Page 20 of Keeping Sarah (Planet Orhon #3)

CHAPTER 20

Jacaranda

“ I still can’t believe you’re going to Earth without me.”

Deacon chuckled and looked away, though he appeared very nervous about his upcoming journey to Sarah’s planet. “I never would have believed it, either. Not for the first visit. I thought for certain you would be by my side.”

I framed Deacon’s face in my hands and made him look into my eyes. “It’s going to work,” I assured him. “I know it will.”

“It will.” He exhaled a deep breath and nodded decisively. “I do not know what else I could do if it does not.”

“It will ,” I said again, and smiled. “It’s a brilliant idea.”

Deacon laughed. “It is the idea of a lunatic.”

“You are not a lunatic.”

“Maybe not, but I am crazy about you,” he teased.

I laughed to try and keep his nerves at bay and gave him a quick kiss before releasing him. “For luck.”

“Go on, Deacon,” Omen said as she walked up to us. “I’ll take care of your companion while you’re gone.”

“Thank you, Omen. I will leave you to it.” Deacon walked onto Allegiant and within minutes, they were off.

“He had better come back,” I said through gritted teeth as I watched the ship disappear into the atmos.

Omen gave me a sidelong glance. “How many times have you made that trip to Earth?”

“Countless,” I grumbled. “But he’s never—"

“Jac. You’re being ridiculous. Deacon Ladrang knows how to take care of himself. What are you so worried about?”

“He’s never even left the quadrant.”

To my surprise, she patted my shoulder. “He will be fine. Trust your companion.”

“I trust him. I don’t trust other people.”

“Your own crew went with him. Are you saying you don’t trust them?”

“With my life. Not his .”

She was losing her patience with me. I could see it in her eyes. “Come on. We should get going. We’ve got our own plans to carry out.”

Needing the distraction, I followed her onto my ship. “The temple first, right?”

She nodded. “If the people of Orhon are still praying to conduits, that’s where I’ll find the strength for what I need to do.”

We went straight to the cockpit and took off. My fingers were tight on the controls, and I couldn’t hold back the feeling that something was wrong.

“Your knuckles are white,” Omen commented.

I gave her a quick, annoyed look. “You could stop staring at them.”

“Why are you so grouchy with me?” she huffed indignantly. “What did I ever do to you?”

I exhaled a long, deep sigh. “I’m sorry, Omen. It is bad enough being without Sarah for the past few days and all the drama that came before it, and now…with Deacon gone—"

“He just left!” She tossed her hands up in the air in exasperation. “You’re being dramatic.”

“It’s not a matter of how long he’s gone. It’s the fact that he is gone,” I tried to explain to her. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve never been in love with—"

“Don’t finish that sentence, Jac,” she snapped, cutting me off. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her voice sank deeper with every word.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, meaning it. “I shouldn’t assume.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” she whispered, but then she cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry I was dismissive about how you feel. I guess I’m trying to keep some sort of perspective on everything, so I don’t get lost in the noise of all this. The loss of a loved one, even if only a matter of days, it’s hard. ‘An absence that freezes, as well as burns’.”

I glanced at her in surprise. “Was that Chaucer?”

“Who?”

I smiled. “A human poet.”

She grinned back and shook her head. “Tulliaire, I believe.”

“Well, whoever that is, they were right,” I said quietly. “And I won’t feel whole again until Deacon and Sarah are with me, and whole again themselves.”

Omen glanced out the cockpit’s windows. “Do you know the way to the temple?”

“I can find it.”

“Okay. I need to rest, if you don’t mind.”

“My bunk is your bunk.”

Omen left without another word. I wasn’t sure why ghosts needed sleep, but they all did it. The flight to the temple was only a few hours, but every minute away from my union felt like eternity. We had been separated before, but now there was so much at stake. If one thing went wrong, then the whole plan could be for naught.

I parked at the temple and woke Omen. “We’re here.”

Her lashes fluttered open and she smiled. “I can tell.”

“How’s that?” I asked curiously.

“When we are close to our temples, the relics in the walls call to us. Like a song. Has Sarah not mentioned it?”

“No, never.”

“Hmm.” She stood and stretched. “I wonder whether the contra can hear them. Are you coming with me inside?”

“I have always been curious about this,” I admitted to her. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to.”

“I don’t mind at all.”

Omen led the way out of Sovereign and into the building. Conduit temples varied in size, but all the ones I had ever visited were the same shape—a pyramid. I had never been devout before Justice slaughtered the conduits and declared the religion a form of treason, but I did find myself in the temples sometimes. Either to visit particularly lovely conduits or occasionally pray. But prayer never felt natural to me. I’d never asked a conduit to contact a dead loved one. It was expensive, and once someone was dead, I didn’t like thinking of them again.

But then, there was Kapok.

Every day, some part of me thought of asking Sarah to call him. I wanted to know where he was and why he hadn’t tried to contact me or Tiger since his death. He had to know we would still be on Halla. But neither of us had heard from him.

Sitting in the temple, I almost asked Omen to do it, though I wasn’t sure if she could. And that was not why we were at the temple anyway.

“Alright, I am going to touch the altar, and you may see some odd things occur,” Omen warned me. “Just know, that’s what’s supposed to happen, okay?”

I nodded. “I won’t interfere.”

She breathed out and placed her hands on the altar. Instantly, her whole body looked solid—she looked alive, actually. I hadn’t seen that version of her in years, and she was just as pretty as I remembered. Until she started to convulse. I was on my feet before I had a thought, but I stopped myself from interfering, remembering her warning. Her body looked like there were translucent holes in it, like her substance had faded in splotches.

Shit, this can’t be right .

My instincts were to push her away from the altar, but I waited impatiently while she continued to quiver and jerk. I snapped, “Fuck this,” and started for her, but before I could touch her, she looked directly at me with solid black eyes.

“Don’t do it, Cozz.” Her voice sounded like a chorus spoke to me.

I held my hands up and backed away from her.

She went back to convulsing. Then, the violent shaking happened in waves, from her feet up. Her head tipped backwards, and her mouth opened soundlessly. A black light shot upward, the beam striking the open space at the apex of the ceiling. Then, white light fought the black, pushing or extinguishing it, I wasn’t sure which. Eventually, the white light penetrated her mouth and the tremors wracking her body stopped. She stood preternaturally still and quiet.

It was more frightening than the convulsions.

I whispered, “Omen?”

Then, she collapsed to the floor.

Panicked, I knelt beside her and shook her body. “Omen, wake up!”

Her eyes fluttered open, back to their normal state, shock on her face. “You shook me.”

“I’m sorry, I had to.” Then her words sank in, because as a ghost I never should have been able to touch her. “Wait, why can I shake you?”

“Because it worked.” Grinning, she grabbed the collar of my uniform and kissed me on the lips.

Still shocked by everything that had just transpired, I pushed her back. “Omen!”

“Sorry,” she said, sounding more gleeful than contrite. “Been a long time since I felt the warmth of someone. Don’t tell the queen.”

“Oh, I’m telling her.”

She laughed. “Don’t you dare!”

“I am so telling her,” I teased.

Omen giggled and we stood together. “I don’t know how long I’ll be corporeal, but for now, I’m going to enjoy it.”

I gave my head an adamant shake. “No, no, no, I’m not helping you enjoy anything other than that non-consensual kiss that I had no choice in and was not my fault.”

She laughed harder. “And I will tell her exactly that, even if she questions us separately. I kissed him against his will, my queen, I’ll say. And you will be off the hook. I’ll likely be dead, but you’ll be fine.”

I smiled at her, missing the days when things had been this light-hearted between us. “Sarah won’t kill you for spontaneously kissing me, Omen.”

“She might if Rex is still in there,” she said, more serious now. “Let’s get to the city, while I still look alive, and no one will mistake me for a dead conduit. I don’t feel like being hunted today.”

I nodded as we walked back to Sovereign . “Your contact in the city, he has the ingredient you need?”

“He said he did. Once I have it, I’ll take care of the rest. You just be ready for me.”

I cast a grin her way and said in a playful tone, “I don’t think any man in the history of all Ladrians has ever been ready for you, Omen.”

She laughed. “That sounds true.”

We left the temple for Faithless, and I hoped their rules for champion fighters still applied to me. Omen changed clothes in the back to look less devout, since conduit robes were distinct. She came back to the cockpit afterwards.

“How do I look?” she asked me.

Her brown tunic and pants were fitted to her curves and her blue hair fell around her shoulders in silky waves. “You look like sin.”

Her eyes went soft. “You can be sweet sometimes, you know that?”

“Nah.” I brushed off her compliment. “It’s just a clever disguise.”

“I said sweet, not clever.” She arched a brow. “I’d never accuse you of cleverness.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Wow. Thanks.”

She sat in the seat next to mine while I continued to navigate the way to Faithless. “You know what you can always count on me for, Jac.”

“Yep. Brutal honesty.”

“So, I hope you’ll forgive me when I point out that this plan—it doesn’t feel like your plan.”

“It’s entirely my plan, thank you very much,” I replied, my tone affronted.

“Apologies.” She inclined her head.

“Though I’ll admit, when you came back from visiting your contacts and told us what you wanted to do, I was very happy with how your plan dovetailed with mine.”

She nodded. “The holy text says, ‘When there are no opportunities, you must make your own.’”

“I’ve always found that to be true. Maybe one day I’ll read that book of yours.”

“You can read?” she asked, her tone laced with mock sarcasm.

I laughed and smacked her thigh, which made her curse me. “I like having you corporeal. I can whack you, so behave.”

She grinned. “I will try.”

We were quiet after that until we reached the gates of Faithless. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. It was the kind shared by very old friends and I liked that we were exactly that.

The guards knew the make and model of my ship and were on alert as soon as they saw us arriving, considering Rex’s parting words to Deacon and I the last time we’d been here.

“Here we go,” I muttered.

A very pretty woman carried a mic from the guard station and spoke over the loudspeakers. “Jacaranda Cozz, you are banned from the city of Faithless. Why are you here?”

I hit the button to my own speaker system. “I am a champion of the arena and I wish to compete again.”

Her eyes lit up and her face flushed as she stared into my ship’s window. I couldn’t tell if she was aroused or angry.

Omen quietly asked, “Is she having an orgasm?”

“Doubt it.”

But the woman said in a breathy voice, “Oh my. You have the balls to come here and ask for your champion’s privileges?”

“It is the law, isn’t it?” I insisted boldly.

My daring, fearless display seemed to excite her even more. “You realize you will be under guard the entire time, like you were before, correct?”

“I do,” I said on comms, before I turned it off and glanced at Omen. “Is she stalling?”

Omen’s gaze narrowed as she stared out the window to the woman below. “I’m not sure, but something is up. I’m going to go out the back and join the entrance crowd, before they block the ship’s rear exit.” She gave me a pointed look. “Don’t say anything stupid to her.”

I rolled my eyes at Omen. “I’ve got it covered.”

“That’s why I’m worried.” She winked and left out the back.

The woman outside instructed, “Turn your engine off. I’ve cleared you. The guards will come for you. Welcome back, Champion.”

I didn’t feel like a champion. And when I saw the particularly large, angry guards who came to collect me, I didn’t feel particularly welcome, either.