“How do you know?” That was crazy. It had to be from traveling to this world together. What other connection would there be between them? It wasn’t like she was his mate or anything. There would be no way he wouldn’t have said something sooner. No way. There was no way a Dardaptoan would last that long when around his mate, would he?
But then again Aureliana had lasted nine months.
But Nalik didn’t even like her, he’d made that very clear on several occasions.
“Girl child, I have been alive for more years than almost anyone else in any of the worlds. These things are clear to me, with just a look. I would wager it is clear to your Nalik, as well. Why else would he watch you as he does?”
But…he didn’t.
Did he?
Chapter 26
Nalik hated to refuse the male’s offer of a night to rest, but his female had been apart from her family for much too long. Not that he cared about their fears and needs, but he knew she would. “My female must return to her family and soon. It is that she has been taken without their knowledge. They will be quite worried. And the dahn is her only sister, one who has raised her from a mere babe. But I would be glad to return to your world in the future to discuss this threat that you face.”
Woldhans threatened Euschao and he knew they threatened Relaklonos as well. It was just a matter of time before Levia and Gaia were targeted. And with Gaia being one of the most populated layers, that would be disastrous. Almost apocalyptic for the human Kind littering Gaia. He would do whatever he had to in order to help prevent that.
“Better yet, how about I accompany you to these worlds? Get a feel for them myself? Speak with those who guide your people?” The other male was used to giving orders.
Nalik was used to not following. “How do I know that you mean no ill will to my world? Or to the world in which the goddess of my people resides?”
“You cannot know that, lest you can see in to another’s heart. Is that one of your gifts?”
It wasn’t. And they both knew it. “I have no gifts.”
“No? I think you underestimate yourself. I will make you a vow, Nalik of Gaia and Levia. I vow on the souls of my father and ancestors that your people and your loved ones will know no ill of me or mine. They will have my honor and my sword to protect them. Ally with me, Nalik, become my brother, though we lack a blood bond, and I will offer up to you the same.”
Nalik went with instinct, like he had on so many occasions he couldn’t count. He wrapped his hand around the one Jushua held out to him.
He couldn’t explain it, wouldn’t even if he could, but something about the other male spoke of a connection to him. Their futures were entwined, and that was all Nalik needed to know. “It would be my honor.”
Jushua nodded. “Then let us find your female and my mother and tell them of our upcoming journey.”
The women were knee deep in plants when they found them. No surprise to Nalik; his Cassandra would always seek the growing things when she could. Her curiosity for plants was a definite given, and why should this world be any different? “Cassandra, come. We are going home.”
“Nalik, you have to see this!” She held out a small red flower to him, and practically beamed. “It’s similar to a poppy, and even works on people like you. Eaudne is packing me some to take home. She thinks it might work for your people, my sister, my cousins.”
He smiled at her enthusiasm. So young sometimes. He held out a hand to take the flower. “That is wonderful, sweetling. But we must go and soon. Jushua will be accompanying us. He wishes to speak with that demon of Kindara’s and with the dhar.”
“I shall be going with you.” Eaudne said. “I have a curiosity for these plants young Cassandra describes. And I believe my knowledge may be able to reverse some of the damage done by this goddess of yours. Rash actions do take time to undo on occasion.”
Jushua protested, but his mother was firm. “This is what I am to do, son. It is the path illuminated before me. We go.”
And apparently that was all the other male needed to hear. “Then pack you some belongings, Mother. We shall be leaving shortly.”
“I have no need to pack. I can create anything I need. You know this. You just wish more time to stall and to scheme. I will not have it. We go.”
Eaudne stepped away from Cassandra and toward the space between her son and the wall. She waved one hand, and—just like that—a mist began to grow. And grow. Until a portkey opening was revealed.
Yet she’d most assuredly not used a portkey. How had she done that? Even the damned goddess and that Wolf god of hers used portkeys. What kind of being was Eaudne?
Chapter 27
Cass would never get used to traveling using portkeys. It pulled at your skin, yanked your limbs in every direction possible, and sucked the very breath from your lungs. And then there was the nausea. She had never felt so sick to her stomach in her life.
Of course, none of the others showed any sign of being sick. She stayed on her knees, at least until her breath was semi-back in her chest. It took a while. Nalik was beside her, his hand on her shoulder. She fought the urge to cling to him, while she regained control of her body. She wasn’t dependent on him—and she never would be.
She pulled herself to her feet. Finally took a look around. Where were they? The remains of the mist were dissipating, revealing the room around them. It wasn’t anywhere she had been before. “Nalik? Where are we?”
“Relaklonos. I recognize the peculiar smell of sulfur in the air. Demons release it and Predatoi can detect it. You stay close to me, and if something happens to me I’ve secured a vow from Jushua to see you safe.”
She shivered. She remembered well the stories of what had happened to Jierra and Aureliana in this demon world. Mickey had shared those stories with her and Jade several times while they were in Dardanos. “Where is Rathan’s home?”
Her cousin Rand’s best friend was the king of demons. And he’d mated Kindara, Josey’s sister-in-law. And Nalik’s. How did he feel about having his brother’s widow married to the demon king? Hadn’t someone said that Nalik and Cormac—Kindara’s brother and Josey’s husband—fought and hunted the demons for centuries?
And now Nalik was in the demon world. Did that bother him at all?
It certainly bothered her. “Where exactly at in Relaklonos are we?”
“Inside the castle.” It wasn’t Nalik or Jushua or Eaudne who spoke, and Cass spun around. “I have been waiting.”
Theo.
Thank heavens.
Theo, her cousin Mickey’s husband. He stood with a smile on his face, though he couldn’t see them. His blindness prevented that. “Welcome, young Cassandra. We’ve been worried ever since word came that you were…taken… to another world. Nalik, I am pleased to find you both safe.”
“Sebastos, I have a few choice words to share with you in private. But now is not the time. Where’s the dhar and his female?”
“He took her to Levia, though she fought leaving Gaia. Understandably worried for her sister. I’ll have word sent to the goddess. You have brought us visitors, have you not?”
“Jushua of Euschao and his mother Eaudne.”
Theo paused for a moment, and Cass had the strangest feeling he recognized those names. No surprise; Theo could predict the future, after all. Had he known this was going to happen to them? Why hadn’t he said something?
Or had he deliberately sought her out to give her that book about Evelanedea? Had he been trying to tell her something and she’d missed it? “Theo? Is Mickey around?”
He smiled, like he always did when thinking of her cousin. There was absolutely no denying that Theo adored Mickey. “She is with the babe. She’ll be down shortly. We have rooms for you and your guests prepared. Mallory and Joselyn also await you. I don’t think they fully believed me when I said you’d be arriving today.”
The tension that had held her hostage for the last few days lessened immediately. “I need to see them.”
“Then you shall. But first we should welcome your guests.” Theo bowed low to Jushua and Eaudne, the same way Nalik had bowed to them. The same way they had bowed to Nalik.
For the first time, Cass noticed the ritual involved in it. In the familiarity with which Jushua responded.
She had so many questions. But it would be exceptionally rude to abandon Eaudne and Jushua after they’d been so kind to her and Nalik.
Twenty minutes later and she was wrapped in Josey’s arms, while Mickey fussed around her. Mickey’s daughter slept in a sling strapped to her mother’s chest. Cass fought the urge to cry. A part of her had been afraid she’d never see her family again.
“So tell us, what happened? One minute you were there in the lobby and then you were gone.”
“I was pulled by that portkey into another world. The world where the goddess came from.”
“And what was that like?”
Cass thought for a long moment. “Scary. There were fighters, mercenaries, and we didn’t know where we were.”
Josey signed something, more comfortable with sign language than speech, and Cass thought about the question for a moment. How had it been with Nalik? “I was glad he was there. He was very protective. He kept me safe, I can’t deny that.”
And he had; it felt odd not having him right there beside her. Was she becoming that pitiful?
“We were worried; Nalik has a reputation, I guess,” Mickey said. “Scary.”
“I don’t think he’s that bad. I mean, yeah, he can be a bit overwhelming, frightening. But he didn’t have to stay with me, and he did. I’m glad he did.”
“I’m glad, too.” Mickey patted her daughter’s bottom when the baby fussed. Cass lay back against the bed and closed her eyes. “We were so scared, Cassie, terrified. Even though Theo told us you’d be ok, we were so worried.”
“I was ok. I know it scared everyone.”
Josey signed again.
“I don’t know why the portkey took me. We couldn’t figure that out.” And until someone did, she probably wouldn’t be resting very easily.
“Do you think it was deliberate?”
It had passed Josey up and grabbed her. A mere human, of little importance. She still didn’t understand why. “Yes, I do. I can’t figure it out, but it could have surrounded anyone, but it passed Josey by and took me.”
“And Nalik?” Mickey asked. “I’m not clear on how he got taken, too.”
Josey began to sign wildly. It took Cass a moment to figure out what her cousin was saying. “He wasn’t right there beside us?”
Josey shook her head. Signed something else. He came to you, when he saw you were in trouble. And he tried to stop it. But he was not right there when it started. He just came to you.
“But the question is why?” Mickey rocked the baby in the wooden rocker next to the bed. “Why did he help you? He’s not exactly a nice man. People are afraid of him.”
“Why are they so afraid of him? Has he hurt anyone? I haven’t heard anyone say one thing about him hurting someone. Instead he’s done nothing but help me. Shouldn’t that be what matters instead of some stupid rumors from a bunch of people that I don’t even like? He has never thrown mud or rocks at me, or given me the evil eye when I’m in the gardens. Not like so many of the other Dardaptoans.”
“Who did that to you? Why haven’t you said anything?”
“Why should I? What could change? I know why they did it—grandfather. And I don’t have a big bad male around to protect me.”
“Were you hurt?” Josey asked. It surprised Cass—Josey so rarely used her voice. Only when it mattered.
Cass lay back and closed her eyes. “No. Not really. A few bruises. The mud was more irritating than anything. But I don’t like Dardanos, and I don’t plan on sticking around—if I ever get back home, I’m going home. To my Dad and Claudette and the rest of the family.”
It felt good to have made the choice. To take charge of her life, at least in that little way. No one made decisions for her any more.
“And the price on your head?” Mickey asked.
“It’s no different than the one on yours, or Josey’s, or Mitch’s, or any others. Someone wants us all dead. We have to deal with that. I’m tired of being a prisoner. I can’t live my life that way. I won’t anymore.”
“Please don’t be stubborn, Cass.”
“In this, I am. I can’t do it anymore. I’ve spent a year of my life there. I lost the work I’ve been doing for the last six years in my greenhouse. And I’ve lost the work I’ve been doing for the last year. I’m tired of starting over. One more time, and that’s it. You all get to live forever, I get that. But I don’t. And I won’t live my life feeling guilty for what Grandfather did.”
Mickey wrapped her free hand around Cass’s. “And you shouldn’t, Cass. Whatever you want to do, we support you. No matter what.”
Chapter 28
Diplomatic talks annoyed the shit out of him. Nalik was not a diplomat in any sense of the word. He’d been too blunt for playing nice with the powers that be for him to be an emissary of good will.
And he couldn’t stand the damned demon who was hosting this little talk. The male Kindara had replaced his brother with was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch and Nalik wanted nothing more than to knock him through the floor. Only the fact that his sister-in-law seemed even moderately happy with the demon kept Nalik from simply ridding the worlds of Rathan Malickus, and being done with it.
He had to admit the demon adored Iavius’s widow. And the more he watched Kindara as she sat at the demon’s side and rocked the demon’s heir, the more apparent it became that she was happy with her new life. She wasn’t the exuberant, full-speed-ahead, wild child she had once been with his brother, but there was a calm contentment about her that he knew hadn’t been there in the thirty years since his brother was murdered.
The rest of the party to the talks included that damned fool cousin of his Aodhan, Cormac—who glared at the damned demon most of the time, Theo, Aodhan’s fiery-haired mate—who glared at Nalik with the green eyes that all female Tanisses seemed to possess, as if he were at fault for her cousin’s ordeal, Aureliana and a big blue demon Nal had seen a few times, and some others that he didn’t recognize.
Jushua sat at Nalik’s left, a position of high authority in these types of talks.
Nalik wasn’t completely sure why they were even having this discussion now. “Is this necessary? Some of us have had a nasty couple of days and wouldn’t mind a break.”
A lie; he felt as fine as he had before he and his female had been dragged to the other world.
The demon smirked at him. Nalik wanted to hit him, and he sensed the other male knew that. Why? Did the damned demon feel that threatened?
“We have war to speak of, and it threatens every world.” Aodhan, always ready for a war.
Stupid of him, when he had a beautiful female that would wait for him. Or try to fight beside him. Did Aodhan not see that, see the very risk he was so eager to take?
“War comes. War threatens. War and death and those who would deal in those, they come. They always come; there is little we can do to prevent it.” Nalik didn’t know where the words came from. His hand, like his cousin’s, also rested on the hilt of his sword. Like it had for centuries. Only now it was more burden than anything. “I say we should seek not to provoke, but to protect those that need it. The females, the children, the helpless and old. Do they not need our swords more than we need to travel between worlds to find the battles we are best served by avoiding?”
Aodhan glared. “You’ve grown soft in recent years, cousin. Do you say we should sit and wait to have our families threatened? That is not our way.”
“It wasn’t. But maybe it should be.” Nalik stood, paced around the large war room. Swords, axes, bows, all decorated the walls. He ran his fingers over the spikes on a mace. “What good have we been served by sending our best warriors to the battles in the past? How many have we lost? Aodhan, how m
any of your own cousins’ blood have saturated Gaian ground? And for what? Our numbers still dwindle, we are now displaced from our home—be it temporarily while the fires burn or what—we are still displaced. Our brothers gone—Cormac, what of your own brother?—I held him in my arms as long as I could until his life was gone. Would you risk someone else’s brothers to the same fate? And for what?”
The room was silent for a moment, and then Theo stood. “Nalik is right. War will come, whether we are home to defend. Or whether we go out and seek it.”
“And what of the women themselves?” Kindara asked, her babe clutched tightly to her chest. “We will not sit by and watch the rest of you die because you think we cannot defend ourselves. Nor will we let our children suffer.”
“Pet…”
“Don’t start, Rathan. You know very well I will fight to defend my children, and my grandchildren, my people. And I don’t think there is a woman among us who wouldn’t. And we have strengths you have all missed in your quest to do these battles so quickly. And we have just as much at stake as you idiot males.”
A diplomat Kindara would definitely not be. Nalik felt a rare smile stretch across his lips.
Kindara was the last bit of his family he gave even two damns for. He wondered if she knew that.
“But you should not need to fight.” Ren, the big warrior bastard Aureliana had claimed as mate stated. Aureliana had said very little, and that surprised Nalik. He greatly respected the woman, as both a person and a warrior.
Although he wasn’t quite sure exactly what it was she was now.
Jushua sat eyeing her as well, as if the older male sensed something about her that concerned him.
As if she knew what he was thinking—and Nalik wasn’t so certain she didn’t—Aureliana stood.
A sense of power seemed to surround her, and it had the rest of the room growing quiet. Nalik’s breath caught when she looked straight at him.
Out Of The Darkness Page 10
