The Soul Seekers: Horizon (13 page)

“Careful there, little one. You’re venturing into territory that’s way out of your league.”

His face darkens, prompting me to take a step forward, insert myself firmly between them. Fully intending to defend her should it come to that, but the sight of me standing before him only
causes him to laugh.

“Save it, Lita. Xotichl doesn’t need a bodyguard. Girl’s got her sight back. She can handle herself. Or at least that’s what she thinks. Turns out, there’s a whole
lot you two don’t know, but I’ve done my good deed for the day. You’ll get no more from me.”

Xotichl fidgets with her glasses, struggles to stand her ground, though it’s clear that she’s shaken.

We both are.

The two of us unable to do anything more than remain rooted in place, long after Cade’s sauntered away.

“Are you sure we should do this?” My fingers clasp hard to the edge of my seat as Lita speeds into a turn so quickly I swear the car tilts on two wheels.

“How can we
not
do this? We owe it to Daire, right?” Her eyes find mine, lingering too long for my comfort. At these speeds, I prefer she focus on the road and not me.

“I’m sure he’s onto us,” I say, the words spilling forth in a shrieky high pitch that startles me as much as it does her.

This isn’t like me. I’m usually the adventurous one. First in line to push all the boundaries.

Then again, ever since my sight returned, I’m not my usual self. It’s like I’ve been thrust into an upside-down, out-of-balance world. Left adrift in a turbulent sea with
absolutely no hope of ever reaching the shore.

“I’m absolutely positive he’s onto us.” Lita clasps the wheel so tightly her knuckles blanch white. “In case you haven’t noticed, he’s using his
blinkers and slowing his pace when he gets too far ahead. He’s definitely leading us somewhere. Not to mention, how he waited the full ten minutes it took us to get our act together and go
after him.” “Speaking of . . . what the heck happened in there?”

“What do you mean? We were startled, that’s all.” She nods as though she wants to believe it, but the edge in her voice says otherwise.

“Yeah, we were startled, no doubt. Last place I expected to see Cade Richter was in the dress department, and yet, there’s no denying we handled it badly.”

Lita’s shoulders sink in defeat. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but that was kind of a disaster. I have no idea what came over me. It’s like I had to keep reminding myself of
all the reasons I hated him, and yet, I still found myself drawn to him.” She rubs a hand over her arm, shuddering at the memory.

“And I could barely speak.” I roll my eyes at the memory. “It’s like my whole body was frozen and only my mind was still working. Inside my head, I was raging with all
the things I wanted to say. I had a whole slew of mocking statements and snarky comebacks ready to go—and yet, all I could do was stand there and gape. It’s like I’d been robbed
of my will. Like I was trapped in a body that refused to obey.”

Lita shoots me a worried look, then returns her focus to the road, accelerating so hard my shoulders press into the seat.

“Did he just . . . wave?” I shift my gaze between Lita beside me and Cade’s black, four-wheel drive racing ahead.

“He did indeed.” Her lips sneak into a grin as she shimmies a little straighter in her seat, as though this just became fun.

“So, aren’t we just falling into his trap then?”

“It’s not a trap.” The nod that follows is insistent, though once again, her voice fails to convince. “Okay, maybe it is a trap,” she relents. “I mean,
there’s no doubt he’s purposely luring us somewhere. But it’s not a trap like you think.”

“That is not one bit comforting.” I gaze out the side window and frown. Contemplating which would be worse—swinging the door wide open and throwing myself free of her
car—or actually going through with her plan. It’s a toss-up.

“There’s one crucial thing you seem to have forgotten: Cade Richter is a master manipulator. He loves his little games. He practically lives for them.”

“Um, yeah. That’s pretty much what I was getting at. Hence the fear of us being lured into a trap. His
little games
tend to get violent. Ask Daire.”

Lita shakes her head and leans forward, peering through the dust-covered windshield. “Trust me, Xotichl, I know this guy like the back of my hair. He’s not going to harm us. He just
wants us to see whatever it is that he wants us to see so we can report back to Daire.”

“Hand.” I peer into the side rearview mirror, watching swirls of dirt and tumbleweeds dance in our wake.

“What?” Lita squints, looking at me for so long I jab a finger toward the windshield, urging her to watch the road and not me.

“The expression is, I know him like the back of my
hand.
Please, watch where you’re going!”

“And what did I say?”

“You said
hair
.”

“Seriously, Xotichl?” She frowns, focuses back on the road, which buys me a moment of relief before she returns to me. “That’s the take away from everything I just said?
What’s gotten into you? You’re acting all skittish and weird. I’ve never seen you so fearful. You’re always the one assuring me. Remember when you made me spy on Suriel
Youngblood?”

I cringe at the memory. Spying on the snake-wrangling, doomsayer preacher was one of my worst ideas ever. Maybe the changes I’m experiencing are a good thing. Now that I can see the world
around me, maybe I’m just now, for the very first time, understanding how dangerous it can be. Maybe this new, fearful Xotichl is an improvement over the former, impulsive Xotichl I used to
be.

“Trust me, Suriel Youngblood is not someone I’ll easily forget. And, just so you know, I regretted that decision pretty much the second we arrived.”

“Well, you won’t regret this.” Lita hardens her jaw, lifts her fingers for a moment, only to lower them back to the wheel with a grip that’s twice as tight. “And,
if we do end up regretting it, well at least we’ll have something to talk about, right?”

“Yes. At least we’ll have that. I’m always on the lookout for a good icebreaker.” I hold hard to the edge of my seat as her car shakes and judders over the deeply rutted
dirt road, wondering if I should just close my eyes until it’s over.

“We’re not going to die, Xotichl. Or at least not today. Not from Cade.”

“How can you be so sure?” I sneak a lid open to better see her. “After all, he’s the one who killed Paloma.”

“He had a different agenda with Paloma. It was a Coyote versus Seeker thing. It was mostly about hurting Daire. Making her feel powerless and alone in the world. And while there’s no
doubt he succeeded, it’s different with me. He won’t try to harm me. And, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to take my word for it.”

“You don’t seriously think he’s still madly in love with you, do you? Because that’s the one thing I was sure he wasn’t bluffing about.”

Lita laughs, lifts a hand to her hair and fluffs up the ends. “Please, I’m not stupid. I don’t think Cade Richter was ever madly in love with me. Or even marginally in love
with me, for that matter. I don’t think he even knows what love is. I know I didn’t—not until I met Axel, anyway. What I do know is that Cade’s pride and ego are deeply
offended by how quickly I moved on. And, because of it, I’m pretty sure he’d like to keep me around long enough to make me regret my choice to leave him, which of course, I never will.
How could I? With Axel, I have everything. I finally know what real love is and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” She glances at me, eyes narrowing when she reads the skeptical look on
my face. “Didn’t you catch the way Cade made sure to mention his date? ‘
I’m shopping for a dress for my date. This place isn’t classy enough for my
date
.’” She rolls her eyes. “Whatever Cade’s up to, you can bet it’s well planned. He leaves nothing to chance. Always has an agenda, which we’ll learn soon
enough. The real question is, why are you so scared? What’s going on with you? Why don’t you just tune in to the energy of the situation like you usually do? Surely that’ll
convince you that this will all turn out right.”

I frown, unsure how to tell her how untethered I feel. That my newly restored vision seems to be the only tangible thing I can count on. So I just end up blurting the truth. “I can’t
really read energy in the way that I used to.”

She looks at me. Doing her best to hide her alarm. “You’re probably still getting used to your sight though, right? You know, like you’re learning to see through your eyes
instead of your blind sight. I’m sure it’ll come back.”

“But what if it doesn’t?” I clench my hands in my lap. There. I said it. Revealed my very worst fear that all the progress I made with the help of Paloma’s tutelage has
taken a permanent sabbatical.

“It will.” She nods as though it’s already been decided, but I’m not so sure.

I used to know when someone was lying purely by the color of their words.

I used to know when dark energies were lurking by the subtle shift in the atmosphere.

But now, it seems I’m as clueless as everyone.

Questioning my instincts.

Second-guessing my gut.

“I don’t know . . . I guess I just—” I start to say I have a bad feeling about all of this, but the truth is, I don’t feel much of anything. There’s a big
empty void in the place where my intuition once lived. “The truth is, I really, truly don’t know,” I finally say, not wanting to lie. “But it just feels . . . wrong.
Following Cade—going to the masquerade ball—none of it sits well inside.”

I swivel toward Lita, only to find she’s already moved on. Already returned her focus to chasing Cade’s truck.

I fold my hands in my lap and try to keep calm. Try to find the place of quiet stillness like Paloma once taught me.

She always said the silence is where my strength lies. That when I find myself anxious, uncertain, or feeling unsettled, I should allow my breath to slow and my thoughts to quiet, so a space can
open up for the answers to be revealed. And though it’s never failed me in the past, there’s no denying it’s failing me now.

The silence bears the opposite effect. Leaving me so jumbled and edgy, I turn to the window and press my fingertips hard to the glass in an attempt to steady myself.

Normally I’d be able to read the energy emitted by every run-down adobe we pass, but not anymore.

Still, I grit my teeth and try again, refusing to give up so easily.

Only to shoot toward the dashboard when Lita slams the brakes hard, and says, “This is the last thing I expected to see.”

Cade stops his truck in the middle of the street and lowers the driver’s side window to better see me. “When I got your text I was sure it was a joke.” He
keeps one hand on the wheel, the engine idling.

“Not a joke, I assure you.” I lean against the door of the primer-grey, classic Mustang I’ve been slowly restoring. Arms loose by my sides, legs casually crossed at the ankles,
in an attempt to appear open, easygoing, and harmless. In other words, the opposite of what I’m becoming.

“Well, that’s your fail.” He peers at me through a pair of dark sunglasses. Clueless to the fact that despite the tinted lenses, I can still see his eyes. I can see everything.
He’s part of me, just as I’m part of him. “So, get to it already. What do you want? I’m busy.” He lifts his chin, checks his reflection in the rearview mirror. His
usual smug, self-satisfied look deepening when he sees Lita parked a few feet away.

He thinks this scene is his to control.

Thinks he’s the one who led them here so he could publicly out me as some sort of traitor.

Little does he know I planned the whole thing.

This is no courtesy call.

He has no idea just how big of a traitor I’ll turn out to be.

In the end, the beast may consume me, but not before I’ve defeated every last one of them.

“We need to talk.” I push away from my car and crick my neck toward the large adobe estate nestled behind the large wrought-iron gates.

“You? In
my
house?” He works his tongue against the side of his cheek and hocks a wad of spit that lands just shy of my shoe. A feeble attempt to intimidate I choose to
ignore. “Hate to break it to you, bro, but this is the closest you’ll get. You’re not fit to enter. You’re not one of us. Never will be.”