by Amy Sumida
Eyes? How could I see the color of his eyes when he was on the other side of the room? I blinked and realized that he had strode closer as I sang. The crowd edged back for him as it became obvious that something momentous was happening between us. I stared at the stranger as if I knew him intimately, and he stared back in the same manner as he continued to cross the distance that separated us. My voice rose, ringing out to him powerfully in challenge; Take my hand if you dare.
I reached out to him just as he stepped up to the stage. He was so tall that with me up on that stage, my face was level with his. My heart raced as his scent hit me; musk of man and well-worn leather... and feathers. He smelled like sky and sunshine. I breathed him in deeply as his calloused hand closed around mine. He pulled me forward gently, till I was inches from him. His free hand slid around my waist, and he used it to lift me from the stage in a curving movement that turned into a dance. I sang on as he lowered me slowly to the floor, still holding my hand.
We swayed together as the song slowed and finally ended. I tossed the microphone to the guitarist without looking away from the man who held me. The crowd erupted into applause as the stranger brought my hand to his lips and kissed it lingeringly. Then he glanced down and saw the feather dangling between us. His expression shifted into confusion.
“Where did you get this?” His voice was low and powerful like a predator's roar, but he merely sounded curious.
I blinked, coming down from the high of the spell's culmination, and looked down. He was holding the griffin feather gently, as if he knew how precious it was. Or as if it were precious to him.
“It's not mine,” I said with just the barest trace of magic still roughening my voice. “I borrowed it for the evening.”
He closed his eyes briefly and inhaled deeply, shivering a little through the remnants of the magic coasting over our skin. When he refocused on me, his eyes were greener.
“Who does the feather belong to?” He asked softly.
“Vivian Lake.” I nodded to the side, where Vivian was beaming at us. “She received it as a gift from a griffin who saved her life once.”
The man frowned at Vivian, and then back at the feather. “This is my father's feather.”
“What?” I whispered in shock.
“The feather is of my father's plumage,” he said. “I'd recognize the scent and coloring anywhere.”
“Your father?” I gaped at him. “But that would make you a—”
“What a performance!” Odin's voice rang out, startling the both of us, and serving to remind us that we still stood in the middle of the ballroom. “Another round of applause for our Elaria!”
“Elaria?” The griffin smiled as he said my name, and it made his striking face all the more handsome. “Beautiful; like birdsong.”
“What's your name?” I continued to stare at him like a starry-eyed teenager.
“I am Gage of the Saeiqa Tribe,” he said.
“Saeiqa Tribe?”
“Where I come from, the people are divided into tribes,” he explained. “Mine is the Saeiqa. In English, it means 'lightning strike.'”
“Of course it does.” I started to smile.
Destiny was finally being kind to me.
Chapter Thirteen
Gage lifted his stare and noticed that we were attracting a lot of attention.
“Do you know of somewhere we can speak privately?” He asked me.
“I do.” I used our joined hands to lead him out of the ballroom.
People smiled and nodded to us knowingly as we passed, and no one dared to stop us.
“Who is that?” Gage asked just before we reached the door. “Is he someone to you?”
I followed Gage's stare to see Torin glaring at us. Torin caught me looking, and his eyes softened briefly.
“He was once,” I whispered. Then I turned away resolutely and led Gage out of the room.
“Not anymore?”
“No,” I said and then stopped abruptly. I didn't want to spook Gage, but I suddenly felt horrible about continuing without at least implying that this wasn't going to be perfect. “There are things about my life that will make you want to end this before it starts. But if you give me a chance, I think we could have something special.”
“I know,” he said simply. “I was sent to this realm to speak to the witches, but that's not truly why I came. I volunteered for this task because something—someone—was drawing me here. You, Elaria, and you obviously feel the pull as well. So, you have problems in your life.” He shrugged. “I have things I must handle as well. But I'm not going to leave tonight until I know what there could be between us.”
“Don't say that I didn't warn you.” I smirked and started leading him again.
I took us into the gardens, out into the quiet night, to sit among the overgrown flower beds and breathe in the scent of night-blooming jasmine tinged with salt from the nearby ocean. We found a stone bench and sat in a shaft of moonlight. We were surrounded by sleeping flowers and trees shivering in the gentle breeze, and it all felt so surreal. Had that just happened? Did I really just get swept offstage by a stunning stranger who was meant to be mine?
“My full name is Elaria Tanager,” I said to him, trying to get a handhold on something more tangible, something that would make me feel like this was real. Having some basic knowledge of each other would help. “I'm a spellsinger.”
Gage's eyes widened. “A rare bird indeed... Tanager.”
“Even rarer than you,” I teased him as I flicked a leather strap on his tunic. “What realm are you from?”
“Torr-Chathair,” he said, and my face fell into a shocked gape. “What is it? What's wrong?”
“Torr-Chathair? The Citadel Realm?”
“Yes, why?”
“The reason you came to speak with the witches; it wouldn't happen to be about some olgoi khorkhoi escaping, would it?” I asked him.
“You know about the death worms abduction?” He asked in surprise.
“I helped to send them home,” I said.
“You?” He sounded even more shocked.
“What part of 'spellsinger' did you not understand?” I grimaced.
“My apologies.” He held up his hands. “I didn't mean for it to sound insulting. It's just that I know the beasts well, and I've seen a single worm take three full-grown griffins to wrangle it out of a territory. I couldn't imagine a group of them being sent across the Veil by one person; no matter what race they are.”
“I said that I helped, not that I did it alone,” I noted. “I led the worms home, but it was a shining one king who opened the portal for them.”
“You led them? As in; with your song?” Gage asked.
“Yeah.”
He shook his head in amazement. “You're the pied piper of monsters.”
I laughed. “I suppose I am.” I cocked my head at him. “And you? Are you a shepherd of monsters?”
“A wrangler.” He corrected. “The griffins left this world with the magical beasts; to both care for them and prevent their escape.”
“A man who cares for monsters,” I whispered. “I like that.”
I often thought of myself as a monster. So, a man who could care for such creatures was a plus in my book.
“Those death worms returned to Torr-Chathair unharmed,” he noted with a smile. “I think you care for them too.”
“They were taken from your realm,” I went serious, “and they were obviously scared and confused. When I realized that, I decided that they didn't have to be killed; they only needed to be shown the way home.”
Gage smiled softly and laid his palm on my cheek. “I saw your soul when you sang, and I've never seen anything more beautiful. I had thought it too beautiful to be real. Now, I know that it was not an illusion. It takes a special heart to care for such creatures.”
“I can be monstrous too,” I whispered.
He lifted a brow, but I placed my hand over his and shook my head.
“Another time,�
� I said as I laid our joined hands in my lap. “Tell me more about yourself and your tribe. Your father is Amaron?”
“Yes.” Gage smiled as he stroked the feather hanging from my neck. “He mentioned saving a witch once... from a wendigo, I believe. My mother was not pleased.”
“That was Vivian.” I nodded. “She's a witch elder, and you'll probably want to speak to her about the death worms.”
“Then it's fortunate that my father saved her life.” He chuckled.
“Indeed,” I murmured, thinking about Vivian's strange look when she saw me holding the griffin feather. Tricksy witches. She had probably seen a vision then, and she didn't share it with me.
“But I want to know more about you first,” Gage said. “Tell me about your life, Elaria.”
And I did. We talked for hours in that garden, but every time I began to tell Gage about the RS, I chickened out. Yes; I realize the irony—Rooster Spell, chickening out—it still didn't compel me to speak. But I didn't kiss him either; when he moved toward me in the obvious kiss-lean, I subtly shifted away. I promised myself that I wouldn't resort to a physical seduction. I would wait until Gage knew the whole truth before I gave into desire.
But damn was it difficult; the man oozed sex—I think they call that pheromones. Whatever it was, he had it. In droves. I'd have to tell him about the spell soon, if for no other reason than my burning need to kiss him.
Chapter Fourteen
The party was still going strong when we wandered back to the ballroom. My parents caught my eye and gave me some shocked and annoyed looks, but I grabbed Vivian and booked it out of the room before they could corner Gage and me. When we were safely ensconced in Vivian's sitting room, I told her the reason Gage had been sent to Coven Cay. She immediately summoned the other witch elders.
“My apologies for disturbing your evening,” Vivian said to the elders. “But this is a matter of great importance.”
“Elaria's new lover is important to the Coven?” Odin asked with mischief in his one eye.
“I wish that were all it was,” I said grimly, chasing away his glee with my tone.
“What's happened?” Glinda asked.
I told them about Vegas, and then Gage told them who he was and why he was there.
“Strange that you two would be drawn together now, of all times,” Glinda murmured. “But then the—”
I widened my eyes at her in alarm.
“The what?” Gage asked.
“The, ah, timing could be destined,” Glinda recovered. “As you two obviously are.”
“Destined?” Gage smiled lopsidedly and looked over at me. “That has the ring of truth to it.”
“Yes, that's lovely, but what do we do about this worm-thief?” Odin asked. “We could try a tracking spell, but Elaria says the trail went through the Veil, and a spell that can travel that kind of distance requires some serious preparation.”
“We need to stay vigilant,” Gage said. “The griffins have assigned more patrols, but a planet is a large area to cover. The tribes each patrol their territories, but we've never had issues with monsters escaping. Generally, we just make sure that everything is in balance and the monsters are content.”
“So, you're saying that your people weren't prepared for this?” Vivian asked.
“For someone sneaking into Torr-Chathair and stealing monsters?” Gage huffed. “No, we weren't prepared. Call us foolish, but it wasn't a circumstance that we'd even considered.”
“It wasn't meant as criticism,” Vivian said gently. “I was trying to get an idea of what the normal situation is.”
“The monsters pose a greater risk to each other than to other realms.” Gage shrugged. “They were put in our realm because they aren't capable of understanding how to coexist with humans on Earth.”
“Which means that they aren't intelligent enough to escape Torr-Chathair,” I summed up. “Why bother guarding against a prison break when the prisoners don't even know that they're imprisoned?”
“Precisely,” Gage said as he casually took my hand.
My heart sped up with that simple gesture, and it drove it all home to me. Gage was going to change everything. Whether he agreed to be with me or not, my world would be forever altered. For him to affect me so easily, with just the touch of his hand, said it all. It was the kind of thing that would have made me call him “The One” had there been no one else in my life. Maybe Destiny knew what she was doing, after all.
“Thank you for the heads-up,” Odin reached out to shake Gage's hand. “And please extend our deepest gratitude to your tribes for guarding these creatures for so long. Your sacrifice has made it possible for the rest of us to live here in peace.”
“We are happy to be there,” Gage assured Odin. “Torr-Chathair is a paradise, not a hardship. Monitoring the monsters is a small price to pay for it.”
“Will you be returning to your realm now?” Glinda asked, her eyes steady on Gage's face, even though I saw them twitching like she wanted to look pointedly at our joined hands.
“I'll contact them, but no, I won't be returning yet,” Gage said, and I let out a relieved breath. “I was asked to remain here until it was certain that the threat was over.”
“We're happy to have you with us.” Odin smirked, his gaze going from Gage to me. “And I insist that you stay with us, here at Coven Cay during your time on Earth. Unless there is somewhere else you'd rather be?”
“I'd be grateful for the lodgings,” Gage accepted, then shot me a glance. “Until such time as I find something more suitable.”
“Thank you for all coming,” Vivian said loudly and pointedly to the elders. “We don't want to keep you from the festivities any longer.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Odin huffed, “we're going. I'll speak to you again about the monster situation tomorrow, Gage.”
Gage nodded, the elders headed back to the party, and I removed the griffin feather from my neck. I handed it back to Vivian.
“Thank you for the loan,” I said, then hugged her. “I don't think I need it anymore.”
“No, it looks like you have the younger model, ready for the plucking,” she teased.
Gage scowled at her. “Griffins don't like the word 'plucking.'”
Vivian and I laughed until Gage cracked a smile. Then she scooted us out of her room... and right into Torin. As in literally; I crashed into him. I pulled up short; my hands pressed to Torin's wide chest to steady myself. He briefly laid his hand over one of mine and pressed it to his heart before taking me by the upper arms and pushing me back from him.
“Torin,” I whispered.
“Elaria, what are you doing?” Torin narrowed his eyes at me. “Tell me that you didn't lure this man here with magic.”
“Magic?” Gage asked, looking from me to Vivian.
I sighed, and said, “I didn't have the time to wait for things to happen naturally; you know that.”
“What does that mean?” Gage growled.
“It was my idea,” Vivian interrupted. “Elaria needed to find true love quickly. So, I cast a spell to draw her soul mate to her. There was nothing done to influence your free will, Gage, other than giving you the urge to travel here.”
“Then, we truly are destined,” Gage whispered.
“Did she tell you why she needed you so soon?” Torin sneered.
“Torin,” I hissed. “Why are you doing this?”
“He deserves to know,” Torin snapped.
“And I was going to tell him,” I said. “We only just met. I wasn't going to just toss it in his face.”
“And yet you look as if you've had the time to get to know each other,” Torin noted. “When were you going to tell him; after you fucked him?”
“I went to you first, Torin,” I lowered my voice. “You gave me no choice.”
“You gave me no loyalty!” Torin shouted.
“Stand down, fairy,” Gage said in a deadly tone.
“You have no idea what mess you've just stepped in,” Torin sai
d to Gage. “She's ensorcelled.” He waved a hand toward me. “The spell requires her to take numerous lovers.”
