Yes, but for a limited time. She was cursed from the moment she slay the first unicorn, her immortality taken.
“She is no longer immortal?”
No, not in the way she used to be, but she has taken unicorn blood to lengthen her life.
“How was this allowed?” Zaira meant no disrespect but could not keep the anger out of her voice. “This land is protected by magic, and by force, yet we walked right in.”
You are not our enemy. You are our salvation. However, had you not had our brother’s spirit with you, you would have never found the entrance.
“How did she? Fairuza not only found entrance to the realm, she took lives.”
“Even the most powerful of warriors can not defeat prophesy.”
They turned toward the new voice at their back and saw a centaur, his body criss-crossed with cuts and scrapes.
“Holy shit.” The exclamation poured from Mercury’s lips on a breath of disbelief.
“Centaurs aren’t that uncommon overall, when you consider all the known realms,” Merta explained.
“Please watch your language, Mercury. This is sacred land.”
“Sorry, White Wolf.” Mercury bowed his hand, chastised.
Zaira offered him a nod. He knew no better therefore no true offense had been made.
“You fought her?” Addix asked, standing. He reached down and helped Zaira to her feet.
“Of course,” the centaur responded. “We could not just stand by and watch the slaughter, even if we knew it was a battle we would lose. Our nature, and our role as protectors of this realm, would not allow such inaction. We lost many.”
“I’m sorry.” Addix’s voice broke.
“As the unicorn said, it is not your fault. You have never been blamed for the first strike. You are not to be blamed for this. You are here now, after all, to end the evil.”
“But the lives already taken…” Zaira turned back to the stallion. “How many survived? Is it only you?”
Two mares and myself. One mare is already carrying young. The other and I will do what we can to repopulate. As you know, it can take years of coupling for our kind before fertilization.
“Say no more.” Zaira shifted into her wolf form, threw back her head and howled, a long melodic sound. As she howled, warmth spread through her body and traveled the distance to the unicorn. Her wolves called it a blessing, but it was just a spell, one of her most powerful.
The unicorn reared up on its hind legs and neighed, shaking its head as it settled back down.
I feel magic in me. What did you do?
“Go to your mare tonight,” Zaira instructed after shifting back. “She will conceive twins.”
Thank you, Zaira.
“It is the least I can do.”
A group of centaurs stepped into the clearing. The one who’d spoken to them, their leader, stopped directly in front of them. “She left the realm before you arrived. She has fed off multiple unicorns so she will not be back for some time. You must use this time to put an end to her reign of terror so this does not happen again. Fulfill your duty and no blood will spill again on this land.”
“I was told I had to come here,” Addix said, brow crinkled in thought. “I don’t understand. Was I late?”
No. This was predestined. Your duty was not to stop it this time. It is to keep it from happening again.
“So why was I told to come here?” His lip curled in disgust as he looked at the bodies. “Why was I supposed to see this if I wasn’t supposed to prevent it?”
You were not told to come alone. You were told to bring the one who would save us all. She had to see this so she would know what was at stake, in case she loses her nerve. The unicorn stepped forward until it stood directly before Zaira. When the time comes to do what must be done, you must not hesitate.
The unicorn touched its horn to her head, turned, and galloped away.
“We will clean up this carnage,” the centaur advised them after the unicorn disappeared from view behind a mountain of Quartz. “The power of her feast is thrumming through her veins now. The more time passes the more that power will drain. However, the more time passes the greater her thirst for more will intensify. Don’t rush in, but don’t wait too long.”
“Gee, that helps.”
Zaira and Addix spun around, effectively shushing Mercury with a mere look.
“Make sure you are well rested,” the centaur continued, voice now laced with irritation, “and keep your defenses up. She knows you are coming. It is why she killed so many at once. She was preparing herself.”
TEN
The realm Zaira had brought them to was dark and cold. It was one big massive land of black nothingness. Rocky, with sparse patches of trees here and there, but Addix couldn’t shake off the thought that they were the only living creatures in the realm.
“Trees are living creatures.”
Addix jerked, surprised. Zaira hadn’t spoken since they’d left Twilight Springs. No one had. Merta knew his moods and therefore knew he didn’t feel like talking, and Mercury probably didn’t know what the hell to say. He’d glanced at the guy a few times and found him so deep in thought he wouldn’t have been surprised if the man walked straight into a tree.
“Eavesdropping into my thoughts?”
Zaira frowned, glanced over at him and just as quickly looked away. “You must have been projecting.”
He tossed a questioning look over his shoulder. Catching it, Merta shook her head. She hadn’t heard a thing. He hadn’t been projecting. However, he had bigger problems to worry about than Zaira reading his thoughts uninvited.
“How many realms do we need to go through to get to Imortia?”
“At the end of this one, we’ll have a short but potentially dangerous one to traverse through, then the rest overlap so we can breeze right through them. You’re sure you can get us into Imortia? That whole banishment thing kind of prevents me from creating a passageway.”
“I’ll help create the passageway. We just need you to lead the way there.”
She nodded and they continued on in silence for another hour.
“We’re at the entrance to the next realm,” Zaira announced, stopping at the top of a cliff.
Addix stepped to the cliff’s edge, looked down. “Is this where the passageway opens?”
“Yes.”
He couldn’t even see the bottom of the canyon, of course the darkness had a little to do with that too. If not for the fact that they were Weres, they wouldn’t have been able to see a thing in the dark realm. No moon. Barely a smattering of stars. A non-Were wouldn’t have even seen the cliff, would have walked straight over. He kicked a rock, listened for the sound of it hitting the bottom. And listened. And listened. And listened some more. The sound didn’t come. He looked over to see Mercury looking over the canyon, his face as pale as an Asian-African man’s face could get. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Relax, Merc. When the passageway opens, it leads right to the realm we’ll be entering. Flat ground. You’re not actually going over any cliff.”
“Unless you roll over in your sleep and take a tumble,” Zaira warned. “Try not to do that.”
“We’re sleeping here?”
“You heard the centaur. We need to be well rested and prepared when we face off with Fairuza. This next realm is going to be a rough one to get through. We should rest now while we can, then rest again outside of Imortia.”
“The centaur also said Fairuza knew we were coming,” Mercury reminded them, as if they needed the reminder. “There’s no cover here. Are we to just sleep on the ground out in the open?”
Zaira raised an arm, sparks flew. A large tent appeared, fully set up, at the edge of the clearing. Trees groaned as their trunks bent. They arched over the tent, providing a canopy of protective coverage from above.
“That should make you feel safer. This realm doesn’t get much use though. I doubt Fairuza even knows it exists. I’ll start a fire.”
“No.
” Addix stopped her as she raised her hand. “No need to waste your energy on tasks that can be done easily enough without magic. Mercury and Merta can gather some wood. Merta can light a fire with very little effort.”
He nodded toward his dragon shifter, dismissing her.
“Now I know why we were told to pack light,” Mercury, the only one of them with a backpack, murmured to her as he passed. “Think she can just make money out of nothing like that?”
Addix grinned at the young man’s comment, appreciating the moment of humor in an otherwise horrific night. Glancing over at Zaira, he sighed. No smile played with her mouth. She stood there, staring at the ground, arms wrapped around her middle. Lost. Hurting.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what we’d find there. I wasn’t prepared for it either.”
“You said you were told to bring me there. By who?”
Addix looked away as he searched for an answer. Zaira was the most caring person he’d ever known, which was why he loved her. Yes, she was beautiful, the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on, but it was her heart that had ensnared him. She already carried guilt over the hunters sent to attack her Weres, he didn’t want her carrying any guilt over what had happened to him.
“A witch,” he answered as honestly as he could without giving too much information. “She spoke of a prophesy where Imortia was freed by a white wolf. She was the one who helped me find what realm you were in and guided me to you.”
“She isn’t one of your Weres? She didn’t come with you?”
“No. She couldn’t.” Addix sighed. The woman had helped save his life, and his Weres too, but she couldn’t free herself.
Zaira looked up at him, her eyes glistening with wetness. “She killed my father because of me. Now, she killed those unicorns. Those beautiful, harmless unicorns.”
“No.” Anger flooded him. “Fairuza killed your father and those unicorns because she’s a greedy, power hungry tyrant. That blood is not on your hands.”
Zaira shook her head. “She knew I was coming. She killed them for power. The unicorn said so. She killed my father because she feared me. It is all because of me.”
“No, it’s not.”
“And you. She put a unicorn’s spirit inside of you because of me. That would have never happened to you if not for—”
Addix grabbed Zaira’s face and cut off her words the only way he knew how. His mouth covered hers, tongue sliding in easily to taste what he’d been missing for over a hundred years, and it tasted even better than he remembered and that was saying a hell of a lot.
Zaira started to push away, but he lowered his hands to her hips and pulled her closer. The fight left her as she gave in and for a moment time melted away and they were back in Imortia, drunk on love and lust. Danger lurked, as it did then, but this time she was aware of it. This time she bore the guilt of it. That was the thought that broke through and doused the flame.
Addix raised his head. “Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think there’s any punishment strong enough to make me regret you. If you want to blame anyone for anything, blame me. I’ll take that burden.” He grinned, remembering the fire and ice he’d met with after he’d found her and her wolves. “I thought that was the plan anyway?”
“It was the plan, but it went up in smoke,” she said, pulling him back down to her.
“Somebody break out the firehouse!”
Merta’s comment brought Zaira out of the spell she’d been under. She pulled away from Addix, straightening her shirt from where his hands had been halfway up the back of it. If her jeans weren’t so tight, he’d have probably peeled them right off of her, and she wouldn’t have protested. But now was not the time.
“You didn’t take very long,” Addix said as the shifters approached, each carrying an assortment of branches and logs.
“Neither did you two,” Merta quipped, dropping her wood to the ground before them. “What?” she asked, catching Addix’s glare. “Just an observation.”
Zaira smiled. She liked the dragon shifter, and after the ordeal they’d been through, she appreciated the woman’s attempt to lighten things up a bit.
Mercury placed his collection of wood next to Merta’s and arranged the pile. “Need me to rub some sticks together or do you have this, Merta?”
“I got it. Everybody step back a bit.”
They did as told and watched as Merta shifted into dragon form and breathed fire onto the pile before shifting back into human form.
“Easy peasie, grab some cute buns and squeezie,” she said, winking toward Mercury.
Zaira noticed the young man seemed oblivious to Merta’s obvious flirting. He didn’t seem like himself at all.
“Are you doing alright, Mercury? I know this must be a lot for you to take in.”
Mercury shook his head as he lowered himself to the ground, pulling off his pack. “Just tired and hungry.”
He dug through the pack as the others settled around the fire, and came up with a bag of jerky. He offered some to Merta, who accepted, and then to her and Addix. They declined.
“The centaur and the unicorn said we need to be rested and be prepared. We should all eat.”
“I don’t eat,” Zaira explained. “My strength and power comes from mana, my magic.”
“How do you restore your mana?”
“It replenishes itself, but takes time. Resting helps. Meditation, as well. But I do not eat.”
“What about you?” He looked at Addix.
Addix shook his head. “Since I took the spirit of the unicorn inside me, I only eat what the unicorn would eat. No meat. If I get hungry, I shift and graze.”
“Just when I think things couldn’t get any weirder,” Mercury grumbled. He bit off a piece of jerky, chewed. “I have daggers and I have my wolf. Will that be enough for battle in Imortia?”
Zaira offered him a reassuring smile. “You and Merta were brought for force. You will only need to help in case of physical battle, in which case your daggers or your wolf form will be enough. I will be our defense against magic, as will Addix.”
“Are you witches?”
“Imortians are similar to witches,” Zaira explained. “We are all born with a gift of either mana or brute force. Usually, women are born with mana and men are born with force, but not always. There are some who are born with no gift and some who are born with a small amount of both. Imortians are immortal. Despite what the name implies, this does not mean we can’t die, just that we do not die easily, or of natural causes. We age as a normal human would our first twenty years, then the aging process slows dramatically.”
“How old are you?”
“I am over two hundred years old.”
Mercury’s mouth fell open. He turned toward Merta. “You too?”
The dragon shifter shook her head. “I am not immortal. My parents were servants, mana-less humans brought to Imortia to serve the queen. I only have what magic comes with my dragon. I am twenty-five.”
“Your parents were not shifters?”
“No. Fairuza forced the dragon spirit on me. All of us with Addix became shifters the same way, or are offspring of shifters who were created that way.”
Mercury frowned as he turned back to Zaira, studying her. “Were you born a wolf?”
Damn. Zaira shook her head.
“You were punished by the queen? Fairuza?”
She nodded.
“I was born a wolf shifter, as were my parents, and their parents, and far as I know, their parents. Is my family from Imortia?”
Zaira licked her lips, stalling as she thought of how to answer. She’d never told the wolves they were of her very blood, that they were family in the truest sense of the word. How could she now?
“Holy crap,” Merta said, then quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.
Zaira groaned, noticing the way the dragon shifter looked between Addix and Mercury. It didn’t take long for Mercury to pick up on it too, to put two and two together.
“So
that’s how you two knew each other. You created this race. You’re like, our great-grandparents or something?” He frowned. “But we’re all races, and all over the world. No way we all came from just you two, especially if you haven’t seen each other in so long.”
Addix turned toward her, realization dawning in his dark, smoldering eyes. He rose and stormed off into the woods before Zaira could say a word.
ELEVEN
She found him standing at the edge of a cliff on the other side of the woods, looking out into the nothingness, searching for answers only she could give.
“I’d tell you I’m sorry, but those words would be generic,” Zaira said softly, stepping toward him. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“You didn’t want me to find out at all.”
“I wanted to spare you the pain.”
“You failed.” He turned toward her. “But I guess it was stupid of me to think that all those wolves came from you and I. You’re still a woman, not a real wolf. I doubt you had a litter of children when you gave birth.”
“I never had more than two at a time.”
Addix’s nostrils flared. “What did we have? A son? A daughter? Both?”
“A son. A strong, handsome son.” Her voice broke. She tried not to think of her child. “He looked so much like you, as does Mercury. Amazing how strong genes are, that they can be so evident after so many generations.”
“What was his name?”
“Adam. He was the first of his kind born, the first man.”
“A biblical name?”
“It fit.”
“And you had others, with other men?”
“I had other children,” Zaira confessed. “I was banished to earth during a time a single woman couldn’t make it on her own. My magic wasn’t as strong as it is now. I had to eat food for strength instead of living off my mana. I had to marry to have a home.”
Moonlit Majesty Page 6
