by L. M. French
Emerick rolled his eyes. “I’m just the messenger, brother. Don’t shoot.”
I shared a look with Phin that said he shared my amusement. Bay never hesitated to take a bite out of Veda’s ass when she didn’t disappear fast enough for him. We’d all concluded his behavior was a direct result of wanting to take a bite out of her ass in a very different way.
No one pointed this out because we liked having arms and legs. Besides, the man wanted to pretend he didn’t want a piece of the little sentinel that was his business. I had my own issues.
“Where are we with the witch?” Bay asked Phin.
Phin did not have good news and it showed. “Message was left per her instructions. All I know is she is beyond the barrier. If she grants us an audience, we’ll get a location.”
The Crows and Berserkers were guarding Fulcrums borders and the rest of the clans had been warned. We were in a holding pattern until we could get a bead on Sai’s physical form and it was starting to wear.
Being attacked by an extinct branch of shifters had rocked our community. The Horde had been decimated hundreds of years ago during the war alongside many factions. Thousands of lives were lost. Including my mother.
Bay scraped a hand over his face. “Everyone should rest, eat. We go as soon as we have that location. In the meantime, call in the Howlers clan.”
Phin shot off a text and waited for it to chime back before tapping the table. “Hatter says four hours.”
“Right, sack out boys.”
We all headed to the rooms in the east wing. We were there often enough to have temporary lodgings. As I passed Pike in the hallway, I relayed the latest and we bumped fists. Walking away, I felt eyes on my back and looked over my shoulder to find Pike watching me before he grinned. Fucking wolf.
CHAPTER NINE
Veda
I escaped the sitting room and ducked around the corner slipping through the first door I saw. I shut it behind me and came up short when I realized I was in some sort of linen closet.
There wasn’t enough room to pace in a linen closet.
The power that had sparked to life in my belly tickled the back of my throat as it moved lazily through me. I crouched down and focused on slow deep breaths. It was still there, that fiery energy, but it seemed in no hurry to barbeque me or anyone else.
I didn’t fight it, instead I simply breathed, my eyes closed while it permeated every cell in my body. The very air I breathed seemed too thin, somehow lighter as I pulled it in.
My vision shrank and then expanded quickly. It felt like the visual equivalent of my ears popping. Suddenly the blue sheets on the shelf in front of me were blue. I looked up and could see the light fracturing inside the light bulb illuminating the room.
I heard the click of the doorknob turning and spun on my heels to see Pike stick his head in. He checked behind him before joining me in the closet shutting the door and putting his back against it. He stared silently one ginger eyebrow raised.
I rose to my feet and tried to think of an excuse to be caught hiding in the linen closet. A love for a thousand thread count Egyptian cotton didn’t seem convincing. He stepped away from the door and took both my hands in his. I leaned back trying to regain my personal bubble, feeling for all the world like two teenagers playing seven minutes in heaven.
A game I’d learned at the hands of B.J. Sullivan when I was twelve. I’d learned two things. Never kiss a boy named B.J. and seven minutes is a long time to be stuck in a closet with a horny boy.
All. Hands.
“I thought you’d already left. Imagine my surprise to track you to the bedsheets.” His tone was amused but the hand squeeze was serious. Sincere and serious. Not our standard operating procedure.
Pike was an advisor to the king, the youngest advisor at just under two hundred years, as a matter of fact. I would have thought it would put him higher on Bay’s shit list than me since the man despised any accomplishment gained by anyone less than five hundred years, but he seemed genuinely happy with Pike’s appointment. I wasn’t bitter but a distraction had been largely anticipated.
I shook off my thoughts and avoided the sorta obvious question of our environment. “Still here. Did they learn something about Sai in the last five minutes?”
His hands squeezed mine again and I think it was supposed to be sympathetic except bones cracked. “Yes and no.”
Despite being the youngest advisor to one of the most powerful beings in existence, Pike was a drama whore. Whether it was reality television about cheerleader moms, southern fried hillbillies, or plastic surgery mishaps they were all treasures to the wolf-witch.
“Specific Pike, be specific. What’s wrong?” Besides the obvious.
He looked over his shoulder to make sure the door was closed and no one else was listening in or to make sure his shadow stayed put.
Pike had a bit of a Peter Pan situation. But that was another secret.
“It’s about the priest, you know the gnarled old guy with the disappointing looks and touchy feely complex?”
I nodded baffled.
Pike looked at me as if gauging whether I could handle whatever needed handling. After the encounter with Bay, it chafed. Before I could pull my hands back, he started talking. “Well, Dr. Feel-good hasn’t been seen in these parts in almost three decades.”
The way he said it told me this bit of information was significant but try as I might the well of insight remained dry.
“I assumed he was there to help find Sai.”
Pike’s normally lively eyes were solemn. “No, Seal-bearer, he was here for you.” No one called me seal-bearer but Pike.
I shook my head. “Me? Why me?”
Pike leaned in mirth rekindling in his face. “Now that is the mystery of the day.” He tipped his head in thought. “Well, the second one at any rate.”
Digging a hand into his pocket he withdrew a pouch. “More than a quarter century ago I was given this to hold onto. The Grand Poohbah himself told me to give this to you when that old, wrinkled excuse for an immortal holy man showed his dried-up puss here.”
I took the pouch and gingerly shook the contents into my palm. It was a translucent stone, flat and round like the ones I used to skip over Callio Lake. But this one wasn’t made for skipping. It was a Travelers Stone.
The stones were made for a specific recipient- for a specific journey- while sleeping. Only the maker knew the destination and I had a feeling this stone’s maker was missing.
Sliding the stone back into the pouch I tucked it inside the pocket of my jeans.
“Did he tell you anything else?”
Pike didn’t answer. Instead, he lifted my hand and studied my seal. I felt my newfound energy lick at his, but he didn’t seem to notice. “He said to give you the stone and to tell you ‘Happy Birthday’.”
His eyes pinned mine. My birthday was in three months. That’s what I was told. I had been born in late august and summarily discarded. I tried to pull my hand free, but Pike hung on.
“One more thing.” Pike smiled. “He said ‘keep her safe and don’t underestimate her- she is the beginning and the end of us all’.” His thumb stroked my palm as he delivered Sai’s message as if he could sense my building panic and felt none of his own. Perfectly normal to deliver gifts to a half-human sentinel from your lord and liege.
Neither one of us missed the sound of footsteps carrying down the hall towards us. Satisfied he’d done his duty Pike reached for the doorknob. “I’ll distract them, but you need to get through a door that leads a little further away than the laundry. Whatever you did to Ozias got their attention.” He dipped out and I was left cursing.
This was not good. If Pike was right, then I had to avoid the Timorii priest like a rabid dog avoids water. With unequivocal and irrational dedication.
I waited till I heard Pike lead the interloper away before sneaking out of the linen closet. Wherever Sai was I hoped he was having a good laugh. Alive.
CHAPTER TEN
Lying in bed I watched through the skylight as the rest of the sun’s rays slipped away leaving brother moon and his army of stars to combat the dark.
I was fully dressed on top of the covers with a knife in my boot and another in a sheath next to me.
My bedside lamp burned but I reached over and switched it off. Pike’s words played through my head like a song I’d heard before but couldn’t place.
She is the beginning and end of us all.
Sounded ominous.
The pouch Pike had given me rested on my stomach and I toyed with its strings as I stared up at the sky.
I needed answers and the Travelers Stone was the most obvious next step, but I was apprehensive. While my body would remain where it, my consciousness- my essence would go where the stone dictated leaving me vulnerable.
I’d shoved a chair under the doorknob of my bedroom and a quick glance assured me it hadn’t moved. It wouldn’t stop anyone determined to break in, but I was hoping the noise would wake me before I could be kidnapped or dismembered.
I had no illusions, Ivory was still coming for me and coming home had been a risk. The longer I stayed here the more probable it would be that he caught me.
Now or never.
Taking the knife next to me, I sliced across my left palm. Blood welled and ran, and I hoped like hell I hadn’t cut too deep. I wiggled my fingers and was pleased to note I hadn’t maimed myself.
I opened the pouch and slid the stone into my still bleeding palm.
My eyes closed on a sigh as the translucent stone tinged red. I felt myself pull away from the bed and opened my eyes.
It was startling to see myself lying there, eyes closed, skin pale as blood trickled between my fingers to stain the navy fabric of my shirt. Should’ve worn black for this.
My shoulder blades itched, and I turned around to find the source but was no longer in my bedroom.
Balding cypress trees surrounded me, ancient and majestic as they stretched heavenward. I turned looking for Sai but didn’t see him. Following the sounds of water lapping over rock I made my way to the lake itself.
I stepped around a fallen log, my boots sinking and squishing in the mud. At first, I saw nothing but calm waters and the tiny glow of fireflies. Normally I’d be charmed by their dancing lights but not tonight. I left them to their aerial frolicking and made my way down the soggy bank.
“You should’ve come here more often.”
As if conjured from my mind, and given my current state it was entirely possible, Sai stood next to me.
“You’ll want to, but you must not. Everything you had is now a part of before. You must give it all up to survive what is next.”
I turned to him, the man that was the only true family I knew. The man that was more father than king. “Where are you, Sai?” I pleaded.
Sai took my hand and eased us down to sit by the edge of the water. I didn’t feel the moisture seep into my jeans only the grip of his hand in mine. “You’re not lost to us yet. If we find your vessel there’s still time-”
“Shhhh.” He hushed me. He gestured across the lake. “Enjoy the view while we’re here.”
I stared at his profile for another beat, taking in the blond and brown streaks that made up his hair- no grey for the ancient entity, nope, a scruffy jaw and eyes you’d mistake for golden if you didn’t know better. Sighing I turned my head to survey the lake. It was as I always remembered. I liked to think it had looked the same way to someone else eons ago.
“Why are we here if you can’t- or won’t- tell me where you are?”
“We are here because this is your favorite place. It is your solace, your sanctuary from the world you found yourself in. I knew this day would come and when it did you would come here.”
He turned to look at me then and his yellow eyes brimmed with fury. “And you must not do that.”
The water rose around our knees, and I realized we were half submerged. I surged awkwardly to my feet, the weight of the water throwing off my balance.
I clutched Sai’s hand and pulled when he made no move to rise from the flooding waters. Realistically I knew we couldn’t be harmed here but still; you didn’t sit around and wait to drown.
The water rose and flooded the banks rising to our waist. Sai had stood but resisted my tugs on his arms. His eyes still glowed as he held my hand locked in his, preventing me from backing away. His hair was pulled back at the crown and the long length whipped around up. “You must never come back here, do you understand me, Veda?”
I no longer felt the water. I no longer cared. “What am I?”
His eyes continued to glow, but he smiled. “Exactly what you were meant to be. And nothing they could have foreseen.”
I instinctively stomped my foot in irritation and only succeeded in nearly upending myself. Only Sai’s grip on my hand kept me upright in the chest high water. “I’m just a sentinel. A half-human sentinel.”
His smile was sadness. “It’s not the lies we tell others that destroy us, little star. It’s the lies we tell ourselves.”
“And this?” I lifted our joined hands out of the water exposing my seal.
He studied it, seemingly delighted. “It suits you.”
The lake behind him rolled and bubbled as something erupted from the surface.
My lungs froze as the serpent rose over us, dry lightning cracked throughout the trees, and it hissed showing off fangs almost as long as I was tall. Tension coiled its midnight body as it spotted us.
I felt a jolt as if the water were charged then Sai was calling my name. The wind churned around us and the water pushed towards my chin as Sai cupped my face. Our eyes met and he pulled me close. “It all begins now. Choose wisely.”
He kissed my forehead and the serpent struck.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Veda
I bolted upright in my bed gasping for the air to scream as my hands clutched my stomach where only moments before I’d been skewered like a shish kebab. Water dripped from my hair and clothes forming a puddle under my ass. I froze as I recalled Sai’s warning as the serpent descended on us.
Choose wisely.
Groaning I flopped back onto the bed. Just as my head hit the pillow my bedroom door burst inward sending the chair braced under it flying across the room.
I grabbed my knife and rolled ass over tea kettle off the far side of the bed, landing crouched on the other side. Staying on my knees I peered over the bed as Bay strode through what was left of my door.
Phin, Ozias, Emerick, and Jericho filed in behind him and my room suddenly felt the size of a crackerjack box.
Bay studied my soaked comforter like it held the secrets of the known universe. The catty comment on the tip of my tongue evaporated when he turned that black gaze on me.
One black eyebrow arched. He didn’t even bother to speak when he questioned me.
Asshole.
I didn’t break into his bedroom and then question him on the condition of his sheets.
An image of Bay in his bed wearing nothing but the sheets projected into my head in surround sound, and why I needed hearing for that the Gods only knew, but there it was in such startling detail I found myself momentarily distracted and more than a little warm. Why were assholes hot?
I almost rolled my eyes then remembered my audience.
My inappropriate reaction to men that would literally rather see me dead would have to wait.
Phin came to stand next to Bay, the beta’s hands open and at ease by his side. He smiled gently and I realized he was trying to appear non-threatening.
I laughed.
Bay’s other eyebrow rose to the occasion, and he looked altogether incredulous.
Phin looked concerned. “You alright, darlin?”
Bay frowned and I realized I was shaking my head and nodded instead. If you can’t beat ‘em, lie, lie, lie.
I was about to stand up when I spotted the Travelers Stone on the edge of the bed nearest Bay. Unfor
tunately, he saw it as well and picked it up. My blood still coated it but the stone itself had returned to its original translucent state.
Jericho and Ozias were milling about further invading my space as Emerick appeared to be guarding the door.
“Where did you go?” Bay asked.
I ignored his question and rose to my feet. “Why did you break down my door?” I shot back.
“We figured what was one more.” Jericho answered over his shoulder as he studied the books on my shelves.
I didn’t appreciate their blatant snooping and was about to tell them when his words sunk in. “You broke down my front door?”
Phin nodded this time. “You didn’t answer.”
My mouth fell open.
Bay held up the Travelers Stone. “Where did you get this?” The words came through gritted teeth.
Commander Bay was in attendance. Yippee.
I shut my mouth and kept it that way. If you couldn’t lie well, wolves would detect the elevation in heart rate and respiration. I was a shit liar. So that wasn’t an option but the truth...? What was the truth even? It’s not like I came back from the trip with actual answers instead of more questions.
“Sentinel.” His voice whipped across my raw nerves and lit me up faster than dry kindling.
“Wolf.” I spat back with just enough derision to draw every eye in the room. I didn’t hate wolves but I’m pretty sure I hated this wolf.
Bay’s eyes narrowed on me with an intensity that bordered on homicidal. He lifted his hand and made a brief gesture. Ozias looked to Phin while Jericho stared at me.
Phin moved towards us. “Bay-”
“Out.” Bay snarled.
Ozias backed towards the door before stepping through it. Jericho stared at me, his warm eyes unwavering until he blinked and disappeared through the door before Phin. Phin hesitated and Bay growled low until Phin stepped out and sort of wedged the door into position.
Bay moved closer and the heat like his rage poured from his body. He tsked softly. “Careful Veda, your backbone is showing.”
