The smal clues from her, as wel as the images he’d seen of past events that were too lifelike to be ilusion, had begun to form the idea in his mind. He was a man out of time. But that wasn’t a bad thing. It meant he could return before the battle. That he could go back to his life with no one being any the wiser. No one knowing he’d ever been gone. He was going to walk until he found a doorway out of this place or his mystery woman. His bright one without a name.
Silas patted him on the back as he kept pace. “I was hoping you’d figure it out, son of Elam. I’ve had enough of this desert to last me ten lifetimes. Shouldn’t take us long now to find their temple.”
Max trudged through the sandy hilside, his body already healing from his earlier encounter with the Rabasa. “Can you tel me more about them? You said the gods, not even the Great Mother, can enter this place. At least, not uninvited. How can there be a place that the gods cannot go?”
“Gods are not infalible. Have you forgotten?” Silas huffed.
“Baal’s sacrifices, The Mother’s Message. Whether their reasons are good or bad, right or wrong, they stil interfere. Stil change Fate at their whim. Time started when the universe was born. It is not one of their creations.“ His laugh was cynical. “Can you imagine what would happen if, without hesitation, they could change timelines? Civilizations falen would rise again. A favorite era would be repeated for sport.”
“But I’ve heard stories—”
Silas interrupted him. “Rare requests the Horae, as you cal them, granted the gods after ensuring there would be minimal effect on the rest of time. No frayed edges.”
“And the Rabasa?”
The older man’s voice sobered. “They clean up the frayed edges. Feed on the loose ends. Those things out of place. They do not think or reason. They are not swayed. They just are, which makes them dangerous.”
“Bloody briliant,” Max muttered. “Now the only thing left to figure out is what the hel I’m doing here.” Ahead of them, an image wavered in the morning light. A bright, white marble temple surrounded by a lush garden of colorful flowers and fruit trees. A garden in the desert?
She was there. As were the rest of his answers. And maybe, Goddess wiling, a way home.
CHAPTER FOUR
Max studied the smooth perfection of the columns that seemed to go on forever past the mists of the garden. At least he knew he was no longer walking through his own mind. He had never seen anything like this. Silas had told him to enter without him and then disappeared into the smal copse of apple trees in ful blossom.
They smeled of her.
He stepped inside the temple and reconsidered. This place did remind him of something. Home. The Hals of Record, the historic cathedral he had only been in once—the night he and Jasyn Dydarren had brought Jesse to Kit and the Igigi’s hidden homeland.
There were no murals, but this hal was as vast. No mortal hands had created this. An optical ilusion perhaps. More smoke and mirrors?
A glint of light caught his eye as soon as he thought the word mirrors. The columns wavered and Max froze mid-step, his gaze narrowing on one shimmering section of the room. “I know you’re here, Phoebe. I’ve passed your test. Show yourself.” He tilted his head and closed his eyes, listening.
There. Was that a breath? A sigh? Max lunged toward the sound and heard a startled gasp at the same moment an unexplainable sensation seemed to surround him, pass through him.
Need. Compassion. Excitement. And the strangest of al feelings…wholeness.
“Show yourself. There is no more reason to hide from me.” His demand was harsher than he’d intended. He blamed it on the disturbing feelings he knew had not originated in him, though he’d felt them nonetheless.
“You cal me Phoebe? Why?” She solidified, walking toward him with her head tilted, a curious expression on her face.
Her sheer white dress flowed along the ground behind her. Max felt a strange pang pierce his heart.
”You said you had no name. The gods and al under their dominion have at least one. Even the lowest form of life has a name.
But not you. Silas cals you bright one. Phoebe means bright and shining. Pure. It suits you.” It reminded him of a name used for The Great Mother long ago. She was like a goddess to him. Everything beautiful and feminine and fine.
She blushed but dipped her chin in acknowledgment.
The masculine voice from his dreams dripped with disdain.
“How arrogant he is to think he can name you. A mere child.” Child? Max squared his shoulders. “I see the voice is back.
Even cockier than before. Too afraid to face me, I imagine. I am Igigi. My people were the first to walk the world. I am thousands of years old. Do not cal me child.”
His Phoebe smiled soothingly in his direction, though he noticed she was careful to keep her distance from him. “He is not used to strangers in our hal, Max. Especialy not ones with such…
confident thoughts. Forgive him. But he is right about one thing. We have been here a bit longer than you and your people.” Thousands upon thousands of years his people had existed.
Several generations of long-lived giants that had been witness to The Mother’s creation of humans. The great flood. The history of mankind, as wel as vampire and werekind. It was hard to imagine this beautiful siren was older than that.
“You control time?”
She nodded. “We watch it.” She gestured to her left and Max watched as the endless hal filed with glimmering mist. When it disappeared a new room had taken its place. A room ful of reflective surfaces. He placed his hand on his sword, wary of another encounter with the Rabasa.
He frowned when he saw the handsome young man with his back to them instead, eyes narrowed on something Max couldn’t see. He had blonde curls that seemed to glow in the light, reminding him a bit of the young Sariel heir, Alexei. He was tal and lean, and he stood with an insolence that instantly set Max’s teeth on edge.
“Is this the one I heard? The one who thinks me a child?” She stepped closer in a comforting gesture at his tone.
“Yes. He watches with me.”
Max instinctively reached for her, taking her hand possessively. She alowed it, and the tension in his body eased.
“Just the two of you?” Where was this jealousy coming from? It wasn’t Max’s nature. It never had been. But with her, he found it came as naturaly as breathing. She felt like his. It wasn’t something he wanted to question. Wasn’t something he could question. It was something he felt. Something he knew was true.
Her expression changed. “There were three of us. That is how it is done. Always three. “ Her voice took on a note of sadness. Loss. “But we’ve been two for a while now. Silas has been a recent addition. A good companion. The other… We haven’t been able to find him.”
Max lifted his fingers to his temple, feeling utterly out of his depth. Give him an enemy to attack, a home to guard…but she was obviously experiencing a loss he could not resolve. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head, reddish blonde ringlets caressing her bare shoulders. “I was worried it might happen, that something would occur to redress the imbalance he’d created.”
“He cannot read you as you do him, bright one.” The male had turned away from the reflective wal and was looking at them with a superiority that practicaly begged for a confrontation. Max was more than wiling.
The man smiled in satisfaction. “Alow me to clarify. Every group of Watchers is given a particular section of life to observe.
Not as you do, with one hour folowing another, but in every direction, studying every possible outcome based on an incalculable array of choices. We watch the puzzle form in pieces, and we watch it finaly come together. Or not.”
The man lifted one golden eyebrow, answering the question that had just formed in Max’s mind. “We aren’t sure why, that isn’t our job. The Universe doesn’t need a reason. Only balance. We came into existence, al of us, the instant the gods did. The instant they started building worlds with cau
se and effect, we were made to bear witness to it. “
Max wasn’t sure why, but he was comforted by the soft hand stil clinging to his. “Just witness?”
The other man noticed their interlocked fingers as wel.
Good. “Exactly. We observe non-humans. Vampires, Weres, Igigi and the like. That is al we are meant to do. On occasion we grant boons to gods who request our services, but only if we are al in agreement. And only if it doesn’t upend the balance. Our third, however, got too involved.” When he said the word his mouth pursed, as though tasting something sour. “At first by convincing us to agree to one of the god’s more invasive requests, and then on his own, without letting us know. He changed a timeline here and there in order to alter an outcome that had seemed assured.” Max turned from the man to look into his companion’s unearthly eyes. “The imbalance?”
She nodded, seemingly grateful that he understood. “He had grown to care for those he watched over, you see. For al of you. Sometimes too much. He took sides in his heart.” Her male counterpart huffed cynicaly and she glared at him. “Tel me he never got to you with his words of honor and guardians. With his wonderings about the connection between Trueblood grathitas and the Were mates.”
Max sensed the man flinch in reaction, her arrow obviously hitting its intended mark. He wondered if he lacked a name as wel.
If Max had to take a guess, it would be Jackass.
“He changed our path? Is he the reason I’m here?” The golden male sneered, his flawless features marred by the expression. “No. It is her. Her obsession with the brave, muscle-bound Maximus, along with her misguided loyalty to our third. A loyalty that could send us al into oblivion. Who wil watch over your precious charges then, Sariel Guard, when we are no more? Then again…” He looked up at the ceiling with a sigh, the arrogance melting away as if it had never been, alowing his concern to show. “If we don’t exist, neither wil anything else.” Max felt the adrenaline racing through his veins, his thoughts conflicted. He wanted to pound the smug little cherub into the misted marble floor for insinuating that she was responsible for any wrongdoing. He wanted to find out how this mysterious third of theirs changed the destiny of his people, his friends. And he realy wanted to discover why he’d been brought to this surreal land in the first place. But, much to his chagrin, his desire to know more about her obsession with him superseded everything else.
“Send him away.” His voice was more commanding than he’d planned, but it had the desired affect. She blushed, and the man beside them bristled.
“I apologize,” she said. “He isn’t sure we’ve done the right thing by—”
“Send him away. You did it before. I wish to be alone with you, Phoebe.”
She lifted her hand and the other man snarled but turned to disappear into the mist. She mouthed the name he’d given her in wonder, as though tasting it on her tongue. Her pink, sensual tongue. He remembered how it had felt on his skin.
Her lips tilted as she smiled. “I like that. A name. I’d never thought to have one. It never occurred to me. Phoebe… Yes.
Thank you, Max.”
Phoebe. His. He thought about the fantasy he’d assumed he imagined. About the dream he knew she’d entered. “You took me out of the tunnels. Was I dead?”
She shifted nervously. “I did. And no, you weren’t. But you could have been. I arrived to take you just as the Were was attempting to cast his spel.”
Max stiled. “You arrived?” Was she the cause of the blinding light? The reason he’d lost concentration? Lost his sword?
She took a step backward, her hands raised defensively.
“He was strong in his magic. He could have kiled you. There was no chance you would not have been wounded. No path where you weren’t. If you are worried…it was already too late for you to make it in time to save your charge. The Abaddon mother had kiled the Unborn.”
He couldn’t blame her for his own weakness, no matter how badly he wanted to. How could he have let himself forget his failure? “Nicolette. Her name was Nicolette.” She nodded her crystal eyes filed with compassion. “Yes.
There was no timeline where she survived. It is unfortunate. I enjoyed watching her. She was very brave. Very strong.” They stood in silence for a moment, as if honoring Nicolette’s memory. Phoebe spoke softly, her voice remorseful. “It was the only window I had. Our only way to reach you without affecting others. Waking the Rabasa. I am so sorry, Maximus.
We…I needed you.”
She needed him. Her words wrapped around his heart with a fierce grip and refused to let go. Stil, there was something eating away at him. Something he had to know. “The battle you spoke of when I first woke. Was that because of your third? Did he make that happen? Put my friends in danger by changing our destinies?” He’d puled her closer, but she wasn’t struggling. “Not in the way you are thinking. He ensured the outcome. The Great Mother asked us to watch over the Antara, the woman you know as Sylvain. We were to ensure that no timeline put her in jeopardy before she could come into her power and help create peace between the Truebloods and Weres.”
Max was a bit in awe. This woman had the power to help the Mother, the goddess his people had worshipped since she’d offered her protection from Baal. “I’m sure Lux and Arygon would thank you for that.”
Her smile wobbled. “Things happened faster than they should have. A Reader and Antara mating into the same family. The gods don’t see time as we do. Al its possibilities. Al its potentials.
But I suppose they know things we can’t see as wel. People who aren’t under our particular jurisdiction.”
Jesse. He knew she was talking about Jesse, along with Regina and Sylvain. He’d noticed. Noticed one seemingly fated joining after another, leading to the gathering of some of the most powerful women he’d ever seen, regardless of species, coming together in a single generation. He’d believed it the actions of the Mother. Destiny. Had that happened because of Phoebe’s “third”?
She was staring past him, at the wal, lost in thought. “The Watchers of humanity must have seen and protected Jesse for Shalem. For our part we did other things. Little things. People where they shouldn’t be before it was time. Clues. I’m stil not sure what he—what we did was right. Do you know there were countless timelines where the Mother’s Message wasn’t fulfiled?
Where the Readers died out, al of them remaining human until they faded from existence. Where the Antara was kiled by her father when she showed the first signs of what she was.” Max realized he was growling when she paled. He’d apologize, but the idea of Lux or Zander Sariel never finding their mates, of Grey Wolf surviving or, Goddess forbid, Alexei and the twins never being born at al… Everything inside him rejected that idea.
Phoebe continued, though her voice was softer. More understanding. “It stopped the takeover of the Shadow Wolves.
The subjugation of humanity and the loss of al those who had folowed a better path. In the beginning, it seemed that despite his interference, a better timeline was evolving. But our third saw it first.
A glimmering in the distance. The battle that had to come…and what would folow. That’s when he disappeared.” She laid her hand on his bare chest, meeting his eyes with a plea in hers. “I have to show you that future, Max, but I don’t want to. I find myself hesitating, as though time mattered here. I know what has to be done, I know what I have to do, but I just wanted a chance to…”
“A chance to what?”
She bit her lip again. “To be with you.”
Her hands on his chest, one palm covering the scar he’d thought no longer had the sensitivity to feel, sent a physical heat through his body, making him shudder. How did she do this to him?
So easily shred his control, his compulsion to do his duty? He was a Sariel Guard. He existed to protect those he served.
But she was meant for him.
He couldn’t shake the thought. Couldn’t resist it. If Max was honest with himself, he didn’t want to. Was this how Kit
had felt when he discovered his dream woman was real? Flesh and blood? That nothing else mattered, as long as she kept touching him?
Max was growling again, but this time, the sound made her blush. If she could read his thoughts now, he didn’t blame her. He picked her up in his arms and she gasped. “If you want privacy from your little friend, Phoebe, I suggest you tel me where to go.
Otherwise, he’l get to watch in person this time.”
“Oh my.”
Exactly.
Phoebe could hardly breathe. She couldn’t believe it. He was here, holding her the way she’d imagined. Taking her in his strong arms, his expression forbidding. Exciting.
She loved hearing that name on his lips. Phoebe. The name he’d given her. It made her feel different. Real. If she could have this for only a moment, after so many eons of living in formless mist, watching others share a passion she could barely fathom—wel, she would take it. With Max. The man whose life she’d watched with more interest than her duty required.
The man she’d wanted for her own.
“Where?” he repeated, his gruff voice scraping along her spine, making her tremble.
There was somewhere. Her third had told her long ago that each of them had a place of their own, where they could go without being disturbed. Without sharing their thoughts with the others. It was how he’d done al he had without their knowing.
Phoebe focused on her place. On that piece of her spirit separate from this hal, separate from her male counterpart. She felt his hurt as she blocked him, but she refused to alow the guilt in.
This was for her. It was Max.
The space changed around them, the familiar mist forming lush, springy grass and towering trees heavy with emerald leaves.
She could smel the earth and stone. The fresh water of the stream.
She knew this place wel. So did the man holding her.
“My Eden.” There was wonder in his voice.
His secret place on the edge of his hidden world. Over the hils beyond, he could watch the humans live their hurried lives while he remained veiled. Apart. It eased him. Gave him the peace he could never find among his people. His father Elam, as the Master Trainer of al Igigi warriors, expected perfection from his only son.
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