“But that would mean they knew what was going to happen years and years and years ago.”
“Yes,” Roki said with a smile. “Those guys … I don’t know if we give them enough credit. They may seem kind of blank and robotic, but they know what’s going on.”
“Incredible.” I was at a loss. I had thought the Crown of Crowns was half at fault for this whole mess. Could it be that they had designed everything, that it was all part of some grand scheme?
“We should go,” Roki said. “People are dying by the second. We must find the cure.”
“And I need to find a body,” I told him. “I feel itchy all over. I feel hungry, thirsty, and in great need of a human host.”
“We can do it in Gaard,” Roki said. “We’ll find someone who looks like you, the same age and everything.”
“Okay, but I’d like to find someone who’s about to die from the virus. That way, at least I’ll be saving a life … kind of.”
“Deal,” Roki said with a nod.
“One more thing, Roki. I’m … I’m a little scared of Lordin. She caught me probing her mind. Do you think she’ll come after me?”
“No,” he said. “Lordin has fully occupied Hagan’s body. It means if she uses her Valer to fly, people would be able to see a human soaring through the sky. It’s too risky. I can move across space at huge speeds because of my ability to mask myself. I’m invisible when I choose it. But Lordin and the other Min occupying human bodies have to travel the same as ordinary humans. Flyrarcs, trains, buses, cars, boats. That is, unless they’re certain that no human being can see them.”
“Good to know,” I said. I felt safer knowing Lordin couldn’t easily show up unannounced and warp our realities.
“Now let’s go get me a body!”
A young girl lay dying in her hospital bed. She was easy to find—the dead were everywhere. She was about twenty years old. She had a shade of skin like mine, kind of a warm beige. Roki and I hovered above her body, admiring her.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s sad,” I said. “It’s sad and horrific that these people are dying when a cure is being withheld. I hate that I have to do this, but I’d rather occupy a dying girl than a healthy one. Uh … how do I do it?”
“Ease into her,” he said. “Lower your Valer into her chest, wrap around her heart, then spread throughout her body. It’ll just take a second.”
I lowered myself into the girl’s chest cavity, immediately feeling her weakness and closeness to death. I caressed her heart, let my spirit flow into her veins, spread into her limbs, into her mind. Then I felt life bloom anew. Her sickness shed, and I opened the girl’s eyes.
“Wow!” I sat upright, checked out my new hands, touched my new legs. I leaped out of bed and ran to the bathroom mirror. I felt alive, totally electric. It was like being in the best mood ever, a little drunk, and on the verge of a great pleasure. “This is amazing,” I said, poking myself in the face. It was insane to see through someone else’s eyes, yet I felt like myself. I felt powerful.
“Do you like it?” Roki asked.
“I absolutely love it!” I turned to face him, Roki grinning in the doorway. He had washed most of the soot from his face and looked handsome, rugged, like a lean street fighter.
“Good.” Roki came and put his arm around me. The sensation was a thousand jolts, and I leaned into him, rubbing my face against his cheek like a cat just to feel the tingly warmth. For a second, I forgot all about our mission. I wanted to explore my new sensations and my newly mended friendship with Roki.
But then I remembered. I broke away from Roki and shouted, “Now let’s go save the world!”
“Lordin’s a dead end,” I said as we hovered above the hospital. “She can distort reality, which probably includes her memories. Plus she’s dangerous. We need another way. We need to figure out where she would have hidden the cure.”
“We need a clue,” Roki said.
“Exactly. We need a clue, but from where?”
“What about Zawne?” Roki asked. “Could Lordin have told Zawne of a secret place, a place so special she would feel safe hiding the cure there?”
“It’s worth a shot,” I said. “And you don’t mind going to see him? I mean, he was the other man. Uh, maybe you were the other man. Either way …”
Roki gently touched my shoulder. “I understand your love for Zawne. He was your husband, Kaelyn. Of course you will always have feelings for him. On the other hand, we have centuries to be together. I’m not jealous. Now come on, we have lives to save.”
Roki led the way, the two of us streaking across the sky like comets. I kept thinking how lucky I was to have met Roki when I did. He was handsome, caring, unfazed by my craziness. He pulled people from burning buildings and fought to save lives. It was more than Zawne had ever done. Still, Zawne was my love too. Only, he was also Lordin’s love. I was finding it a bit tricky to figure out who belonged to who.
I couldn’t dwell on it. We arrived at VondRust and snuck in through the back door while Roki masked our presence. We found Zawne in his apartment. He was on a call with … Raad!
“I understand your reasoning,” Zawne said. His eyes were red and puffy. Raad’s were too. It was five o’clock in the morning, and they must have just discovered my body. “It’s just, I think that, as queen, she should be buried in the royal crypt behind VondRust.”
“She should be buried next to our mother at her home,” Raad said into the screen. He was more imposing than Zawne. Both were Aska warriors, but my brother had
