Page 97 of Heart of Dawn
I whimpered, Miko’s hold on me tightening.
“Wendy…”
“It’s alright,” Miko whispered.
His voice held the power to stop me from sobbing. Wendy was right. We’d been handed enough tools to save this world. We had to make them work for us now.
The screen changed, Wendy a bee, not a blob like before. Wings buzzing in a digital way, her happiness bar full, her hunger one-half empty.
“I’ll feed you later,” I said.
Beep, beep.
Pocketing her, I did the same with my emotions. At least she got to live. At least we weren’t going to separate with her sudden death.
Stars! Don’t even think it!
“I really wanted you to meet her as a bee,” I muttered to Miko.
“I’m sorry, Ori.” He took a honey ball, holding it up to his face. “I eat this, right?”
“Yes.” Replicating honey worked either by eating it directly or by spreading it on bread or something.
“I’ll eat them all now in case we lose any after we go inside.” He nodded at the stairs.
My mate swallowed the ball whole. His body shimmered with honeyed light, a rippling glow moving up him from toes to crown.
“Do you feel different?” James asked.
“Tingly. Wait. There’s?—”
Another Miko sidestepped out of him, a prefect replica, every detail exact. Even his scent.
I rubbed my eyes to be sure this wasn’t a dream. “Wow…”
“It worked.” Miko circled the replica, the fake him standing with his arms by his sides, staring out at the view.
I approached, amazed by it, the rest of the pack close behind me.
“Freaky,” Paige said. “And super cool.”
Miko prodded his replica. “Solid.” He took another ball, made another.
My head spun. Yes, I’d been expecting this, but the reality was no less than bizarre.
Bizarre yet crucial. These replicas would save his life.
Miko finished all the honey, surrounded by his army of Mikos. To anyone else, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. But I could. And, well, maybe his pack. Only the true Miko’s heart cast its special energy to me, forever coiled around my soul with bonding threads.
Real Miko looked straight at me. “Let’s do this.”
The other Mikos turned to face him, at his command.
“Not creepy at all,” James said to me.
I swallowed a giggle.
Miko moved to the head of his replicas, ordering them to be ready. They all saluted him.
