by Ally Shields
“It will be story to pass on to our daughter and if we’re lucky to our daughter’s daughter,” Andreas said.
“Yes. Someday. There’s no rush. Not anymore.”
At the sound of voices behind them, they turned to see Steffan back on his feet, looking much improved from an hour ago. He sauntered toward them, an arm around Jena and an Uzi slung over his shoulder. He wiped the dirt and sweat from his face, gave a cursory look at the smoking ruins, and cocked his head at Ari and Andreas.
“It looks like the O-Seven wasn’t quite as good as they thought they were. I’m kind of sorry to see the last of them. Life could get boring. Whoever you intend to take on next, count me in.” He gave a crooked grin. “I have the best time with you guys.”
EPILOGUE
September, twenty-two months later
Rayne chased the half-grown male lion cubs across the yard. Her legs carried her faster each day as she transitioned from baby stage to toddler and beyond. She squealed in delight when she grabbed a leathery, tufted tail, only to lose it a moment later as the cub darted out of reach.
“Rayne, don’t pull,” Ari cautioned. She and Andreas sat in the mansion’s garden enjoying the mid-September evening with the cubs’ parents, Lilith and Russell, and the other adult guests at Rayne’s second birthday party.
The child changed course and headed toward them. She stopped in front of Andreas, her solemn face framed in soft black curls. “Tell mama I won’t pull. It would hurt him.”
“That is very true.” His eyes lit with amusement. He picked up his daughter and sat her on his knee. “It would hurt, even if you’re just playing.”
Ari’s lips curved in a smile. What a daddy’s girl. A fact which pleased Andreas to no end. Ari loved the alone time she spent with Rayne, but nothing made her as happy as watching father and daughter together.
“I don’t think our boys were in any danger.” Lilith quirked her lips as the cubs continued to romp and tumble with one another. Even though the twins were younger than Rayne, their lion bodies would be mature in another year or eighteen months, and they already weighed two hundred pounds. When in human form they were about Rayne’s size, but they always preferred to play like this.
“They’ve grown fast,” Ari said. “That first week, they were so tiny I could hold them in one hand.”
Rayne scooted off her father’s lap as the adults continued to talk and wandered over to peek at the three wolf cubs—two girls and a boy—curled up in a large wicker basket. The two-month-old trio had raced around the yard until they’d collapsed, and Jena and Steffan had put them in the basket for a nap.
Rayne continued to circle among the adult chairs, coming to a halt in front of Claris. “Baby,” she said, looking up at Claris with her big green eyes. She pointed at Claris’s obvious baby bump. “Baby.”
“How does she know that?” Ryan winked at Rayne and laid an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Isn’t that a little precocious for two?”
Ari laughed. “Geez, Ryan, how could she not know? This group has been rather prolific over the past year or two. We have six and a half kids among us.”
Ari looked around the garden with a contented sigh. Her friends had thrived in the serenity of the last year and a half. Not that life was ever that peaceful for her and Ryan, but occasional criminal behavior was a lot different than facing hired assassins, murderous crows, demons, and vengeful ancient vampires on a daily basis. They’d all become quite domestic.
Ari turned her head as she heard the first angry cry. Rayne had returned to chasing the lion cubs. Unable to catch her more nimble playmates, she’d sat down in the middle of the yard and was complaining loudly.
Exchanging a swift look with Andreas, Ari nodded that she’d take care of it, and quickly retrieved their daughter. They knew the signs by now. Rayne was working up to a tantrum. The terrible twos were aptly named, whether witch or human.
And there was an added complication. While Rayne was expressing her displeasure a few days ago, Ari thought she’d seen a tiny sparking of Rayne’s fingers. She and Kyra had been extra vigilant since then. Handling a volatile two-year-old with witch fire would be tricky.
She smiled at her daughter’s pouty face and kissed her cheek. It wasn’t surprising Rayne was cranky and tired. She’d been excited over the company, played hard, and eaten a lot of ice cream and cake. The only reason she wasn’t already in bed was they were waiting for her last godfather to arrive.
The back door of the house banged, and Gabriel bounded into the garden. “Sorry I’m so late, but it took some doing to get everything I wanted.” He pulled a huge plastic shopping bag from behind his back and took out a three-foot white teddy bear. “This is for Rae.”
Squealing with delight, the birthday girl grabbed and hugged the bear with both arms, and Ari sat her on the ground with her new playmate.
“This is for her parents.” Gabriel handed a red book to Ari. “And even though it isn’t their birthday, a godfather can’t ignore his other godchildren, so I brought everyone beach balls.” He dumped seven brightly colored balls on the ground. The lion cubs pounced on them immediately and began batting them across the lawn. As soon as the wolves were awake, they’d have a mad free-for-all.
Laughing at the cubs’ enthusiasm, Gabriel snagged two of the balls, handed one to Andreas for Rayne and the other to Claris.
“Baby Cole’s first present,” he said. “How long now?”
“How sweet. Thank you, Gabriel. He’ll love it.” Claris beamed at him. “Seven weeks. Where’s Simone? I thought you’d bring her.”
Gabriel lifted a brow. “Why would I? This is family.”
Ari and Claris exchanged a look. Another girlfriend soon to be discarded. They kept hoping Gabriel would settle down with someone, but he seemed content with his playboy lifestyle. Well, there was no hurry. He still had centuries to find just the right one.
Ari turned the book over and read the title. “The Star of Esielen. What is this? A children’s story?”
“Not exactly. You kept wondering about Rayne’s star-shaped birthmark, and several of your friends—all of us plus Zylla, Emma, and Sophistrina—tracked down some information. What we found led us to this old book.”
“Well, don’t stop there. Have you read it? What’s it say?” Ari asked.
“You’ll have to read it for yourself, but I’ll give you a hint. It says almost as much about the two of you as it does Rayne.”
“Not more of this psychobabble about fate.” Andreas’s voice held a smile.
“Say what you want, but who chose Dintero as the name for his club? I believe the translation of that word is destiny.”
Andreas laughed easily. “Just a catchy business name, my friend, not a philosophy for life.”
“Read the book. Then tell me that again.”
Andreas lifted a brow, but the conversation moved on to other things, and Ari laid the book aside. When Kyra took Rayne for her nap, Ari asked her to put the book in the study, and she didn’t think about it again until the next evening.
The day after the party was one of those last flings of summer—hot and sticky. At dusk, the temperature dropped quickly, and it was pleasantly cool in the garden. Andreas had gone to the club; Rayne was tucked into bed with her new stuffed bear. It was Gabriel’s bear that reminded Ari of the book, and she grabbed it from the study bookcase on her way outside, lighting one of the lanterns as soon as she arrived. She stopped to admire the pink and silvery-blue fall sedum before she settled on the love seat and opened the book.
The Star of Esielen, the legendary story of the high priestess.
In a time so long ago that memories have faded except those recorded by the scribes, most of the known world was witchborn, the practice of the magical arts was a part of everyday life, and the covens lived at peace as one nation.
Ari continued to read, the style and flow creating a world of harmony that frankly began to put her to sleep. She restlessly shifted in the wicker seat, wonder
ing why Gabriel wanted her to read this and how she’d ever get through it. On page ten there was finally some action; a warlock broke off from the covens, traveled to foreign shores, and fell in love with a maiden from a previously unknown branch of witches. When he married and brought his bride home, his people rejected her and her unfamiliar beliefs.
OK, so what happened? Ari impatiently flipped a few pages ahead, skimming now. Shunning, dissension, retaliation, witch turned upon witch. The unrest spread as if the witch world had been dry grass waiting for a match. After a few years, no one remembered the original reason for discontent as petty jealousies arose and splinter groups banded together to form new covens. Suspicions turned into open hatred and erupted into violence. Murder, ambush, deadly curses became part of daily life. After decades of this warfare, the witch world began to shrink as the more powerful witches killed off the weaker.
Other species grew dominant, and fearing the witches’ mysterious powers, they too found ways to kill them. The covens were on the verge of extinction when the Star of Esielen came into the world.
Finally. Ari sat up straight and began to read more carefully now.
At the height of the war, when witch blood flowed freely, the Goddess appeared one night to a young girl of no consequence. Her family was neither wealthy nor the most powerful, but the Goddess gave her a magical stone, a five-pointed star so powerful no one could resist her commands. As the Chosen, she also received the wisdom to know the witches’ greatest needs and to use her power as the high priestess for the good of all witchdom. With the Goddess’s direction, Esielen united the covens and brought peace again.
Ari looked up from the book and frowned. What did all this ancient history have to do with Rayne? This story referred to an amulet, not a birthmark. But Ari read on. The next pages detailed all the good things the high priestess had done in her life. When Esielen died at the age of two hundred and thirty-one, the stone vanished.
Ari flipped pages again as she read about the searches for it and the appeals to the Goddess for the stone’s return. The Goddess had responded with a prophecy.
“A time shall come when the world needs a united witch nation once more, not for its peace but for its strength. The Chosen shall rise again to show the way. She shall be born from parents who made their own path, created life where there was none, and she shall bear the mark of the Esielen star.”
Ari snapped the book shut and sat silently for long moments. It could refer to Rayne. Some of the prophecy might be construed to fit. Obviously the others thought so. She scowled at the book, almost wishing she hadn’t read it. She didn’t want a world of conflict for her child.
She was still musing over what she’d read when Andreas found her some time later. Her lips curved into a smile. “You’re home early.” The sight of him always took her breath away.
“You’ve been worrying, cara mia. Enough that I decided to see for myself what was bothering you.”
“I’m sorry.” She waved a hand, inviting him to sit beside her. “I should have monitored the link.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. What’s upset you?” He sat down and leaned forward, studying her face.
She shrugged but relented when he cocked his head. “It’s this book from Gabriel.”
Andreas sighed, leaned back, and laid his arm on the back of the love seat. “I was afraid it might be trouble.”
“Really? Why?”
“Whenever people start talking about fate, I get worried. It seems fate and prophecies are always about something bad that true believers consider unavoidable. What is it this time? The end of the world?” His somber eyes didn’t match the light tone of his words.
She waved the book in her hand. “I’m tempted to burn the thing and never mention it again.”
“And yet you haven’t, so tell me what it says.”
She summarized the story and read him the prophecy.
“They’re just words.” But his eyes were hooded, concealing his thoughts. “We all have free will and shape our own destiny.”
“And I believe that.” She touched his arm to get him look at her. “Circumstances present us with decisions to make, choices that are based on who we are. Perhaps destiny is nothing more than history knowing how our combination of inherited traits will influence us.”
He caught her hand and smiled. “Saying choices can be predicted is different than making them inevitable. Predictions are flawed, and I can live with that. Whatever life Rayne lives, it will be her own. She’s too willful for it to go any other way.” He gently knuckled his wife under the chin. “I can’t imagine where she picked up that trait.”
“OK, point taken. But I’m putting the book away until she’s much older. There’s no reason to put ideas in her head.”
“I certainly agree with that. She’ll have too many of her own. By the way, have I noticed a sparking of her fingers that you haven’t mentioned?”
“You’ve noticed it too?” Ari let out a long breath. “Kyra and I have been watching to make sure, but if you’ve seen it… My parents lived through it, so I guess we’ll manage.”
“As long as I don’t make her mad,” he said dryly. “Your parents weren’t vampires and highly susceptible to fire.”
“Afraid of a baby fire witch?” she teased. “Luckily she won’t start out with much power, and I can mute it until she gets older.” Ari’s eyes laughed at him. “You don’t get to spoil her just to avoid temper tantrums.”
“Me spoil her? Who gave her the extra cookies?” He grabbed Ari as she tried to wiggle away. “I’m not afraid of a few sparks. But teenage outbursts may be your territory.”
“Oh wow. I hadn’t considered that. I guess we’ll have those too, won’t we?” She ceased any attempt to get away and relaxed against him. “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
“A more fulfilling life than I ever imagined,” he murmured. “I don’t want to miss a moment of it. Just think of all the fascinating days and nights ahead of us.”
“It’ll be fun, won’t it?” She snuggled closer, listening to the beat of his heart, and shivered when he ran a hand over her lower back. She lifted her head to kiss the hollow of his throat. “About those nights…and the free will thing… I think I can predict what will happen if I do this.” She nibbled on his ear. “And follow up with this.” She trailed a line of kisses to the corner of his mouth and started down his throat.
Andreas finally reacted, pulling her against his chest and covering her lips in a possessive kiss that went from hot to hotter. His hands slipped under the back of her shirt and caressed her bare skin, his magic wrapping and melding them into one. Ari shivered and willingly surrendered to the rush of sweet sensations.
It would always be this way with him…the only man who could rock her world.
END
~ About the Author ~
Ally Shields was born and raised in the Midwest, along the Mississippi River, and considers herself a "river rat." The settings and folklore of that area are often incorporated into her urban fantasy novels. After a career in law and juvenile justice, she turned to full-time writing in late 2008, and Awakening the Fire, the debut novel in her Guardian Witch series, was released by Etopia Press in September 2012. She continues to write and published Cross Keys, an Elvenrude novel, in October 2014. When not writing, playing with her Mini Pin, Ranger, reading, or spending time with family, she loves to travel in the US and abroad and incorporates some of those settings in her books. Way too often she can be found on Twitter.
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~ Also by Ally Shields ~
Cross Keys
An Elvenrude Novel
Ally Shields
Conspiracy, murder, and magic…and the death of all they hold dear.
When the first wanderer—a common elf who isn’t authorized to use the portal—is spotted on the streets of New Orleans, the king assigns Kameo Ryndel to assist in the elf’s capture. But before she can intervene, humans with guns shoot the wanderer and steal his body. When Seth Lormarc, an Elite elf from a rival guild, appears at the scene, Kam suspects he is involved.
Seth Lormarc is in New Orleans to find out who was behind the portal breach, and his best lead is the intriguing Kam Ryndel. When he stakes out her apartment and finds her sneaking out in the middle of the night, dressed in black and leaping to the top of the nearest building, he knows there’s something unique about the beautiful elf. That kind of feat requires magic. Ancient magic.
As their paths cross during their investigations, they develop an irresistible attraction, although there’s little time for romance. The portal breach is tied to an illegal smuggling operation that has come to the attention of the human CIA. But the stakes are raised when Kam and Seth discover a band of conspirators and a rebellion deep in Elvenrude that promises nothing except destruction of their world.
The Guardian Witch series
Awakening the Fire
Guardian Witch Book One
Ally Shields
Arianna Calin has sworn to keep the peace in Riverdale. Most of the Otherworlders prefer to haunt the Olde Town district--partying at vampire strip clubs, dining in elegant supper clubs, and inhabiting the cliffside caverns along the Mississippi. Being a cop is a tough job, but someone's gotta do it, and Ari's got her derringer, a sharp stiletto, and a few handy charms against things that hunt in the night. She's also a fire witch--a pedigree that comes in handy, since her partner's only human.
