by JL Madore
I glanced at Abbey, lying in stasis beside us, and wondered how long it would be before oblivion claimed my mother. “You have enough to worry about. Visit with your mom, and we’ll catch up soon. Over lunch?”
Out of my chair, I sailed through the open patio doors and headed to the marble steps, down to the grounds. The deer, scattered across the emerald back lawn, lifted their heads from grazing and trotted my way.
“Okay,” Jade said behind me. “Chasing people down was easier when I wasn’t a two-hundred-pound, waddling duck.”
I sighed and hurried back to her. “Why are you chasing me at all? Visit Abbey. I’m fine, truly.”
Jade laughed. “It seems you missed your father’s gift for lying in the gene splitting. You suck at it, Zo. And if you’re angry and alone in the world, I’m not letting you go it alone. You’re worried about your mom. Maybe I can give you some insight. I’ve treated all kinds of disorders and ailments. Nothing sends me screaming. I’m good at what I do, and I’m discreet.”
I knew that. I did. But my mother was, well, my mother.
“Trust me, Zo. It would be good for you to share the burden. We, the worried daughters, need to stick together, right?”
Despite the choking fear that none of this would end well, I hoped Jade’s healer perspective might highlight something Castian, and I, might have missed. “Swear to me that her condition goes no further than the two of us.”
“Shalana,” Jade repeated for the sixth time. “The Shalana.”
I gestured for her to watch her footing on the stone path winding down to my mother’s cottage. “Yes. Shalana, Goddess of the Woodlands, Keeper of the Wild, Mother of Nature is also my mother.”
“Aust is going to—” She shook her head. “Sorry. Right. I won’t say a word. But wow, Shalana. That’s big.”
I chuckled. Jade’s father was the God of gods, the biggest of the big. That she was awestruck to learn my mother’s identity warmed me. “That is how I want her to be remembered by the members of the realm. You understand, don’t you?”
Jade nodded, screening her eyes from the sun as we approached the gate and Dandy standing watch. “I do. I just can’t imagine how I never knew she was your mother.”
“Have you met my father?”
“Once,” Jade said, stopping at the gate. “A few months ago, I visited Castian and walked into the middle of something. I’m not sure what they were talking about, but by the looks on their faces and the energy in the air, they didn’t agree.”
“They rarely do.”
“Dandy is a dandy,” my mother’s doorman said.
I stroked the peach crest of the cockatoo and nodded. “You are indeed, Dandy. Where’s Mother?”
“Gone,” the bird replied, his neck swaying as if to a musical rhythm only he heard. “More gone than gone.”
“Be nice, Dandy.”
The gate creaked as I let myself into the yard. The door to the cottage hung open, the scene inside the same as always. Back at the gate, I pulled a treat from the pouch tied to the perch and offered him one. “Where’s your Mistress, Dandy? Is she in the forest?”
“Mistress is gone,” he said, taking the biscuit in his clawed foot and reaching down with his beak.
I patted the bird and eyed the entrance to the biomes down the path. “She can’t be far,” I said to Jade. “Are you good to walk, or do you want to wait here while I go find her?”
“Mistress is gone,” Dandy repeated. “Gone. Gone.”
The sudden rush of blood brought on a wave of dizziness. “You mean physically gone?”
Dandy consumed with his snack, and I realized I was trying to have a conversation with a bird. I jogged down the path, my heart racing. “Hoola? Hoola, where are you, sweet girl?”
A mournful whoooop came from the forest and I picked up my pace. At the mouth of the path leading into the forest, I met my mother’s companion. Hoola jumped up into my arms and wrapped herself around my chest.
“What is it, Hoola? Where’s Mom?”
Hoola’s eyes glistened back at me like onyx marbles. Try as I might, I had never been able to speak the language of the creatures my mother loved so deeply.
I gazed into the dappled shadows of the forest canopy. Birds squawked. Jungle cats growled. Monkeys chattered. Despite not having the ability to communicate with them, the unrest of the animals was apparent.
“She really is gone.”
Jade’s face glistened with a sheen of sweat as she joined us. “Any idea where she might go?”
I shook my head, my breathing coming fast and shallow. “She’s been withdrawn for decades. Mentally, she’s all but lost, a child in the vacant vessel of a once powerful Fae godde—”
I blinked up at Jade as the forest spun.
Jade shifted me to lean against the broad trunk of an elm.
My vision blotched with white spots, my mind’s eye focused on the champagne strands of innocence in Abaddon’s tapestry. “The vessel of a Fae Goddess for a Fae Goddess.”
“What? What are you saying, Zo?”
“It’s Abaddon. He’s taken my mother.”
CHAPTER THREE
In the thirty-six minutes it took Jade to go to Haven and return with Aust, I raced through the forest, desert, and grasslands biomes and headed along the cobbled pathway toward the moors and marshes. With no sign of my mother, my anxiety expanded well beyond my control. A constant gust of wind swirled around me, tugging at my skirt and hair.
“Zo,” Jade said, flanked by Galan and their Highborne brother, Aust. The two men stood, tall and lean, from their Elven boots to the tips of their pointed ears. And their expressions looked as grave as I felt. “Any sign of her?”
I shook my head. Hoola, a secured fixture upon my chest, clung to the braid against my back and pressed her face deeper against the curve of my neck. “It’s all right, sweet girl, these are my friends. They’re here to help us find Mom.”
Hoola clung tighter.
“Merry meet, sweeting.” Aust bent to the small ape. He removed his mirrored sunglasses, and for the first time, I saw the ice-blue tiger’s eyes I had only heard about in conversation. “Tell me, beautiful girl, where is your naneth?”
Aust’s power of communication tingled along my skin the same way my mother’s did. As he and Hoola engaged in an unspoken meeting of the minds, the energy in the air calmed. Birds flew from the forest and landed on the fences dividing the biomes. The frantic chatter of the monkeys quieted. A tiger padded out of the rainforest, its broad, striped head canted to one side.
Aust straightened and held open his arms. Hoola released me without hesitation and transferred to snuggle with him instead. With a tender caress, he ran his hand down her back and lifted her leathery hand to his kiss.
“Fash not, sweeting. We shall find her. Come now, we shall speak with the others.”
In all my years of watching my mother communicate with her animal children, I had envied her gift. Her connection with wildlife inspired me. Intimate. Isolating. She was theirs as much as they were hers. It marked a part of her I could never truly understand. Never share.
At times, it hurt. Other times, I grew jealous. Only the knowledge that her gift was singularly unique lessened that covetous ache. Until now.
Aust shared her gift. As if he had been born of her womb and inherited it from mother to son, he possessed her ability, her manner with wildlife, her very essence of being one with the creatures of the natural world.
“Don’t cry, Zo,” Jade said, squeezing my shoulder. “We’ll find her and bring her home. I promise.”
Stupid. I brushed the diamond tears from my cheeks and shook myself. My mother was missing, and I stood there crying because the best chance to find her came from Aust being able to speak with animals? Stupid.
Grief rarely makes sense, Galan said directly into my mind. When left helpless, emotions often drag a person’s thoughts through pointless eddies of despair. In truth, I have watched Aust’s way with animals and felt the same
.
Aust stepped back from Dandy’s perch and raked his fingers through his flaxen hair. “Fash not, Zophia,” he said, patting the head of the tigress as she rubbed her face against his hip. “Your mother is safe and not with Abaddon.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Castian came to call. He escorted her—”
“Zozo?” My mother’s smile put the warmth of sunlight to shame as she and Castian materialized onto the path outside the stone cottage. “Is it brownie night already?”
Castian released my mother’s arm and kissed Jade’s cheek. “Why do you all look so serious. What’s happened?”
“Nothing. Everything is fine.” Tears tumbled off my cheeks and clinked onto the stone walkway below, this time spurred on by sheer relief. I hugged my mother as Jade whispered to Castian, filling him in on the past hour.
“Mother,” I said when my voice felt steady once again, “I want to introduce you to my friends. This is Aust, Castian’s daughter, Jade, and her husband, Galan.”
Though I gestured to the three, in turn, only one held interest for her. “My dear boy,” she said, gliding to stand before Aust. “I’m so very pleased you’ve finally come. You don’t know how I’ve struggled to wait for you.”
Aust dropped to one knee and bowed his head. “The honor is mine own, Lady Shalana.”
My mother cupped his jaw and raised his gaze to meet hers. “Look at those beautiful eyes. You found my idol.” Her smile grew wide and proud. “You are remarkable, my son.”
Aust reached into the suede pouch hanging at his hip and retrieved a small ebony statue. “We found it at Dragon’s Peak when we recovered Rheagan’s spell book last June. Would you like it back?”
She laughed and closed his hand over the small carved piece. “All is as it should be. Come, we have much to discuss and little time to waste.”
Arm in arm, my mother led Aust down the path and into her biome sanctuary without a word to us or a backward glance. Castian removed his cloak and slung it over his arm as he led us into the cottage and out of the heat of the day. With a tight grip on my elbow, he pulled me to the side.
I apologize for your scare, sweetheart, Castian said into my mind, but what were you thinking, bringing members of the realm here?
“Dandy said a man took my mother. I was scared to death.”
He hung his cloak on a hook inside the door and frowned. You told them what you saw in Abaddon’s tapestry. That he was choosing a new vessel. That violates the oath of your station. The disappointment in Castian’s eyes warred with worry.
I turned to the sink to fill the kettle. I saw the thread of an innocent life woven into his tapestry and then found Mother missing. The animals were the only witnesses. Jade suggested that Aust could tell us what happened.
I arranged four teacups onto saucers and uncovered a plate of sweets from the icebox. Jade and Galan had settled at my mother’s table and were engaged in a conversation of their own. I set the plate before them and returned to the counter to steep the tea. You know I honor my oath, but when I thought Mother was in danger, I acted as a daughter, not a Fate. I panicked with the need to find her.
Castian scrubbed at the back of his neck, a habit he had when truly upset. You should have called Abaddon’s tapestry and sought the truth without involving the others.
Abaddon’s tapestry won’t come to me. It’s either missing or not responding to me.
Castian frowned. What do you mean?
I glanced at Jade and Galan. They were paying no attention to our conversation. Either my station is compromised, or Abaddon’s tapestry is gone. When I call it, nothing comes.
How is that possible? The Veil is warded against Abaddon and his ilk. How could he affect your station?
I set the teapot on the table and took my seat. Savage lived in Jade’s home and was a friend. The glitch with his frame not responding might be on my end, not his. Until I knew more, I wouldn’t speculate about the man.
I’m not sure what’s going on, or why.
Castian sensed my evasion but didn’t question me further. Biding time and choosing words made up a lot of our lives. He picked up the teapot and poured for the group. Tell me if it continues or if I should be worried, he said.
“I think we should all be worried,” I said aloud. “It’s no secret that Rheagan plans to take possession of a vessel and needs that vessel to hold power and influence. She possessed Lexi’s mother, the Queen of the Faery, then tried Lia to reclaim the realm throne. It makes sense that she would try to take someone like Mother, a Fae goddess with formidable power.”
Castian rubbed his thumb along the delicate edge of his teacup. “I cannot ward Shalana against possession as I did with Lia. Your mother’s gifts are different than mine but comparable in strength. Even with a weakened mental state, her powers surge as strong as ever.”
Jade dipped her cookie. “If Rheagan possesses another of the Fae Pantheon, do you have the juice to shut her down?”
Castian smiled. “Of course, Mir. Your father is the God of gods, after all. I can handle my sister.”
Despite Castian’s assurance, I had doubts. As we enjoyed a companionable snack, there was a great deal of speculation over what Abaddon might try next to bring Castian’s sister back to the living realm.
My mother screamed.
The four of us leaped from the table and bolted out the door. She stood at the gate, pointing at her source of upset. Animals rushed from the forest to protect their Mistress. Aust stood between her and the group, dagger drawn.
“Stand down, Aust,” I said, racing to my mother’s side. I put my arm around her shoulders and turned her away. “What the hell are you doing here?”
My father shrugged his broad shoulders, his coy expression uncharacteristically blank. My sisters, however, smiled with a delight that tightened my stomach into knots.
“We’re not here to upset Shalana,” Dane said. “We’re here because it’s where you are.”
Me? “What do you want with me that couldn’t wait until I returned to the Palace?”
“Your removal as Fate.”
Dane’s words floated inside my head but didn’t register. “I’m sorry, what?”
Dane unrolled a scrolled parchment and read aloud. “As Enforcer of the Fae Pantheon, I must inform you that both your status as Keeper of the Lives in Progress and your right to reside Behind the Veil has been revoked. As of this moment, Zophia Ezalbet Larethan, you are a Fate no longer and will vacate the Veil immediately.”
“On what grounds.” Castian snatched the parchment from his brother’s grasp.
Dane cast a derisive glance at my friends. “Breaking the tenet of non-disclosure with common members of the realm.”
“We are hardly common members of the realm,” Jade said. I am Castian’s daughter, a demi-goddess, and Queen of the Flesh. Galan is of Rheagan’s bloodline, and Sentinel of Souls.
“And your freak-eyed friend?” Zinnia said. “Who’s he?”
“Aust is a Fae Beastmaster,” Shalana said, “my apprentice, and Zophia’s betrothed.”
I gaped. Aust blinked, looking as surprised as the rest of us.
Still, no time to dwell.
“You see,” Castian said, without missing a beat. “There is no breach of duty. Each of these three has Fae stations of their own. Now leave before I fabricate charges of misappropriation of power myself—”
“Sorry, brother,” Dane said, though he didn’t look at all sorry. “Even if today’s slip of protocol is explained, there are other recorded instances. Zophia Flashed your niece, Lia, within the Hall of Destiny one night, a week or so ago, and revealed the events of her capture.”
“That was her tapestry,” I snapped. “What laws of secrecy did that break?”
“She held no memory of the events. You interfered in the natural order of the mating hearing.”
“Bullshit,” Castian said.
“And several months ago, she shared key images with one Alexannia Grace.
She divulged the identities of the assailants who slaughtered her Elf-friend, Thamior.”
“Because of that,” Zana said, her eyes glittering with life. “four Strati soldiers of the Faery Realm of Attalos were killed. She affected the outcome in the lives of men.”
“Like you do every day,” I said, my heart pounding out of my chest. “Rheagan had Tham killed to prove a point. That’s Pantheon interference and our responsibility.”
Zana scowled. “You didn’t know that at the time.”
I stared at the three of them, standing there, enjoying the destruction of my life. “How do you live with yourselves?”
“Your sisters aren’t the accused,” Dane said, pointing to the scroll in Castian’s hand. “Shall I continue? The incidents seem slight, but add up to an undeniable breach of oath. Do you intend to argue them all away?”
Wind swirled in a vortex around us, pulling at hair and clothing, stirring up grass. I threw up my hands. As much as I wanted to knock them back a hundred feet and leave them on their asses, what good would it serve?
“No. I’m done with you. I’ll stand before the Council and have my say. After that, if they don’t see this for the vindictive manipulation it is, consider me gone. A Fallen Fate. A failure at all you believe a Fate should be. And thank the gods for that. I’d rather be shunned and shamed a thousand times than be like you pathetic, petty, malicious . . .” My mind spun, searching for the word.
“Fucktards,” Jade said.
“That works.” I unclenched my fists, my cheeks flaming hot. “I’ll step down from my post for now, but won’t be kept from my mother, Abbey, or Castian. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You are,” Dane said. “You can’t be trusted. To give you access to the Palace and life Behind the Veil gives you access to sensitive details of Fae and realm activities. The Pantheon Council agreed and cast their votes.”
“The Council?” Castian snapped. “I wasn’t privy to any of this. Zophia hasn’t even been heard.”
“You are too close to this to see logic, brother. Your vote wouldn’t change anything, regardless. It was unanimous.”
