The Volatile Amazon

by Sandy James

  “Nay, ’twas Seior that gave you the strength you needed. Helen used black magicks to change herself into an Ancient as well as to cause you to ascend. You, in turn, used it to resurrect your lost...love.” He badly faked a choke on the last word.

  A roar of thunder filled the air, growing louder instead of dissipating. The floorboards beneath Sarita’s feet vibrated, making her look to Rebecca. Before she could question why her sister caused an earthquake, a blinding flash of lightning caused a collection of gasps from everyone in the hall. Then Freya popped up next to her brother.

  “So much for Ancients staying out of this,” Sarita muttered.

  Freya glared at her twin. “I should have known I would find you here. You meddle where you should not.”

  He shrugged. “I merely answered the call of the Amazon.”

  “I didn’t call him,” Sarita insisted. “I didn’t.”

  “Your desire to save the man you love sent the message as strong as a ray of sunlight, little one.” The god reached for her again, but Freya smacked his hand away.

  “Leave her be and explain what you hope to accomplish by coming to Avalon—other than to seduce Water.”

  Freyjr straightened his tie. “I might have desired her in the past, but she is flawed now. Sekhmet succeeded in making her undesirable.”

  Sarita’s cheeks burned. Without caring what she was revealing about her insecurities, she pulled her braid forward to cover the marred side of her face.

  “I came,” he continued, “because Water wished she had the powers to get to the man she desires and to bring him back here. I can give her those powers.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sarita wanted to shout a denial until she realized Freyjr had somehow read her thoughts. She’d been searching for a way—any way—to rescue Ian. “I didn’t really call him.”

  “Nay,” Freyjr admitted. “’Twas my doing. I’ve always taken a special interest in you, little one. I could feel your pain and wished only to end it.” He bent into a condescending deep bow before raising his head to smirk. “I but came to act as the knight in shining armor to your damsel in distress. Let me teach you the tricks you need to rescue Darian MacKay. You love him, do you not?”

  Her heart skipped a beat or two. To have her feelings paraded around everyone at Avalon made her feel downright naked. Sure, they might have all guessed something had happened between her and Ian. But she’d never come right out and said they’d had an intimate relationship. Instead, she’d shut them all out, as though it would be less humiliating if she kept it to herself.

  Everyone gaped at her now.

  Artair’s stare was the most intense. “What is there between you and Darian, Sarita? What happened at dorcha àite?”

  So much for keeping her private life private. She might be able to try hard to mask what she felt, but they knew anyway. Why bother fighting it any longer?

  With a sigh, Sarita gave up her secrets. “We were close, Artair. Very close.”

  Freyjr gave her a rueful chuckle. “Yet another reason I no longer wish you in my bed. You are no longer pure.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” she snapped.

  His laugh grated on her rapidly fraying nerves. “A true lover of women knows when a virgin has been compromised.”

  Artair’s face mottled red. “You bedded my brother?”

  Sarita couldn’t help but roll her eyes. This whole conversation was ridiculous. Necessary, probably. But ridiculous, nonetheless. “First of all, I didn’t know he was your brother at the time. Second, what I do in my private life is none of your business.”

  “Private life?” he shouted. “Yer an Amazon! Ye were his hostage!”

  “Stockholm Syndrome,” Megan said with a curt nod. “That’s what it was. No other reason you’d fall for someone who’d follow Helen. You fell for your captor. It’ll pass. Give it time and—”

  They were driving Sarita insane. “It wasn’t Stockholm Syndrome.” She looked to Gina for some help.

  “Do you love him?” Gina’s expression softened, her hair losing the red highlights that had formed when Freyjr arrived.

  “As if you need to ask me that,” Sarita countered. “Freyjr said I did, so it has to be true.” Now she understood how her sisters felt when their love lives were paraded around so publicly. Each courtship between the Amazons and their husbands had been embarrassingly open for their whole group.

  “We need to know, Sarita,” Johann said. “If we’re going to face him, we need to know the rules of engagement.”

  “You mean you want to know if you can kill him. I’ll remind you, he’s Artair’s brother.”

  “Aye,” Artair said, “but he wants me dead. He may nae give me a choice. Should he stand in our way, he will fall by my hand or no one’s.”

  “We can’t promise that, Artair,” Johann countered. “In a battle, all bets are usually off.”

  “He’s Helen’s ally,” Megan added. “If I have to get through him to get to her, I will. Unless... Well, unless—”

  “Unless you’re in love with him,” Rebecca interrupted. “Then we’ll try to be more careful.”

  “He’s Artair’s brother! You should be careful anyway!”

  “Do you love him?” Gina asked again. “You’ve been keeping us at arm’s length for so long—not only since you came back, but after Sekhmet hurt you. None of us knows what you’re thinking anymore.”

  “Or what you’re feeling,” Rebecca added. “I’m supposed to be the Amazon Guardian, Sarita. I can’t protect you if I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours.”

  For one of the few times since Sarita’s return, Gina’s voice filled her mind. “Do you really love him?”

  Although her temper was normally slow to ignite, Sarita’s fuse had burned shorter and shorter with each of their comments. Gina’s repeated question and Rebecca’s asserting that Sarita needed the rest of her sisters to take care of her made the firecracker explode.

  With clenched fists, she gave them what they were begging for—total honesty. “I don’t need your protection! I know you all think I’m the weakest of the group, but I’m not. I have powers too.”

  Gina stepped closer. “No one said anything about you being weak. No one.”

  Sniffing back angry tears, Sarita shouted at her sisters. “Yes, I love him! I love Ian! There. Are you all happy now? You know everything I’m feeling. I want to save him from Helen. I want him to know his brother didn’t set him up to be murdered in a horrible and painful way. I want what all of you have. I want someone to love me! I want the man I love to love me in return. Okay?”

  At least everyone had the sense to look contrite.

  Everyone except Freyjr. He had his usual cocky grin. “Then you accept my help?”

  What she needed was to get the hell away from everyone, to find a deep pool of water and immerse herself to shut out the rest of the world. She took a few calming breaths instead. “I didn’t say that.”

  “Seior is the only chance you have to save him, little one.”

  “Brother,” Freya said, the censure clear in her tone, “you must tread carefully. Seior is not for those who cannot control it properly.”

  “I shall give her only token magicks—the ability to move from place to place with her mind.”

  “That’s it?” Sarita wanted to scream at him until she realized she already was. The jerk had just set her up to bare her heart to everyone for nothing more than simple teleportation—something her goddess could do with the blink of her brown eyes. “That’s all you planned to teach me?”

  “Perhaps a few more things that will aid you in your quest, but being able to go where you will with only your thoughts is the most important thing I can give you. I have seen the future. I know the skill that you will need the most.”r />
  “You saw the future?” Sarita couldn’t keep the incredulous tone from her voice. In all the years she’d been an Amazon, no one had ever told her the Ancients could see into the future. If that was true, why wouldn’t the patron goddesses give them at least an idea about the bad things that would be happening?

  “Mother?” Megan’s gaze searched Freya’s. “Is that true? You can see our future?”

  When Freya busied herself with straightening her long yellow skirt, Sarita rolled her eyes again. The goddess might be powerful, but she’d never been able to tell a lie without giving herself away.

  Sparks shot from the crown of Megan’s head. “You can see the future, but you let me walk into danger time and time again? I’m your daughter. How could you do that to me?”

  Freya straightened her spine. “Ancients cannot see everything in the future. Only certain things, and they sometimes come in riddles and images that are hard to interpret. I tend to do more mischief than good by trying to read them. ’tis why there are oracles for the task.”

  Megan crossed her arms over her chest and sent a fiery glare at her mother. “Don’t give me that load of manure. You can see the future—you just choose not to share it with me.”

  “She cannot,” Freyjr said. “Ancients are forbidden from revealing the future to humans.”

  “Well, isn’t that funny, uncle?” Megan’s voice had risen to a bellow. “’Cause it seems to me you told Sarita you’ve seen her future.”

  “Nay,” Freya said. “He did not tell her of her future. He only said he could help her if he gave her a few black magicks.”

  “That’s just semantics.” Johann jumped into the conversation. His next comments were directed at Sarita. “You can’t learn Seior. It’s like crack. Once you start down that path, you’ll never be able to stop.”

  “Aye, he’s right,” Artair said. “’Tis forbidden to the Amazons.” He shot a glower at Freyjr. “You have no right tempting the lass.”

  Freyjr seemed oblivious to the discussion. He kept his ice blue eyes fixed on Sarita.

  She dismissed everyone else as easily and returned the intensity of his stare. “What happens to Ian? If I don’t learn this from you, what happens to him?”

  “I cannot tell you that, little one.”

  “Sarita,” Johann said with a low growl. “Don’t do this...”

  Normally, his Sentinel tone cut through her the same way a drill sergeant’s voice made a private stand at attention.

  Not this time. Not when Ian was in danger.

  “If you can’t tell me what happens,” she said, “then tell me why I need the ability to teleport.”

  “Sarita, no.” This time, Artair barked the command.

  “Ask him this instead,” Rebecca said. “Ask him what he wants in return.”

  Freyjr whirled on Earth. “Have I asked anything as payment for this favor?”

  Despite the anger in which the god had hurled the question at her, Rebecca stayed nonplussed. “You forgot one thing—I was Sparks’s friend. I know you’re the one who taught her Seior so she could find Helen. And I know exactly what you wanted for your help.”

  Standing behind his wife, Artair put his hands on her shoulders. “Seior is the wrong path, Sarita. Even if it meant I could save Darian, I’m nae sure even I would take what Freyjr offers.”

  Why couldn’t they see how much this skill could help? Not only in saving Ian, but in their Amazon duties? Instead, they were ganging up on her.

  Sarita appealed to her closest sister. “Gina?” For the first time in a long time, her sister’s thoughts were as closed to her as Sarita’s must have been to Gina. “What do you think?”

  She answered Sarita with one of Johann’s favorite sayings. “Beware Ancients bearing gifts.”

  They were all against her.

  Her last route of appeal was blocked, because Ganga had told Sarita she couldn’t help her again. By herself, this wasn’t a battle she could win. She also had to admit, if only to herself, that the prospect of learning Seior was not only frightening, but more than a little exciting. Perhaps they were all correct—once she started down that path and knew that kind of power, she might have problems turning back.

  Just about to concede to her sisters’ wishes—something she always seemed to do—Sarita remembered the last thing Ganga told her before she left Avalon.

  “Trust your heart, follow its lead, and all might turn out well in the end.”

  While her sisters might be scolding her that learning to teleport was a descent into black magicks, Sarita’s heart screamed—in a much louder voice—that Ian needed her help.

  The man had already died twice. Once, he was butchered at the Battle of Culloden Moor. Next, he was tortured to death by his own clan. If it was in her power to keep him from facing death a third time by learning one important skill, then her heart said to go right ahead.

  There was only one thing left to know. “I only have one question, Freyjr.”

  He grinned at her, clearly sensing victory.

  “What exactly do you want in return?”

  Placing a long finger against his cheek, he hummed as though thinking through many choices. “I will make you this bargain. I give you the Seior you need now, and I will collect on the debt later.”

  Rebecca was the first to scoff. “Oh yeah, that’s a great idea. Write an Ancient a blank check he can cash whenever he wants.”

  Then everyone was talking at once. The din was almost more than Sarita could bear. “Freyjr...promise me one thing.”

  “And what is that you wish of me, little one?”

  “If—if when you ask this favor—if I tell you no, you’ll respect that decision.”

  “Sarita, don’t.” Gina strode over to her side. “Please don’t.”

  Her heart told her to keep going. “I have to.”

  The smile Freyjr gave her made her fear she’d just made a deal with the devil himself. “I accept your bargain.”

  Before she could react to his statement, he pressed his hand against her forehead. Then he spoke in a language she didn’t recognize.

  The world swam in her mind and her stomach lurched. She almost shoved Freyjr’s hand away. Only her love for Ian allowed her to endure the magicks he seemed to be pushing straight through her skull.

  “You’re hurting her!” Gina jumped to put herself next to Freyjr, and she reached for his arm.

  Sarita found just enough strength to stop her. “No. Let him alone.”

  A sharp pain shot through her head, making her wonder if Freyjr had somehow driven a spike through her frontal lobe. Then, mercifully, the pain was gone.

  Panting for breath, she stumbled to the closest bench and tried to stop herself from falling. Gina grabbed her elbow and helped her sit as the rest of their tribe gathered around.

  “Sarita?” Johann crouched close to her and took a hold of her wrist. From the way he studied his watch, he had to be taking her pulse.

  “You’re white as a sheet.” Rebecca pressed the back of her hand against Sarita’s forehead.

  “I’m fine.” Yes, her heart pounded a furious tempo, but her stomach had settled and the blinding pain had disappeared.

  Megan rubbed Sarita’s shoulder.

  It was one touch too many, and she almost screamed for everyone to give her some room. All she wanted was to go to the beautiful spa that lay deep in the woods surrounding Avalon. She needed to see Eden, the natural hot spring, because it offered peace, quiet and a chance to immerse herself in water.

  Trying to hold her temper, Sarita closed her eyes and thought about Eden. The noise began to die, as though someone was slowly turning the world’s volume lower and lower.

  When she opened her eyes, she was in the woods, standing on the edge of the bubbling hot spring.


  Her heart, which had just begun to slow to a more normal rhythm, slammed against her ribs. “Holy shit.”

  Freyjr appeared at her side, arriving in a shimmer of light. “A nice ability, is it not?”

  “How did I do that?”

  “You must think hard of where you want to go, and you will go there. Be careful, little one. You must learn to control your thoughts or you shall find yourself in some...unusual places.”

  “All I have to do is think about where I want to go and I’ll appear there?”

  “You must do more than think of the place. You must wish to be there with all your mind. Direct your thoughts to that place, picture it, sense it, and you will go there.”

  She wanted to know everything about the new power. Loathe to admit it, she’d been jealous each time her sisters powers had escalated. They kept taking steps forward and growing as Amazons while she felt as if she were treading water. Now she was taking her own leap into being stronger. “Can I take someone with me?”

  “So many questions.” His fingers were under her chin, making her face him. “And what is my reward for answering? A kiss, perhaps?”

  After giving her the ability to teleport from place to place, the guy deserved a peck on the lips. Besides, he’d promised if she said no, he would stop. For some odd and probably stupid reason, she trusted him. In all the time she’d known him, he’d never once crossed any boundary. He teased. He flirted. He loved to toss around innuendos. But he’d always kept his distance when she’d let him know he made her uncomfortable. And in the end, she found his attention flattering.

  He’d given her an amazing gift—one that would save Ian. What could one kiss hurt? “Fine. One kiss. One quick, friendly kiss.”

  The god lowered his head, smiling as he drew closer. “And if you want more?”

  “Trust me. I won’t. I love Ian.”

  “We shall see.” He was chuckling when he pressed his mouth to hers.

  His lips were soft and warm and got no more response from her than would have happened if she’d kissed one of her Sentinels.

  Freyjr pulled back enough to look into her eyes.