by Nicole Hall
The choice would always be Dru. She wasn’t ready to trust yet? He would wait, but he wouldn’t do it passively. This time, Oren would do everything in his power to act. He’d keep showing her she was safe with him, keep protecting her, keep loving her. Whether she realized that was the truth or not.
With that settled in his mind, Oren turned his focus to convincing Bri to return to the city with him. His latest information had Bri living in the bottom left apartment with two roommates. Time to go to work. Oren made sure he had the cards for his identification before leaving the car. At Seth’s request, Luc had supplied documents that allowed him to operate in Terra without drawing suspicion.
He knocked at her door and waited out the shuffle on the other side. Worst case scenario, she would refuse to answer. It had happened before. His large form intimidated a lot of people. After counting at least four locks clicking, the door squeaked open an inch. He could see two more locks holding it closed, but he’d bet one well-placed kick would get past them. Not that he intended to kick his way into Bri’s home.
“Yes?” A female voice, but whoever it was kept themselves behind the weight of the door. Probably watching him through the peephole.
“I’m looking for Brianne Piper.”
The door shook. “There’s no one here by that name. Sorry.”
She tried to close it, but Oren stopped it with his palm, wincing at the gasp on the other side. The scent alone told him he was talking to Bri. “Tall girl, brilliant green eyes, probably wearing a lot of black.” He pulled out the identification he had for these exact moments and held it up. “I’m an investigator. Her sister’s looking for her.”
The pressure on the door eased. “What sister?”
Oren dropped his hand. “They were both adopted by different families. Her name is Dru Collins.”
The door shut, and this time, he didn’t intervene. The last few locks slid away, and Oren got his first look at the new Bri. Tall and willowy, like Dru, wearing black leggings and a black tank top. She’d kept her hair dark, but cut it short and jagged around her face. A face that jolted him. Like in the photos, Bri could be Dru’s twin, except for the light scrape across her cheekbone. He wasn’t quite prepared for the gut punch of missing Dru.
She crossed her arms and raised her chin defiantly. “Hypothetically, if I knew where Bri was, what would this Dru want?”
This was the tricky part. He had to reveal enough to get her to listen, but not so much to scare her off. “You might want to come outside to talk.”
Bri raised a brow. “Why?”
“Because I’m not sure you want your roommates hearing about magic and a psychotic dryad queen.”
Her eyes widened, and she took a step onto the concrete patio crowded with junk, closing the door behind her. “Are you insane? You can’t talk about that stuff out here.”
Oren backed up, making sure she had plenty of space to feel unthreatened. “Dru wants to talk to you, and she also wants to make sure you’re safe from Hollis.”
“Why didn’t she come?”
He grimaced. “I pissed her off right before I came up here. There was a chance my information was outdated again—I’ve been tracking you for a while—so I came out here alone.”
“And now you want me to just hop in the car with you and drive off to the city with no guarantee for my protection?”
This wasn’t going well. “Yes, but when you phrase it like that I can understand your hesitation.”
“Oh, can you?” Bri’s sarcasm came out much thicker than Dru’s.
“Look, I don’t actually expect you to come with me, though showing up with you would certainly make Dru less angry. Hollis is a threat to you as long as she believes you’re the key to making Dru obey.”
She shook her head wearily. “I’m not interested in any of the fucked-up dryad politics. I just want everyone to leave me alone.”
Oren tried a different tact. “You may not be safe alone.”
“Better than with people who could get hurt because of me. Or hurt me. I don’t need anyone’s protection, and I certainly don’t want it. Anything else?”
He blew out a breath and tried to keep his movements easy despite his frustration. Dru was willing to risk her life to keep her ungrateful sister safe, but this girl wasn’t interested. Contrary to Dru’s terrible plan, he wasn’t going to abduct her and spirit her away to Samantha’s row house, though at the moment the thought tempted him. “Will you at least talk to her?”
Bri’s face softened for a split second, then her hardened mask returned. “There’s no point. I don’t care that I have a sister. As long as Hollis is the queen of the dryads, I’m staying far away from that mess. Good luck to her.”
“She wants to stop Hollis, and she needs your help.”
Bri turned away, but paused with her hand on the knob to speak over her shoulder. “That’s not my problem.”
The wind shifted, and Oren caught a hint of a familiar smell off to their left toward the trees. He moved in an instant, shifting his body between Bri and the threat.
“Get inside.”
Instead of listening, her eyes narrowed, and she turned to peer around him. Stubborn defiance must run in the family. A sharp pain hit his shoulder blade, and he stumbled forward to brace himself on the wall next to her.
Bri crouched down, using him for cover. “Who the fuck did you lead to me?”
Oren gritted his teeth against the pain spreading across his back and the sudden lethargy making his arms heavy. He didn’t feel blood, so most likely a dart with a sedative. “Probably whoever wanted to scare Dru into running back to Hollis. You need to get inside. I can’t go after him if it leaves you here defenseless in plain sight.”
Her eyes flashed up at him. “I told you. I’m not defenseless.”
His eyebrows shot up as she grabbed a decorative rock near their feet, took aim, and launched it toward the trees. Her makeshift projectile crashed through the branches and collided with something metallic. A curse echoed from the trees, then a man walked into the open with a scowl on his face. Oren glanced down at Bri, who shrugged.
“I have an affinity for earth and stone.”
Oren turned to face the attacker, but swayed on his feet. Average height, brown eyes, brown hair, normal except for the red mark he rubbed on his wrist. They’d found the person who’d hired Hank.
He stopped at the edge of the grass, and Oren made it two steps before his legs gave out. Bri cursed behind him, but he didn’t hear the door. The damn woman had no survival instincts. On his hands and knees, Oren shook his head to clear his blurry vision and bring the attacker back into focus.
The man smiled and a dimple appeared, but his eyes stayed cold. “Magic tranq. A little sedative mixed with a hell of a sleep whammy. I had one for the girl too, but her rock managed to disable my gun. Inconvenient, but at least I got rid of the larger threat.”
Oren growled and tried to embrace the bear, but his magic wouldn’t cooperate. His body had already healed from the physical sedative, but the spell stuck and spread over him. A bit of sleep and a bit of paralysis—the combination meant he’d be incapacitated until someone broke it, but this asshole didn’t have to know that. “You’d better hope you’re not around when this wears off.”
His eyes narrowed, and he backed up a step. “Big talk for someone who’s about to be napping on the front lawn. It won’t matter anyway. Hollis assured me protection and marriage to her eldest daughter if I followed her bidding.”
White hot rage burned through Oren. Another dryad. Dru’s betrothed, no less. The one they’d dismissed as unimportant. Oren tried to call his magic, but the shield he’d put between him and Dru cut him off from a good portion of it and the spell did the rest.
“Dru will never marry you,” Oren slurred.
“That’s not her choice, though convincing her to cooperate would have been a lot easier if you hadn’t stolen my position of savior.” He crouched, following Oren as he slumped to the ground. �
��Now it’s my turn to enjoy her appreciation.”
Fehr roared in Oren’s mind, but the dragon’s magic had no effect either. Fury helped him fight the spell a little longer, and Oren vowed that this dryad would not survive the coming battle. The other man chuckled and walked past him toward the concrete patio where Bri still hadn’t gone inside. The ground around him shuddered as his cheek hit the sparse grass.
“Get your grubby hands off of me.” Oren tried to follow Bri’s shout, but he couldn’t move his head. A thud followed by a male groan of pain made him want to smile. He liked Dru’s sister.
His eyes started to close, but Bri reappeared in his line of sight, waving a huge wrench at least as long as her forearm. She stopped next to his head, too close for him to make out anything except her toes painted electric blue.
“Next time, I’m going for distance,” she yelled.
A quiet pop broke the silence, then Bri grunted and collapsed to the ground with a dart sticking out of her thigh. Uneven footsteps came closer as Oren began to black out.
The dryad crouched in front of Bri. “Always have a backup weapon. Sorry, princess. She wanted you both.”
DRU
Nick insisted on making coffee before spilling his guts. The dark circles under his eyes when he’d shown up at the door convinced Dru not to fight on this one. She waited calmly while he made two cups and carried them to the coffee table. He settled himself on the cushions, sipped, and closed his eyes in apparent caffeinated rapture. When he shifted and glanced at the kitchen again, Dru met the end of her patience.
“No. No more stalling. I get this is a sore spot between us, but you’re the only one who knows Hollis’ inner workings.”
Nick balanced his cup on his thigh and grimaced. “I honestly spend large chunks of my day trying to forget about Vethr. Forgive me if I’m hesitant.”
Dru reached out and laid a hand on his arm. “Thank you for coming. And for trying to protect me all these years, even if it started as an order from Hollis. I’m glad you came into my life.”
Nick stared down at her hand, then nodded slowly. “I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to say, but you have to know that if you plan to go back, I’m going with you.”
She shook her head and leaned back, breaking their contact. “No, you’re not. I don’t need you handing Hollis another weapon against me. Bad enough she claims to know where Bri is.”
He looked up, startled. “Aren’t you concerned about that?”
“Yes and no. I’ve spent the last couple of years freaking out that Hollis might find her, but I never considered how that affected Bri’s life. Hollis only wants her as a way to force my hand, so prolonging my return makes hiding harder on Bri. I’d thought finding her myself and keeping her safe was the best option, but I ignored the idea that confronting my role would do the same, and on my terms.”
His brow furrowed. “I only followed part of that.”
“The short version is that if I take myself out of the equation, Bri isn’t important to Hollis anymore and is therefore protected.” Dru plucked at a loose thread on the couch. “Can she force me to complete the link to Ljos?”
Nick’s face softened. “She hasn’t forced a link before, but then, I don’t believe she’s had to.” He mulled his answer for a bit. “I think I can talk about general dryad information as long as it doesn’t reference you directly.”
“Good. I’ve seen Ljos and I’ve seen the throne room, but only through mirrors. How close are they to each other physically?”
His eyes narrowed. “Why? What are you planning?”
Dru glared at him and grabbed her rapidly cooling coffee from the table. “The plan is still in flux. Answer the question.”
“Hollis moved the throne room to Ljos’ chamber. I suspect she wanted the constant reminder of her power.”
She took a sip and grimaced at the bitter taste. Next time, more sugar. “Is there another access to Ljos somewhere else?”
“Yes. Ljos is huge. Hollis’ throne room has an open roof and wide walls built around the top part of the tree. There’s a lower chamber that houses the sacred waters. Looks like a cave.” He shrugged. “Probably is a cave, considering.”
“Considering what?”
“Ljos’ magic is transmitted through the waters, not through the tree.”
Dru’s mouth dropped open, then snapped shut. In all her research and learning, she’d missed that crucial detail. She was the vessel, dammit. Why did her knowledge have holes in it? “You’re saying Hollis wants to be associated with the grandeur of Ljos without letting anyone else near the actual power?”
He nodded slowly, searching her face. “That sounds accurate.”
“Perfect,” she muttered. “How can she use my ascension as the vessel for her own purposes if the waters are in an entirely different room?”
Nick’s brows drew together. “Who taught you about dryad magic? You know what, nevermind. It’s not important. You drink the water, then you connect the link in here.” He tapped her chest, closer to her collarbone than her heart, but she got his gist. “It’s in you. It doesn’t matter where you’re standing when it happens.”
Dru opened her mouth to ask another question, but a yawn emerged instead. She felt strangely lethargic considering it was only mid-afternoon. Apparently, a battle with a goblin and his ‘horde’ followed by news that nearly destroyed her emotionally made her a mite tired. Another yawn snuck up on her, and she had to blink a couple of times to get rid of the fuzziness at the edges of her vision.
When she focused on Nick again, he’d put his coffee cup onto the table and leaned toward her. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head and the room spun a couple of extra times after she’d stopped moving. “No. Everything went weird.”
He peered at her, but his concern didn’t reach the appropriate level of panic for what she’d just said.
She felt the panic just fine, but there wasn’t much she could do about it when the room wouldn’t stay still and her eyes kept trying to close on their own. Prickles danced over her skin, but she couldn’t figure out the source. Dru reached for Nick, and he grasped her flailing hand.
“There’s something wrong with me.” Fear crept into her voice, but she had bigger worries than acting tough.
“I know.”
With concentrated effort, she focused on his face, his eyes full of remorse. “Nick, did you drug my coffee?”
“Sort of. I wasn’t sure a regular human sedative would work, so I had to use a magic one. Sorry, Dru. I can’t have you fighting me. You might win, and then where would we be?”
The pain of betrayal flared hot again, even as she struggled to stay awake. “It was you. The man closest to me. She meant you.”
Nick caught her shoulders with gentle hands as she lost the battle to stay upright. “It’s not what you think. I’m trying to protect you. Hollis ordered me to find Bri and use her as a hostage to make you return. Now you want to return on your own?” He shook his head with a dry laugh. “No way. I can’t let you go back.”
She slumped to the couch, and her eyes fell closed. Dru heard the door open, and the cushions under her jostled as Nick shifted. The darkness surrounding her got heavier along with her body.
From far away, she heard his confused voice. “What are you doing here?” Then nothing.
15
DRU
Dru woke suddenly in a large, fancy bed with her heart racing. She gasped and sat up, throwing off the heavy covers she’d been laying under. Tiny balls of light floated near the canopy providing enough illumination to see that she wasn’t in the apartment anymore. Silk drapes with threads of glimmering gold blocked off the mattress area from the rest of the room. Dru peeked through them to see a soaring ceiling held up by four massive tree trunks in the corners.
The walls showed murals of twilight forests that bled into the night sky above her. It looked so realistic that Dru had to squint to see the boundaries of the space. Whoever had decorated had
clearly spent the majority of the budget on the amazing paint job since the furniture consisted of the bed, a small side table, a wardrobe, and a vanity with a wash basin.
She pushed through the curtains and dropped her feet to the cool tile floor. Her head spun as soon as she stood, but it cleared up almost immediately. Nick’s nasty little coffee didn’t seem to be causing any lasting effects. Another point for super-healing. Too bad his stupid plan didn’t seem to have worked as she’d ended up in Vethr anyway.
This place didn’t feel like Nick—too ostentatious—but the room reflected Hollis perfectly. All it needed was a few more mirrors. Then again, if Dru was in Vethr, Hollis would never put her unconscious daughter in her own room. Most likely a guest room, not that Hollis welcomed guests. She couldn’t risk word getting around to the other realms of her plan to make herself all-powerful.
Dru waited for the panic or terror, but none came. Her magic pulled her toward something large and powerful below her, and the bond pulled her up, as if one draw was situated above the other. Strange that she’d feel the bond so strongly in another realm. Dru chewed on her bottom lip. Oren would freak out, but she didn’t want to reach out to him. If she’d ended up in Vethr through Nick’s meddling, at least she’d managed to keep Oren safe by leaving him in Terra.
She circled the room, but there were no windows to orient herself. No weapons either, not that she knew how to use any. The pull from the bond slowly increased, and Dru had the horrible feeling that something was wrong. How could it be that she’d been afraid of this moment for nearly ten years, but when it finally arrived, she couldn’t get past her worry for the shapeshifter she’d left behind?
A tiny voice whispered that she needed him here. That his presence in her life was a gift, and she’d thrown it away. Dru shook her head to dislodge the voice. They should have had another month, but Nick had messed up the time table. Oren or not, her return to Vethr meant she had to deal with the situation at hand. She’d better not fuck it up.
