by Dianna Love
“I know who you are and that you have been here recently. You were pretending to be a Belador warrior the day Quinn and the Sterling witch visited.”
She’d realized he’d been impersonating a guard? Even without seeing him?
This time, the hair on his arms stood up sharply out of an emotional reaction to her words. He didn’t want to call it fear, but serious respect.
She said, “You can tell Queen Maeve the answer to both of her questions is yes. I sing about the Belador Maistir, Quinn, and the secret he shared with Kizira. If you free me, I give you my word to tell your queen that secret.”
Queen Maeve would be so proud of him, but did his queen realize he was dealing with someone truly insane?
He shook his head at himself. Who am I to question someone as powerful as Queen Maeve? She knows what she’s doing.
Right now, he had to keep his excitement under control. The mission was not yet complete.
He told Veronika, “The moment we leave, I’ll take you to Queen Maeve and allow you to share the secret with her. You can join forces with her and she will be able to protect you when VIPER sends an army to hunt you.”
Veronika said, “What are you waiting for?”
What a churlish attitude. This witch had no manners. She should show her appreciation for all that he was about to do.
She’d agreed to share her secret, which was step one.
Once Queen Maeve had Veronika in TÅμr Medb, this witch would soften her attitude if she hoped to survive.
Ossian said, “Here’s the plan.”
Chapter 7
Still impersonating Bull, Ossian ran to the closest wall and slapped his hand against the stone, shouting in a panicked voice, “Veronika is gone! I repeat, Veronika is gone!”
He wiped damp palms on his pants.
Sen appeared, eyes blazing mad. “How did that happen?”
Ossian had expected Sen’s immediate and angry response, but not the primal fear that arose in him from the surge of Sen’s power. He was in up to his neck. No going back now.
He either pulled this off or Sen would unleash a vicious fury on Bull. Ossian wasn’t sure he could maintain his Bull façade if Sen tortured him.
Wrong thing to think about.
“What the fuck is going on, Bull?” Sen ordered.
“Hey, you said this place was secure. You didn’t say nothin’ about that crazy bitch bein’ able to open her cell.”
Sen looked past Bull to where Veronika’s cell was hidden behind a stone wall. “It’s still rock.”
Giving a sarcastic snarl, Bull said, “Of course it is. She opened it and reset the wall, then freakin’ vanished.”
“Why didn’t you stop her?”
“I go after trolls and an occasional demon that skips out on a deal. Fighting crazy witches is over my pay grade, bud.”
Sen’s face looked like a monster hid inside, waiting to be released. He strode over to the wall and cleared it with a flip of his hand.
When the rock disappeared, red smoke filled the space that should be her cell.
“Veronika!” Sen shouted. “If you’re screwing with me using some illusion tactic, you will not like the way you spend the next hundred years.”
Not a sound came from the cell.
“Told you,” Ossian said in Bull’s deep voice.
“Shut up,” Sen warned. Then he bit out a string of words and opened the ward sealing her in.
Red smoke boiled out of the room.
Bull coughed and choked, but he followed Sen in and almost ran into the liaison, who turned around and shouted, “Get the fuck out of here so I can tell if anyone else is in this room.”
“Ah, hell. You tell Dakkar I quit. I don’t need your shit.”
Sen pointed at Bull and flipped his hand.
Still appearing as Bull, Ossian ended up outside the mountain, standing in the wooded parking area. Shit, shit, shit.
Where was Veronika?
Ossian changed to his Emilio image, which drained his energy, but he needed to dump Bull immediately with Sen on the warpath.
He walked over to his car, mumbling, “What am I going to do now?”
“Anything I ask.”
Ossian spun around to find Veronika standing ten feet away in a red robe that flowed to the ground. The woman was a knockout with thick, black hair streaked with white, and blue eyes full of fire.
He started laughing. “We did it.”
“Yes, but I am the one who left Sen locked in that cell.” She smiled and he felt his body reacting to her. “He will escape, but I will be hidden by then.”
She’d been a bitch back in her cell, but who wouldn’t be in a bad mood in there? He let out a quick breath of relief. “All I have to do is contact Queen Maeve and—”
The air around him blurred and heated at the same time.
He heard Veronika’s voice at a distance, but none of the words made sense. The harder he tried to see her, the more his eyes burned. His world tilted out of shape. Then his body twisted back and forth, changing from one shape to another as if his majik had corrupted.
“Do you understand me, Ossian?”
He shook off the dizziness and said, “What?”
“I asked if you’re ready to do your duty.”
He lifted his hands and touched his face. Yes, he was Ossian, instead of Emilio. Duty. He did have a duty and it wasn’t to this witch. He stepped back. “What are you trying to do? I am Cathbad’s best operative. Don’t make the mistake of trying to mess with me or my majik.”
“Forget about Cathbad and Queen Maeve. You now work for me.”
Shaking his head, he said, “Never happen.” Opening his mind to call Cathbad, he tried to reach out and hit a wall of pain that dropped him to his knees.
Veronika spoke in a language that sounded almost Russian, but that shouldn’t be right. He’d studied her history. She was part of the ancient KievRus dynasty of witches, which originated in Ukraine.
When he could breathe again, he looked up to find dark spirits hovering just above the ground in a circle that started and ended with Veronika. They had him in the middle.
She said, “These are my ancestors. I do not disturb them often. You will do as I say, or I will hand you over to them.”
Standing again, he said, “You don’t want to do this, Veronika. Queen Maeve will come for me.”
“I do hope so. She’s on my list of people to teach a lesson for trying to enslave me.”
His heart sank, but he bluffed, “That’s not true. She and Cathbad want to form an alliance with you.”
Veronika laughed out loud and the spirits mimicked her laugh, silencing when she did. “No one is my equal.”
Ossian suffered true panic. He searched for a way to get through to her. “Don’t you want Witchlock back? Queen Maeve and Cathbad will help return it to you.”
Veronika looked at him with disdain. “You really expect me to believe that your queen will lend a hand in returning Witchlock to me when it will make me more powerful than the deities ruling your miserable Tribunals? Queen Maeve is not that stupid and I’m insulted that you think I am so easily manipulated. Now, it’s time to bring you into the fold.”
“No. You gave your word!”
“And I intend to keep it. I did not say when I would tell her Quinn’s secret. If she lives long enough to meet me, then I’ll tell her.”
Ossian started sweating, big-time. Desperate now, he shouted, “Cathbad, call me home now!”
Nothing happened.
Nothing except giving Veronika more pleasure. “I do love to watch one like you squirm. You can stand still or not. The power of my ancestors will prevent anyone from seeing us or entering this spot until I’m finished.”
“You can’t compel me. Cathbad built in preventive measures in case I was captured.”
Ignoring him, Veronika continued explaining, “Relax and ... well, it won’t make this any easier for you. In fact, it’s going to hurt. A lot.” She pointed both ha
nds at Ossian.
He stood strong, trying to convince himself that she could not break Cathbad’s majik.
She could not compel him.
She could not ...
Pressure expanded in his head. Words shot around his mind like poison darts, stabbing him with excruciating pain.
He screamed and screamed. His body twisted in and out of shape again. His eyes bled. Foam poured from his mouth. He started choking.
Veronika said, “Do not die!”
His eyes bulged. My duty is to die.
Chapter 8
Evalle parked along the curb in front of Mother Mattie’s house in the Emory area of Atlanta, waiting for the sun to drop out of sight. Until then, she couldn’t leave the safety of Storm’s Land Cruiser, which was warded against the sun.
Mother Mattie, the elderly white witch who lived here, was taking care of Lanna, as well as Mattie’s granddaughter, Sissy. Both girls had suffered brutal attacks by Grendal, a powerful dark wizard who was now dead.
Adrianna unlatched her seat belt and peered out the passenger-side window. “It’s close. Another few minutes and you won’t turn into a toasted marshmallow.”
“You’re a laugh a minute.”
“I could cloak you from the sun’s rays.”
“Thanks, but it’s almost sunset, so no point in doing that when it’s not necessary.” For someone Evalle hadn’t wanted to work with in the beginning, Adrianna had turned out to be a good friend. Which was why people should never assume they knew a person because of a name. Adrianna was practically royalty in the Sterling witch coven, one of the deadliest dark witch groups known, but she was not like them.
The Sterlings had mistreated Adrianna and her twin sister.
Adrianna had never forgiven them. In fact, she avoided dark majik.
“We now have a large group of beings with similar abilities to reach beyond our realm,” Adrianna said, breaking the silence. She counted off on her fingers. “Me, Storm, Lanna and Mother Mattie, just to name a few who could help Quinn search for his daughter.”
A Sterling witch normally did not partner with a white witch like Mother Mattie, but Adrianna had played a role in saving Mother Mattie’s life. In turn, the elderly witch had shared with Adrianna how to break Daegan’s curse, and Mother Mattie had asked her Fae half sister, Caron, to help them save Lanna.
Evalle asked, “What are you saying? We should have a séance?”
Rolling her head to the side to stare at Evalle, she said, “Sure. If that doesn’t work, we’ll grab a Ouija board.”
“You can be one sarcastic bitch sometimes.”
Adrianna laughed. “It’s so easy to get your goat sometimes.”
“Hardy har har.”
Shaking her head, Adrianna said, “Hardy har har? You watch too many old television shows.”
“Feenix likes them.” Evalle and her sweet gargoyle had spent many hours alone watching television and surfing the net in the past. She looked around. “Sun’s down. Let’s go.”
Evalle had shut her car door and met Adrianna at the back of the truck when the witch’s smile fell away.
Adrianna put a hand on her chest, grimacing.
Evalle snarked, “I told you being a bitch would give you indigestion.”
Looking around first, the witch opened her hand and the white ball of energy appeared, but it was spinning back and forth erratically.
Oh, crap. Evalle also checked to see that no human stood nearby or at a window. “What’s wrong?”
“No idea. Something is affecting Witchlock.” Adrianna sounded angry more than worried. “I wish there was some place to research this power without drawing the attention of someone from Veronika’s family. The best place would be in her ancestors’ realm.”
“I’m with Storm. We should never go back there.”
“Agreed.” Adrianna struggled to stand upright, as if something kept forcing her body to contort. “I feel like I’ve been given a Ferrari with a monster engine, but no idea how it will handle, and dropped into the driver’s seat at a hundred miles an hour in the mountains. One wrong move, I hit a wall and explode.”
Evalle lifted both eyebrows. She took a step back, but in a teasing way.
Adrianna muttered, “Coward.”
About to open her mouth and point out that a coward would survive this, Evalle’s joking faltered when energy surged up Adrianna’s arm. Veins glowed and shot around her arm like lightning strikes under her skin.
Breathing fast, Adrianna said, “On second thought, you may want to run.”
“I’m not leaving. Tell me what’s going on right now.”
Forcing the words out, Adrianna said, “I’ve been pushing the energy a little more at times when I’m alone somewhere, like on a mountain top. Right now, it feels like the energy is trying to power up, but without me calling it. Or, wait, maybe it’s ... reacting.” Adrianna stared off into the distance, focused on something no one else could probably see.
As quickly as it came upon her, the sizzling energy disappeared and Witchlock spun happily in the normal direction, back to the shape of a tennis ball above the palm of her hand.
The witch released a long breath. “Finally.”
“Finally what?” Evalle asked, staring at tendrils of white drifting away from the ball of energy.
“Everything is back to normal, or at least what I call normal.” Using her free hand to brush long, blond hair over her shoulder, Adrianna explained, “Now that I can think more clearly, it felt as if the power was stretching out of shape or in one direction.”
Evalle considered possibilities and still came up with only one. “Do you think it was Veronika?”
“If I hadn’t recently seen her in the cell beneath VIPER with all of Sen’s badass security, I might think that. She would have jumped on the chance to get to me when I stood that close. She couldn’t. I have no idea what just happened. It could be nothing more than a reaction to my testing the power recently. Maybe the bulk of the Witchlock energy is trying to pull what I carry with me back to the source.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, but I don’t even know if that’s the reason.” Adrianna’s frustration coated every word. Closing her right hand, then reopening it to an empty palm, she stretched her fingers and said, “Let’s go see Lanna.”
Letting the moment pass without further examination, Evalle led the way to the front door and knocked, expecting to see Mother Mattie when the door opened.
Instead of the elderly witch, her half sister, Caron, stood there. The Fae who’d killed Grendal. “What?”
“Lanna asked me to visit,” Evalle said, getting to the point for Miss Personality.
Without turning around, Caron called out, “Lanna? Did you contact this Belador and ...” Her gaze swung to Adrianna, whom she asked, “Just what kind of witch are you?”
“To answer that I’ll need a reference point,” Adrianna answered smoothly. “What kind of Fae are you?”
Caron didn’t smile.
Lanna showed up before that conversation could go any further and rushed Evalle, who opened her arms to the young woman.
To see Lanna happy warmed Evalle’s heart. Quinn needed to see his cousin and let go of the guilt he carried for not keeping her safe.
Releasing Evalle from the hug, Lanna turned to face everyone. “Caron, this is my good friend, Evalle, and my other friend, Adrianna.”
Evalle started to point out that Caron had met her and Adrianna, but that would mean bringing up bad memories for everyone.
Still not impressed, Caron said, “You can come in, but if anyone makes a threatening move toward Mattie, Lanna or Sissy, I’ll have to turn you to dust.” With that, Caron left.
“Please do not be bothered by Caron,” Lanna said, her eyes showing how much she wanted everyone to get along. “Come. We have tea.”
Adrianna smiled and gave Lanna a hug. “I’m glad you’re better.”
“I am fine. I need to see Cousin soon.”
&
nbsp; Evalle saw shadows in Lanna’s eyes. The young woman was not as fine as she claimed, but Evalle knew from experience that sometimes you had to keep telling yourself you would survive just so that you could.
When they entered the kitchen, Mother Mattie had placed four mugs with steeping tea bags on the small table in her kitchen.
Evalle said, “My apologies, Mother Mattie. I should have called to tell you Adrianna was coming with me.”
Lanna laughed. “She knew. That’s why she has four teas. Caron will not join us.”
Once they were settled, Lanna took a sip of her hot drink, then placed it carefully on the table. Evalle noted Lanna’s deliberate mannerisms, which were so ... managed compared to the bubbly and vivacious young woman who had come to Atlanta only months ago.
“Thank you for coming,” Lanna started. “I must help my cousin. He needs me.”
Evalle lifted her hand. “I know he appreciates how much you want to help, but Quinn can’t handle you getting hurt again. He has asked me constantly about when he could come to visit. I told him you would call when you were ready. He misses you and loves you very much.”
“I know he does, but Cousin must learn that he is not responsible for everyone else.” Lanna turned bright blue eyes on Evalle that were far more mature than they should be at eighteen. “I have not broken Cousin’s confidence, but Mother Mattie knows about his search.”
Hmm, Quinn would not be happy.
Evalle asked, “How did you find out, Mother Mattie?”
“While using my natural healing on Lanna, I saw things that troubled her. I had to ease her worries to push her beyond the grief she’d experienced.”
Grief, yes, but in Lanna’s case it was probably loss of innocence as well as loss of confidence in herself.
Evalle reached over and squeezed Lanna’s hand. “You have no idea how proud of you I am. Quinn will be thrilled when he sees you again. I’m sure he’s going to be fine with Mother Mattie knowing.” She hoped. Poor Quinn was running a daily race to find Phoedra without an enemy discovering that she was his and putting a target on her back.
