20. Losing Time
Chapter 20
Losing Time
Liliana spent the rest of the week in a frazzle, searching and searching, but nothing changed. When she got up on the morning he would die, she sniffed the rose Alexander gave her and her eyes burned. It had bloomed wide, almost completely open. The petals were more than half red. The rich scent reminded her of how much she would lose if she couldn’t find a path where Alexander lived.
She fought to claim Alexander’s heart as hers, but it was a two-edged sword. Her heart already ached to be close to him always. The thought of failing him ripped at her soul.
And that was to say nothing of the land. She still didn’t know what would happen to the land that had bonded so strongly with the prince if he died. The Green kept getting stronger in Fayetteville. Alexander clearly caused that. If he died, would the land grieve? Would the Green fade and die with him?
Would I?
She met Pete and Siobhan at the Starbucks down the street from her house each morning to see if they had learned anything new that might help. Detective Shonda Jackson had been recruited to try to find information about the assassin that would come for Alexander.
Siobhan and Pete were also worried about Ben. The teacher was becoming suspicious of Pete's nature. The more hints that Ben Harper got that Pete was somehow different, combined with his glimpses of the peculiar nature of some of the children he taught, the more disturbed he became. Pete's beloved wasn't sleeping due to nightmares.
Liliana could relate.
She asked Janice Willoughby the day before to talk to Ben now that his eyes had begun to open. Give him a friendly face to answer his questions. Help him past the point where he questioned his own sanity.
In all her searching, she had seen another, unexpected danger. A woman would threaten not Pete's life, but his heart. She wouldn't kill Pete, but he might kill her, and he would regret it. She would make him cry either way.
In any other situation, the spider seer would have spent time exploring the woman's past and future to learn who she was, and why she would so deeply affect her favorite red wolf. But, for now, she had other things on her mind. Pete's heart was endangered, but her prince’s life was endangered.
She went to the coffee house. She sipped a chai tea latte and wished her head would stop pounding while she waited for Pete and Siobhan.
Siobhan came in the door with Pete on her heels. Her bright red hair was spiked more than usual on top, giving her a startled look. Pete wore his carrot-red hair spiked a little on top as well. The sprite's eyes in human form were bright blue, as were Pete's. It occurred to Liliana that the diminutive woman and the average-sized man gave the impression they might be related. Red hair and blue eyes was an unusual color combination.
Liliana remembered an image of a lock of red hair slipping out from under a black baseball cap. In all the frantic searching her fourth eyes had done over the last few days, she didn't remember where she’d seen that flash of vision.
"Hey, Lilly. How ya doing?" Siobhan said.
"I have not slept in two days," she answered the sprite. "My left arm aches and someone I care about, maybe more than one, will get murdered today. I can't figure out how to save them."
The sprite snorted. "Remind me never to ask you anything until after I've had coffee."
Pete paused to hold the door for a woman and her two children. When he finally came in, he looked at Liliana and whistled softly. "You don't look so good, Lilly. Is everything okay?"
Liliana burst into tears. "Everything is not okay."
Pete sat in the chair next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.
The spider-kin buried her face in his chest and got his shirt wet while he patted her back.
After a few moments, she sniffled. Siobhan handed her a bunch of napkins. Liliana blew her nose and fought to get control of herself. "Do not kill the next person who points a gun at you," she told Pete, in between sniffles. “You will deeply regret it if you kill her.” She did not know who the woman was, but she had seen Pete weeping heartbroken sobs over the woman’s body. With that warning, she could at least spare one person dear to her some pain.
"Okay, Lilly. I promise."
The day had come when her prince would be tortured and murdered.. She had searched all night and all the previous day the various paths of probability, seeking some option, any option that would save Alexander. She found nothing new, but she couldn't stop searching.
Pete and Siobhan had no help to offer her, so she went home again and resumed her search. She stared at the blank wall next to her armchair with her exhausted fourth eyes showing her over and over, images of Alexander bloody on the floor. It was like watching her parents and her older brothers die again and again when she was too young to do anything about it.
She woke to bright sunshine slanting through her big living room picture window that faced west. Afternoon sunshine. She looked at her clocks. It was 4:23. She had slept away most of the crucial day.
The spider seer scrambled to her feet. She called a cab with the smart phone that Alexander gave her. She had to get to his home first and wait for his killer.
She peeked with her fourth eyes to see when the killer would arrive at Alexander's house, and saw that he wouldn't. She saw again a room with a tall window with no glass and Alexander tied to a chair.
Liliana sighed and called Alexander.
When his head and shoulders in his camouflage uniform appeared in the window of the phone, she said, "Changing your path will not stop the assassin."
"So you said, Little Spider, but I wasn't about to simply go home and wait to be killed."
"You could have tried locking your door," Liliana pointed out. "I told you that if you tried to avoid this, it could become far worse."
Alexander pinched the bridge of his nose. "Detective Jackson wanted to put me in protective police custody."
Liliana felt strangely warmed by that information. "Detective Jackson listens when I tell her someone's life is in danger. She has been digging up information, trying to catch your killer before he can hurt you."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but I feel safer on my own base, surrounded by tens of thousands of soldiers, state of the art security, and with earth and fire at my command. To get to me, this killer will have to get through ten stories of electronic security, booby traps, and other-kin soldiers from my SET unit ready and waiting, including Lieutenant Runningwolf. The detective and three of Fayetteville's finest are here with me as well."
"The more people who stand between you and your murderer, the more people will die. I warned you that you could make it worse. A few of your best soldiers will die now, and Officer West. I like Officer West."
"I've broken my patterns. The detective and I have gone to considerable effort to keep my location secret."
Liliana nodded. "That would seem like a good plan. I have no idea why it won't work. I only know that it won't."
He gave her that twisted shadow of a grin that made a dimple in his cheek. "Sometimes honesty is not very comforting, Little Spider."
Liliana swallowed. She tried to think of something to tell him that was both true and reassuring. "Your influence has expanded since you calmed the Bones Creek forest people. As long as you're within twenty miles of the base, earth and fire will answer you now."
He chuckled. "I considered going somewhere off base, to throw off the attacker. If I’d known that, I might have."
"It would not have helped. It just would have made it harder for me to get to you. It will already be difficult."
"I considered that. Every gate guard on duty today has your description and orders to let you through immediately without question. They won’t require you to pass through any of the scanners. I had them program all the electronic security systems to let you through as well, and to erase any recordings made of you as you pass."
"Thank you. That will help. Stay alive, my prince. I will find a way." Liliana hoped that was not a lie.