Vela Heartwhisper's Arc

Chapter 12 of 25

Pluto's device still showed the blocked signal. Then the captured spy spoke from where the guards held him. "There's another," he said. "A second watcher. He carries Severin's second jammer. If he reaches the doctor, they hunt your king tonight." Vela's blood went cold. One night left, and now a loose enemy near the walls. She had to find him first. Scarlett Nightbloom rose from the fountain edge. Her butterfly wings flared, pale and veined. The pale fairy had hungered for love all these nights, watching Vela win what she could not. Now her red eyes fixed on the dark trees. "I smell blood on the wind," she said. "Fresh sweat. Fear. A man hiding." She licked her lip and hated herself for it. "Let me hunt him. I'm good at hunting what I want." Vela didn't trust the hunger in her, but she trusted the nose. "Find him. Don't kill him. I need him whole." Scarlett shot into the fungal dark, wings beating fast. Vela followed the trail with her three-eyed companion at her heels. A scaled cat crossed her path, green scales and a lashing tail, and hissed toward a hollow between two mushroom trunks. Vela crept close. A man crouched there, a black box glowing in his hands. The second jammer. He saw her and ran. He didn't run far. A wall of blue hair and orange pants dropped from the canopy. Sun Wukong Azure landed hard, tail whipping, a grin splitting his white face. "Runner!" he shouted, delighted. Then his grin fell to a snarl. "No. No running near the king." His moods flipped in a breath. He seized the watcher's collar and lifted him off his feet. "The box," Vela said. "Give me the box." The watcher clawed at it, but Scarlett dropped behind him, wings folding, red eyes wide. He froze at the sight of her teeth. Vela pried the jammer from his hands and crushed it under her heel. Green sparks died in the dirt. Pluto's device chimed at Vela's belt. She had left the channel open. "Signal's clear," his voice crackled through. "Transmitting now. Your handlers are receiving the proof." Vela's knees nearly gave. The message was going out. Benbenek's love, sworn and logged, sent to the ones who wanted her erased. The hunt was over before it began. Sun Wukong dropped the watcher to the guards who came running. Scarlett watched Vela with something raw in her face. "You get to keep what you love," she said. "Remember that I gave you the trail." Vela nodded. "I won't forget it." Then the device chimed again, and Pluto's voice changed. "They received it. But there's a reply coming back." A pause. "They want to speak to you before they close the file. Tonight. In person." Vela stared at the crushed jammer. Her proof was sent. Now her handlers were coming down to her.