things could possibly coincide.
I smiled, then turned back to my former troop. “Oh, yeah.” I looked at Tekla, who raised a brow, and I shrugged. “I could use a ride.”
Well, I couldn’t very well walk the sixty-five miles back to the city, could I? I wouldn’t even make it to the wedding in that time-and the cell didn’t have cars. So despite the declaration that they wouldn’t go against Warren’s wishes, Tekla offered to accompany me, and no one dared go against her. Maybe they thought she’d kidnap me and turn me over to Warren as soon as we were out of sight. She easily could, but I didn’t think so. Otherwise she would have grabbed me as soon as I stepped over the boundary. There was something else at play here.
Yet Tekla said nothing as she drove in the waxing light, just sat at the wheel of a stolen truck, as if she wasn’t blowing down the streets like a hurricane. I needed to grab a shower and my bridesmaid dress before the wedding, but despite the speed of the trip, I was actually surprised when Tekla pulled to a stop a block from Xavier’s home, mindful of the mansion’s surveillance cameras.
Facing her as the truck idled, I searched for the woman who’d taught me about Ophiuchus and told me to make a difference. She looked childlike in the cab of the great truck, and had to sit forward on the seat just to touch the pedals.
“You’re choosing a dangerous path, Joanna,” she finally said, staring straight ahead.
I was about to say that it had been chosen for me, but stopped myself. I could have chosen differently a number of times. I could still do so now. Instead I fingered the gem in my pocket, one as warm as the heart in my chest, and shook my head. “I was born to this path.”
She glanced at me sharply, the stare growing long, before she finally nodded.
“You believed in me once, Tekla. You wouldn’t have spent so much time working with me if you didn’t. You wouldn’t have been so hard on me.” I glanced out the windshield. The daylight was now spread around us like a stain. “You believe in me now too. That’s why you drove me today. When you know that Warren will be furious.”
“Warren-”
“Has a reason for everything he does. Blah blah blah.” I jerked my head at her. “What about your reasons?”
She lifted her chin. “They are the same. We work in tandem, always and only for the best of the troop.”
I’d have laughed loud and long at that, but it wasn’t really funny. “And how does allying with Caine fit into that?”
I got a flash of her face inches from my own and wrapped in fury, and then she was facing forward again. It happened so fast I almost missed the movement altogether. Heart skipping, I didn’t dare blink. “Caine is none of your business.”
“Caine did more for me than the troop as a whole. He gave his life to help me.”
“Why do you think I’m here?” she snapped, looking at me again, and I sat back, air whooshing from my chest. Well, that cleared things up a bit. Tekla wasn’t here for me specifically, or to screw over Warren in general. She just didn’t want Caine’s death to mean nothing. But the brittle frown on her face kept me from asking what he’d meant to her.
“Warren’s a control freak with tunnel vision,” I said instead. “He manipulates everyone, especially those in the troop.”
“He’s still our best chance to preserve choice for the mortals in this valley.”
“Well maybe the mortals in this valley deserve better than that.” Maybe
Tekla’s nostrils flared and she straightened, her gaze again straight ahead. “Don’t make him a scapegoat for all your ills, Joanna.”
Now her imperious manner just pissed me off.
“He sent me to Midheaven knowing it would take something from me! I lost vital pieces of myself over there!”
Tekla turned a cold gaze on me. “And who do you think advised him to do that?”
My mouth fell open, but all that escaped was air. I touched the gem in my pocket, trying to center myself.
“I…you wouldn’t…”
She hit the steering wheel so hard the truck rocked. “You’re so sensitive about your parentage and past, so hellbent on making sure we see you for who you are…and that a simple hair color or cosmetic enhancement won’t change that. But you never afford us the same luxury. We are Light.
I nodded, swallowing hard. “And I’ve always been that, haven’t I?”
She frowned, like she had to work to harden herself to me. But her words said differently. “It is in the stars.”
These people and their fucking stars.
“Thanks for the ride, Tekla.” I got out of the truck and slammed the door shut.
She rolled down the window as she pulled from the curb. “Good luck.”
But she wasn’t saying it for me. She was saying it because it would benefit her troop, her cause.
I thought of dream-Olivia saying Tekla was one of the people most directly influencing me now. I guess my TRex brain had known it all along.
“No, bitch,” I answered the dream Seer as I began to walk. “But I’m doing better than you.”
28
Despite my morning trek across the desert, I was the first in the wedding party to reach Valhalla, arriving so early the casino floor sported more patrons from the night before than those beginning their gambling day. Go ahead, chase your money, I thought, watching a bleary-eyed man battle a slant-topped bandit.
But now I was dressed in an Indo-Western sari, an amalgamation of eastern and western influences, with a black sequined halter attached to a pink satin bodice and matching lily embroidery. The bottom of the dress was a soft lavender that lightened into pink and ivory as the body scarf swirled across my middle, ending in a dramatic drape over my left shoulder. It was an elegance that was almost impossible to pull off, even without rusted weapons tucked into every fold.
Meanwhile, Valhalla’s pool area, spanning the hotel’s center courtyard, had been turned into an outdoor cathedral with velvet chairs rimming the pool and a Plexiglas aisle leading to an equally translucent dais. Suzanne and Arun had worked hard to make sure both Indian and American cultures were well represented. Physically it wasn’t much different than a traditional western wedding. Giant floral arrangements in the softest of pastels dwarfed stunted heaters dotting the patio surface, and silk banners threaded the entire area to create an enormous tent, more to shield the ceremony from the curious gazes of guests in the looming hotel rooms than out of any eastern tradition.
Arun’s culture would be more fully represented in the ceremony than anywhere else. Prayers and hymns were explained in a wedding program, and garlands and embraces would be exchanged at preordained times. Though Suzanne would enter to the traditional wedding march, an artist would perform it on a sitar rather than a piano.
I sighed, wishing there was no need to plant weapons among the silks and flowers, but ordered the wait staff on a mandatory fifteen-minute break anyway. I had to be safe, though it wouldn’t necessarily preclude me from being sorry. I placed the saber within the vase of the floral arrangement closest to the side of the dais where I’d be
