"Thank you," Brace said. He moved toward a discreet s.p.a.ce beside the cabin and opened a doorway.

Steva gave a single salute as we moved to enter the swirling vortex.

Wasting no time, we strode inside the silent vacuum. Delane was beside me. She hadn't even hesitated to step in, her expression remaining stoic. I had a lot of trouble reading the Angelicas' feelings. They'd rock at playing poker. Still, it was brave to step into the unknown.

Lucy stormed in, her features dark and heavy. Colton followed her closely, still looking amused and relaxed, which was to be expected; he'd gotten his own way. The length of the doorway was short, but still it was surprising that Delane required no a.s.sistance. Usually any other than Walker took a long time to get used to the sensation of cells moving at a million miles an hour. It was looking as if Nephilius creatures were closer to Walkers in power than any of the other worlds we had visited so far. And they had that same 'perfect beauty' and otherworldly look that Walkers wore.

We exited and Delane didn't even stumble. Okay, now that was just unfair.

Looking around our new location, I s.h.i.+vered and started to rub my hands up and down my arms in an involuntary attempt at comfort, but none was forthcoming. Wherever we were, it was giving me the creeps.

I smiled as Colton reached out to take Lucy's hand; she punched him in the ribs. He just laughed, before hauling her closer and kissing her on the cheek. She glowered at him. He kissed her again, this time on the lips, and I watched my friend melt under his tender caresses. I could hear his soft murmurs, and I was trying to figure out how to block my ears. d.a.m.n, the wolf was a charmer.

Brace came in at my back. I could feel his heat encase me, and for some reason the feeling of discomfort faded. As I relaxed, so did my brain.

"Please, tell me we were never that annoying?" I said.

Heat immediately flooded my cheeks. Oh, c.r.a.pity c.r.a.p.

I met his confused gaze, his eyes wide as he questioned my misspoken words.

"What did you say?" He wouldn't let me tear my gaze away, his magnetism holding me captive.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times. What the heck could I say to counteract that brilliant brain spasm?

"Are you having the dreams also?" Brace pressed harder.

I hesitated; my two options were to tell the truth or play dumb. I was starting to feel that the truth was the way to go, then Brace could help me maintain our distance. In reality I'd wanted to tell him the truth from the first moment Lucy told me of her vision. But now was not the time or place, and I really needed to think seriously about how to broach the subject and the consequences of my confession. I should also discuss it with Josian and Lucy, in case it was simply selfish on my part wanting to reveal all.

Brace interrupted my thoughts, pus.h.i.+ng his will into me. The man did not give up. "Are you feeling what I do? As if we've been together in a past life. Because I can't deny it; there's something more between us."

For now I'd play dumb, it was the safest option. "I really don't know what you're talking about." I stuttered out the words.

I was such a b.i.t.c.h. Brace deserved so much better than this lying c.r.a.p, and as soon as I had time to explain it properly, I was going to tell him.

He narrowed his eyes at me, but just as he opened his mouth, Delane interrupted us.

"Follow me," she said, marching away.

Saved by the Angelica.

"Guess she wasn't into the whole star-crossed lovers things we've all got going on," Brace muttered. His eyes were black; I could see my reflection in their depths.

I knew he was simmering over with unanswered questions, so in an attempt to distance us, I hurried closer to the Angelica. "Is this the Isle of Souls?" I started babbling.

Delane shook her head. "No, this is the Isle of Birth. Our young grow here."

"What?" I ground to a halt. "What do you mean 'grow'?"

She glanced back at me, but didn't stop moving. Clearly nothing deterred her when she was on a mission. I forced my feet to hurry back to her side.

"Once a year we send out our collective magicks from all five flocks. And from the garden the babies grow." She waved her hand toward a large ma.s.s of white fences far off in the distance. It was a long way from us, but so large I could see it clearly. "The young stay on the isle until their wings grow, and then they go off to their flocks."

I s.h.i.+vered again. No wonder this place gave me the creeps; it was a weird baby garden. I almost snorted as I was reminded of cabbage patch kids, those vintage dolls from Earth. But then as I considered it a little more, I realized what that meant. How the h.e.l.l was my half-Walker going to be here then? Walkers reproduced the old-fas.h.i.+oned and much more enjoyable way.

"Is that the way every Angelica is formed? Are you all grown?" I really hoped she would say no.

Delane hesitated, and for the first time slowed to face me. "What do you mean? Why would you ask that? What do you know?"

Her reaction endless questions seemed a little extreme. Maybe that was an offensive question on Nephilius. I was just about to apologize when Brace who'd been stalking close behind me spoke up.

"When you freed your mind, there was something strange about your energy." He stopped next to Delane. "Were you born in another manner rather than via the garden?"

Shut the door.

Was Brace indicating that Delane was my half-Walker?

c.r.a.p on a cracker. I couldn't open my locket to check with Brace so close. Colton and Lucy joined our group. They were holding hands and watching us silently.

Delane's hands were on her weapons as she bit out her next words. "How do you know this? Who are you?"

"Now's not the time," I interrupted. "We need to deal with this Isle-of-Souls problem."

I knew nothing of Delane, but if my experience with the Angelica so far was any indication, she wouldn't listen or care about our mission until we helped her people. And I also didn't want Brace to suggest I open my necklace. The last thing I needed was more suspicion from him.

The black-winged Angelica still eyed us warily. I could tell because she kept maneuvering around so we weren't behind her. I attempted to break the awkward tension.

"So, Delane, why are we on the Isle of Birth and not the Souls?" I reminded her of our problem at hand.

She hesitated. I could tell that she wanted to push us for more information, but eventually her need to deal with the current situation must have won. Her hands relaxed on her weapons.

"The Isle of Souls is the next land across." She pointed to her right. "I wanted to get a feel for the cage that holds our dead captive from this side."

There was no more talking as we moved the way she'd pointed. The awkward tension was still present, thick and tangible. Thankfully, as we approached the edge of the island, all of us except Delane probably were distracted by the ma.s.sive break in the cloud land. This must have been one of the abysses that Steva had mentioned in our first set of rules. As we drew closer I realized the unbelievably ma.s.sive size of the chasm.

"This is what separates our ten lands," Delane said. "As far as I know these abysses are bottomless and any Angelica that fall into their depths are never seen again. And considering we have wings ..." Her black feathered appendages extended then, as if to prove her point. "I suggest you don't get too close to the edge."

We all took a step back.

"That land is the Isle of Souls." She pointed across the chasm.

My mouth fell open, followed by a series of gasps as I looked across to the next cloud land. A dome of energy surrounded it, and within the confines of this dome were thousands of mist-like b.a.l.l.s of light. Some were a gray color, others white, and a few looked to be red and black.

"Can you see the souls?" Delane's black eyes flicked between us, watching our reaction to the isle.

"All of those mists are souls?" Lucy's voice dropped as she clutched her hands to her chest, her nails marking her skin. "That's terrible; they're trapped in there. Just ceaselessly smas.h.i.+ng against the energy barrier."

Colton's arm came around her and he pulled her close.

Delane made a noise, as if she were clearing her throat. "For far too many sun clouds our people have been trapped. And according to Steva, if the balance of trapped souls increases, all of Angelica will be sucked into the Isle of Souls. Trapped for eternity."

We'd heard this before, but now her words were ringing all kinds of familiar bells in my head.

Oh, no. s.h.i.+t. Eff.

This was the dark mountains all over again.

"Imagine what could be done with all of the trapped energy of the Nephilius inhabitants," I said. "One guess who might have set this plan in motion?"

"The Seventine," Brace bit out. "s.h.i.+t. They're determined to destroy these worlds."

We all knew if they weren't stopped the Seventine would bring about the complete destruction of the First World star system. But I wasn't expecting them to already be working toward destroying Nephilius. How many of these plans might be in place already? We'd only stayed on the last three worlds long enough to find the half-Walker girls. Anything could be happening; we wouldn't know.

"The Angelica hold enough collective energy that, if we don't break this cage, the Seventine will have a pretty good shot at releasing their last three," Colton growled. "We need to stop this now."

"What are you talking about?" Delane demanded. "What are the Seventine?"

I took a deep breath. I had two reasons to tell her this story now. So she'd understand our weird conversation earlier, and so she knew why these things were happening to her world. Which I hoped would just be an added incentive for her to join us girls.

As I hurried through the story of our journey so far, she just stared, her expression unchanging. I touched on the prophecy, how I was stashed on Earth, the battles with the Seventine, the mission to gather the half-Walkers from each world, and the true fear that we would not make it in time to stop the un-tethering of the worlds. I didn't want to scare her, but my own worries continued to leak over into my explanation.

Right at the end of my story, her expression s.h.i.+fted. And I realized that she'd been waiting for all of the facts before forming any opinions. As if it had been a puzzle I'd presented her, she'd not decided on the final picture until she had every single piece.

"I'm the half-Walker from Nephilius," she said without preamble. "I'm the only one born of flesh on this world."

I nodded. "Yes, you're the one we need." I felt compelled to add. "We're all born of flesh. Most of the seven worlds produce young from males and females ... uh ..."

"Copulating," Lucy added helpfully.

Delane met her gaze, eyes serious. "If you mean what I think you mean, we have those relations.h.i.+ps, but there are no young from this union. It's about pleasure and energy-sharing."

Good to know.

"I accept your claims," she said.

I examined her calm features. She was taking all this pretty well.

"What you've said makes sense. I'm a warrior without equal on Nephilius." She squared her shoulders. "I will go with you for this final Seventine battle only ..." she paused and faced Brace, "if you win the tournament."

"We don't have time." I worked really hard not to let my annoyance free, but I still thought my voice sounded thin and brittle. I was getting a little sick of trying to convince these half-Walkers. Seriously, weren't the words, 'end of the worlds', strong enough?

"We believe that in their current state the Seventine can't do much besides gather energy and sever the tethers, and then we find things like this cage here." I gestured to the trapped souls. "And if all seven of them are freed they will be beyond powerful. This Isle of Souls will look like freaking Disneyland." No one but Lucy would get the reference. "And I need all of the half-Walkers. We need to learn our abilities, and how to work together. If we can't imprison the Seventine they will destroy all the worlds. Every. Single. One."

Surely that was clear enough.

"I understand that, but you need to understand something about me." Delane drew both of her weapons.

I didn't sense anything threatening in her stance. It was more as if she was just making a point. Although Brace still moved, positioning himself between Delane and me.

"I can only undertake this if it is worthy of me as a warrior, if I believe Walkers even have the strength to win. And I'm telling you the only way to prove this to me is if Brace defeats me in the tournament."

I shook my head. As always, she was stubborn. It seemed to be a half-Walker trait.

"We accept this," Brace said as he reached out and took my hand.

I think it was to calm me. If my face reflected my thoughts, I must have looked like I was going to lose my s.h.i.+t. I pinched the bridge of my nose; my head was starting to ache again.

"The princeps said that we had nothing to fear from the Seventine until they are all released, but they failed to take into account two things: firstly, they have someone or something powerful working with them; and secondly, they're d.a.m.n smart. They could have destroyed Nephilius without anyone being the wiser." I was sort of, a little bit, yelling my head off as I gestured toward the barrier. "We have to be smarter. We're like blind mice chasing our d.a.m.n tails."

A ghostly chuckle echoed through my mind.

You're wasting your time trying to find an equal amongst any of these apes. We are your equal.

Eff. The Seventine was back to torment me.

I shoved energy toward it, trying to expel the first from my head. It just flowed through it.

Get out of my head, I screamed. The laughter started again.

On instinct I projected my tethers and connected to the half-Walkers.

Abbs? Talina's concern filled my head. Along with the cool, refres.h.i.+ng wash of her water power.

What's up, Supes? Fury blasted in too, her fire always recognizable. Who needs their a.s.s kicked?

I'm here also. Ria was calm, like the swaying leaves on a warm summer day.

What. The. h.e.l.l. Is. This? Another voice was there, the clipped tones distinct enough that I knew immediately it was Delane. Her power was a blast of icy winds, flooding through and around the other energies.

Sensing she was very uncomfortable with her current loss of control, I hurried to explain.

Delane, this is how the half-Walkers connect with each other. I'm a conduit; I can move our energy around.

Nice work, Supes. Fury whooped. You found the Nephilius half already.

I realized then that the Seventine was gone. In fact it had disappeared the moment I'd connected to the girls.

Yes, I've found Delane, but she won't leave until Brace wins the tournament here.

The other three laughed. I think there had been some bets on the difficulty level of the Nephilius half. Not that I was sure what currency they used.

You owe me sea pearls, Talli. Fury whooped a few times.

Guess that answered my question. I interrupted before they wasted more time bickering. I needed to get some information off my chest.

Guys! I bellowed over the noise. I need to tell you all something. The first Seventine is stalking me ... Silence reigned now. It keeps talking to me in my mind, bypa.s.sing all of my barriers.

My hastily spoken words had tension flooding through all of us.