Page 98 of The Stone Survival
“Yes!” Touron agreed. “Your steak is lush.”
“What about you, Derek?” Palia asked.
“I like eggs,” he said.
Sharniza laughed. “You’d live off eggs if you could.”
“I’d take pasta any day,” Romi said. He beamed at me from across the table.
“How’s Ivor?” Willowman asked me.
“He’s good. We’re going to swing by and see him before we head off into the rims.”
Derek’s eyes dimmed. “I will miss you, my Cameron.”
“You can find me whenever you want.”
“Just…knock first,” Serath said.
Everyone laughed and Taz chose the break in conversation to hop onto the table. He picked his way delicately between the plates to Orix then jumped up to sit across his neck and shoulders, purring loudly. Content. Just like the rest of us.
Touron cleared his throat. “I have some news. I’ve decided to take the serum they found at the faction facility.”
The guardians had found vials of serum at Yarrow’s base. The same serum mentioned in a journal that Sharniza had found in the abandoned base. One that would silence Touron’s primal mating gene.
“They’ve tested it?” Levi asked.
“Yes,” Touron said. “Well, as much as they can without administering it. I’ll be the first goyle subject.”
“Touron…” Palia said softly. “Are you sure about this?”
His smile was filled with conviction. “More than anything. I want this. I want to be with Selas.”
“Does she know?” Shar asked.
“No. I don’t want to get her hopes up if it doesn’t work. The alchemists testing it have said that it will either work or make me a little sick.”
The mention of alchemists made me cringe, but not all alchemists were bad guys. Not all had worked with the faction.
I caught Touron’s eye. “I hope it works.”
“Thank you.”
Curi cleared his throat to draw our attention. “Levi and I also have some news.” His gaze locked with mine as he spoke. “We’re leaving too.”
My stomach dropped even though I already knew. Thank goodness he’d given me a heads-up.
“Where are you going?” Palia asked.
“Farnell has an assignment for us.”
“I’ve been wondering what he’s been up to,” Orix said. “He diverts the conversation every time I ask.”
Levi and Curi exchanged glances, and it was Levi who replied. “There’s an isle off the northern edge of the rims where there’s a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Serath asked.
“A mystical infection that they believe was spawned when the first rift was opened. Now we have more information about how the implosion device was created and how Yarrow used the dark weave to kill the coven and most of their bloodlines, it seems like he subverted magic somehow. Twisting it and turning it into an infection. The infected were all placed on the isle a long time ago. It’s a unique place, and they’re in need of enforcers.”
