and Elis's jacket, the same she
had worn the night they were taken. The faint musky scent
surrounded her and filled her with the calm he had always provided.
It gave her strength. She did this for him more than the Starfire.
He believed in protecting it and her enough to give up his own
life. His death would not be in vain.

"His blood?" Nare spoke in a somber
tone.

Raea looked down at the brown stain.
Dear God. She'd forgotten about that in all the Atlantis
confusion—she'd refused to let Evelyn wash it properly, but it
looked like the old woman had done some hand scrubbing. The stain
was lighter than she remembered, and on the black, hardly
noticeable.

"Let's go." She didn't want to talk
about it. The memory of the moment he died haunted her in perfect
detail. She needed a distraction now.

Raea shoved the water bottles into the
jacket's pockets and pulled the door open to a warm spring evening.
She stepped down to the cement walk while light breeze whispered
through the street, carrying the scent of lilacs in full bloom from
the next house over. Leaves rustled on trees, but otherwise the
street was quiet.

Except for the hiss and thump of the
door behind her.

"So, the usual place?"

Damn, Nare was loud. Why not alert the
whole neighborhood while she was at it?

"No, out a ways." Where they were less
likely to be noticed by Anita.

Nare said nothing but bowed
her head. Well, there was that. She respected the Crystal Keepers.
What would she be like as one?
I must be
insane, or insanely desperate.
Nare was
nothing less than arrogant most of the time, but it had usually
been a reflection of her feelings towards Elis. Raea didn't have a
choice. The Starfire would decide Nare's fate.

With a shiver that made her
close the oversized jacket, Raea led Nare down the walk to the end
of the street. The town was quiet. Not even the Thompson boys
played on their skateboards and bikes, but it was around nine
already. Pretty late for kids to be out, even if tomorrow was
Saturday. Still, she would expect there to be
some
celebration of school being out
for the year. Apparently not.

Good for her and Nare.

No one followed them. Hopefully no one
would see them until she opened the portal, and then it would be
too late to recognize them from the ground or follow.

They walked along the quiet highway
running past Debbie and Mike's house at the edge of town, until
they reached the second gravel road after the last block and
followed that.

The sun dipped behind the horizon at
their backs, stretching their shadows into the darkness encroaching
from the east until they blended with it. Raea rubbed at an ache in
her shoulder and winced at the pain in her chest.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, just sore. I must've pulled
something." Her shoulder wasn't bad, but the aching in her chest
worried her. It had lingered too long to be nothing, but she didn't
want anything to interfere with their plans. She could rest after
the Risaal were defeated. "I'll be all right." As if. Despite the
pain, she had to do this.

"Whatever you say." Nare gave her a
doubtful look and secured her tri-comm along her cheek. "Ready to
fly?"

Raea followed Nare's gaze
behind them to the soft lights of the town and pulled her tri-comm
from her jeans pocket but hesitated to put it on. A pair of
headlights headed their way, the gravel crunching beneath a car's
tires in the still of dusk. "Not yet." After the car passed.
Chances were she would recognize them—everyone knew everyone in a
small town like that—and she didn't need them seeing her
transformation.
That
would make her life better. Not.

Rather than pass them, the car slowed
down as it came up.

Oh, no. Not
her!

Raea let out a small groan and refused
to look at the woman who leaned over from the driver's
side.

"Raea! Where are you
going?"

Could she even sneeze without Anita
knowing?

"We need to get going." The words
grumbled out with frustration barely restrained. Man, that woman
annoyed her!

"Where?" Anita asked.

"None of your concern." She found the
resonance and focused the warmth on her back, ignoring the woman in
the car to concentrate on growing her wings. The sooner she lifted
off, the sooner she'd be free of the government shadow.

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!
Ow!
The transformation hurt the same every
time, but it always ended. Stretching her wings invigorated her,
making the temporary discomfort worthwhile. She secured the
tri-comm on her cheek and stepped back from the car.

"Raea, I'm serious. We can't afford to
lose you."

"You won't." Damn, she had to get away
from that woman.

Within a few flaps, she lifted off.
Nare rose behind her.

["Crystal fire. That woman's
annoying."] Nare's voice sounded close over the tri-comm. They'd
adjusted the frequency to the same used by Starfire Tower on the
homeworld. It had come in handy when she had opened portals,
although Saffir had chastised her for attracting the attention of
the Shirat Empire. She couldn't win with anyone.

["I agree."] Raea glanced down at the
darkening patchwork of fields and pastures sewn by neat rows of
roads into a vibrant quilt of spring foliage. Anita's car headed
back to town like a needle along one of the roads.

The lights of McClarron glowed a ways
behind them. Far enough. ["Can you hold me while I concentrate?"]
One day she'd be able to do this while flying, but not that
day.

["Sure."] Nare slipped back behind
her.

The second the woman's arms secured
around her waist, Raea lowered her wings and focused on the
resonance. Through it, she connected to the entities. Their
experience and connection to the other dimension opened to her so
that she was not in her body yet felt anchored. The connection
opened a rift.

Before her, the black sphere formed in
the dark blue sky, stirring up the few clouds drifting past as it
grew and flashed with energy. Raea focused on the pyramids and what
the entities knew of their location; they were everywhere yet
focused in one place at the same time, all knowing and seeing. They
knew the place she wished to make her connection and their energy
formed it. For portals, that energy didn't come from her, but she
directed it.

The lightning-charged sphere expanded
and burst into a black disk around which the clouds slowly twisted.
The wind whirled around them.

Just a little
more
. Raea focused on expanding the portal,
wishing in the back of her mind she was as talented as her mother
had been to fly and do this at the same time. Some day she would
be, but that was in the future, after far more practice than she'd
had. For now, she needed help.

There. The black disk hovered before
her wide enough for a full wing spread.