Page 106 of The Garnet Daughter
“I’m not sure. She took us most of the journey to the temple, but we knew something was off.” I dance around having to recount that part, knowing how it ended for her.
“Did she witness Omnesis as well?”
“Um . . . in a sense, yes,” August answers, purposefully higher in pitch, rolling his eyes to the side.
“But you did see the stone?” Ferren leans in, ignoring him.
I take a sternum-cracking inhale to prepare myself for the direction we are going, one I cannot divert from. “Yes,” I say plainly. “It was . . . very safe.”
“Will it be returned?” 99’s chair creaks as he reclines, placing a large arm on the back of Ferren’s.
“No. No, it won’t. It is true our enemies want to destroy the stones. Omnesis confirmed that much. It told me many other things, but the stones are the least of our problems.”
August perks up, having not been able to hear what the old god revealed to me in its own language.
“You’re scaring me,” Ferren admits with expressive brows, but the serious note in her voice gives away just how deeply my words have landed.
“Omnesis claimed First Son is looking for three women, ones he has given gifts to during this conjunction year.”
“First Son can give out gifts? Like First Mother?” August stands, pacing to help with his understanding somehow.
“I have heard of such a thing, but I did not believe it was true, a mixed-up translation.” Ferren exchanges a subtle glance with 99. Whatever they are saying through the tether is hard to hide.
“Three women? Why three? One from each world?” August asks rapidly.
“You were not in its temple?” 99 asks him.
“I was, but the . . . creature spoke to Callia. I could not understand its words.”
“I assumed one from each world, but it said three divine births,” I elaborate to Ferren, hoping she starts to put together some of the pieces.
“He is looking for them to what end?” she whispers.
“A ritual. I don’t know, something awful. She called them his daughters.”
All three of them are frozen now, staring at me, their faces blanching at the word, the meaning it holds.
“Omnesis said First Son has never been successful in finding all three, but he has one captive already. Another is in the Estate.” I glance at 99, who is leaning forward so alert, I have to fidget under his intense stare. He is following closer than the rest of them.
I gulp down air and continue, “She said he gave his gifts to someone that is known to me. That he would rip apart the Estate to claim her.”
99 jumps to his feet so fast it scares Ferren.
“99, what is it?” She is so concerned for him as he punches in a sequence on his wrist comm, speaking into it and demanding a meeting with Lord General.
She looks to me with her wide, blown-out brown eyes, and then the meaning of my words seems to impale her through the middle so hard, she has to clutch onto the table.
August is behind me, his warm hand on my shoulder, knowing we are beyond caring about displays of affection infront of others. I hold it tighter against me, wanting it to melt into my skin, down to my chest cavity, and pump my heart for me. But when his thumb skirts back and forth against my collarbone, reminding me I do not have to do this by myself, I am able to summon enough courage to speak again without my voice giving out.
“I’m sorry, Ferren. I am almost certain you are one of the women he is after.”
She pants like the air is too thin. “How am I even known? I don’t understand.”
“You were scanned on Frith and then attacked,” 99 joins again, pointing a jagged finger into the table.
“That thing tried to kill me, not take me back to its master for some sort of ritual,” she argues.
“We don’t know what it was trying to do, just that you were wounded,” August points out softly.
