“I surrender,” she said as she draped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest.
“Hmmm. Much better,” he rumbled happily and wrapped his arms tighter around her. Contentment flowed through his body with each beat of his heart. He smiled into her hair. “Never doubt my love for you.”
“I’m sorry for being a needy twit. I think I’m going to blame it on hormones.”
Gregory laughed and rested his hand on her belly. His happiness swelled. “Sleep. The morning will be here too soon.”
Lillian snuggled closer and soon fell asleep in his arms.
“I’m glad you have found some happiness in this realm.”
Gregory glanced over his shoulder to find Daryna sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hair was now neatly plaited into one long braid. She studied him without a hint of jealousy or judgment.
Muscles in his back that he hadn’t even realized had tensed up soon relaxed.
“Is it too much to ask to lay beside you while we sleep? In truth, I do not know if I can sleep without you.”
Gregory had been starting to let his guard down, but at her request, he felt the return of his earlier unease. Then a moment later he chastised himself for his foolishness. This was the Sorceress.
“Of course you may rest beside me.”
“Thank you, my beloved gargoyle,” she said as she climbed into bed beside him.
She snuggled into his back as one arm circled around his waist. Then a brush of warm lips against the sensitive skin between his wings promised trouble for him at a later time.
Some of his earlier contentment dimmed.
Chapter Three
Daryna allowed herself to drowse while she waited for Gregory to drift off to sleep. Lillian had already succumbed, but their gargoyle beloved was still trying to be vigilant even though he had to be bone weary. He’d been in an epic fight with Gryton just hours ago, and that offensive collar around his throat had almost destroyed him.
She could still see the delicate tracing of pale lines across his dark skin even after she’d done what she could to heal him while in her hamadryad form.
Sitting up in bed, she stroked a hand along his flank. “Sleep, my gargoyle. I will protect you and Lillian while you both rest and heal.”
“I know,” he said in a sleepy voice.
Daryna smiled when he relaxed, obeying her gentle command. “That’s it. Lillian is safe for now.”
Her beloved gargoyle reached back and laid his hand over hers, stopping its exploring. Daryna laid back down and snuggled into the space between his wings and wrapped an arm around Gregory’s waist. She couldn’t stay long. There was still too much she had to do before dawn, but she enjoyed the closeness too much to pull away even after he’d fallen asleep.
She gave herself a half hour to listen to his deep, even breathing and then she reached up and placed her fingers against his throat, tracing the tattoo branded there.
While she had been a hamadryad, she’d studied how the tattoos worked. She’d also made changes to them that allowed her to control the hosts. The thought unsettled her, but it would be necessary this night to take control of them while she dealt with another who needed her attention.
It would be only for this one time. After that, she would find other ways to visit Gryton.
“Sleep. And do not wake.”
Gregory snorted out a surprised huff, but soon drifted off to sleep again, unable to fight the gentle compulsion.
Next, she reached farther for Lillian’s collar. She repeated the same command, and the dryad didn’t even stir awake in Gregory’s arms.
Once she was certain the command had a firm hold on them both she slipped from the bed.
She needed to have a long conversation with her eldest son.
As she ghosted from the large stone building Lillian and Gregory now called home, Daryna mulled over what she’d learned about her eldest son.
While she and Durnathyne had both been destroyed at the moment of their son’s birth and later had their memories wiped upon return to the Spirit Realm, she’d learned Gryton’s parentage the moment he’d used her hamadryad to travel to the Mortal Realm.
He’d been unaware what all his unguarded mind had revealed to the hamadryad, thinking her nothing more than a common dryad tree. But as the Sorceress, she’d seen much more than a regular hamadryad.
Now she knew a fair bit about Gryton. Unfortunately, she also knew she couldn’t share this knowledge with her gargoyle protector just yet.
While Gregory might not consider the child Lillian carried a blasphemy since she hadn’t actually been the Sorceress at the time she’d conceived, it did not mean Gregory would see their eldest child in the same light.
Sacred vows had been shattered to bring Gryton into the universe.
But Gryton was more than broken vows, he was the product of her and her gargoyle’s love for each other. It was a forbidden love, but still no less pure for all that.
She refused to believe something born of that pure love could be as evil as they’d always been taught.
When she’d still been a hamadryad, she’d looked into Gryton’s mind. On the surface, his thoughts were all cold, hard edges, disdain, and ruthlessness. Under that had been a chaotic mix of desperation, hatred, and despair. Overlapping it all, threads of loneliness and a deep rooted need to belong had run throughout and interconnected all those other darker emotions.
It was about what she’d have expected of a creature who had been hunted all his life and the only being in the entire universe willing to protect him and teach him had been the Lady of Battles.
But Daryna knew he existed now.
She would protect and guide him while she dug for the good; that potential he’d been born with that she knew was still buried somewhere deep within. Convincing her other half might take almost as much time and care as teaching Gryton, but Gregory would see the truth in time.
Besides, Gryton was no more flawed than the Twins. And both Lord Death and the Lady of Battles had been created by Divine will and had nearly destroyed the universe in their last fight for dominion.
Gryton’s crimes were nothing when compared to the Twins’.
He’d slew a few humans in his quest to fulfill his mission…but their lives were already such swiftly burning embers, what matter that a few burned shorter than the rest? Death was just part of existence—had been since the Divine Ones had first commanded their Avatars to birth the Twins into the universe.
What were a few more lives in a world where over a hundred thousand mortals died each day?
If the Divine Ones had actually cared for all their creations, they shouldn’t have sat back and allowed the Twins to wage war against each other. They’d allowed the Lady of Battles to rampage on long past when she should have been stopped.
If not for the Divine Ones’ misplaced compassion, the Battle Goddess would have been killed long ago so she could rejoin her beloved consort in the Spirit Realm. Perhaps even to one day returned to the Magic Realm healed and whole.
But that wasn’t Daryna’s concern.
As for Lord Death, he’d always been a friend. She would regret having to destroy him as well, but while one twin lived, so too did the other. To kill one, both had to die.
It was part of their birthright, born at the same moment and of the same magic. The duality curse that prevented the Lady of Battles from escaping her temple was also powered by the same magic.
But the demigoddess had proven she could manipulate events far outside her own realm, even while still locked within her temple. As a punishment, the duality curse was not enough. She had to be stopped once and for all.
Daryna already knew her other half would not agree, she doubted if Lillian would either. Although, the soul link between them might make Lillian more malleable to Daryna’s plans over time. Perhaps.
Caution and secrecy would be best for now. She would study Lillian and Gregory, as well as their new allies to determine if any of them could
be trusted with her plans or if she would have to act alone.
If she did have to enact her plan herself, she would still succeed. It would simply take a little longer. In the meantime, if she needed a distraction, she could pit Lillian and Gregory against each other. Though, the idea of setting them at odds sickened her.
They were one being—intended to have one unified focus, not a fractured relationship that created a divide between them. However, if setting Lillian and their beloved gargoyle against each other was the only way to save all the realms from the Lady of Battles’ treachery, Daryna would suffer the pain and do it.
That the Lady of Battles had nearly succeeded in taking command of Lillian using a demon seed only proved how dangerous the demigoddess had become. With or without her allies’ help, Daryna would overthrow the Battle Goddess and her twin, Lord Death, replacing them herself if she had to.
As Avatars of the Divine Ones, she and Gregory were certainly capable of filling those roles.
Then she had another thought. Their son might like the chance to usurp the Battle Goddess’ throne himself. She could think of none more deserving. If he proved to be what she believed him to be.
Chapter Four
Once Daryna left the large stone cottage and surrounding gardens behind, she allowed herself to relax and enjoy the walk. She still kept the concealment spell wrapped tightly around her body, though. To be discovered now would be…awkward.
She passed all manner of Clan, Coven and military personnel.
Luckily, her spells hid her from view as well as any gargoyle’s shadow magic. She continued on out into the night, following the garden paths to their ends and then farther out into the night shrouded forest. She still had a couple hours of darkness left, and Gregory would sleep for at least that long.
Once she deemed herself deep enough into the forest to hide the bright flare of power a transportation spell would release, Daryna called her magic to her. At her summons, a mix of raw spirit magic swirled ten feet in front of her where it combine with the warmer variety born of the Magic Realm.
A shimmering portal formed in the air and she crossed into it and emerged more than three day’s walk from where she had started. As soon as she emerged from the portal spell, she could sense Gryton’s presence.
Good. He hadn’t found a way free yet. That would certainly make it easier to talk to him. Had he somehow managed to escape at least she’d already drank enough of his blood as a hamadryad to be able to track him anywhere.
But this was better than chasing her son all over the forest simply to have a chat with him.
She started forward again, weaving her way through a pleasantly scented boreal forest until she came to a cliff of rock where the bones of the earth poked up out of the ground. A few thousand years ago, a glacier had slid through the area and then later receded, leaving behind a few hills and valleys and the rocky terrain she now walked toward. She’d stashed Gryton away in one of the natural caverns that dotted the area.
Standing outside the narrow entrance to the cave, Daryna studied the primitive but eye-catching art that some ancient people had once drawn upon the stone walls. But no one had lived here for a few thousand years. Well, not unless Gryton counted.
She ventured through the dark, narrow entrance. Squeezing past three separate outcroppings of stone and then picking her way carefully over a few pieces of loose rubble, she finally emerged into the cavern beyond. The walls continued to widen the further back into the cavern she went.
Overall, one could make a fairly nice home here if one was to put some effort into it. Daryna hoped Gryton would see reason and wouldn’t have to stay here too long.
She clambered over a slope where the cavern floor humped up before smoothing into a flat, serviceable area that covered the rest of the cavern. Once she was over the last patch of rough ground, she called to life a glowing ball of light that hovered in her palm for a moment before she sent it floating out ahead of her.
The ball of magic burned like pure fire but needed no fuel beyond her own power. She directed it off to one side of the cavern and then summoned several more of the little balls into being.
The brighter light now revealed her son chained to the bare bedrock by coils of twisting and shifting power. She’d designed the spells to leech energy from him, preventing him from losing control of his magic but also to stop any attempts at escape. Her spells had continued to strip his magic from him until the levels had stabilized.
For now, he was safe, but this intervention wasn’t a long-term solution. She’d have to begin teaching her son this night if he had any hope of surviving free of the Battle Goddess’ influence as well as avoiding Gregory’s notice.
“I will destroy you. All those you love will know agony. This world will burn with my death!” He struggled, heaving himself a few inches off the ground. The magic tightened, roughly slamming him back down. But it only seemed to fuel his need to escape, and he continued to twist and thrash as he tried to snap the coils holding him.
After a long battle accompanied by snarled curses in a good two dozen languages, Gryton collapsed back to the ground and panted, his fit over for now.
Hmmm. Gryton did not seem like he would be the most willing of students.
Well, she would not be the first mother who had to deal with an unruly child.
She walked around him in a half-circle and then knelt next to him. He uttered something else unpleasant in a guttural tone that was actually rather impossible.
Daryna raised an eyebrow and then chuckled as he continued to spew venomous words at her. “Is that any way to talk to your mother?”
Reaching down, she flipped up his helmet’s visor.
Ah. His eyes. They were beautiful. Dark, liquid chocolate with a ring of flaming gold around the outside. The pupils were vertical, like a cat’s. Hmmm. Or a dragon’s.
Briefly, she wondered what form her soul had been clothed in when she’d conceived Gryton. Having one’s memories wiped was a great annoyance, but one she wouldn’t allow to get the better of her. She would recover as much knowledge as she could and put it to good use.
But first, she would just drink in the sight of her and Durnathyne’s son.
“You are beautiful,” she said and took in the sight of his golden-brown skin that held a hint of a bronze tone. There was a delicate tracing of iridescent scales around his eyes that swept back toward his hairline. From what she could see that wasn’t hidden by the rest of his helmet, he possessed a mane, black and thick and unruly like his father’s.
She fingered a bit that had escaped to curl around the edge of his helmet. It was soft. The only softness she could find. His eyes had narrowed dangerously, and his lips pulled back from his fangs. He suddenly drew in a deep breath and a rumble built in his chest.
Daryna placed a single finger across his lips. “Before you try to breathe fire on me, there are a few things I’d like to say, my beautiful one.”
Her actions or words seem to surprise him, for he held himself still and watched her with some uncertainty showing in his expression.
“I truly am sorry your father and I could not have been there when you were first born to guide and train you in the use of your powers. The Divine Ones recalled us to the Spirit Realm and wiped our memories within moments of your birth. But I am here now. I will teach you what you need to know to survive and control your power.”
To add credence to her words, she waved a hand at the coils of magic holding Gryton down, and they vanished, freeing him. While he was still too shocked by her words and actions to even think to escape, she continued.
“My aid comes freely, and I require nothing of you in return. However, if you come to trust me and are willing to assist me, we can achieve greatness together. If the Lady of Battles is allowed to continue as she has, she will rampage across all three realms until her madness, and twisted grief destroys all creation. I do not plan to allow that to happen.”
She stood and then held out a hand to him.
He stared at her offer of help but did not take it, instead rolling swiftly to his knees and standing without aid.
He towered over her, but she did not feel threatened.
His chest still rose and fell rapidly from his earlier exertions, but he did not attack.
“Why?” The word came out in a growl.
“Why am I willing to help you? Or why am I willing to go after the Battle Goddess?”
Gryton tilted his head and studied her. “Both.”
“Because I am your mother. That is reason enough. But if you want more it is also because I think the Divine Ones were wrong in their judgment. My gargoyle protector and I have served the Light since the beginning. We have never served our own desires over the needs of the Light. But in our last life, we chose differently and were punished for our choice. I can see that in your memories.”
Gryton took a step back as if that small distance was enough to prevent her from seeing into his mind. It wasn’t. “Durnathyne and I chose to create you. I do not know the full reason, but I can guess. Even then we knew where the Battle Goddess’ madness would lead.”
Her son reached up and slammed his visor back into place and then half turned, like he was planning to leave—or more likely flee.
“You are my son. I fully believe that no child born from the Avatars great love for each other could ever be inherently evil. I offer you my loyalty, love, and knowledge freely. I will train you. You are not evil, no matter what the Battle Goddess has taught you to believe. You did not choose to be the way you are. You were given no choice. You protected yourself the only way you could, aligning yourself with the only one who would offer you shelter.”
He laughed and continued away, heading for the tunnel that would lead to freedom. “I am not some soft innocent in need of your protection.”
“No,” Daryna agreed. “But you do need training. A great deal more training to reach your full potential and to learn how to hide completely from my other half. Your father is set in his ways. It will take some time before he is ready to meet you.”
Sorceress at War (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 4) Page 3
