The warrior with the Maiara-sized blanket leaped down from his horse and unwrapped her, thrusting her in front of him like a human shield. She was alive. Afraid, but alive. Alexander closed in.
“Alexander,” she said.
One of the warriors drew his dagger and held it to her chest. Alexander stopped moving. All three sets of eyes focused on him. Gabriel was close, coming up behind them. He watched the depression of earth with each invisible step.
In one powerful snap, Gabriel tore two of the warriors in half. He couldn’t take the third. If he had, he might injure Maiara. The last man screamed in terror at the sight of his fellow warriors being ripped apart by an invisible force. Alexander used the distraction to move in, shifting into his human form and liberating Maiara from the man’s hold.
Gabriel struck, dragging the man back by the shoulder. But the warrior didn’t go peacefully. He threw the dagger he’d held to Maiara’s neck just before Gabriel tore him in two. Alexander never saw it coming. The blade landed in Maiara’s back and she collapsed against him, her mouth open in a silent scream.
“No. No!” He caught her and withdrew the knife, tossing it aside. It’s removal only served to make things worse. The wound bled and her breath whistled in her lungs. “Maiara, your amulet. Where’s your amulet?” He searched her side for her otter skin pouch. It wasn’t there.
“Tobias,” she rasped.
He lifted her, sprouted wings, and flew, soaring back to the village as fast as he could fly, until the muscles in his back burned with the effort. He landed at the center of the village, yelling for Tobias before his feet hit the packed dirt.
Tobias arrived at his side, still naked from the shift. “What happened?”
“She’s been stabbed. We need her amulet.”
Tobias looked right, then left. “The wigwam!” His brother ran for the place they’d slept.
A gurgle rose from Maiara’s throat, and Alexander pulled her close, his tears falling on her face.
“I love you,” she whispered, more breath than words. Nikan, who had been circling above them, landed on her chest in a flurry of feathers.
She stopped breathing.
“I love you too. No. No. Maiara stay with me!” Alexander rested her on the ground and screamed for Tobias.
“Here!” Tobias yelled; he was beside her. “I have it.” He placed the white shell in the hollow of her throat. Nikan folded her wings and lay quietly beside it. Maiara did not move. Alexander pressed the shell harder against her chest. Nothing.
“Maiara…,” he begged. Hot tears raced down his face. “My wife! My mate! Why isn’t it working?” He shook her gently. “Wake up. Come back to me.”
Tobias placed a hand on her throat, his expression morphing into a mask of horror. “She… she’s g-gone,” he choked out. “We were too late.”
Alexander’s entire body began to tremble. “No… no.”
“Alexander…” Gabriel placed a hand on his shoulder. How long had he been standing behind him?
Nudging Nikan off her, Alexander pulled Maiara into his arms again and rocked her. “It needs more time to work. Give it time.”
He saw them now, the others. Every family in the tribe had surrounded them. Time became meaningless as he held her, whispered to her, pressed his lips to her forehead. She couldn’t be dead. If she was, his soul would be torn in two and half of himself would go to the grave with her.
Her body cooled in his arms.
Several hours passed before he noticed the tribe was building something behind him. A pyre. An old woman came with gentle words, offering him food. He ignored her. More time passed. Tobias came, rubbed his back, and pleaded with him to hand Maiara’s body over. He refused.
He was covered in her dried blood.
And then Gabriel came. “Alexander, give me Maiara’s body.” There was no question in his words. When Gabriel spoke, he gave orders. Commands. His massive shoulders blocked out the afternoon sun, casting a shadow across Alexander’s face. His older brother meant business.
“Always the prince,” Alexander said through clenched teeth. “Fucking order everyone around like you’re king of the world. All you are is a horse’s ass, Gabriel. You were second best in Paragon and you are still second best, even now that Marius is dead.” Anger rose in Alexander, burning in his chest, his ears, his cheeks. He liked the feel of it. As long as he was angry, the hurt felt dull in comparison.
“Give me her body,” Gabriel ordered again. There was no more softness in his tone than the last time he gave the command.
“No.”
Gabriel spread his wings. “Then I will fight you for her, but be aware, if I attack you and she’s in your arms, I will not be responsible for any damage caused her.”
Alexander’s wings spread wide. “You will not lay a finger on her.” He carefully rested her body on the ground behind him and stood to his full height. Raising his fists, he said, “Try it.”
Gabriel’s fist flew at his face. With an upward swing of his arm, he blocked the punch and returned a kick to the gut. Gabriel caught his foot and twisted. Spinning, Alexander spread his wings and yanked his foot away. It felt like a dance. But then each of these moves was rehearsed, practiced in a sparring pit in Paragon. Alexander needed more. He needed blood.
He swooped down on Gabriel, the talons on the ends of his wings, hooking into his brother’s as his fists flew. Face. Chest. Stomach. Face. Alexander lost himself in a hailstorm of flying fists. He tore his brother’s cheek and reveled in the resulting splash of red. They were in the air, feet flying, then rolling on the ground, covered in dirt and dust. Gabriel blocked and kicked, but Alexander pounded relentlessly until his brother’s blood coated his fists. Gabriel curled on his side, his arms crossed over his face.
It was the first and only time Alexander had ever beaten his brother in a fight. Oddly, seeing Gabriel huddled at his feet brought him no joy or peace. He stopped his foot before it connected with Gabriel’s ribs. This wasn’t the answer.
With his last ounce of energy, Alexander offered Gabriel his hand and helped him to his feet, but when he tried to pull away, his brother squeezed tighter and pulled him into a firm embrace.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s okay, Alexander. It’s going to be okay,” Gabriel said softly.
“Hit me again. I want you to hit me.” He struggled against his brother’s hold and against the emotion that was welling inside him.
“No. That’s done now. It’s time for you to stop and say goodbye.”
“I can’t.” Everything was wrong. Pressure built inside his body until it felt like his eyes would pop out of his skull and whatever was in his stomach would pour out his mouth. Instead, tears were all that came. A storm of them. They exited him in great angry sobs that Gabriel tried to soothe by holding him tighter. It didn’t work.
“You have to say goodbye. You’ll regret it if you don’t.” Abruptly Gabriel turned him around, and what he saw shattered his heart like glass. Maiara’s people had taken her body and placed it on the pyre, her medicine bag positioned in her hands, the shell around her neck. The tribe circled her and chanted a song meant to usher her into the Land of Souls.
His anger died within the pressure of his brother’s hug, but the emotion that replaced it was far worse.
The flames climbed.
“They’re burning her.” He sobbed.
“They have to. It’s tradition with the Midewiwin. It will return her magic to the Great Spirit to be born again in another healer,” Tobias explained. How long had he been there with his hand on his shoulder?
“I can’t watch this.” Alexander shook his head. Where had the day gone? How long had he hoarded her body against him? The sun sank toward the horizon, the sky painted violet and blue like a bruise; maybe even the Great Spirit felt the sting of Maiara’s death.
“I’m sorry, Alexander.” Tobias extended his arm around his shoulder, and Gabriel moved to the side to accommodate him. Soon they were hold
ing him up. After some time, he became aware of a distant keening. The deep, tortured howl grew closer until he realized his mouth was open. The sound was coming from him. Only somehow it didn’t seem big enough or loud enough to do justice for what he was feeling. This ache in his chest was crushing him from the inside out.
The fire claimed her. He could no longer see her through the flames. He had to go. He had to get out of there. His dragon lurched to the surface, his arms extending toward the dirt and shingling with scales.
“Alexander. Alexander, stop,” Gabriel commanded.
It was too late to stop. He shifted into his dragon and shrugged off his brothers. He couldn’t be there. Couldn’t breathe. And then he had an idea. He would find this Great Spirit and force it to return Maiara to him or else allow him to follow her into the Land of Souls.
With one last look at his brothers, he spread his wings and flew toward the setting sun. And he never returned.
Chapter Twenty-Five
2018
Sedona, Arizona
“That’s how you ended up here?” Rowan wiped under her eyes, and her fingers came away wet. Alexander’s story was tragically sad. Her heart broke for him all over again. “You kept flying toward the setting sun?”
Alexander wiped a tear from his own eye. “Eventually I gave up on that plan. Nikan and Willow followed me from the Potawatomi village. I could see I was exhausting them both. It takes a lot of work for a hawk to keep up with a dragon, and Willow had used magic to bring my things. He needed my energy to survive. By the time we’d reached Sedona, neither of them looked good. I was afraid I’d kill them both if I pushed any harder.
“Besides, Sedona called to me. I landed here, attracted by the energy, the heat. I thought it would be healing.”
“What about the orb?” Nick asked. “Did you ever tell Gabriel that the wendigo had a connection to Paragon?”
“No.” Alexander frowned. “Honestly, it was the last thing on my mind after everything. But whoever gave it to the wendigo, as far as I know, nothing came of it. We all went our separate ways, and I never saw anything like it again.”
His gaze fell on her hand, which had coupled with Nick’s as Alexander’s story unfolded. She exchanged glances with her mate, and they both let go at the same time. Rowan silently cursed. It must be painful for her brother to see them together.
“You don’t have to pretend you aren’t deliriously in love just because my life is a living hell.”
Rowan sighed heavily, wishing there was some sort of psychological CPR she could do to bring Alexander back to life again. What had happened to him was too horrible. The darkness of it seemed to cling to her. “Is there anything I can do?”
Alexander leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee. “Believe it or not, you already have. You were right.”
“I was? About what?”
“It has helped to tell her story.”
“Oh…” She didn’t know what to say. She’d hoped it would help him, but there was so much sadness in the air she’d worried she’d made it worse.
“Maiara’s people believe that the dead cross over to an otherworld, a Land of Souls. I hadn’t thought about that in a long time, that her soul might still exist in another realm, another world. She used to talk to her ancestors when she’d heal someone. All this time, I rarely thought about that, rarely thought to talk to her, wherever she may be. I’ve been so focused on my own pain.”
“You’ve been alone with this grief for a long time.”
“I talked to her last night. Like she used to pray to her ancestors. I prayed to her. I prayed for her help to move on.”
A lump formed in Rowan’s throat. Her brother’s expression was still one of pure agony as he stared out over the desert beyond the cave, but there was a hint of something more now in the creases around his eyes. If she hadn’t known him since they were children, she might not have noticed, but she thought she saw the start of acceptance there, an understanding that his life had been better for knowing Maiara even if his mate was no longer with them.
“It’s the beginning of a new day,” Rowan said, then grimaced at how trite the phrase sounded once it had left her mouth. “I’m… sorry. That was…” She shook her head.
He gave her an exasperated look. “I need to be alone.”
“Of course.” She frowned.
“It’s nothing personal. I just need time to create and to process everything.”
She sighed. “You do realize Gabriel will kill me. We don’t know when or where Eleanor will strike. None of us are supposed to be alone.”
His head sagged forward on his shoulders. “I’ll be here, Rowan. In my treasure cave, painting and recharging my batteries. There’s no place safer for a dragon than this.”
Rowan mulled this over. Nick looked tired, hungry, and like he needed some air. She supposed two days of discussing Maiara’s death was hard on all of them. Reluctantly she nodded in agreement. “Okay. We’ll go. I’ll give you and Nyx a few days, and then I’m coming back for you. You’ll text if you need anything?”
He nodded over the steam from his cup. “Deal.”
It took the better part of three hours for Rowan to relay everything she’d learned from Alexander to the others. They sat around the table in the small apartment Gabriel rented, picking at a meal of burritos and chips from a local dive.
“I remember the day she died,” Tobias said. “Maiara was the reason I became a healer. I stayed with the Potawatomi and served as their Midew for a decade, until my presence became disruptive.”
“Why was it disruptive?” Rowan asked.
“I wasn’t aging. I had blond hair and looked like a white man. I started to garner a lot of questions, and as new Midew were named, they didn’t want to associate with me. I thought it would be better for the tribe if I left. So I did. I ended up settling in what is now Chicago and never left.”
Raven picked at her supper. “She had such an impact on all of you. She’s the reason Gabriel ended up in New Orleans as well.”
“There’s something I still don’t understand,” Nick said. Rowan raised an eyebrow at him. Was there any question she hadn’t answered? Her mate’s inquisitive tendencies were beginning to give her heartburn. “Alexander left while the body was burning. He said Maiara’s shell amulet was around her neck when the fire engulfed her remains. But a few days ago, Raven asked for that amulet so she could study Maiara’s magic and Tobias admitted he had it. How did you get the amulet if she was burned with it?”
“I went back,” Gabriel said. “In the middle of the night, after the fire burned itself out. I pulled it from her ashes.”
Raven inhaled sharply, her hands resting on her swollen belly. “By the Mountain, Gabriel, you didn’t even let the sun rise on her ashes before you stole her sacred healing amulet?”
Tobias rubbed the back of his neck. “Now you know why I was so surprised back in New Orleans in February when Gabriel told me he had it. Now you also understand why I wanted it. The tribe searched for the shell the next morning. They needed it. Everyone thought the Great Spirit had taken the amulet from them as some sort of punishment, along with their last and only healer. All those centuries… It wasn’t until I helped you, Raven, that I learned Gabriel had it.”
Gabriel growled. “I wasn’t going to let them bury it with her ashes. It was too powerful. She was the last living Midew. No one else would have understood its magic.”
Tobias growled. “You are truly ignorant if you believe that. You knew I’d been working side by side with her for months.”
Rowan held up her hands as the temperature in the room rose, and the two dragons stared at each other as if they were thirty seconds away from re-creating a WWE Smackdown event. “Listen you two, I can see that there are all sorts of things ricocheting around those heads of yours. Gabriel, taking that amulet was just one more example of how you used to think the world revolved around you before Raven came along.”
“Hey!” Gabriel folded his
arms.
“And Tobias, you’ve known about this for several months now. This is not the time to get all pissy about it. There is only one person in this family whose anger is truly justified over this amulet thing, and that’s Alexander. And the sad thing is, he doesn’t even know about it yet. So both of you need to calm your dragons and shut the fuck up.” She swung her pointed fingers like she was conducting a choir and then circled her hands into the universal “shut it” symbol.
Everyone stared at their plates in silence.
“Not to get involved in family business,” Nick said after Rowan sat back down, “but has anyone thought that Alexander might want it back? I mean, like the hawk, it was his wife’s. Seems like he should have it… and that you should tell him.”
Rowan stared at him, her shoulders tightening to the point of pain. Of course that should happen. But when?
“This is probably a good time for me to mention that I have had a chance to analyze the amulet’s magic,” Raven said, “and it’s some of the strongest I’ve ever encountered. Now that I know the story of what she was, I’m sure I can find more about Midew magic, with or without the shell.”
Rowan sighed. “I told Alex I’d come back for him in a few days. Maybe we should all present the amulet to him then. Nick’s right. He deserves to have it back, and it might give him some closure.”
“I’m not opposed to facing Alexander about what I did,” Gabriel said, a rare repentant gleam in his eye. “Maybe it’s time.”
The storm of Rowan’s emotions calmed into something far more hopeful. “If you approach this the right way, Gabriel, you could have him on the plane back to New Orleans in no time.”
Raven stood and grabbed her purse.
“Where are you going?” Gabriel asked.
“To research Midew magic while I still have access to all that Sedona has to offer and the amulet. You heard the woman. I’m running out of time.”
Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair. “Just be careful, Raven. Don’t take any chances with the baby.”
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