Page 89 of Claim the Light
My happiness fades as I contemplate everything I need to tell Micah and Beatrix. Everything about the plan that’s slowly coming together in my mind.
Beatrix may well love it.
Micah will hate it.
I have no idea how Isaac will feel about it. But I suspect that Callan will oppose it; only because it involves being separated from his mate.
I exit the infirmary to find my family waiting on the steps outside.
Callan is holding Lana’s glaive as well as his own gold. Beatrix and Isaac are huddled together, but Micah is actively pacing. He stops when he sees me.
“Come in,” I say. “We need to talk.”
Once they’re all settled inside the infirmary, I talk them through the knowns and the unknowns of my power. I also tell them all about my encounters with the keepers. Then I finish with the worst: what we know about Tyler’s power and my inability to counteract its effects.
I finish to silence and it’s as heavy as I expected it to be. I sense rage and grief around me and it’s coming from all of them. Except Lana, who gives me a reassuring nod.
Taking a deep breath, I say, “I’m going to fight Tyler, but I can’t do it on my own.”
Beatrix squares her shoulders and lifts her head high. “As if I’d let you go without me. Besides, one week of gathering wheat while simultaneously fending off unruly thickens is enough for me.”
I peer at her. “Um… thickens?”
Beatrix screws up her nose. “They’re like chickens but not.”
When Isaac presses his lips together, a glimmer of humor on his face, Beatrix rolls her eyes at him.
“They have the nerve to smell like roses while they try to peck out your eyes,” she says.
Isaac shifts a little in his chair. “Now, now,” he says. “It was trying to nuzzle up to you.”
Beatrix twists to him. “Its beak came right at my eye. You’d be terrified too if a big, red bird poked its beak right at your face.”
He shrugs. “Good thing I was there to save you, then.”
Beatrix clears her throat as she turns back to me. Her cheeks are flushed. “Fucking terrifying.”
Observing the connection between Beatrix and Isaac only makes me more reticent about my plan, but I have no choice about what needs to happen.
I turn from Isaac to Callan, addressing them both. “Callan, Isaac, you’re not affected by the ash. I need you to go to Grudge territory and keep our families safe.”
Callan’s expression immediately hardens and so does Isaac’s.
“We can help you in the fight against Tyler,” Callan says.
I shake my head. “The danger is too great. I won’t risk another person I care about being hurt by the ash.”
Before Callan can argue further, Lana takes hold of his hand. She doesn’t say anything, and her touch seems to convey her wishes to him. The raw grief that washes over Callan’s face is nearly too much for me.
I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself as I prepare to let Micah know my plan.
He rises from his seat, quiet but determined, and speaks before I can. “Ask me to fight for you, and I will.” He takes my hands and his voice softens. “But if you need to fight this battle by yourself,foryourself, then all you have to do is ask and I’ll support you in any way you need.”
“I need to do this for myself,” I say. “But not by myself. I want you beside me, along with Lana and Beatrix. But, Micah…” I hesitate and take a deep breath before I continue. “I need you to go against every instinct in your body.”
I meet the increasing wariness in his cedar-brown eyes as I say, “Because I plan to be bait.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
