by S Lawrence
“Who are you?” I wonder if she will give me her name.
“Mimi,” she answers without hesitation.
“Can you tell me anything that can help us? Can you get me home?”
She turns back to the sea, and I hold my breath. It puffs out when she and Kyon disappear. Here one second and gone the next, but she has left me here.
Left me to die, most likely, because even though the wound is closed, I can feel my temperature rising. Infection is spreading already. My energy is suddenly depleted, and I fall back, hitting the ground hard.
Fuck. The word sounds slow and slurred in my head as darkness jerks me back.
* * *
I stand in the middle of hell. Kyon sits at my feet only because I have a magical leash on the hellhound.
“Emma? Jason?” I call before starting forward. “Hello?”
I’m not even sure if the couple is here. I haven’t seen anyone but Nestor for years and years. The others had pulled away from the destruction they had left in the world. I didn’t blame them but I had been alive for a very long time and understood that there would always be destruction. In fact, another great battle that could destroy the world was coming.
I sigh as I look around and feel some anger starting to simmer, because it wasn’t that destruction was coming. It was already happening. It had been happening for years. It had been quiet, and then Nestor and I had felt a shiver of power in the world. Their kind of power.
Cyder hadn’t been wrong in his assessment of my lack of surprise when he mentioned a goddess. I had known another of our kind was roaming the human realm unchecked. I was angry at the others that had chosen to ignore the world they had saved and I was angry at myself for choosing to ignore the threat she knew the hint of power was. Whoever it is, they had tried to hide their power, which means the hint that they felt was just a small amount of what the person had.
A goddess.
It could be any number of their kind.
Kyon whined, pulling at the leash and jerking both my arm and my mind back to the present.
The beautiful redhead that ruled this kingdom with Jason was walking toward me and smiling.
“Mimi, it has been too long. Kyon?”
I hear the frown in the hounds name. “Emma. I didn’t think you guys knew she was up topside, wreaking a little havoc.”
“No, I did not.” Emma looked at Kyon. “Why did you leave?”
I release the magic holding the hound in place and watch as the beast runs to Emma’s side. Emma stared into the red eyes for a very long time, and I understood that unlike the impressions I had gleaned from Kyon, Emma was actually talking to the beast.
When she is done, the woman looks shaken but she schools her face, looking at me after a moment.
“Apparently, Jason’s sweet girl has been going up to check on the pup that Nestor talked us out of. I didn’t realize he wasn’t with you guys.” Emma studies me.
“He is not. Nestor got him for Remy’s last descendent.” I don’t try to lie because I knew that telling her about the girl would soften any feelings she might have about the hound being loose in the world.
“Remy’s...” Just the name, but the flux of power that pulses from her tells me she still cares for the man a great deal. All of the human women that had found magic with the Guardians and our kind loved the man that had painted their futures.
I wish I could tell her he was still alive. I wish I could tell Cora the most, but Nestor and I had agreed that they all needed time to heal from the losses they suffered and to find themselves with their new powers.
Bringing Kyon home and Emma figuring out that Liam had been given to the girl was as close as I can come to breaking my promise to him.
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me what’s going on.” Emma’s words force me to focus on her in front of me, not the Emma from hundreds of years ago.
She is truly a queen now.
“I think it's best if I go and you stay here, like you have been,” I say without the judgement I often feel.
She sighs, glancing around, and I know who she is looking for but I don’t sense him near.
“You would tell me, tell us, if something was happening, wouldn’t you?”
I think about her question. Would I? Obviously not, because something very big is happening, and I won’t tell her. If I did, she would tell the others, and they would want to ‘help.’ We can’t take the chance of anything being changed.
The butterfly effect is real. We are all interconnected, and every decision we make could change fate.
“You know how fickle fate is, Emma. You learned all about the strings that join us. You need to trust me. Trust Nestor. We have been watching the world since the war.”
She frowns. “We abandoned them. We abandoned you. I’m sorry.” She threads her fingers through the burning fur of the hound at her side.
“We understood. But I need you to keep this to yourself.” I turn my eyes up. “You know if you tell them, they will come. You know everything will happen as it should. Gaia hasn’t abandoned her children.”
Emma nods. “If you want this…” she waves her hand at Kyon and then up where my eyes had just been, “all to be a secret, you better get going. Jason knows when anyone enters the Underworld. He will be on his way here even as we speak.”
“I’m sorry to put you in this position,” I apologize.
“Well, we put you in an even worse position, I fear.” Emma turns and walks away, but Kyon doesn’t follow.
“I will check on him. Both of them, I promise,” I whisper, and she woofs then spins away, leaving me in the dark chamber alone.
Shifting out of the Underworld, I let myself be pulled back to the earth and the chaos that is waiting for me. The tree is still as it was last I visited—growing, with limbs spreading wide.
I greet the tree of life with reverence. “I hope we are doing the right thing.” I lay my hand on the trunk and like every time since the war, I receive no response, no hint of the being that used to greet me with love.
Chapter Sixteen
LASH
She is bathed in pale light.
No. That’s not right. She isn’t bathed; the light is coming from Reyna. It’s beautiful in a way I can’t even describe. Pushing up, I move as quietly as I can so I don’t disturb her. I don’t know what she’s doing but I don’t think I should bother her.
I frown, realizing that she managed to get over me and out of the small cave without waking me. I shouldn’t have fucking slept. I had promised to keep her safe and I failed her.
Her head tilts to one side as if she’s listening to something. I strain but I don’t hear a thing. The realization makes me frown. I don’t hear a single thing. Silence in the forest is not a good thing.
A predator is near.
“Reyna,” I call out softly. “Reyna. We need to go.”
I climb to my feet and step next to her. She is still gone from this clearing. Her body is practically humming with her new power.
“Reyna, sweetheart, something is coming and we need to go. Now.”
She sucks in a harsh breath, her eyes finally focusing on me as her face turns slowly toward me. Her lashes flutter as she blinks repeatedly.
“Lash?” Confusion mars her face as she looks around, noticing the growing light. “Is it morning?”
“Close. We need to go, Reyna. Something is coming.”
“It’s not coming for us. It is calling us.” As if to confirm her statement, a howl unlike any I’ve ever heard obliterates the silence that we have been wrapped in. “We need to hurry.”
She is adamant and before I can say a word, she takes off running.
“Reyna!” I yell, hoping to stop her even as I chase after her. Luckily, the fire had died in the darkness.
Damn, she is fast. I’m gaining on her just when she slides to a halt, her head whipping from side to side. Searching. For what, I have no idea since I don’t know what she was hearing or feeling.
> “It’s just gone. Disappeared.” She is still looking, but her feet start moving.
Watching her, I realize she doesn’t even know she’s moving. Instead, she is gone again, her power pulling her from this world as the search continues for whatever had called so strongly to her.
I follow just behind her as silently as I can, allowing her power to guide her. I just hope that it is actually her power and nothing else pulling us to some unknown fate. I heard the stories, the legends of beings or creatures luring people to their deaths, and while most people dismissed them as just that, stories, I did not. Wilder believed in the magic of the prophecy, and now we know that magic is real. The stories of sirens luring sailors to their deaths had always intrigued me.
My family had lived along the coast in the Atlas Mountains. They had fled there as the water began to rise around the world. Before that, they lived in Marrakesh. My grandmother still had the old faded photos from the family albums. When I was little, she would show them to me, whispering words in the language of our people. We were isolated from the world, living a blessed life.
It made us unprepared for the attack.
They came for our figs and olives. They came for the oil we pressed. Our men had traded it once a year, traveling to the other side of the mountain to do it. I found out much later that they had been followed home. Our lives had been sold for another village's safety.
My life had been traded for another’s.
I understand why—a parent is supposed to protect their child. I just wish... I don’t bother finishing the thought, for it has never done me any good to wish or consider the what-ifs.
I was not on the King’s ship first. Instead I was on another. Another that was lost at sea. I was the only one from that ship that survived. Unfortunately, the ship had been on course to rendezvous with the Black Death, so I was found by the King. He had questioned me about the night of the wreck. I told him about the singing, about the beautiful voice I had heard, and it had earned me a beating.
I had cried that first night, thinking there could be nothing worse than the beating.
I was wrong.
“This way, I think.” Reyna’s words slam the door on the dark memories threatening to swallow me whole. “Yes. Yes, this way.”
She turns, her steps now taking us to the northeast, away from the path the stranger had given us.
“Are you sure?” I hate to question, but this new direction has us moving away from Green Cove, away from my brothers.
“Yes. I know it sounds crazy, but we have to go this way. It’s like the magic or power is moving. It’s moving fast, racing in this direction.” Her hand comes up pointing. “Do you trust me? Trust this magic you all have convinced me I have? The magic that is supposed to save us all?”
How do I argue with that? Haven’t we been using the prophecy and who she might be to keep her with us? If we expect her to believe, then shouldn’t I be willing to follow where that power is telling her to go?
“Yes. Lead the way.” I reach out to take that hand and squeeze it and I’m gifted a smile that lights up her entire face.
She doesn’t lose a second and starts jogging forward. I stay right at her side. We run for an hour at least, finally stopping when she is struggling for air.
“I think we are close, but it seems to have stopped.” Reyna looks around once again, brow furrowed. She turns in half a circle then stops, facing north once again.
“Through the trees. I can hear the waves crashing. Whatever is calling is through there.”
“I’ll go first.” I make sure my tone brooks no argument.
“Okay.”
I’m half surprised she agreed so easily but I don’t wait for her to change her mind. Starting forward, unlike Reyna, I move through the trees slowly, eyes roving over the area to watch for any sign of traps or ambush. I see nothing but I can’t ignore the feeling of being watched.
“Are the wolves still with us?”
It is an innocent enough question she asks but it lets me know just how in tune to me she is. She is beginning to know our moods. I heard Fallon and Hagen whispering about Reyna, about how she is meant to complete each of us. Hell, I had the same thought as she welcomed me into her arms. Knowing and understanding are two completely different things.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” I answer her question, hoping to reassure her, and a part of me is hoping she is.
‘If you are still there, watch over her. Watch over us.’ I send the thought out to whoever or whatever might be out there.
The light is beginning to filter through the trees, and I know we are almost free of the forest. We are almost to whatever is drawing us to the area.
Step by step, we walk into the unknown.
Abruptly sunlight blinds me. The sun has risen while we were ensconced within the branches of the forest. She stops at my side; we both blink rapidly as our eyes water from the brightness.
My vision is still blurry from the tears when I hear her cry out. “Cyder!” She jerks her hand from mine.
“Cyder?” I start running as I see the shock of red hair in the grass beyond Reyna’s body. I run past her, flying to my brother’s form. “Cyder!”
Tears race down my face as I slide to his side on my knees. He is still and pale, and I hold my breath, unwilling to face what might be true. I reach out slowly and before I can even touch his skin, I can feel the heat.
“Is he?” Reyna’s voice cracks.
“He’s alive but burning up.” She falls to her knees across from me. I didn’t even see her move.
“Oh my God, what happened to him?” Her fingers feather over the angry burn that is running down his body. “Would the King do this?”
“No. Not this. He would have kept him, tortured him. This… This is someone or something completely different.” I lean down closer to my brother's face. “Cyder.”
He doesn’t respond, not that I actually thought he would, but I had that tiny glimmer of hope that his lids would raise and I would see the brilliance of his emerald eyes.
“He will die if we don’t get him somewhere and get him help.”
She’s right, but how are we going to haul him to Green Cove? It’s still two days walk, at least, and I’m afraid carrying him will do more harm than good.
I hear a rustling in the trees as she leans close to Cyder’s face, whispering in his ear. Her words are so low that I can’t hear them as I look around once again, searching for danger. The noise grows louder, and I know whatever it is out there is coming straight for us. Standing, I put myself between the two of them and the danger. My body tenses as I drop into a fighting position and slide the two blades that are stuck in my boots from their sheaths. I hold them loosely tucked back along my wrists and forearms. Waiting.
My breath escapes as Liam bursts through some undergrowth.
“Liam,” Reyna cries, and I can hear the relief in her voice. “How did you find us?” She asks when he barrels into her, licking over her neck and face.
After a moment, he drops down to his belly and lets out a short howl. Something on her face makes the hair on my neck raise. She looks around, and I follow her searching eyes.
I wait, knowing she will speak eventually.
“He was drawn, just like I was. Something wanted us to find Cyder.” There is so much conviction in her voice that I have no choice but to believe her words. “Quick, go look for some branches or fallen trees that we can use to build a carrier for him.”
I start to question how we will join them but stop as she pulls the loose shirt over her head, leaving her in nothing but a tight undershirt that is molded to her breasts, like my hands were not too long ago. Lust threatens to take control, but I force it down and run for the trees, praying what we need is there. I can hear the fabric ripping but don’t turn to look at her again.
I find one young sapling fallen and hack at another with my knife until I can push and break it the rest of the way through. It has long thin branches, and I think they are
supple enough to be woven around the other trunk. Between the foliage and her fabric, we might just be able to do what we need to save Cyder.
Dragging the wood behind me, I enter the clearing to find Liam sniffing Cyder and then licking at his chest. He whines as he lifts his head and looks around. What is he searching for?
Reyna kneels at the poles I’ve dropped and then, like I had thought she would try, begins to wind the branches together until I notice a tightly woven pattern emerging.
I was not expecting her to begin to glow again as she was doing it, as she was so focused on saving him that she didn’t even realize the green wood was bending to her will, growing and twisting itself to form something that resembles a hammock. I was not expecting the wind to pick up and lift long tendrils of her hair into the air. I was not expecting that faint glow I had witnessed this morning to brighten as flowers grew and bloomed all around us.
I did not expect magic.
She finishes and sits back, her eyes widening as she looks around us.
“What?”
She doesn’t say more, doesn’t need to.
“You.” I can’t keep the pride from deepening my voice.
“If I did that, then why can’t I heal him?” She seems upset.
“Reyna, don’t. You are saving him by getting us to help. And maybe someday you will be able to heal us, but for now, this is enough. Come on, beastie, let's get you hooked up.” I wave Liam over, and he surprises me by moving right to the poles and backing up until he is between the front of them, just waiting to carry Cyder to help. “Why am I surprised?” I shake my head.
This time, I pull my shirt and take the remains of her fabric and tie pieces to the poles and the dog until I fashion a harness of sorts.
Reyna squats by Liam’s head, her fingers scratching over his erect ears that are usually swiveling but have stopped to allow her access.
“I thought I had lost you.” Tears moisten her cheeks. “I can’t lose you. I can’t lose him either. Are you ready to help me save him?” As if to answer, he licks away the tears and stands.
