“Precisely,” Lumi replied with a nod. “It takes it all away, and it leaves you with a feeling that you could’ve had it all. It doesn’t feel as bitter as a missed opportunity. It’s much worse. It could drive a person mad.”
“Oh, good. Madness. Anything else we should be aware of?” I retorted sarcastically.
“This apprenticeship is too bumpy,” Lumi said. “If she’s not careful or calm, it could kill her. This is her most fragile period, just before a so-called chrysalis stage. The last sleep before the great bloom.”
The more I learned about swamp witches, the more worried I became. Nothing of what Lumi told me was soothing, in any way. There were more ways in which this could go wrong than ways in which it could go well, and that scared the daylights out of me.
“Keep talking to her. She’ll hear your voice, eventually,” Lumi advised me, giving me a sad half-smile. “The only thing you can do for her is support her and make sure she’s as calm as possible, considering what’s ahead. If she doesn’t keep herself cool and open to these episodes, the entire process might kill her.”
“Did she know about this when she signed up for it?” I asked, frowning.
“I couldn’t reveal too much, as per the swamp witch traditions. But I warned her that it could be dangerous or even deadly if done incorrectly. The rest was up to her.”
I shook my head slowly, then shifted my focus back to Kailani. I pressed my lips against her ear. “Come on, Kale. It’s getting lonely here without you. I need you,” I mumbled.
“I have all the faith in her, you know,” Lumi said. “I wouldn’t have taken her on as an apprentice if I didn’t think she could pull through. Kale is incredibly strong. There is so much raw power inside of her. It flows naturally. It’s like music to my ears. The Word would be foolish to reject her.”
“Provided she survives these blackouts, right?” I asked.
Kailani moaned in my arms. I held my breath. She blinked several times, until the lights went out from her eyes. She looked at me, then exhaled sharply.
“I was out again, wasn’t I?” she asked.
I gave her a weak nod, then showered her with kisses, thankful to have her back. I could breathe again, and, as she hid her face in the small space between my neck and shoulder, Lumi told her what happened, and what it could mean for her future as a swamp witch.
Once Lumi laid out all the facts she could disclose, like she’d done with me, Kailani cursed under her breath. “Well, I definitely picked the wrong time for this swamp witch stuff, huh?” she asked rhetorically.
“You couldn’t have known,” Lumi replied. “We all thought you were coming to Strava for a simple recon mission, not this pile of trouble.”
“Kale, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” I said to her.
She smiled, then planted a kiss on my cheek—as if I’d just said the cutest thing, and as if I couldn’t be farther from the truth. “This one’s on me, Hunter,” she murmured. “I have to make sure I don’t blow myself up, and that, in the end, the Word accepts me. Though, I have no idea how I’m going to do that.”
“Do you remember anything from this blackout?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. The rules.”
“Screw the rules,” I grumbled.
She wrapped her arms around my torso and glued herself to my upper body. I couldn’t really think straight when she did that. All I could focus on was her scent, filling my nostrils and flooding my mind with images of her, melting in my arms, the wind blowing through her hair and the ocean lapping at her feet.
Thankful to have Kailani back, at least for the time being, I kissed the top of her head, then looked at Lumi. “I don’t know what else to do,” I said.
“There’s nothing you can do, Hunter, except prepare yourself for the most difficult challenge yet,” Lumi replied. “Help Kailani keep her condition under control while you’re Ta’Zan’s prisoners. He’ll be particularly interested in her, and we don’t want him riling her up in any way. If she loses it, we’re all screwed.”
As if things couldn’t get any worse. Kailani looked at me, her brow furrowed.
“Hey, we never said this would be easy, right?” she said.
Nothing ever was. My only concern was that Kailani had jumped on a ride she had absolutely no control over, and it was too late for her to jump off and save herself. It killed me to see her like this and to know that there wasn’t anything I could do to help or protect her.
The only thing I could do was help us both brace for the impact, which was inevitable. Either way, and no matter what the outcome of this apprenticeship, I had to make sure that Ta’Zan didn’t get his claws on the love of my life.
Easy to say, since we’re about to surrender to him.
Amane
Amal and I tried to get some sleep before heading to the colosseum. Ridan gave us the privacy we needed, hoping we’d get some time together as sisters. Once we returned to Ta’Zan, everything was going to change, and not in a good way.
My sister wasn’t too confident in our plan. She feared we were playing fast and loose with our freedom, and she was still miffed about us kidnapping her. At the same time, she was able to acknowledge the brilliance of our actions. Ta’Zan didn’t know she was on our side, and that was going to help us, going forward.
But none of that mattered, for the time being. I settled on the floor next to her, crossing my legs and resting my back against the stone wall. She handed me a small device, the size of my fingernail. I looked at it and turned it over, trying to figure out what it did.
“Hide this somewhere on Rose,” she said. “I’ve got one of my own. Make sure it doesn’t pop up in a search.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“I studied one of those earpieces and figured out how it works. It’s similar to something Ta’Zan had the Faulty engineers developing. This, dear sister, is a scrambler. If Ta’Zan thinks of eavesdropping on anyone in the diamond dome by means of magi-tech, this little thing will thwart such endeavors.”
I chuckled. “You’re devious.”
“I’ve had to adjust. It was only a matter of time before Ta’Zan figured out a way to eavesdrop on his prisoners without them knowing. I suppose that makes me as devious as him.” She sighed. “Point is, if he does try something, it’ll fail, and he’ll blame his magi-tech, since he obviously has no idea I came up with this,” she added, nodding at the scrambler. “By the time he gets the engineers to try something else, we’ll be long gone.”
“How would he eavesdrop, then? Through the collars?” I asked.
She shrugged in return. “I doubt it. The collars have been on the prisoners since they were first brought to the colosseum, long before Ta’Zan would’ve realized they would destroy his blockers and restore communications. Whatever artifice he might come up with, it would be a last-minute fix, with little to no time for testing. Hence the possibility that it wouldn’t work and therefore why the scramblers will be effective.”
I laughed lightly. “You’re positively evil.”
