One eye slid open a crack, then shut.
I smiled to myself. Whatever hold was on her, I was going to crack it. “‘The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, burn’d on the water.’”
Lila’s body shivered again.
“I was surprised, and I told him that you’d have gotten it right off the bat. Hell, I’d bet money on you knowing.” I ran my hand over her head. “Lila, come back to me.”
“Antony and Cleopatra,” she grumbled. “How in the hell could he have not got that one?” Very slowly she lifted her head, her eyes still more closed than open. “What’s wrong with me?”
I held her tight as I stood. “Ollianna drugged the țuică with something called golden marushka. And I’m guessing you and Trick had a fight?”
Lila went very still, and I thought she’d gone back to sleep until she crawled her way up to my shoulder and tucked her head against mine, hiding under my hair. “I should never have wanted to be big. It ruined everything.”
I lifted a hand and rested it on her back. “You and me both.”
Her tiny claws dug into the edge of my ear as a sob rippled out of her. “He . . . I caught up to him, and went small, thinking to surprise him. He was talking to another dragon.”
I frowned. “Okay. Was it your father?”
“No, that would have been better,” she whimpered and my stomach fell.
“He fucking didn’t.”
“Yes. He . . . never really liked me, Zam. He just knows that I’m heir to the throne, and the other dragons sent him after me. To bring me back. He said that he loved her.”
I pulled her from my shoulder and held her tightly as she sobbed against my chest. “Men are assholes, they really are,” I whispered.
“Even Maks?”
I smiled, though it was hard. “I had to suffer through Steve, Marsum, and Davin before I really got to have Maks in my life. And for that, I wouldn’t change a thing. No matter how much heartache there was from those assholes.”
I kept walking, climbing through the rocks while Lila sobbed her heart out, waiting for the worst of the storm to pass, and wishing I could kick Trick’s ass repeatedly. “Is that why you didn’t wake up?”
“I don’t think so.” She hiccupped down a final sob. “I can feel the magic in my system still.”
“So not just sleep?”
She shook her head, jeweled eyes still glittering with tears. “No, I think maybe now that I know that it’s the drink, I can push it elsewhere. But it has to wear off.”
I didn’t quite follow what she meant. “Explain that to me.”
She tapped the claws on one foot against my collarbone. “The magic wants to attach to an aspect of me. Being awake is an aspect. Being able to shift sizes is an aspect. I think I can manipulate the magic to go there, so I can be awake. But I won’t be able to shift sizes until it wears off.”
I blew out a relieved sigh. “I’ll take you awake, thank you. You’re strong in your small size, Lila. I think this whole time we’ve been so focused on being what we think we’re meant to be that we’re missing out on the good of what we are.”
I told her about the fight with the lizard men, about what Bryce had said and how I’d felt fighting both as a house cat and then as a jungle cat. There were positives in both, but I understood the smaller version better, knew how to fight in a way that I didn’t as a big cat. Not everything translated along with the size. And I told her about Darcy and Steve, and that it was better that they didn’t know she could shift sizes.
“Ollianna wants you to face Ishtar for her, then?” She braided my hair off to one side.
I shrugged. We were sitting on the top of the rocks looking out across the desert, toward the Stockyards where I’d started this journey so long ago. I felt like I could almost see . . . I frowned. “Lila, do you see that out there?”
I stood and she flew into the air, her wings flashing in the bright sun. “Yes, it’s a body floating along. Weirdly. Very weirdly.”
“Who the hell would be sleeping in the middle of the day?” I scrambled down the rocks and began to run toward the body. It wasn’t the Emperor, and it wasn’t Ishtar or Ollianna. Though all three could walk this realm, I had no doubt they were awake and working their magic on the goals they had set.
They didn’t expect me to sleep during the day.
Or anyone else, for that matter.
The desert flew under my feet until I was close enough to the body floating along that I could see who it was.
“MERLIN?” I shouted his name and fell into step beside him, finally understanding how he was being carried. On a travois behind a horse, dragged away from the Stockyards.
I bent and brushed a hand over his face. “Merlin, wake the fuck up, man!”
He groaned and lifted a hand as if to bat me away. Lila landed on the travois next to him. “Yes, wake up!”
One eye opened. Just one, the other was stitched shut, and it was then that I saw just what bad shape he was in. “Hot crap on a camel’s ass, what happened to you? And who are you with?”
“Wait for us,” he breathed out the words, and his body faded from the dreamscape.
Wait for us. Who was he with? Flora? That seemed the most likely since they’d been traveling together. But that didn’t tell me just what in the hell had happened to him.
“He’s headed our way,” Lila said. “Or where camp is anyway.”
I looked at the distance. “They won’t be more than a few hours.”
Lila flew beside me as I jogged back to the camp—even if it was in the dreamscape, I didn’t feel like exploring. The dreamscape was dangerous on a good day, and my day had been pretty shitty so far. Fighting off lizard men and ending with Steve and Darcy as escorts to the Emperor. What a crock of shit that was. The reality was likely far more sinister. If they had a chance, I had little doubt they’d kill us, take the flail and take it to the Emperor themselves.
Even as I thought it, the truth settled in around me. Fucking hell, this was the last thing I needed.
Strike that, the last thing I needed was a wounded Merlin headed my way, but I was about to get that too.
Yippy fucking skippy.
9
Kiara
Getting out of the Stockyards had been far easier than she’d thought. With Shem and Ford helping, she’d managed to load Merlin onto a stretcher and tie it behind Buttercup, the pretty little palomino she’d always enjoyed riding.
“Why did you send the kids into the hills?” Ford asked as they rode out. “You don’t think Ishtar . . .”
“Yes, I do,” Kiara said. Benji had agreed to go, scooped up Frankie and they’d made a run for it. They could survive there. She was sure of it. Asuga hadn’t been interested in leaving.
And Ishtar had been asleep in her chamber.
Asleep.
It made Kiara nervous that they were being set up.
Ford and Shem had each taken a horse, and they’d ridden out less than two hours after Steve and Darcy. The problem was, Steve and Darcy had ridden as if they were out for a pleasure cruise down the river Nile.
“Why are they going so slow?” she’d asked Shem. Ford was sullen at best, barely speaking. As much as he wanted to go after Zam, he still had his panties in a twist over the fact that she’d sent him away and chosen someone else. Kiara understood, though, why Zam had done it. Ford was strong, and when he’d arrived at the Stockyards, Ishtar had drawn off his strength instead of the children’s. He was being a hard-headed fool to not see that Zam had made the right choice, as hard as it was. That was the cost of being an alpha, making choices no one else wanted to.
“My guess is they don’t want to do whatever it is that Ishtar has sent them to do.” Shem spoke quietly, they all did. Even though they were a good distance back, there wasn’t much to hide them from Darcy or Steve if one of them should look back. It was a testament to their arrogance that neither one so much as glanced over their shoulders.
“But she was sending them
after Zam.” Kiara frowned. “Wasn’t she?”
“That’s what we all heard,” Ford spoke finally. “If it was to kill her, he’d be hurrying. I agree.”
Shem gave a low hum. “Maybe they’ve not been sent to kill her, but to capture her? Is that possible?”
“But even that, Steve would be ecstatic to do,” Kiara said. “He . . . he hated her in a way that can only come from having loved someone once.” She worried at her bottom lip, thinking. “I wish Merlin was awake.”
Merlin, of course, passed out in the stretcher, was of little use and they couldn’t make much headway with him anyway. So, in a strange way, it was good that Darcy and Steve were dawdling their way toward their destination.
The night passed, and by midday they had closed the gap even further on the pair ahead of them. At least she thought they had until Steve spurred his horse forward, and he and Darcy took off.
“Shit,” she growled, wanting to go after them. “Ford, stay here with Merlin and Shem.”
She cut Buttercup from the stretcher, letting it drop hard to the ground. Merlin groaned, but there was no time. She booted her horse forward before they could argue with her. She wasn’t going to let Steve win whatever game Ishtar had set him up to play.
Buttercup raced across the ground and Kiara urged her on, the way Zam had taught her to ride. A whiff of death caught at her nose and she slowed the mare, scenting the air and changing her direction slightly.
What she found confused her more than anything. A thousand or more tiny desert lizards were strewn about. Most of them around an empty spot, as if they had been fighting a single person. Her heart was racing as she visualized the fight happening. Whatever the lizards were, she doubted they’d been as they were now.
The paw prints she could see in the center were not lion, but they were a big cat mixed with that of a small house cat. “Zam?”
Kiara turned and scented the air again, found the trail she was looking for and booted her horse forward. Through the twisting rocks, she raced, the smell of lion and horses growing stronger with each stride.
A straight stretch rose ahead of her, and at the end were Steve and Darcy’s horses . . . and Balder and Batman.
Her heart tangled in her throat as she raced down the track, anger flaring in her gut. If Steve had hurt her family, she was going to slaughter him on the spot.
Two men stood up in her way as she drew close. She recognized Maks right away, but it took her a moment to realize Bryce was standing in front of her. Her lips parted and she breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that if Maks and Bryce were here, Zam would be okay.
But she still had to ask. “Zam’s okay?”
Bryce grinned up at her. “Sleeping, but okay.”
“Who the fuck cares?” Steve commented.
Kiara slid off Buttercup’s back and strode over to him, every inch of her bristling. She jammed a finger into his chest, hard enough to shove him backward. “Everyone but you, sheep fucker.”
She turned her back on him, and that was her mistake.
Fingers tangled into her hair and yanked her back, exposing her throat. “You are no alpha.”
A bellow of a roar shook the rocks around them, Bryce coming at them, and it was the distraction she needed. Steve’s fingers loosened a fraction and she spun and drove her elbow into his solar plexus hard enough to feel the bone crack. Or maybe it was her elbow, she didn’t know and didn’t care. She pulled back and drove it in again, and he let go of her hair completely.
She stood as he bent over, trying to find his breath. “Bryce, would you keep Darcy off me?”
“My pleasure,” he growled as he leapt between her and the oncoming Darcy. Both were in lion form, both were snarling. But none of that mattered.
Kiara grabbed Steve by the hair and slammed his face into the rock wall. Just once, that was all she needed to do. He slid to the ground, blood pouring from his nose, still struggling to breathe. She leaned over him and whispered in his ear, “You. Do. Not. Rule. Me.”
He lifted his head, enough to look her in the eye, and the contempt was as thick as molasses and just as dark. His blood trickled down to his mouth, and it coated his lips and teeth. “Finish it, then. If you’re so tough.”
She smiled then, and let him see all the anger, all the hurt and pain he’d caused. “What you did to me was bad enough, but what you did to Zam was worse. I’ll let her kill you. I just wanted to get my blows in before you were dead.”
Deliberately, very deliberately, she turned her back on him and walked the distance to where Maks stood, watching.
“I’ve been waiting to do that,” she said, a little embarrassed. Maks gave her a smile and nodded.
“I think we’d all like our turn to beat his ass.”
That drew a laugh from her until she saw Zam sleeping on the bedroll behind him. She hadn’t moved through all the commotion. “Is she really okay?”
“She’ll be fine. She just needs rest.” Maks sighed and Kiara took note of the dark shadows under his eyes, the pallor of his skin.
“Looks like you could use some sleep too.” She nodded. “Go, lie down with her. I’ll keep an eye on the two idiots.”
There was a feminine gasp from the other side of the camp. Bryce padded over, and Kiara had to stop herself from letting her hand touch his thick mane. He rolled his head, giving her a single look. “Good job. Looks like we’re going to have some strong women finally.”
A flush of pride slid through her. “It started with Zam,” she said.
“That it did.” He yawned. “You good if I sleep?”
“I have backup coming,” she said.
“Backup?” Darcy snapped the question. “How did you get away from the Stockyards?”
Kiara waited until Bryce and Maks were lying next to Zam, flanking her. Keeping her safe even in sleep. A glimmer of blue scales under Zam’s arm was all she could see of Lila. Good enough.
Kiara caught up Buttercup, apologizing for the rough run.
“She asked you a question,” Steve spat through what sounded like a mouthful of blood.
Finished with her horse, at her own speed, she turned and looked at the two would-be alphas. “It was rather simple.”
“Simple? Then why didn’t you do it sooner?” Darcy shot a look at Steve that spoke volumes. They had wanted to get away too but hadn’t figured out how.
Kiara crouched next to the spring and scooped up water for herself, then made herself busy, filling water buckets for the horses. “Because I had someone I was looking after.”
“The baby,” Steve said.
“No, you dumbass. I lost the baby when I was taken by the Jinn!” She turned a glare on him. “No, I was caring for someone else. So I had to wait until he was able to travel.” She was avoiding telling them just how she’d gotten away from the Stockyards because she doubted they’d believe her.
For all that was holy in this desert land, she wasn’t sure she’d have believed what had happened if she herself hadn’t been in the center of it.
She settled for something close to the truth, but seriously oversimplifying it. “What happened is between Ishtar and myself. She didn’t tell me to pass it on to you two.”
She’d seen the mage in her chamber sleeping and had moved to slip away when her voice had whispered through the night air.
She is our only hope, Kiara, protect her.
Locking eyes with Darcy first, she waited for the other female to drop her gaze, which Darcy did. Then to Steve.
“You aren’t stronger than me,” he growled, anger and maybe even hatred flashing in his eyes. “That was a fluke.”
Kiara lifted her chin and looked down her nose at him. “You can tell yourself that all you want if it helps you to sleep at night. I don’t for one second think that you’re actually going to help Zam. I think you’ll try to hurt or even kill her the first chance you get. But let me make this very clear, Steven,” he flinched when she used his full name, “you won’t just have to go through Bryc
e and Maks, you’ll have to go through me first.”
“And me.”
They all turned as Shem stepped into view, Ford following him. “Me too, sheep fucker.”
Steve’s face all but purpled. “I did not fuck any sheep!”
Of all the things to set him off, Kiara was shocked that was it. Not the threat to his life, not the threat to his standing in the pride, but his reputation as a sheep fucker.
Kiara waited for Shem and Ford to draw close before she checked on Merlin.
Whispers between Steve and Darcy were immediate, but she didn’t care. They weren’t the important ones here. Not by a long shot.
10
Zamira
I was surrounded by warmth, the smell of Maks under my nose, the distant smell of lion that was my brother, Lila muttering in her sleep in my arms. This was good, this was home, and I didn’t want to wake up. But there was something, or someone, less than pleasant breaking through the heavy sleep that I’d been so happy to stay in.
“She can’t sleep the whole day away! We have to get moving, so wake her pansy house cat ass up!” Steve’s voice cut through it all, and for just a moment I thought it could be just a shitty dream, and maybe I could ignore it and go back to sleep.
“She’s always been weak,” Darcy’s voice added weight to the bad dream. “But this is ridiculous. She fought a bunch of tiny lizards, and is exhausted enough to sleep the entire day away?”
I opened my eyes to see Maks staring into my face. “Hey, lizard slayer.”
My lips twitched as he lifted a hand and cupped the side of my face, his thumb running over my cheek, which sent a thrill right through me. I still couldn’t believe we’d beaten the odds, that he was with me.
Technically, I am still with you too. Though I suppose it’s poor form to hit on your daughter-in-law.
I groaned. “Shut it, Marsum.”
Damn him, he had to just be part of this still, didn’t he?
Yes. You will miss me one day, little cat. You will miss having me to talk to.
Emperor’s Throne: Desert Cursed Series, Book 6 Page 8
