by Nicole Hall
“Not to you.”
Hollis’ smile widened, full of real pleasure this time. “To your husband then. He waits for you as well.”
“The last time I checked, you needed a marriage to have a husband. All I have is a betrothal thrust upon me against my will.”
“You’ll learn to appreciate his charms. Our bloodline must continue for the sake of all dryads.”
Dru lifted her chin. She knew the stakes. Hollis had beleaguered the point enough times. Dryad magic depended on a connection to Ljos, the sacred tree. Only a few rare dryads were able to forge a bond with the tree to continue the free flow of magic, what they called the vessel. The royal family had always controlled the vessel and thus controlled the magic.
Hollis, as the reigning queen, had done her duty as the vessel and produced an heir. Dru desperately wanted to find a different way to fulfill her duty.
Dru hated that her worth was judged entirely on her body. Her ability to connect and her ability to reproduce.
“My life. My choice.”
“This isn’t a democracy. This is a benevolent dictatorship. You will marry and take your place as the vessel, but I can be gracious. I’m not particular about which of my daughters produces an heir.”
In true Hollis fashion, she didn’t wait for a response, simply released the magic connecting them. The fog and the form in the mirror faded until Dru was left staring at an angry version of herself. She needed to work on her resting bitch face.
Her shoulders refused to relax from their position near her ears, and Dru knew it would be hours before the adrenaline faded. Hollis’ favorite threat of late had been to Dru’s younger sister, Brianne.
Both of them lived in Terra, but Dru had never met her sister. For most of her life, she hadn’t even known Brianne existed. Then again, for most of her life, she’d thought she was human.
Dru pushed away from the sink and swayed unsteadily on her feet for a second. Communicating across realms always made her feel woozy. The first time Hollis had summoned her, when she’d come into her magic at eighteen, she’d thought she was dying.
Of course, Hollis hadn’t appreciated sassy, teenage Dru and her flat refusal to follow orders, so there was a good chance the aftereffects were a result of her attitude more than anything else. Hollis had all the power of Ljos at her fingertips; she could probably find a way to communicate without making Dru’s life hell.
The bathroom started to close in on her, so Dru took a shaky breath and made a beeline for the back door. A knock from the front made her groan. Unless it was a sexy fireman with tearaway pants, she wasn’t interested.
Dru glanced out the window to see Oren standing on her doorstep. Close enough. She pulled the door open a crack to peek through with an eyebrow raised.
“Yes? Do I know you?”
Oren’s slow grin made heat pool low in her belly. “Miss me?”
Dru’s lips twitched with the urge to smile back, but she wouldn’t let him win so easily. “What makes you think I’ve thought about you at all?”
“You’re fighting too hard to be indifferent. Tell me, according to your rules, what does that mean again?”
She narrowed her eyes and swung the door wide so he could pass through. “Ah, so you’ll use the rules against me. I see how it is.”
Oren tilted his head. “Everything okay?”
Dru tried to shake off the feeling of doom Hollis had left her. She smiled brightly at him as he passed. “Nope, but we’ll get to that. I’m heading to the backyard. You’re welcome to join me.”
She didn’t wait for a response. Maybe there was more of Hollis in her than she’d like. Oren followed her through the house and into the dappled sun, where much of Dru’s tension finally melted away.
Before Hollis’ interruption, she’d been considering taking Oren up on his offer to help. Now that her birth mother had pushed the issue again, she’d definitely be using him. All she had to do was break her number one rule and talk about her magic.
Dru stopped along the path to check on some new additions, and Oren strolled along next to her with his hands in his pockets. Jeans and a tee shirt again. And that hint of a tattoo on his arm. She tried not to judge a guy based on his clothes, but damn, she wanted to peel that shirt off and see what meant enough to him that he’d permanently mark his body.
“This place is amazing. You have a real talent with plants.”
Oren’s comment jolted her back from her little fantasy of getting her hands on his bare chest. She straightened and brushed off her fingers. “Thanks. I guess you could say it comes naturally.”
Dru assumed all dryads had similar powers, but in truth, she’d never tested it. Hollis was the only other dryad she’d ever met, and even that had never been in person.
They sat in the same chairs as before, and Oren surprised her by not immediately asking about Vethr again.
“I’m sorry.”
Dru blinked. “For what?”
“I offered to help you, then didn’t follow through.”
“I didn’t actually expect you to show up again.” It was almost a lie. She hadn’t expected, but she’d hoped.
He shrugged. “I did, hence the apology. The offer to help stands, but I’ll need to know more about your problem.”
Up until now, she’d been cautious with him, but she’d run out of time for caution. Samantha had vouched for him that night, and Dru couldn’t ask for a better judge of character. She sighed and said the words she’d managed to avoid since she’d discovered the truth.
“I’m a dryad, but not just any dryad. I’m the royal heir. My mother is Queen Hollis.”
Oren’s brows shot up, but he didn’t retreat like she’d been secretly afraid he’d do. “I thought you were from Connecticut.”
The last of Dru’s stiffness melted away. “I was sent to Terra when I was a baby and adopted by Margaret Collins, who I love dearly. As far as I’m concerned, Margaret was my real mother. I’d have told Hollis to kiss my ass years ago if not for Ljos and the rest of the dryads.”
“What’s yoos?”
Dru smiled. “Ljos is what we call the sacred tree.”
He nodded. “I’ve heard of that.”
“I’m not surprised. It seems like a lot of magic-users are aware of the folklore, but not many realize it’s an actual gigantic tree whose roots connect the magic on the separate realms.”
Oren leaned forward. “That is new information. I recently discovered that some of my kin might be connected to the sacred tree.”
Dru’s eyes narrowed. “Connected how?”
“I’m not sure, but the woman I’m hunting seems to know something about it.”
“And you think she’s with the dryads?”
“Yes.”
Dru whistled. “Well, the good news is you probably won’t have to chase her anywhere else. The bad news is that you’ll probably never get her out of Hollis’ grasp. Once she has control of someone, she doesn’t let go.” Her tone turned increasingly bitter, and Dru had to relax the clenched fists in her lap.
Oren’s eyes softened. “That’s what I was told. Is that why you won’t go back?”
Dru smile ruefully. “Among other things. Before I get into them, let’s get something out of the way before I forget again. What are you?”
Mischief filled his gaze, and Dru wondered what she’d gotten herself into. “I’m part of the Aecantha clan. Most of us reside in one of those separate realms connected to your sacred tree. My ancestors used to live here in Terra, in ancient times, before the humans turned on them and they fled.”
“So, what’s your superpower?”
Oren’s brow furrowed. “Superpower?”
“Yeah, your magical, woo-woo ability.” She wiggled her fingers at him.
“I can shapeshift.” He sent her pointed look. “Among other things.”
Dru forgot her issues for a moment in the sheer possibility. “Like a werewolf?”
Oren scoffed. “Werewolves are a myth. An off
ensive one. We’re not controlled by any outward force. Our magic is tied to our identities, so the way we see ourselves, deep down, is the way the world sees us.”
“What do you shift into if not wolves?”
“That depends on the person. Everyone has a different form that comes easiest, but with practice, we can pick up others.”
“What’s yours?”
Oren paused, so brief it might have simply been him drawing in a breath. “A bear.”
Dru believed him, believed that he could shift into a bear form, but that pause stayed with her. He had secrets of his own. She couldn’t fault him for not sharing them with her during their little heart to heart. As long as they didn’t affect her, she didn’t need to know them.
“Anything else you want to share?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “We have all kinds of rituals and traditions, just like any other group of people. More personally, one of the ways I do my job is through scent-tracking.”
“That sounds like an animal thing.”
“Humans have very developed senses of smell too, you know. In this case, it’s a magically enhanced sense of smell. Everyone has an individual scent. In my case, what I experience is a series of images and traits unique to that person along with a more traditional smell. I use it to find people.”
“Is that how you found me?”
“No. I haven’t used that ability on you.”
Dru gave him an exaggerated once-over. “I can’t quite see it. I think you’re something more than a bear with a sniffing fetish. I admit I’m curious what I’d smell like to you, so let me know when you figure it out.” And it would be a when not an if. She needed him to find the only other dryad in Terra, so he’d need to know what that smelled like too.
How close did he need to be to use his ability? Dru had a flash of his hands fisted in her hair with his mouth hot on her neck and had to look away from his knowing eyes.
A jittery ache made her get up and start checking on her plants surrounding the table. Dru usually loved that new attraction feeling, all fluttery and warm, but getting involved with Oren would be more complicated than her usual hook-ups.
His soft voice followed her. “I don’t mind waiting if you’re not ready to talk about the rest of it.”
Dru grunted in frustration as she moved to the next pot. “I’ve never told anyone this before. It’s hard to figure out where to start.” Not to mention she kept getting side-tracked by her inconvenient attraction.
“How about starting with the other things that are stopping you from going back.”
“Isn’t Hollis enough?” she muttered.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod. “If you say it is.”
“Ugh. It should be.” She stood and propped her dirty hands on her hips, taking a moment to stare up at the blue sky through the canopy of leaves. “I was happy, you know.” Dru shook her head and started to pace.
“You’re not happy now?”
Dru could feel the heat of his eyes on her, but she didn’t know if she could tell him her deepest secrets while looking at his pretty face. “It’s a different kind of happy that I clawed together through sheer will. The happiness before came from ignorance.”
He grunted, and she couldn’t help glancing at him as he gave her a considering look. “I’d think you’d appreciate a happiness you earned more than one bestowed on you.”
His observation hit right at the heart of her, but she didn’t want to dwell on how easily he understood her when people she’d known for years couldn’t.
“Maybe you’re right. But ignorance was all I knew. Imagine my surprise when I accidentally made vines grow out of the electrical outlets in our third-floor dorm room just before my eighteenth birthday. Oh, I didn’t know it was me at first. Hollis gave me a searing headache that night while I was brushing my teeth to tell me ‘surprise, you’re a dryad, now come home and make an heir like a good little princess’.” She glared at Oren when he laughed.
“I’ll bet that didn’t go over well.”
“I told her to fuck right off, and she pulled me into a vision that left me unconscious. I learned all about dryads, with a special emphasis on Hollis’ control issues, and my roommate found me on the floor of the bathroom two hours later.”
Oren’s smile had changed to a scowl while she talked. “She can do that to you? Even at this distance?”
Dru shrugged, but the memory still gave her chills. “She’s the vessel. All dryad magic moves from Ljos through her and into her people, me included. Without a vessel, we lose access to the magic. Too bad for her, I’m not the type to back down. When her little stunt didn’t convince me to run into her open arms, she introduced a different bargaining chip. I’m not her only daughter.”
“Why does she need you then?”
“Only a select few have the right combination of genes and magic to become the next vessel, and Brianne doesn’t. At least, not according to Hollis. She needs me for that honor. As a bonus, she wants me to continue the line so she doesn’t have to search out the next vessel after me. Brianne is her back-up plan because there’s a small chance her offspring will have the right genetics. If I don’t cooperate, she’ll use Brianne to get the heir she wants, whether or not Brianne is on board with that plan.”
Oren cocked his head. “And she thought threatening your sister would make you obey?”
Dru felt the familiar helpless anger begin to stir. “Yeah, and in general that would be a great strategy, but I figured out pretty fast that Hollis has no idea where Brianne is. Her power is severely muted in Terra, so she can’t track us. The most she can do is knock us out for a short period of time.”
He leaned forward. “There’s another dryad in Terra?”
Dru started to pace again. This was the tricky part. Oren wanted a way into the homeworld, but she wasn’t willing to risk delivering Brianne to Hollis’ clutches. She needed him to find her sister without trotting off with her.
“You asked me to take you through the portal, and I will in exchange for you helping me find Brianne.”
“How long have you been looking?”
“A few years, ever since Hollis informed me I’m not an only child. I’m an artist, not a detective, and my mom doesn’t know anything about my life before she adopted me.”
“Why not leave your sister in hiding? It sounds like she’s safe for now.”
“It’s the ‘for now’ I’m worried about. Hollis is looking for her too, and I can’t let her get to Brianne first.”
The scuff of Dru’s feet on the stones filled the silence. She’d left a lot of details out of her story, but like him, her secrets were hers to keep. Time was running out, and her slow approach wouldn’t work anymore. His talents really did sound useful, provided he hadn’t exaggerated his prowess. If she trusted Oren to find Brianne, she could focus on finding a way to act as the vessel without giving up control over the rest of her life.
“Finding your sister doesn’t guarantee protection for either of you.” Oren’s quiet words jumped right to her biggest concern.
“Hollis made the mistake of trying to punish me with knowledge over the years. She should have been more selective in what she taught me. There are ways to hide her.”
“What about you?”
Dru stared into the greenery at the edge of the garden. “I can’t hide. Ljos chose me as the next vessel. My magic is inexorably linked to the sacred tree.”
His chair scraped the ground, but Dru didn’t turn. “Why tell me? You know I only need a dryad to take me through the portal. Your sister would work just as well as you.”
“Maybe I’m testing you.”
He snorted, closer than she’d suspected. “To see if I’ll abandon you and run off for easier prey?”
Dru lifted a shoulder. “Better to find out now when I can do something about it.”
“What would you do about it?” He stood close enough behind her that her hair shifted with his soft words.
“It
wouldn’t be in my best interests to tell you, now would it?”
“Probably not.” She heard the smile in his voice. “But I have no intention of using your sister. I’m much more interested in you.”
Dru turned, but stubbornly stared over his shoulder. “A deal, then. You’ll get passage to Vethr, from me and only me, in exchange for the location of my sister.” Dru shuddered at the thought of facing Hollis before she was ready, but nothing stopped her from providing that passage in her own time.
Oren traced the line of her jaw and tilted her head up to meet his eyes. “I agree.”
Her skin tingled where he’d touched her, and a dusting of magic from their bargain added a pleasant warmth. She expected him to step back now that he’d gotten what he wanted, but Oren surprised her.
“I’m going to need your help to find Brianne.”
“Anything you need.”
“Anything?” His gaze dropped to her mouth, and a thrum of awareness heated her blood.
“Within reason. My abilities aren’t that great. I can make stuff grow. I’m not a superhero.”
He nodded and dropped his hand. Dru berated herself for not taking his opening. She’d had full relationships with less intensity. None had known as much about her as Oren now did.
A smile spread across his lips. “What do your rules say about this turn of events?”
She let out a shaky laugh and looked away. “That we’re tempting fate by working together. Everyone knows proximity leads to attachment, but I can’t afford to ask anyone else for help. This is the only shot I have at changing my fate, and I’ve been fighting for it alone.”
“You’re not alone anymore.”
The idea of letting someone else take some of her weight, even for a short time, was a luxury she’d given up on. Oren had the potential to be an excellent cohort. Maybe with his help, she really could change her fate. Dru let out the breath she’d been holding, staring at the tip of his tattoo. As long as he wasn’t expecting a serious commitment, Dru had no problem mixing business and pleasure. She lightly trailed her hand along the edge of the mark. “I’m dying to know what this is. If I ask really nicely, will you take your top off?”
