Lost Vegas Series

by Lizzy Ford

  “So you are setting aside differences with the other tribes in preparation for war,” Arthur guessed.

  “Hence the marriage I do not want to Elk Hunter’s barbarian son.”

  “Historically there is no better way to cement an alliance than …”

  Her glare made him pause. He could almost hear Marshall chiding him for not being diplomatic enough.

  “Firstborn curse,” he finished. “My apologies, if the arrangement is not to your liking.”

  “It is not,” she said. She released a deep breath, and tension left her tall frame. “I prefer my situation to yours. I know where I stand in all this.”

  Arthur smiled faintly.

  “You have a respected reputation among my people and many others. For this reason, and because I am not yet ready to face your father, I will grant your request to treat your friends as guests rather than prisoners. Leave my village before I ransom you,” she ordered quietly. “I’ll give you til noon then send my youngest trackers after you.” She stuffed the canteens and more weapons into the satchel before slinging on the satchel with agitated movements.

  “Thank you,” Arthur murmured and picked up the stack of thin strips of paper.

  She did not reply but slammed open the door and walked out.

  Arthur sat next to a light and began to read. True to his father’s ways, the messages were each one sentence long and abrupt.

  “Hanover.”

  He looked up at Chases Deer’s voice.

  She leaned through the doorway. “We do not want war,” she told him. “But we will stop your father, or anyone, from hurting our people, by any means necessary.”

  “I understand,” he responded. “I hope to stop whatever it is we all sense coming before it happens.”

  “I hope you can.” She ducked outside once more.

  “I do, too,” Arthur whispered. Chases Deer could not know what he had seen in a vision, that nothing would stop the destruction his father would inflict, if Arthur did not act.

  He started to read the earliest messages – dated two weeks ago, before Tiana’s journey to the forest. Edwin Hanover had demanded the return of his heir multiple times. He offered no incentives for his allies to comply, only sent stark threats.

  *

  Use all your resources to see that my heir is returned, or I will use all of mine to punish you for failing me.

  *

  Each message became more difficult to read, not because Arthur was surprised but because he began to sense something in his father he had never noticed before: desperation. It left him uncomfortable. Edwin Hanover was never desperate, because he knew what power and influence he possessed at his fingertips. Arrogance was a truer representation of him.

  Why would his father be desperate about anything?

  Arthur skimmed several more messages before coming to one that jarred him out of his train of thought.

  *

  Negotiate the return of my daughter, and I will offer my son in marriage to your valiant daughter to celebrate our alliance.

  *

  Arthur uttered a low curse in surprise.

  He re-read the politer note and checked the date then compared the handwriting to that of the other missives.

  His father, who had refused to allow Arthur to attend routine council meetings in case an assassin caught them both in the same place, was offering him up to the Newe in exchange for Tiana.

  Arthur read through the messages from the past few days with a sense of disbelief, if not outright confusion. Edwin had sent out two-dozen messages in three days, as opposed to the six messages sent out over the course of the two weeks preceding Tiana’s escape from the city.

  Every one of the dozen was about Tiana. None of them mentioned him, except to repeat the first concession of a marriage between the city and Natives to cement a truce.

  “What is going on?” Arthur muttered aloud.

  Why was Edwin willing to sacrifice his heir in exchange for the unwanted daughter who would not have survived her childhood, if not for Arthur?

  “Hanover,” someone called from outside the cabin.

  Arthur remained in place for a moment, contemplating what was before him with little comprehension. Nothing made sense anymore. Not the skinwalker and his wolf, not Arthur’s growing respect for a Cruise, not Tiana’s emerging powers, not Edwin Hanover. Arthur had the sense he had stepped into a new reality, one he was unprepared to deal with.

  Finally, Arthur plucked the first message about Tiana free from the pile, replaced the rest of the messages, and rose. He strode to the door. One of the adolescent warriors in training held the reins to a gray horse.

  “She did not jest about giving me her best horse,” he said with a nod of appreciation. The stallion was one of the prized horses from Chases Deer’s father’s infamous band of rare Arabians. No finer animals were found for two thousand miles, and no other horse matched the stamina of his horses. The horse was saddled, bridled and bearing saddlebags with canteens dripping with water clipped to them.

  The youth held out a handgun, two knives, and a pouch whose clicking sounds from within were those of flint.

  “Much obliged,” Arthur said and accepted the offerings. “Assure your warrior princess I will return when it benefits us both.” And not to marry her. Although, this part he kept quiet. His heart belonged to the man sleeping in the clinic. He had managed to outmaneuver his father’s attempts to marry him off for several years.

  With the sun soon to break the horizon, Arthur dared not linger much longer. As unsettled as he was about abandoning Warner and Marshall to the kindness of allies who were quietly choosing a different side, he could not quell the urgency in his blood warning him something much worse awaited them all, if he did not reach the city before the scene from his vision unfolded and condemned everyone.

  He mounted. The gray stallion pranced impatiently beneath him and tossed its head, eager to move.

  Arthur did not dissuade him. They were both anxious.

  With a nod at the youth, and one last glance in the direction of the clinic, he released his hold on the horse’s head and urged him forward, towards the plains separating the village from the city.

  Arthur reached the edge of the forest by noon. The roads through Native land coalesced into one solitary path leading towards the city. It was a matter of defense for the city, and an agreement made with the neighboring tribes, that only one road would be maintained in each cardinal direction.

  Taking the road made Arthur a target.

  Going around it extended his trip.

  On any other horse, he would have chosen the slow route so he could hide if the Natives tracking him caught up. But on the fastest horse north of the city, Arthur brazenly chose to ride exposed and fast, straight for Lost Vegas.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  His back to her and eyes on the forest across the clearing, Diving Eagle tossed an apple in the air above his head. Tiana followed it with her eyes from her position seated at the base of a large tree. Rocky was moving through what he called fighting forms – smooth, controlled, slow blocks and strikes. He was sweating despite the cool midmorning.

  After a day of waiting in this spot for the neighboring Newe tribe to grant them permission to enter their territory, Tiana was bored enough to be antsy. Diving Eagle’s rhythmic tossing of the apple provided her some distraction, though nothing seemed to take the edge off she had felt since she faced the skinwalker the first time.

  Was his proximity the reason she was barely able to sit still? That the forest felt too small?

  She absently ordered the apple to stay in the air without expecting it to obey.

  But it did.

  Tiana sat forward. She had never considered using her magic to occupy herself, not after a lifetime of being punished for failing to control it. Out here, with a man who disapproved of everything she did no matter what, and Rocky, who was not fazed by anything, she felt somewhat safe experimenting with it.

  She ti
lted her head and ordered the apple to move in midair until it was over Diving Eagle’s head. Then she let it fall again.

  He was tense enough to jerk when the fruit hit his head. The Native warrior leaned forward to swipe the apple off the ground. He tossed it up again.

  She shifted it midair and dropped it.

  This time, he stared down at the apple on the ground, then glanced at his hand, before he plucked the fruit up again.

  Tiana grinned.

  He tossed it once more.

  She did it again and dropped the apple on his head.

  He turned to face her.

  Tiana ducked her gaze but did not hide her smile before he saw it. She waited for him to reprimand her.

  “You have some control over it?” he asked instead.

  “I seem to,” she replied.

  He stepped back and grabbed the apple. “Do it again.” He tossed it up over his head.

  She paused it in midair.

  Diving Eagle studied it. “Send it higher.”

  She obeyed.

  “Send it across the field and back.”

  Tiana did.

  He shook his head. “It requires no effort for you to do this?”

  “Not this,” she replied. “Facing the skinwalker drained me.”

  “But …”

  She gazed at him blankly.

  “You have additional insight.”

  She did. Not certain how he knew she had not completed her sentence, she nodded. “He … drained me. Or tried. What I experienced was not natural. When I was close to him, I felt recharged, until he starting pulling my ability from me.”

  “What part of that was your uncontrolled emotion?”

  Tiana’s cheeks flushed hot. The way he asked the question left her no doubt about what this careful man thought of uncontrolled emotion. “Most of it maybe,” she mumbled.

  He held out his hand, and she dropped the apple into it. “The more you practice, the better you will manage it when you are not in control,” he advised. “You can be more than a weapon who throws skinwalkers into the sky.”

  Her brow furrowed. She had never considered how to use her abilities.

  “I imagine you could build a village with your mind in a day,” he continued. “Or herd enough buffalo for a tribe to live off of for the winter.”

  “There are practical uses for your talents,” Rocky added, settling onto the ground beside her. “What exactly is the extent of your gift?”

  Both of them gazed at her, waiting with an edge she was unable to interpret, but which left the hair on the back of her neck standing on end.

  Were two of the bravest people she had ever met … afraid? Of her?

  How was that possible?

  “I do not know,” she admitted.

  “We know you have crushed and thrown a skinwalker so far into the air, he landed five miles away,” Rocky said. “And Aveline said you killed your stepmother by smashing her head.”

  Tiana’s hands twisted in her lap. There was no judgment in his tone, and Diving Eagle appeared interested.

  “You can levitate things with your mind and control them in the air,” Rocky continued. “What else?”

  “I … well, I do not know how, but I made the Ghouls leave us alone once,” she said. “And I have visions of the future. Bad ones. This is how I recognized the skinwalker when I had never seen him before.” She paused, thoughts on the latest vision, where the skinwalker had tried to speak to her rather than attack her. Tiana shook her head. “I also hear thoughts sometimes. Not often, though.”

  Her words were met with a long silence.

  “You all have a word for this?” Rocky joked uneasily to Diving Eagle.

  “No.”

  “My father calls them deformities,” she said. “My brother has them as well.”

  “Does your father?” Rocky asked.

  “Yes,” Diving Eagle replied.

  “No,” she said simultaneously.

  “I have a feeling he does,” Rocky said. “It would explain how no one will oppose him after burning half the population of the city.”

  “I would prefer never to find out why he does what he does,” she said softly. “I intend to never see him again.”

  “I wish you luck. It’s rare when someone can escape his past.” The wise words were quiet.

  She glanced up at him, realizing she knew nothing of his story, either. She knew little of the men with her, especially how they thought or who they really were.

  “Out of curiosity, how often do you read minds?” Rocky asked.

  “Rarely,” she replied. “Before last night, it had been weeks. I hear only a sentence or two.”

  “Last night?” Diving Eagle prodded. “Was this why you fled the council?”

  “No. I read your mind.”

  He stared at her. Hard.

  Rocky laughed. “A word of advice, Tiana. Don’t tell people you can read their minds,” he said. “Unless they’re friends. Aveline and I wouldn’t care, but some people might.”

  “Agreed,” Diving Eagle and shifted to see the forest across the clearing once more.

  Tiana sensed she had offended him. Rocky’s wink and amused smile, however, left her feeling less concerned. If the assassin was not worried, she would not be, either.

  The three settled into quiet again. Diving Eagle replaced the apple in his bag and walked a few feet into the clearing.

  Rocky removed two bone knives and began to polish them.

  Tiana rested against the tree trunk and let her head fall back. The pine needles lining the branches above her head brought a smile to her face. Their rich scent and color were magical – and more beautiful than she ever imagined possible when she was trapped in her room in the city.

  Her eyes drifted closed, and she drew several deep breaths to help her wired body relax. She listened to the breeze whisper through the trees. The morning was the epitome of spring: cool air, warm sunshine, and filled with the bright songs of birds. An instinct stirred at the far reaches of her mind, almost too faint and far for her to make out.

  She opened her eyes and listened hard at what her deformities were trying to tell her. She was able to find someone with her mind when she actively tried. She had never experienced this sense before, though, as if someone was entering her mind unbidden to tell her he or she was present.

  “I think someone is coming,” she said and stood.

  “I see no one,” Diving Eagle said, eyes trained across the meadow.

  Tiana listened again then faced to the right. “From that direction.” She pointed to the east rather than the north.

  Diving Eagle glanced from her to the trees. He appeared to think for a split second before starting off in the direction. “Wait here,” he ordered them both.

  Rocky swiftly returned his weapons to their sheaths at his waist and ankles then stood. “Can you make a tree fall on him?” he asked when Diving Eagle had disappeared into the forest.

  Tiana looked at him in surprise.

  “Not now,” Rocky said quickly. “But in case he ends up betraying you, like I think he will. Can you do that?”

  “Probably,” she replied.

  “You’re almost confident. That’s an improvement,” he said. “Remember – you always have the upper hand with us normal people. You can crush us at any time.”

  She absorbed the words, uncertain why they struck her as odd. “I would not purposely hurt anyone,” she said.

  “But you can. That’s the important part. You should never feel scared of anyone or anything. You can take care of yourself.”

  “Except when I am not certain of the threat.”

  “That’s what I’m for. To make sure no one gets to you before you crush them.”

  I do not plan to crush anyone ever, she said to herself. Tiana smiled faintly. She was starting to like Rocky as much as she had Aveline. For assassins, the pair were honest and helpful in a way no one else was.

  They waited in comfortable silence.


  Twenty minutes later, Diving Eagle reappeared, accompanied by a lean woman his height who was armed with more weapons than he, and four additional Natives trailing them.

  Rocky’s wariness increased. He shifted to a position ahead of Tiana by inches. Her eyes were on the warrior woman, who moved with the same controlled, efficient movement as the male warriors.

  She and Diving Eagle walked abreast – but with enough tension between them, even Tiana picked up that something was not right.

  The warrior woman slowed as she approached, her eyes on Tiana. Diving Eagle joined Tiana and Rocky, staying a few feet in front of both.

  The warrior woman looked from Tiana to Diving Eagle and spoke a flurry of words in her Native tongue.

  “Speak so they can understand,” Diving Eagle replied.

  “This girl? Has she any muscles at all?” the woman said.

  Diving Eagle’s quiet rebuke was in his tongue.

  “Respectful of what?” the woman retorted. “You demand access to my territory and my village and offer up a tale about a monster who will slaughter us all in our beds if I do not allow a girl without muscles into my village?”

  “I act in your benefit,” Diving Eagle replied. “It is out of respect for you and your father that I did not raid your village and take him. I would have raided any other tribe but I chose not to offend yours.”

  “If you took one step into my village uninvited, my father and his allies would crush you.”

  “Your father currently favors my tribe, because he understands what we have to offer.”

  “My father thinks you are a barbarian!” she snapped.

  Diving Eagle turned away and sighed.

  Tiana and Rocky exchanged a look.

  “They are unhappy with one another, are they not?” she ventured.

  “I’d say so. Might be time to make something float,” Rocky advised.

  Tiana had been thinking along the same lines. With Rocky’s support, she focused on the angry warrior woman.

  The Native lifted off the ground. Tiana concentrated, not wanting to hurt her, and gently lifted the woman into the air until she was a solid twenty feet up.

  The Native woman had gone completely still and silent.