Page 39 of The Void

Mia shook her head. “Not if I don’t have to.”

Feng was quiet for a moment.

“Go. When you are here, he can sense you,” Feng said loudly. “Go now, child. When the time is right, you must come to me and destroy him. Only then will all be revealed.”

Once more, the entire room shook, and suddenly they were both standing back in the small room filled with the oldest scrolls.

“That was…” he started.

“Enlightening,” Mia finished as she turned to leave the room.

“Interesting,” he said quietly, glancing around to make sure they were alone. Then again, neither of them had actually seen Feng. Other than the massive gold statue.

He followed her back out to the main room.

“Has she ever spoken to you before when you’ve come here over the past years?” Lucas asked her when they were in the large main room.

“No, this trip is the only time. Actually, she’s never spoken to me before. It’s as if I was out of her reach before. Like how she can’t talk to me when I’m in the walls of the city.” She glanced around and sighed. “There’s nothing else we can learn here. Let’s head back to the city.”

He took her hand when she held it out for them.

When they were back in their room in the city, she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Mia, there was something more… something… deceptive about Feng. She was hiding something. I could feel it,” he said, trying to convince her.

Mia frowned up at him. “What would she have to hide? She’s been dead for thousands and thousands of years.”

He shrugged, still feeling the knot in his gut. “I’m not sure, but something in my gut tells me it isn’t right,” he said under his breath.

Chapter Eleven

“We both know that there are three moons circling this planet and two suns,” Mia told Lucas later that evening. “I asked Beth, who was somewhat helpful, when they would next align.” She took a sip of her drink, suddenly feeling thirsty after the long conversation she’d had with Beth. “The moons rarely come into alignment. Never with the suns. However, once every ten cycles, which I assume is years, the suns align on the opposite side of the moons. Beth claims there is a man—she called him, Jessup—who has spent his life studying the phenomenon. She says he would know when they are expected to all line up again.”

“Great,” Lucas said, leaning back in his chair.

He’d finished all his food while she’d bent closer to Beth and had gained as much information as she could. “Did she happen to tell you where we can find this Jessup?”

“She’s going to ask him to meet us on the roof garden after supper,” Mia answered with a smile as she took a bite of her food. “I told you I could figure it all out before tonight.”

“News flash,” he whispered with a strained smile. “It’s tonight. You only have a few hours before you’re supposed to meet your brother, and we haven’t even thought of a solid plan yet.” He let out a low growl. “At least not one we can agree on.”

She set her glass down and turned to him. “If he could smell us a mile up in the sky when we were invisible, then what makes you think he won’t know you’re in your dog form stalking him from the woods?” she hissed.

“Not a dog,” he corrected, causing her to smile. Then he shrugged. “I smell different after I shift.”

“You smell like a dog. Just like I do when I shift.” She went back to eating. “Something tells me that dogs are not normal around here. Which would send red flags up to my brother.”

“Then make me invisible—” he started, but she gave him a look and he stopped.

He was silent while she ate for a while, then shifted closer to her.

“There is one more thing I can try,” he whispered.

“What?”

“It would mean that I would need to leave.” He glanced around. “Right away if I’m going to make it back in time for the meeting.”

“What?” she asked again.