TDH was still holding my wrist a couple of seconds later, and he pulled me back away from the signet in the middle of the room. I was so freaked out that I barely noticed him closing the door to the room and pushing a couple of buttons, probably locking us both in together.
He let go and looked down at me then. I have no idea what expression was on his face—I just remember staring into his dark, dark dark eyes and wishing I was dead. And thinking I probably would be soon. He didn’t sound angry tho when he asked, “Ms. Markowitz, why on earth would you want to steal that?”
It all came crashing down on me. The horrible, illegal mission, the knowing that if we didn’t do something that was really wrong then we’d be prisoners forever, the realizing that we had been caught (or at least that I had been caught)—all this crap, all at once. I couldn’t hold it all back any longer. I started to cry.
And not just cry—I was wailing. There was so much inside of me that I couldn’t handle it anymore. It had to come out. The room blurred up, I couldn’t hear the alarms anymore over the sound of my own voice (tho they were already really muffled as soon as TDH shut the door), but I did feel it when TDH wrapped his arms around me. And then a second later, he was in my head.
I instantly knew he wasn’t angry. He was just confused—and a little annoyed, and a little worried. But I could feel him there, being really polite but letting me know that he needed to know why we were here before he could do anything about the guards or the security system.
He probably wouldn’t have been able to force his way in, not with all of the training I had been doing. Keeping your mind safe from telepaths is 1 of the basic lessons at the Centre. But he didn’t even try. Maybe if he had I wouldn’t have felt so cooperative, but I was absolutely done with the Waking Guard and all this bullsh*t (sorry Daddy). So I opened my mind and let him see everything he wanted to know. And probably showed him more of the story than he would have thought to ask about on his own.
I know it surprised him. And I know he didn’t like the situation any more than we did. He was especially unhappy about the WG being so sure that they would have to fight the Ancients to the death sometime soon. TDH thought that was ridiculous, but he also decided that if the Waking Guard was expecting a fight, then the chances were really good that they would make sure one happened.
It probably only took him a couple seconds to get the whole story. Then he sent me some (very necessary!) calming vibes, and he let me follow his consciousness out into the hallway, where he made his guards forget how to actually pull the triggers on their guns.
Then he turned back to me and shook his head. “No good deed goes unpunished—does it, Deena?” I didn’t know exactly what he meant, but after that he pulled a square of cloth out of his pocket and used it sort of like a pot holder to pick up the signet. He talked to me while he examined the thing.
“I didn’t want you to touch this jewel because, as the most important item in the room, it is very well protected. The shielding is strong enough that even I would need at least 10 minutes to lift it, and I suspect that even the best of the Waking Guard would take months of study to disarm it effectively. Had you simply grabbed it….”
TDH picked up one of the velvet draperies that lined the shelves, and pressed a corner of it against the signet. The velvet began to bubble and melt. TDH threw it onto the floor, but whatever had started eating at the corner kept moving up until it had destroyed a good 6 inches of the fabric.
“Luckily,” TDH was tying up the corners of the cloth square that he was using to hold the signet, “you thought it seemed too easy. You tried using something else to pick it up, and then you saw this nondescript piece of cloth folded and nestled against the bottom of the column.” He lifted up the cloth that was holding the signet. By now he had tied it all the way around, so that no part of the signet was showing. “That cloth, so carelessly left behind, turned out to be the appropriate protection.”
I was probably staring like an idiot, so TDH had to take my hand and put the wrapped signet into it. He wrapped my fingers closed and smiled. “Now, where is this crystal that you’re supposed to leave in its place?”
I handed it to him. TDH looked at it thoughtfully, and then he placed it where the signet had been. Almost as soon as it landed, the little room had the same feeling to it as a practice room at the Centre after C&I had been working out for a few hours. It was like a shout of energy, just for a couple seconds—strong enough to let any nearby Waking Guardian know that we had been successful and pass that info along to the rest of them.
TDH winced as the energy signature practically exploded around us. “That’s going to be hard to explain,” he muttered.
By then, I just couldn’t take it anymore. “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping us?” I asked. I was starting to get stressed again—Chelsea was still guarding the way out, after all, and was probably getting pretty worried—so I might have yelled a little again.
TDH let me into his head for a second, and I could see that he was still trying to figure it out a little bit, himself. But then he told me, “I hope there is no struggle between your people and mine. No good could come of such a thing. But if a war comes, it will mean that someone, whether of your people or mine, acted foolishly—and that others did not listen to reason. If the conclave is at fault, I will not cast my lot with theirs. If the Waking Guard starts the war, I will do what I can to stop them.” He smiled, and I could tell that he hated the idea of a fight, no matter who started it. “Either way, I welcome the idea of having an ally among the Guardians. And selfishly, I enjoy knowing that if the future does unfold badly, you and Chelsea owe me a favor.”
Maybe because we were still connected mind-to-mind, it felt stronger than just a normal statement. I could feel it in my gut—I owed him. Big. And it was something I wouldn’t be able to ignore or forget about. The Waking Guard were going to think that we were totally loyal to them when we got back, but actually we’d practically be double agents. I started to hyperventilate.
“Deena!” TDH was squeezing my shoulders. “Deena, we haven’t much time. Listen! Don’t tell Chelsea about this. Let her believe that everything went according to plan. That way, she can speak honestly to the Waking Guard—and you can follow her lead when you pretend that your own account is genuine. Someday you will tell her the truth, but not now.”
I nodded. I told him I understood.
TDH opened the door leading to the bedroom and everything beyond it. “Put your prize in your pocket, Deena. This room is made to be easy to enter but difficult to escape. I’ve deactivated most of the security system, but you’ll need to run like your life depends on it if you want to get out of here. Now, GO!”
He shoved me toward the door. Not actually out of it, but toward it. I stumbled, looked back at him once, then put the signet into my jeans pocket and ran for the exit.
I heard more of the defense system than I saw, but some sort of laser or something did get me in the back, just around my right shoulder blade. I can’t remember anything ever hurting so much, but I had to keep running. I reached Chelsea, who was at least as freaked out as I had been earlier (I had left her hanging for a while by now). We blasted past the guards, knocked them out, and reached the elevator shaft. We forced it open, and I had to think around the pain to control the wind and blow us down gently.
At the bottom, we tossed a few smoke bombs around the lobby and made a break for it.
(Continue to the end of the story.)
