Page 134 of The Souls Harvest
“Professor Skell?” Lucretia and July exclaim at the same time, both rushing for Galen, unconscious on the floor.
“Nice to see you both alive and breathing,” Nikrah replies with his usual unbothered tone, taking off the helmet and placing it under his arm.
If Nikrah Skell is in the room with us, the other person behind him can only be Lily Drestall. And that explains where Tabitha has been this past few hours, guiding thehappycouple safely inside.
“Did you really need to do that? Removing him from the room would have worked just as well,” Lily pushes past Nikrah, eventually revealing her face.
Her hair is in disarray, and her face is pale, tired despite her poised gait when she approaches the centre of the room. She studies our faces one by one, pausing on those who are most surprised by her presence.
“Nice to see you two are no longer bickering over sexy Galen,” she addresses July and Lucretia with one of her rare smiles, but her face drops. “I’m sorry, I heard what Roden said about him. That was a low blow.”
“Yeah, well, we will make time to give him back what hedeserves.” Tabitha opens the door wider.
Timid light pours in from the top of the stairs, casting a deep shadow on one side of her face as she flattens against the wall, averting her eyes from us as she adds, “Nik and Lily agreed to take you to The Mother.”
“Wait—what?” Merya snaps. “That’s insane. It’ll take us days to get there via tunnels.”
Tabitha glances at my sister sideways, still avoiding the rest of us. “You are not going. Only July, Galen and the young Harvester.” She nods at Lucretia.
“No…” July and Kris’ voices melt as they both lunge towards Tabs.
Peeling her back from the door, Tabitha raises a hand, but July ignores it.
“You can’t separate us now. I’ve only begun to understand what happened to us. I won’t let you—” Her head turns towards Galen, still unconscious on the floor after Nik’s right hook, as if her words could hurt him even now he can’t hear her.
“What then?” Tabitha barks, fully turning to face her. “Roden will magically stop going after you two and let you live happily ever after? Do you think he will drop his plan of turning every single Horigean into a perfect soulless puppet for the love of his daughter? Open your eyes, dear, the longer you and Kris are together the more fucked up our future looks like. Horigeans and Harvesters alike, we’re all doomed if what you’ve taken from Kris ends up in Roden’s hands.”
Her words hurt. Not only July. They struck all of us for different reasons. I can see it in Lucretia’s orange eyes, even if she’s only understanding half of it, in Kris’ hands curling into fists.
Merya notices as well. She sighs bitterly and laughs, “But you’d rather send the Harvesters away and let us deal with Roden…”
Her lips twitch as she glances at the monitor over her back. “I get it now. When did you decide it was safe to reveal our coordinates to Evelyn Popplewish? She was supposed only to be an intermediary between us and Galen.”
I’m about to open my mouth to convince my sister that her theory is rubbish when I notice Tabitha’s shoulders drop as she exhales.
“When things started turning for the worst, that was the only way to make sure she could help us.” Her voice remains strong despite her body seemingly shrinking under Merya’s judgemental glare.
“You figured out that I only have a kernel left,” Kristyon addresses Tabs, helping her with the words she can’t seem to voice.
“We don’t know what would happen if July completes the harvest, what Roden can achieve if he manages to take full control of her mind—and your soul. You’ve seen what he’s done to Galen,” Tabitha quickly points at him. “Imagine the power he will hold if he succeeds at merging your souls in one vessel…”
In response to Tabitha’s revelation, July steps closer to Kris, taking his hand in hers, when a sudden pop from the control panel takes us all by surprise. We all dash for it, gingerly avoiding Galen’sbody, but I don’t need to see what caused it.
“Someone’s touched my fences,” I state.
“No,” Lucretia replies, bent over the main monitor, “Roden is forcing his people against them to take downthe barrier.”
Chapter 48 - The Love that Was
Kristyon
“I’m tired of waiting. You! Come here.”
I cannot avert my eyes from the screen as Roden points his finger at one of the many Harvesters, beckoning towards him.
My hand is in July’s. Her fingers tighten around mine while we all watch in silence the poor bastard tottering towards the barrier, while Evelyn tries to pull him back, only to be thrown to the side by a single, swift swipe of Roden’s hand.
Tabitha whimpers, towering behind me.
