by Gene Gant
“Interesting,” Mina said, which was the understatement of the year.
Grendel Kids weren’t magical beings. How the hell did Malwar manage such a powerful ward?
“All right, we’ve got him,” I said. “Inky, you’re still shaky on your legs from last night. I think you should stay behind. Draven too.”
Draven shot to his feet. “No! That’s my mom he’s got out there!”
I turned to Draven, struggling to keep myself from shouting back at him. “You’re too out of control, Draven. That’ll be a liability. It’s best that you don’t go.”
Draven gritted his teeth, his eyes flinty with determination. “I’m going.”
“So am I,” Inky said.
Oh hell. “Okay. I’m gonna get Mina to help me come up with a plan. While we’re doing that, I want you, Inky, to take yourself somewhere and rest up till we’re ready to go. I don’t need you passing out on us in the middle of this.” I turned back to Draven, looking at him flatly. “You, kid, will do exactly what Mina and I tell you, and only what we tell you. I can’t have you going off hotheaded at your dad. If you do, I’m warping your ass out of there. Got it?”
“I’ll do whatever I have to do to stop my dad,” Draven snapped.
“No, you’ll do what you’re told or you’re out.”
Draven opened his mouth to reply. I was determined that this would be done my way, and I glared at Draven with every bit of that resolve, daring him to utter one more word of defiance. It wasn’t only his mother’s life on the line now. If Draven raised another objection, I was going to send him warping back to Wisteria.
He must have seen something in my face that made him realize that. He shut his mouth and nodded.
I nodded back at him. “Inky, get out of here. Get some sleep. Draven, you finish eating and then take yourself somewhere and think happy thoughts. Mina, let’s you and I put our heads together. This has got to be a really good plan.”
IT TOOK almost three hours. I had to make a couple of reconnaissance flights over the island to get a closer look at things with my MagicVision. That meant I had to shape-shift into an eagle. Shape-shifting has never been easy for me magically, and it took a lot of attempts before I got myself into a form that both looked mostly like an eagle and could actually fly. Once I had a good idea of the island’s topography, Mina and I bounced ideas off each other for a good long while. In the end, we hashed out a plan that I felt gave us an excellent chance to free Draven’s mother and take down his father.
Now I just had to fill in Inky and Draven on the plan. I walked down the hall to find them while Mina shut herself away in the den to meditate. The guest bedrooms were all empty. The door to the master bedroom, at the very end of the hall, was open. I peered in and saw Inky lying on his back across the bed, deep in slumber. On the other side of the room, Draven sat in a chair, watching him fitfully.
I whispered, “Hey.” Draven looked at me, and I motioned with my head for him to step out into the hall with me.
I walked up the hall an ample distance from Inky’s room. Draven followed. When I stopped and turned to him, I could see the angst in his eyes.
“He won’t touch me or let me touch him,” Draven said softly, his voice trembling. “He wouldn’t even let me just lie in the bed with him. I don’t know what I did wrong.”
“Draven—”
“Can you talk to him? Can you find out why he’s pushing me away so I can fix things?”
“Draven, he’s doing you a favor. You may not want to believe it, but Inky really is a huge danger to you. When we were at Mina’s, you kissed him and touched him, and every time you did that, he drained off the emotions you felt for him. That’s why you passed out and we had to leave you behind. Every physical contact you have with him will drain you more and more until there’s nothing left, and you’ll die. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is with him.”
Draven’s eyes got shiny with tears and confusion. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I love him. You said that’s not possible when I’ve only known him a day, but I love him, Ahmad. He’s lonely, and I’m lonely. He’s a monster and so am I. He’s the only guy I ever want to be with.”
“Inky makes people fall in love with him. It’s how he captures prey. But with you, it may not be only Inky’s power making you feel that way. Mina told me that when Grendel Kids are around your age, they forge a bond with the person they’re supposed to eventually mate with. I guess that’s a feature of the curse to make sure it’s passed on to new descendants. And obviously, that feature works whether the Grendel Kid is straight or gay.” I sighed. It made me miserable to see Draven so unhappy. More than once I’d considered using magic to shield him from Inky’s seductive power and break the bond his own heritage had forced on him. But that was a lot of ancient power to overcome. I wasn’t sure if I had the skill to pull it off, and if I botched it, that would make an already hopeless situation even worse for the kid.
“I just want him to love me back,” Draven said, his voice even softer now. He looked at me with big, wet eyes. “Help me. Talk to him. Please.”
It was like looking at a drenched kitten shivering in the cold rain. I wrapped a hand around the back of his head, his dreadlocks thick beneath my palm, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Okay, I’ll give it a shot. Go find Luann and ask her to make some more coffee for us. Inky and I will meet you in the kitchen.”
He gave me a hopeful, grateful smile as he walked away. It made me feel even more miserable. He actually thought there was a chance things would work out between him and Inky, and I already knew there was no such chance.
HE WOKE slowly. I had to haul him into a sitting position and gently slap his face a few times. He opened his eyes only to stare straight ahead at nothing, as if in a trance. After a few more slaps, he finally looked at me and yawned. “Oh. Hey, Ahmad.”
“Talk about waking the dead. How do you feel, man?”
“Better.” He stood up and stretched, his long, muscular arms extending over his head, the hem of his T-shirt rising up to expose his rippling abs. It was a slow, sensuous motion, and I had to turn away until it was over.
When I turned back, Inky was tugging down his shirt. He looked at the empty chair. “Where’s Draven?”
“He’s waiting for us in the kitchen,” I replied. “Luann is gonna make us some coffee. I want to make sure you’re alert when we go over the plan.”
“So you and Mina came up with one. Great.” The effect of what Mina had done to him was apparently gone. He looked more like himself now. He shoved his feet into a pair of sneakers and started for the door.
I caught his arm.
He stopped and looked at me. “What?”
“We need to talk about Draven.”
Pain flashed across Inky’s face, and his body slumped. “Can this wait?”
“No. This thing won’t get any better, whether we talk about it now or later. That kid’s in love with you.”
“I know. I wish he wasn’t. I never tried to hypnotize him into loving me. Seriously, I tried to turn off my power—”
“It’s not your power that did it. This is just the way Grendel Kids are. The curse makes them fall in love around Draven’s age. Just his luck it was with you.”
“I thought there was something different about him. The minute I saw him, I was crazy about the guy. I’ve never been attracted to anybody before. I didn’t even think it was possible, because I’ve never known anybody like me who felt any kind of attraction. Every person I’ve hypnotized into falling for me was always obsessive and clingy under my power. What I’m getting from Draven is… tender. He actually cares about me, and I’ve never gotten that from anyone before.”
“I care about you, in my own way.”
“Yeah, but that’s friendship. With Draven, it’s deeper than that. I’ve never had that kind of caring from anybody, Ahmad. It’s something that didn’t seem to matter to me before. I thought all I needed was to j
ust fill up on other people’s passion. But now that I’ve felt what Draven feels for me, I know there’s more, and I want it. I want somebody to actually love me.”
“Well, he does, but you know what that will do to him.”
“I don’t want to hurt him.”
I looked at him. Before, I never would have fully believed he meant that, but now I could definitely see the sincerity in his face. “I don’t know what to tell you, because it’s hurting him really bad not being with you.”
Inky turned away, grimacing with pain. “Shit. I hate this.”
“I know. You have to fix this, Inky. I don’t want to see Draven get hurt—or you either. But if you can’t find a way to make things work between you without killing that kid, then you should get out of his life for good.”
TEN MINUTES later, things were very tense in the kitchen as I laid out the plan for Draven and Inky. Just as I was wrapping things up, something in me suddenly shook so violently I couldn’t breathe, and I choked up in midsentence.
“Ahmad? What’s wrong, man?” Inky reached over and grabbed my trembling hand, his voice thick with alarm.
It took several seconds for the shaking to stop and for my lungs to start functioning again. I drew in a deep breath. “Oh God,” I said heavily. “Somebody just found my soul ring. I have a new master.”
Twelve
“SO WHAT does that mean?” Mina asked.
She and I were sitting on the forward deck of Inky’s cabin cruiser, a sleek, sixty-foot, white and bronze beauty that cut neatly across the water as we sped east into Lake Michigan. The sun was bright overhead, but the wind washing over us was almost icy.
“It means exactly what I just said,” I answered, snapping a bit at her out of anxiety. It wasn’t the chill in the air that had me shivering. “Someone, somewhere, found my soul ring, which means they now have control over my soul, which means they now have control over me.”
“Do you know who this person is?”
“No. I won’t know until I’m summoned. That usually happens pretty fast once the person figures out what the ring can do.”
“Maybe we should come up with a new plan to take on Malwar.” The look Mina gave me was philosophical. “You’re sort of at the heart of all this. If you get summoned away in the middle of the action, things won’t end well for the rest of us.”
That same thought had been nagging away at the back of my mind since we set sail. It’s why Inky insisted we take his boat to the island instead of allowing me to magically transport us. “I think it’s okay for now,” I said, although I was far from certain. “I mean, it’s been almost two hours now, and whoever found the ring hasn’t figured out yet what it’s for. Maybe my new master’s not all that sharp. Maybe he’ll never figure it out.”
Mina tipped her head to one side. “Is that supposed to reassure me?”
“Yeah. Did it work?”
She rolled her eyes. “We are so dead.” Her smile was as frosty as the breeze.
“Okay. Here’s a backup plan. If I disappear suddenly, run like hell.”
We were traveling under a magical veil I had placed around the boat, one that deflected sight as well as anything else that came our way and masked all sound of our passage. We were essentially a void speeding over the surface of the lake. There were only a few magical beings who, like me, possessed the kind of vision that could cut through a concealing veil. Malwar would never see us coming.
Mina’s attention shifted up and over my shoulder. I looked back and saw Inky on the bridge, one hand gripping the wheel as he miserably drove the cruiser. Beyond him, Draven sat on the roof of the aft cabin, feet dangling, staring forlornly at Inky.
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” Mina said.
I turned back to her. “For those two, I don’t think there’s a course at all.”
“Things like that make me glad my core self is asexual. For the most part, I don’t have to deal with all that angst.”
“Are all Cat-o-Nines asexual?” I asked, curious.
“Of course not. We all have a dominant soul, but every dominant soul is different, the same way people are different. My core self just happens to not care about sex one way or the other.”
“I guess there are perks that come with not worrying whether the cute guys think you’re hot—”
“Or the cute girls.”
“Yeah. Whatever. But doesn’t that make your life… empty?”
“Ahmad, romance isn’t all there is to life, you know. My life is fulfilling enough now without it.”
“If you say so. But I can’t imagine my life without romance. I’m not just talking about the physical part of it. I mean the emotional part of it, the love. I want all the stuff you don’t think about, holding hands, dating, goo-goo eyes, cuddling, the happily ever after. I want to share my life with a nice guy, and even though being a slave makes that nearly impossible, I still hope to have a real, lasting relationship someday, somehow.”
“I hope you do too.” Mina’s look became sympathetic. “Is there any way you can be set free?”
“My master would have to destroy the ring and release my soul,” I replied. “But that will never happen. Who’s gonna give up having the power of a djinn under his control? It’s better than winning the lottery.”
“What’s it like, falling in love?”
I paused, thinking about that question. I’ve had many boyfriends, but I was only really in love once, with Angelo. I thought about what it was like the first time I saw him, a monster sitting in the shadows, looking cute and oh so sad. “It starts with the attraction,” I said to Mina. “You look across the room, you see this person. You see lots of people every day, but this time is different. Something in you wakes up when you see this person and suddenly you want to know more about him. You want to take him out somewhere so you can talk and laugh with him, maybe get him to like you enough to make him want to go out with you again. And as you get to know him, the good things and even the not-so-good things, you go from being attracted to really liking him to falling in love with him. And just like that, you’re hooked.”
Mina smiled again. “Hooked. Like a fish to be reeled in, skinned, gutted, and fried over an open fire. That’s such a tender way to put it.”
“And then there’s love at first sight. You see this person, and some part of you that you weren’t even aware of clicks with him, and suddenly, even though you don’t know him, you want to be with him. Some people say there’s no such thing and don’t understand it, but it happens. It happened to me when I first saw Angelo. I knew exactly what he was the second I laid eyes on him, and I still wanted him.”
“From what you’ve been telling me, it sounds as if that’s what happened to Grayson.”
“It’s exactly what happened to Inky. It’s what happened to Draven too, but with Draven we at least know what part of him brought on the instant love. What makes this so bad for Inky is that I don’t think he was ever meant to fall in love. Hell, every time he does the things people do when they’re in love, he kills a little bit of Draven. And if he doesn’t feed off Draven, he’ll have to feed off someone else. How hard would it be for him to do that when the only person he wants is Draven? Wouldn’t he wind up starving to death?”
“I can see where that would get complicated. Which is why I am happy to not be bothered with such things.”
“So you have no chance of ever falling in love with anybody?”
She gave me an impatient look. “Being asexual doesn’t mean that I don’t feel things for other people, Ahmad. I love my mother and my grandparents. I’m even starting to like you and Gray and Draven. It’s possible for me to fall in love with someone. I just don’t have the need to express that love sexually.”
I scratched my head, feeling skeptical. “Sorry. I just don’t get that.”
“Well, with me, things are even more complex because of my different souls. My passion soul, for example, is omnisexual. She can go for boys or girls, whether they
’re straight, gay, or trans. She can go for boys dressed like girls or girls dressed like boys. It doesn’t matter to her. She just wants to feel things.”
“So Passion Mina is the opposite of you.”
“In a sense. She’s the part of me I fight hardest to keep under control. When she’s let loose, she can be very dangerous.”
I remembered what Passion Mina did to Inky, and how she went after Malwar. It made me shiver again. Dealing with Core Mina was definitely better, even if she was a bit scary in her own way.
Our conversation tapered off. We just sat there in each other’s company for a while, and I slowly realized something. I’d never thought of myself as lonely or lacking friends, but I was. I knew a lot of people, but most of them really were just contacts I called on when I needed their expertise, or who called on me when they needed my nonmagical help. Aside from Inky, Jack, and Kellie, I never hung out with those people.
But in the short time I’d known them, Mina and Draven had moved beyond the prospect of just becoming more of my contacts. I liked them. Mina, despite her quiet spookiness and multiple souls, had real empathy and was a great listener. Her wards kept her safe from Malwar, and she had no reason to go after him. Yet she put her souls at risk to help Draven and his mother. Draven, despite his anger management issues, was a sweet, loyal guy. If we survived all this drama with Malwar, I wanted to see them again. It would be nice to get together with them, and with Inky and Kellie and Jack. It would be nice if Draven and Inky could find a way to be together without becoming the death of each other. It would be nice if I could have Angelo back and have my soul free of that damn ring, and if Mina could find somebody who’d be compatible with her asexuality and her omnisexuality and her nine lives, and all of us couples could be great friends forever.
