Hitting the Target Read online

  “Really?” She looked up at him uncertainly.

  “Really.” Trey nodded. He wanted to tell her so much more—tell her that she was his fated mate—the one the Goddess had chosen for him. But he was afraid to scare her off. He was half afraid Mia might ask more about the Dream Sharing—she had a curious look on her face, and she seemed the type to want to know things. But after a moment she only said,

  “So…I can stay with you? Just until I pass the exam and get a job?”

  “Little one,” he said, making his voice low and gentle. “You can stay with me for as long as you want. Are you ready to go now?”

  “Yes, please.” Mia’s eyes flicked to his and he thought he could have happily let himself drown in the pearly blue depths of her gaze. But after the barest moment, she dropped her eyes and looked away. “Thank you, Trey,” she said. “For everything.”

  “No thanks necessary.” Trey dared to stroke a single long strand of silky black hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. “I’m just glad to see you outside my dreams,” he said softly. “Come on, Mia—let’s go home.”

  The transport station was even more crowded than the first time she’d been there, Mia thought. She looked in dismay at the mass of people on the platform. God, how would they get through this mess to get to their transport?

  Trey didn’t look worried, however. A quick glance at his face showed an expression of irritated resignation.

  “Goddess damned rush hour,” he muttered under his breath. “And the transport back to my domicile is all the way at the other end of the platform.”

  “It is?” Mia looked up at him. “How are we ever going to get there?”

  “We’ll get there,” he said grimly. “Just take my hand—I’ll manage.”

  Grasping her hand firmly and entwining his long fingers with hers, he began to lead her, shouldering his way through the crowd like a man wading through tall waves at the beach.

  Mia, following in his wake, felt squeezed on all sides. It seemed everyone here in the South was taller than she was and she felt like a child surrounded by adults.

  The feeling began to bring back a memory—one she’d tried not to think of for years. But now it came rushing back, no matter how hard she tried to suppress it…

  She remembered a huge crowd outside the Palace of the Council, which had once been the home of the Emperor. But the Emperor had been overthrown in the Glorious Revolution and the Ruling Council, supported by The EYE, had taken his place and built the big, shining blue wall that was supposed to protect them from everything bad. Only it seemed like maybe the people didn’t like the wall very much after all, because a lot of them were angry.

  Mia remembered her parents holding her hands as people pushed and shoved, shouting slogans and throwing angry words like bricks at the windows of the palace.

  “Freedom for All!”

  “Tear Down the Barrier!”

  “The Wall Must Fall!”

  “Let us Go, Repression No! Let us Go, Repression No!”

  Mia remembered that her father had been one of the ones shouting at the palace—shouting at the Ruling Council. She even remembered the placard he’d been carrying. It had a picture of a large, angry fist slamming into a single eye and the words beneath said, “No more spying!”

  Her mother had been holding Mia’s hand in one of her own, trying to keep her close in the surging, angry crowd and tugging at her father’s arm, begging him to come home “Before someone sees us!” with the other. But her father had refused to go until the agents of The EYE came out and started spraying everyone with some kind of mist that made tears stream down your cheeks and burned the insides of your mouth and nose and throat.

  Even then her father didn’t want to go but her mother screamed at him, “What about our daughter? Do you want to lose her? Do you want her to lose us?”

  That had scared Mia most of all—more than the crowds and the shouts and the stinging mist—the idea of losing her beloved parents. Papa with his fiery temper and deep sense of justice and Mama with her kind, sweet, quiet ways and her cool hands that always felt so soothing on Mia’s forehead…they were Mia’s whole world. She couldn’t imagine life without them.

  They had run away then—had turned and left the crowd and the agents and the palace behind. Mama had made Papa throw his placard away in an empty alley and they had gone back to the flat they shared with Neemah. Mia remembered her mother weeping with relief that they had gotten home safely, with no agents of The EYE after them. They had all gone quickly to bed…

  Only to be awakened by a pounding on the door in the middle of the night.

  Mia remembered sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes sleepily. She’d been having a terrible dream, a dream about a huge, scary eye that followed her everywhere and never stopped watching her. Then she heard shouting voices in the living area and Neemah saying, “You can’t take them! They haven’t done anything wrong! My daughter is innocent and so is her husband!”

  But they took them anyway…and I never saw them again.

  Mia came back to the present and found that her eyes were filled with tears and her heart was pounding in her chest.

  Trey was still leading her through the crowd, and they were getting closer to the transport. But all around her the crush of people was getting worse and worse—closer and tighter until she felt like she couldn’t get a deep enough breath. Worse, her grip on the big Kindred’s hand had loosened and she could feel his fingers sliding through hers.

  Up ahead, the doors of a transport slid open and the people all around her surged forward, trying to be sure they got a spot inside. In the wild forward motion, Mia lost hold of Trey’s hand entirely.

  Without the big Kindred to force their way through the crowd, she immediately lost her forward momentum. There was another transport opening to her right and she found she was being carried along with a group of people who were trying to get on it.

  “Oh God—Oh God, please!,” she gasped. There was no question of trying to get back to Trey—it was all she could do to stay upright. Desperately, she tried to keep her feet under her. She knew if she stumbled and fell, she would surely be trampled—what a horrible way to die!

  “Mia? Mia!” she heard a deep voice roaring behind her.

  Somehow she managed to turn her head and saw that the huge Kindred was forging his way to her, like a man in chest-deep water pushing his way through the sea.

  “Trey! Treygar!” she gasped but again, she could make no headway to him at all.

  Luckily, Trey was able to reach her before she was swept aboard the wrong transport. Picking her up, he cradled her to his broad chest just as he had when her ankle had been hurt.

  “Come on,” he said in her ear. “Should have carried you in the first place through a crowd like this. You all right?”

  Mia nodded, not trusting her voice. Now that she was out of danger—though not out of the crowd—her throat felt tight and achy, almost like it had after breathing in the stinging mist when she was a child. She wished they could go somewhere quiet and safe and deserted, but Trey was pushing through the crowd, making their way to the correct transport now.

  He got them there just before the doors slid shut but there was no room for him to stand and hold Mia as he was. He had to put her down again and when he did, Mia felt a wave of panic sweep over her as the people squeezed in all around her.

  I can’t breathe! she thought desperately. Oh, God—I can’t breathe!

  “Mia? Little one? Is something wrong?”

  Looking up, she saw that Trey was looking down at her anxiously as they jostled this way and that while even more people tried to squeeze in before the transport’s doors slid shut.

  “It’s too much—too many people,” she gasped. “I can’t…can’t breathe.”

  Trey frowned. “I’ve never seen a rush hour so crowded,” he admitted in a low voice. “I can’t pick you up in here—there’s no room. But…well, here.”

  Somehow he ma