Lillian might as well have been a statue. All she could do was stand and stare at the woman, too shocked to do anything else.
The woman held up a hand and studied her arm, wiggling the fingers and then glanced down at the rest of her nude, blood-smeared body. She compressed her lips at the sight of the blood, or maybe it was the nudity part. Lillian had no idea, but with a wave of one hand, the bloody residue of her birth disappeared.
Now the stranger was merely naked. It didn’t seem to bother her overly much as she took a couple wobbling steps from the base of the tree. Lillian noted how the stranger grasped one of the branches, using it to steady her first few steps. Her newborn-like lack of coordination didn’t look like it was going to stop her from achieving her goal, which to Lillian’s unsettling realization was Gregory.
The destination shouldn’t have been a surprise. Lillian had always been drawn to Gregory’s presence even when he’d been a stone statue in Gran’s garden. So it made perfect sense this stranger would be equally drawn to him.
Lillian’s own throat had closed off to the point where swallowing past the lump in her throat was nearly as impossible as unclenching her locked jaw. All she could do was watch in a kind of dreadful fascination as the stranger made it halfway to Gregory.
He simply watched her approach, outwardly calm, but his tail flicked with excitement and his wings tremored with each beat of his great heart. If he’d been a dog, he would have been thumping his tail and wiggling with happiness at the first sight of his beloved owner.
Lillian’s heart dropped to her toes, and she broke out in a clammy sweat, seeing more than her happy future with Gregory evaporate as her clone held out her hand and gestured him forward.
So the hamadryad had found a solution to the problem of the tattoos.
Gregory said she would. Yet, Lillian didn’t think even he had guessed the tree would do this. The Fae standing around seemed equally shocked.
“Durnathyne, my Hunting Shadow, my other half, I have missed you,” the clone said in Lillian’s own voice.
“My Sorceress,” Gregory said, emotion thickening his voice as he swooped into a deep old world bow.
The other Fae took their cue from Gregory and bowed to the Sorceress.
When Gregory straightened, he gave a little shudder and then dropped to all fours and bound over to Lillian’s twin. “Beloved,” he said as he gathered her to him, sheltering her in his vast wings. “Forgive me, had I known, I would have been here sooner.”
“There is nothing to forgive.”
The Sorceress turned her gaze to Lillian, a hint of pity showed in their depths.
Lillian didn’t bow, and she damn certain wasn’t going to let this one see her tears. Instead, she returned her replacement’s pitying regard with her own steely gaze, and said, “Welcome to the Mortal Realm, Sorceress. It takes some getting used to, I’m told.”
And so too would this, but Lillian had survived everything else fate, and the Divine Ones, had thrown at her, she’d damn well survive this too.
The End
Lillian and Gregory’s adventures will continue in Sorceress Triumphant, coming Fall 2016.
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Afterword
Thanks for giving Sorceress Hunting a try. If you enjoyed the read, you might also like Betrayal’s Price, book one of my In Deception’s Shadow series (Epic Fantasy with romance).
Many readers may not be aware, but reviews left at retailers like Amazon are greatly beneficial to authors of all genres, so if you have a moment and would like to leave a review, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Bye for now,
Lisa
Sorceress Hunting (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 3) Page 27
