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almost got herself into a heap of trouble,”
the Second One said with a casual smile.
    “ I’m not into controlling
others they way you are.” Alex smirked and shot the female a
purposeful look. Then he interlaced his fingers with mine and
started moving away, but stopped suddenly and turned. “You are so
obtuse! The Eternals know everything about your little secret
meetings. You will lose this war,” he said with spite.
    “ Alex…how little you know
of what is really at stake here. This is not the war, but a battle.
The real war, dear Alex, is far from over.” The Second One’s smile
was tight, not as flashy as before.
    Alex regarded him for a
moment then he turned and we flew off. They made no attempts at
stopping us, so we just flew off undisturbed.
    “ It was nice talking to
you, Tess. We hope to see you soon!” the Second One called in a
friendly sing-song tone as we glided away.
    “ Yeah, come back and see
us soon!” the female said, and then they burst out
laughing.
    Alex was mad, I could tell,
but he remained silent. This made it worse, so after a moment I
broke the silence.
    “ I didn’t know they would
be there, I just wanted…I’m sorry.” I had no real excuse so I left
it at that.
    “ I know.”
    “ I overheard their
conversation,” I offered hoping to sound useful.
    “ I heard.”
    This was not going well,
but I insisted on conversation. “Who was that female?”
    “ Her name is Agatha. She
is the Second One’s mate or something…”
    “ Oh…they are sending spies
to our side,” I offered. “They know they will be cast-out, but are
making certain spirits go along with the First One, so they can
have allies among the mortals. Can they do that?”
    “ Apparently…they’re going
to try anyway.”
    “ They also have spies
among us, now. They knew about our rally on the moon. How could
they so quickly?”
    “ There are many on that
moon that are undecided, some of them might even be spies, but we
are working on explaining things to them—that’s all we can
do.”
    “ Well, what if one of
those who say they are on our side is really a spy?”
    “ We have nothing to
hide.”
    “ But they can tell the
Second One who is undecided and why. They can tell him what it
would take to turn them.”
    “ Yes, those will be the
casualties of war,” Alex said with a faraway look.
    “ There’s got to be a way
to protect them while they make their own choices, without being
manipulated. We can’t let them die, it’s horrible!” I protested. “I
should know…”
    Alex stopped and looked at
me, his face pained and angry.
    “ Yes, Tess! That is
exactly what we’ve been trying to do while you decided to go for a
tour of the canyon.”
    We looked at each other for
a moment. He was right. I was selfish and immature.
    “ I’m sorry Alex, I really
am. I have no idea what came over me. I…” I shook my head. I really
didn’t know why I had done that myself, so I couldn’t explain it.
He searched my face. He looked concerned and frustrated, but then
he put his arms around me and hugged me…tightly.
    “ It’s a good thing Val saw
you leaving” His voice was soft, more forgiving. “She had overheard
from someone that the Second One himself was around here
somewhere.”
    “ So you came
looking?”
    “ No, I don’t have to look.
I can…” He let out a sigh. “I could feel your fear, Tess.” He
straightened his arms and looked into my eyes, trying to convey
something through them, something more than what his words were
saying.
    “ You could? You can feel
what I feel?”
    “ Yeah…sometimes, even when
I’m not looking for you, I can sense you,” he said, a little
embarrassed. “Especially if you are feeling something very powerful
like fear. I feel it too. It helps me find you.”
    “ What if I’m not feeling
anything particularly…powerful?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t
know, Tess. It always feels very natural, like…seeing or hearing. I
can’t describe