by L. J. Smith
“That’s just it,” Nissa said. “The question is, is it just the ordinary shapeshifters who’re doing it, or is it official? In other words, has the First House already decided?”
Everyone looked at Galen.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll make any decision yet, at least not in public. As for what they’re doing in private, I don’t know.” His voice was still flat; it made no excuses.
He looked around the table, facing all of them. “My parents are warriors. They don’t belong to Circle Daybreak, and they don’t like the witches. But they don’t like the vampires, either. More than anything, they’ll want to be on whichever side is going to win. And that depends on which side gets the Wild Powers.”
“I think they want something else,” Keller said.
“Like?”
“They want to know that the witches are treating them fairly and not just trying to use them. I mean, if they thought that Circle Daybreak had found the Witch Child but wasn’t going to promise her to their heir, well, they wouldn’t be happy. It’s not just a matter of having a kinship bond with the witches. It’s a matter of feeling they’re being treated as equals.”
Nissa’s light brown eyes narrowed, and she seemed almost to smile. “I think you’ve summed it up very well.”
“So what it all comes down to,” Keller said pointedly, “is what happens on Saturday night. If there’s a promise ceremony, it means the witches have found the Wild Power and that they’re willing to tie her to the shapeshifters. If not…”
She let the sentence trail off and looked at Iliana.
There, she thought. I’ve put it so plainly and simply, you can’t deny it now. And you can’t help but see what’s at stake.
Iliana’s eyes were like faraway violet storm clouds. Keller couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Maybe that the situation couldn’t be denied but that she herself wasn’t involved.
Winnie took a deep breath. “Galen.”
Her face was still drawn and unhappy, but the burning anger in her eyes was gone. She met Galen’s gaze directly.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have said those things before. I know you’re on our side. And I’m not like those people who don’t trust the shapeshifters.”
Galen smiled at her faintly, but his eyes were serious. “I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t trust us. There are things in our blood—you can’t get rid of the dragon completely.”
It was strange. At that moment, his eyes looked not only dark but almost red to Keller. Exactly the opposite of their usual golden-green. It was as if a light were smoldering somewhere deep inside them.
Then Winnie abruptly extended her hand across the table. “I know you,” she said. “And there’s nothing bad in your blood. I won’t mistrust you again.”
Galen hesitated one instant, then reached out with something like gratitude and took her hand.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
“Hey, if I were the Witch Child, I’d promise to you in a minute,” Winnie said. Then she sniffled, but her smile was much more like the old Winnie’s smile.
Keller glanced at Iliana almost casually and was riveted by what she saw.
The girl had changed again. Now she didn’t look like a princess or an ice maiden but like a very young soldier about to go into battle. Or maybe a human sacrifice who could save her tribe by jumping into a volcano.
Her hair seemed to shine, silvery and pale, and her eyes were deep, deep violet in her small face. Her slight shoulders were back, and her chin was determined.
Slowly, staring at something invisible in the center of the table, Iliana stood up.
As soon as the motion drew their attention, the others fell quiet. It was obvious to everyone that something important was happening.
Iliana stood there, her hands clenched by her sides, her chest rising and falling with her breathing. Then she looked at Galen. Finally, she looked at Keller.
“I’m not the Witch Child any more than Winnie is. And I think you know that by now. But…” She took a breath, steadied herself.
Keller held her own breath.
“But if you want me to pretend to be, I’ll do it. I’ll go to the promise ceremony with Galen—I mean, if he’ll do it with me.” She gave a half-embarrassed glance at Galen, looking shy and almost apologetic.
“Will he ever!” Winnie said enthusiastically. Keller could have kissed her. Galen himself didn’t rise to the occasion properly at all; instead he opened his mouth, looking uncertain.
Fortunately, Iliana was going on. “Then I’ll go through with it. And maybe that will be enough for the shapeshifters to join with the witches, as long as they don’t find out I’m a fake.” She looked unhappy.
She was so adamant that for a moment Keller was shaken. Could it be she wasn’t the Wild Power? But no. Keller knew she was. She just hasn’t awakened her power yet. And if she continued to deny it, she never would.
She said, “Thank you, Iliana. You don’t know how much, how many lives you’re going to save. Thank you.”
Then the excitement got the better of her, and she took Iliana by the arm and gave her a sort of shaking squeeze of affection.
“You’re a trooper!” Winnie said, and hugged her hard. “I knew you’d come through all the time, I really did.”
Nissa smiled at her with genuine approval. Galen was smiling, too, although there was something in his eyes…
“There’s just one thing,” Iliana said a little bit breathlessly, rubbing her arm where Keller had gripped it. “I’ll do this. I said I would. But I have two conditions.”
CHAPTER 13
Keller’s excitement deflated. “Conditions?”
“You can have anything you want,” Winnie said, blinking away happy tears. “Cars, clothes, books…”
“No, no, I don’t want things,” Iliana said. “What I mean is, I’m doing this because I can’t just stand around and not do anything when stuff like that is going on.” She shivered. “I have to do anything I can to help. But. I’m still not the right person. So the first condition is that while I’m pretending to be the Wild Power, you guys have somebody out looking for the real one.”
Keller said smoothly, “I’ll tell Circle Daybreak. They’ll keep looking and checking other Harmans. They’ll do it for as long as you want them to.”
They would, too. It was a small price to pay.
“And the other condition?” Keller asked.
“I want to go to Jaime’s party on Saturday.”
Instant uproar. Even Nissa was talking over people. Keller cut short her own exclamations and gestured for everybody to shut up.
Then she looked Iliana dead in the eye.
“It’s impossible. And you know it’s impossible. Unless you’ve found a way to be in two places at once.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Iliana said. That small, determined chin was tight. “I mean before the promise ceremony thing. I want to go just for an hour or two. Because she’s one of my very best friends, and she’s gotten attacked twice because of me.”
“So what? You’re already making it up to her. You’re saving her life and her twin brother’s life and her parents’ lives—”
“No, I’m not. I’m faking being a Wild Power when I know it isn’t true. I’m acting a lie.” There were tears in Iliana’s eyes now. “But I’m not going to hurt Jaime’s feelings, and I’m not going to break my promise to her. And that’s that. So if you want me to go through with your little charade, I’ll do it, but I want to go to the party first.”
There was a silence.
Well, she’s stubborn. I’ll give her that, Keller thought. Once she decides on something, she absolutely won’t be budged on it. I guess that will be helpful when the Wild Powers fight the darkness someday.
But right now, it was simply infuriating.
Keller drew a very long breath and said, “Okay.”
Winnie and Nissa looked at her sharply. They hadn’t expected her to g
ive in so fast, and they were undoubtedly wondering if their boss had some trick up her sleeve.
Unfortunately, Keller didn’t. “We’ll just have to work something out,” she said to her team. “Make it as safe as possible, and stick by her every minute.”
Winnie and Nissa exchanged unhappy glances. But they didn’t say anything.
Keller looked at Iliana. “The one thing is, you have to be at the Solstice Ceremony at midnight. They’re meeting in Charlotte, so that’s about twenty minutes’ drive, and we’d better leave plenty of time for safety. Say an hour at the least. If you’re not there, where the shapeshifters and the witches are meeting, at exactly midnight—”
“My coach turns into a pumpkin,” Iliana said tartly. She swabbed her nose with a tissue.
“No, the shapeshifters walk out, and any chance of an alliance is gone forever.”
Iliana sobered, stared at the table. Then she met Keller’s eyes. “I’ll be there. I know it, and you know why? Because you’ll get me there.”
Keller stared at her, astonished. She heard Winnie give a short yelp of laughter and saw that Nissa was hiding a smile.
Then she felt a smile pulling up the corner of her own lip. “You’re right; I will. Even if I have to drag you. Here, shake on it.”
They did. And then Iliana turned to Galen.
She had been watching him out of the corner of her eye ever since she’d first started talking. And now she looked hesitant again.
“If there’s anything—any reason I shouldn’t do it…” She fumbled to a stop.
Keller kicked Galen’s ankle hard.
He glanced up. He still didn’t look like the Galen she knew. Talking about the dragons had done something to him, thrown a shadow across his face and turned his eyes inward. And Iliana’s announcement hadn’t lightened anything.
Keller stared at him intently, wishing she had telepathy. Don’t you dare, she was thinking. What’s wrong with you? If you mess this up, after all the work we’ve done and with so much at stake…
Then she realized something. Before, when he’d been telling the history of the dragons, Galen had looked brooding and a little scary. Now, he still looked brooding but unutterably sad. Heart-stricken—and full of such regret.
She could almost hear his voice in her head. Keller, I’m sorry…
Don’t be an idiot, Keller thought, and maybe she wasn’t telepathic, but she was certain that he could read her eyes. What have you got to be sorry for? Hurry up and do what you’re supposed to do.
Her heart was pounding, but she kept her breathing tightly controlled. Nothing mattered but Circle Daybreak and the alliance. Nothing. To think of anything else at a time like this would be the height of selfishness.
And love is for the weak.
Galen dropped his eyes, almost as if he had lost a battle. Then he turned slowly from Keller to Iliana.
Who was standing with tears about to fall, hanging like diamonds on her lashes. Keller felt a twisting inside her chest.
But Galen, as always, was doing exactly the right thing. He took Iliana’s hand gently and brought it to his cheek in a gesture of humility and simplicity. He could do that without stopping looking noble for a moment.
After all, he was a prince.
“I’d be very honored to go through the promise ceremony with you,” he said, looking up at her. “If you can bring yourself to do it with me. You understand everything I was telling you before—about my family…”
Iliana blinked and breathed again. The tears had magically disappeared, leaving her eyes like violets freshly washed in rain. “I understand all that. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything about you, and you’re still one of the best people I’ve ever met.” She blinked again and smiled.
Nobody could have resisted it. Galen smiled back.
“Not nearly as good as you.”
They stayed that way for a moment, looking at each other, holding hands—and glowing. They looked perfect together, silver and gold, a fairy-tale picture.
That’s it. It’s done. She’ll have to go through the ceremony now, Keller thought. As long as we can keep her alive, we’ve recruited a Wild Power. Mission accomplished.
I’m really happy about this.
So why was there a heaviness in her chest that hurt each time she breathed?
It was late that afternoon when the second call came.
“Well, they found the driver of the car,” Nissa said.
Keller looked up. They’d moved the box full of scrolls to Iliana’s bedroom when Mrs. Dominick came back from shopping. Now they had them untidily spread out on the floor while Iliana lay on the bed heavy-eyed and almost asleep. She perked up when Nissa came in.
“Who was it?”
“A shapeshifter. Name of Fulton Arnold. He lives about ten miles from here.”
Keller tensed. “Arnold. ‘Eagle ruler.’” She glanced at Galen.
He nodded grimly. “The eagles are going to have some explaining to do. Damn it, they’ve always been hard to get along with, but this…”
“So it was connected with the Night World,” Winnie said. “But did Circle Daybreak figure out why?”
Nissa sat down on the chair in front of Iliana’s gold-and-white vanity. “Well, they’ve got an idea.” She looked at Galen. “You’re not going to like it.”
He put down a piece of scroll and sat up very straight, bleak and self-contained. “What?”
“You know all our theories about why shapeshifters are attacking humans? Whether it’s just the common ’shifter on the street or orders from the First House and so on? Well, Circle Daybreak thinks it’s orders, but not from the First House.”
“The shapeshifters wouldn’t take orders from vampires,” Galen said stiffly. “So the Night World Council is out.”
“They think it’s the dragon.”
Keller shut her eyes and hit herself on the forehead.
Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of it? The dragon giving direct orders, setting himself up as a legendary ruler who had returned to save the shapeshifters. “It’s like King Arthur coming back,” she muttered.
On her bed, Iliana was frowning in shock. “But you said dragons were evil. You said they were cruel and horrible and tried to destroy the world.”
“Right,” Keller said dryly. Only Iliana would think that this constituted a reason not to follow them. “They were all those things. But they were also strong. They kept the shapeshifters on top. I’m sure there are plenty of ’shifters who’d welcome a dragon back.” She looked at Galen in growing concern as she figured it out. “They’re going to think it means a new era for them, maybe even a return to shapeshifter rule. And if that’s what they think, nothing the First House says is going to make any difference. Even the mice are going to rally ’round Azhdeha.”
“You mean the promise ceremony is no good?” Iliana sat up. The interesting thing was that she didn’t look particularly relieved—in fact, Keller thought, she looked positively dismayed.
“No, so don’t even get that idea,” Keller said shortly. “What it means is—” She stopped dead, realizing suddenly what it did mean. “What it means is…”
Galen said, “We have to kill the dragon.”
Keller nodded. “Yeah. Not just fight it. We have to get rid of it. Make sure it’s not around to give orders to anybody. It’s the only way to keep the shapeshifters from being split.”
Iliana looked down soberly at the snowstorm of paper that covered her floor. “Does any of that stuff tell you how to kill a dragon?”
Keller lifted a piece of parchment, dropped it. “So far, none of this stuff has told us anything useful.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t even looked through half of it,” Winnie pointed out. “And since you and Galen are the only ones who can read the writing, the parts Nissa and I have gone through don’t really count.”
There was definitely a lot of work left. Keller stifled a sigh and said briskly, “Well, we don’t need to worry about kil
ling the dragon right now. If we can fight him off long enough to get through the promise ceremony, we can worry about destroying him afterward. Winnie, why don’t you and Nissa start trying to figure out a way to protect Iliana at the party Saturday? And Galen and I can stay up tonight and read through these scrolls.”
Winnie looked concerned. “Boss, you’re trying to do too much. If you don’t sleep sometime, you’re going to start cracking up.”
“I’ll sleep on Sunday,” Keller said firmly. “When it’s all over.”
Keller had meant that she and Galen could study the scrolls separately that night. But when everybody else headed for their bedrooms, he stayed in the family room with her and watched the eleven o’clock news. More animal attacks.
When it was over, Keller pulled out her pile of scroll fragments. It was her way of saying good night, and much easier than looking at him.
But he just said quietly, “I’ll get my half,” and brought them out.
Keller felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t that she could find any fault with what he was doing. He was studying his pieces of scroll intently and letting her do the same.
But every now and then, he would look at her. She could feel his eyes on her, feel that they were serious and steady and that he was waiting for her to look up.
She never did.
And he never said anything. After a while, he would always go back to his parchments. They worked on and on in silence.
Still, Keller was aware of him. She couldn’t help it. She was a panther; she could sense the heat of his body even three feet away. She could smell him, too, and he smelled good. Clean and a little bit like the soap he used, and even more like himself, which was something warm and golden and healthy. Like a puppy with a nice coat on a summer afternoon.
It was very, very distracting. Sometimes the words on the scrolls blurred in front of her eyes.
But worst of all, worse than feeling his heat or smelling his scent or knowing his eyes were on her, was something more subtle that she couldn’t exactly define. A connection. A sense of tension between them that she could almost touch.
