When he’d seen his father before, he’d not been looking for weakness. He’d only been looking to find a way out without being caught.
Much as Marsum was a right bastard, knowing that he’d been behind some of the spells that should have been drawing power to the Emperor was good. It meant that the Emperor should not be all that strong.
By all accounts, the Emperor should be sound asleep, weak as a newborn kitten.
Only Merlin knew that was likely not the case at all. Not with the standing stones at the bottom of the ocean drawing him power as they sucked the life force out of sea creatures and supernaturals alike. No, he had to go one more time to the dreamscape to make sure there was nothing else to gain, no more conversations to overhear that could help him help Zam.
She was the key to all this, and without her . . . they were all doomed.
He grimaced and slowed his breathing, quickly falling asleep before he thought better of his decision.
Between one breath and the next, he’d woken in the dream world. “Zam. I need to find Zam help.”
His words circled through him and then in a shot he was flying through the air, high above everything, slowing only when he came to a place he knew well. His father’s map of the world he was bound to between the two walls.
From where he floated on the very edge, he could see a figure he knew all too well. One he did not expect to see there. Zam stood on a cliff’s edge, her red cloak fluttering out behind her, that long dark hair swirling with the wind, Lila on her shoulder, the handle of the flail above the other shoulder. The girl cut a striking figure, there was no doubt about that, not for an instant. From where he watched, she stared down at a map that his father had made. A map that did not show all the dangers that lay before the viewer. A map made to lead people astray.
“Zam! It’s false! Do not believe the map!”
For just a moment, he thought perhaps she would hear him. But then his father was standing there with her. Talking to her. He didn’t dare draw too close, but within moments, Zam had jerked free of him and threw herself off the cliff, shifting so Lila could carry her.
Merlin grinned. Damn, she was a spitfire. He was glad to have two nieces he could be proud of at the very least. Even if the rest of his family were blacker than the darkest night.
His father turned as if finally sensing him and Merlin made himself go to him, to stand next to him on the same treacherous cliff.
“You have some balls coming here,” his father growled, his face twisting with nothing short of hatred.
“Well, of course I do. Can’t have just the women in the family standing up to you, can I?”
Merlin tipped his head to indicate Zam.
His father’s body hunched and twisted, his other form nearly coming through. Merlin didn’t so much as take a breath. This was the problem. Which of the Emperors would he face? The one that had some sense in his head, or the one that was pure monster?
The Emperor’s body hunched and for a split second his spine bristled, pressing against his loose shirt.
Monster it was.
“Bad timing,” he whispered. He’d hoped to have the logical side. But apparently his luck had run out. He’d made a mistake. He should never have come here. He should have left when he had the chance.
Merlin started to wake himself, pulling himself out of the dream world as fast as he could. But not fast enough.
A hand clamped over his neck and yanked him fully back into the dream world. “You know the rules here, son. Death here is death there. Bindings here are bindings there.”
Merlin clawed at the arm that held him with so little effort as his father loomed over him, filling his vision.
“That girl carries one of two weapons that could free me from this tangled mess of a spell that even you could not unravel if you chose. You will bring her to me.”
“No.” The word was tough to say, because he could barely breathe, but he said it anyway. “No.”
The fingers tightened, and with that hand, his father’s magic slid all around him, into his ears, up his nose, into his mouth and through his eyes. “You will bring Zamira to me.”
Merlin fought the binding with everything he had, pushing it away, flinging his own power at his father, but that was batted away as if it were nothing. As if he were a child again, learning at his father’s knee the ways of the mage, seeing his friends used as tools, seeing his mother cast aside. “No.” The word was whispered, gasped really. But it was all he had left.
His father smiled down at him. “Just like you to make this difficult. Fine then, we will stay here until you say that one little word that I want to hear from you, son.”
He let Merlin go, but not really. His hand was gone from Merlin’s neck, but his power was inside his head now and they both knew it was only a matter of time before Merlin broke and did as his father wanted.
“You’re a shitty father.” Merlin squeezed the words out between clenched teeth.
His father stared down at him. “Says the shitty son.”
“Why not take Zam like this, if you need her?”
His father’s face twisted. “That fucking curse.”
Merlin laughed. “The curse of her mother keeps you out still? That’s amusing.”
“Enough talking.”
“Never.” Merlin could only hope that at this point, he could hold his father off long enough for Zam to find her way to the Oracle, to find a way to her brother. Because she was going to need those who loved her most beside her if she was going to stand against the Emperor.
His father’s eyes darkened, lightning dancing across the orbs. “Then I will find a way to silence you.”
A lance of pain shattered what was left of his thoughts and he howled as this father’s magic bored into his skull, driving out any desire to speak, any desire to do anything but survive.
17
Zamira
“Zam, we have a problem,” Lila yelled as we swooped through the dreamscape away from the Emperor. I twisted to look behind, thinking he was coming after us. But the Emperor no longer stood on the rock alone. Merlin was with him and they looked to be arguing.
“He’s not coming,” I yelled.
“He is not the issue. Something is wrong with my wings.” She cried out as both wings went limp, folding against her body and sending us into a full on dive.
“Lila!” I yelled her name, helpless to do anything but wait for her to save us. No wings on a house cat. Yet again, I was useless.
She groaned and I craned my head in time to see her eyes close and her body blink out of existence. She’d woken up?
Which left me free falling on my own.
A very girly squeak escaped me before I could catch it. I spread my legs wide, doing what I could to slow my fall with my tiny body. The ground raced toward me. To the left of me was the witches’ swamp.
I turned my body toward the branches and swampy water below. Maybe I could slow myself if I could catch some branches, because if what happened in this place really happened in the waking world and I landed as hard as I was about to land, I wasn’t going to be much more than a piece of flatbread.
Black, fuzzy flatbread.
I tipped my body farther, straining toward the branches like a flying squirrel. The very outer edges of the branches reached around me and I grabbed at them as gravity pulled me down. My claws on both front feet cut into the branches, which yanked at my legs. I kept scrabbling as I fell, grabbing and catching until there was a moment I could feel myself actually begin to slow.
I landed with a splash most unbecoming of a tiny house cat, sinking deep into the water. The stinking fluid jammed itself up my nose with the force of my fall, into my ears and past my lips though I’d clamped them shut. I pushed off the bottom of the swamp with my back legs and paddled for the surface. As I broke through there was a whisper rolling through the trees that froze me in place.
“Ollianna . . . are you sure that was a good idea to remove her?”
&
nbsp; “I am sure.”
Shit, that was the Mother witch and what sounded like Emmy again. That bitch just wouldn’t die. I’d taken her head, though, how could she be alive?
I stayed where I was and for the love of all that was holy prayed that the stupid gem under my skin would remain quiet this time around.
“But what if—”
“No, there can be no second guessing of the choices made,” the Mother witch said, sounding as if she were moving farther away. “Ollianna is on her own now. She must do what she must do.”
“I wish to go after them,” Emmy said.
“I cannot stop you, child. But going after them won’t bring Emmy back.”
Shit, so it wasn’t Emmy?
“She was my twin,” the voice said softly.
Oh, how was that for fucking awesome? The psycho Emmy had a twin. Peachy.
Silence fell on the swamp, other than the usual sounds of creatures making their way through the trees and the water. I swam to the edge of the mud puddle that had saved my life and crept up onto semi-solid ground. Both front legs ached and they crumpled under me. I forced myself to shift to two legs, knowing the shift would heal the injuries, whatever they were. I bit my lower lip against the pain of the shift, but it healed most of the damage in my arms. I curled forward on the ground and made myself breathe through it for just a moment before I pushed to my feet.
With a grimace, I hurried to the south, out of the swamp before anything else could happen.
“That was too close,” I whispered.
At the very edge of the swamp a weird sensation rolled over me. I stopped where I was and slid behind the nearest tree.
Looking out to the south a small dust storm rolled across the desert. “Real life, or dreamscape?” I wondered out loud.
“Both.”
The answer came from above my head and I stepped back, reaching for the flail.
A fairy floated down, wings of green gossamer, female if her nude body was any indication, hair spun like blue spiderwebs. And an extra-small crown perched on her head.
“Let me guess, Titania?” I dragged the name out of my memory banks as the only fairy queen name I knew. Even if it was Shakespeare’s. “Queen Titania?”
She nodded at me. “I am one and the same. Or Queen Titty, as my friends call me.”
I had to fight the snicker. “No, they don’t.”
She winked. “You’ll never know.”
I tipped my head to the dust storm. “I have to go. My friends are in trouble if that storm is coming for them.”
She bobbed her head and clasped her hands behind her back. “Dust storm here, hides an evil stalking you there.”
I took a step and paused. “You know who it is?”
Titania smiled. “Ishtar hunts you still. You and the jewels. But you know this already.”
I should have been running toward the camp, but I had to ask. “How do you know? And why are you helping me?”
Her smile widened. “The fae read the threads of this world like others read a book, and we see what comes. Evil comes. You will stand between it and us. So we will help where we can. Others will help where they can. Don’t know if it will be enough, but help you will have, Lion Heart.”
My jaw ticked. “I’m not a lion.”
“No, but you have the heart of a lion, the soul of a dragon, the love of a mother protecting her own, the magic of a witch . . . you are all and nothing, Zamira of the desert. Own it all. Own it, bright one, and know that you are enough.”
There was a burst of magic and she was gone and I was running toward the swirling dust storm. It was still a half mile from the camp, her words humming through me, lifting me. They were almost the same as the Mother witch’s words, at least with what she was saying. And yet they felt different, they felt strong.
And strength was what I was going to need to face Ishtar. But could I intersect her here in the dream world, and keep Shem, Ford, Ollianna, and Lila safe?
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to a greater speed. I was going to try.
The dust storm swirled faster as I raced toward it, coming in from the side. And there was not one figure but two within it. My heart faltered even though I knew logically I shouldn’t be surprised.
Maks stood with Ishtar, hunting me still.
No. He was not my Maks, not anymore.
But maybe I could use his desire for me to my advantage.
Ten feet away, I let out a scream that snapped them both around. I leapt into the air. Ishtar swung and shot a blast of bright red magic at me. I held my breath knowing I’d absorb it. But I didn’t have to. Maks knocked her hand down so the burst of power shot to my side. I shifted to four legs and screamed through that shift too. My body was pissed at all this two-to-four legs and back again business.
“Ishtar, she is mine! Do not kill her!” Maks yelled.
“She has my jewels, you fool!” she roared back.
I scooted between them, spun on my back legs, and leapt onto Ishtar’s back, digging my claws in as hard as I could to the flesh and bone. She screamed as she spun, reaching for me.
I might have taken a bit more glee in the damage I created than I should have. I kicked with my back feet as I tore at her with my teeth and front claws. The flail lent me the damaging abilities it had, and not for the first time, I was grateful for that.
Blood splattered my vision and Ishtar’s shrieks were a gritty symphony to my ears to which I added the lyrics.
“You are the reason Bryce died! The reason Maks is trapped! It’s your fault I had to go get Darcy and lose my one friend! I hope you die in a fiery pit of the falak’s flames!” I didn’t actually know if the falak had flames but it was a good guess.
The biggest monsters always had some sort of superpower.
She dropped to her hands and knees finally, and I leapt off as Maks’s hands shot toward me. I backed across the sand, hissing and teeth bared, covered in Ishtar’s blood, my body puffed up as big as I could make it. I couldn’t beat her, and eventually one of them would catch me if I stayed. But the wounds, those would slow her down.
Maks stepped around Ishtar, his eyes trying hard to capture mine. I hated it, but I looked down. “No, Maks. I won’t look you in the eye. I won’t let you—”
“Seduce you? Would it be so bad?” he said softly, his voice sinking into me. “Leave the lion, Zam. He is not your mate.”
I kept backing up, kept my eyes on his feet. “If you loved me, you’d let me go, Maks. Which is how I know that it isn’t you that wants me at your side, but Marsum.”
He snarled and his feet were moving toward me suddenly. I spun and raced to the right, away from my camp, drawing him farther from my people.
There was a glimmer of light in the air, green gossamer wings, then Titiana shot through the air, between us. “Leave her, Jinn. She is not for you.”
There was a blast of power that sent me flying ass over teakettle across the sand. I landed on my belly, sprawled out and staring back where Maks and Ishtar were still flying through the air, being flung far away from me.
I got to my feet, wobbling. “Thank you!”
“Where I can, I will help,” Titiana repeated. “Now go, wake!”
Her words were all it took. There was a moment of pain, the world wobbled, and I snarled as I woke up, my legs below the knees numb. I tried to move them and panicked as the weight of them pinned me down. Had I damaged them in the dreamscape? Had the fall from the sky done more than I thought? I shoved at the blanket on me and a grunt rolled up from my feet. A large black lion head lifted and yawned.
“Sorry, fell asleep on your legs,” Ford grumbled.
“Lila?” I yanked my legs to me and crouched, my body shaking from the exertion of sleeping—not sleeping, of shifting through my dreams, of running and fighting for my life. Where was she, how had she snapped out of the dreamscape?
She groaned and rolled out from under the blanket I’d flung off me. “Worst. Sleep. Ever.”
&nb
sp; “What took you out of it?” I asked.
“I think that.” Lila tipped her nose toward a small bush with fierce thorns sticking out of it that I’d lain right next to. “I rolled against it.”
I stood, and bent at the waist, locked my knees to keep from tumbling down. A whoosh of wind pulled at my hair and I turned to see a dust storm in the distance.
“That’s not a natural storm. That’s Ishtar and Maks coming for a visit,” I said. “We have to move, and move now.”
The morning light had barely crept above the horizon, but it was enough that I could see the fatigue on everyone’s faces. The horses were still asleep, their back legs cocked as they dozed, heads down. We had one hour at best before full daylight.
No one moved. I clapped my hands together, startling everyone. “Unless you think they are coming for tea and crumpets and to offer us help on our journey, I suggest you all get the fuck up!”
Shem got to his feet first and offered a hand to Ollianna. “And just why do you think that’s not a real dust storm?”
“Because I saw Ishtar and Maks in the dreamscape. Amongst other things.” I shot a look at Ollianna.
“I was there, too, with her,” Lila said. “I was worried you’d hit the ground and not wake up.”
“You and me both.” I crouched and scooped her up. She shivered.
“My wings still hurt.”
“Don’t use them then, let them rest,” I said.
Ford shifted to two legs, buck naked, and Ollianna turned bright red. Amusing as it was to see her discomfort, I snapped my fingers at him. “Clothes, Ford. Not everyone is a shifter here anymore.”
He grinned and winked at me, then stretched his arms above his head and strutted over to the horses.
“What a show-off,” Lila said. “You’d think he’d know it’s not that impressive when you’ve been around horses your whole life.”
Despite the dire situation, her words drew a laugh from me, and even Ollianna giggled—the witch fucking giggled—and Shem snorted.
“She has a point, cub,” the old lion said.
Ford just shrugged, and grinned wider. “All the more reason to strut.”
Oracle’s Haunt: Desert Cursed Series Book 4 Page 14
