Marsum groaned again and lifted his hands to touch the underside of his chin, dragging my hand with him.
Maggi spoke quietly. “To be clear, whatever injury happens to one, happens to the other, little dragon, so hurting him will hurt your sister.”
I wasn’t sure that was true. My own chin felt just fine. I touched it to be sure, and found a bump there growing. Damn it. I was going to have to be careful about how I handled Marsum.
Lila snarled and dug her feet into the sand. “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
“Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I gave her a tired smile. “And yeah, I’m probably being a fool.”
Lila hissed. “Damn it all!”
I moved back as far as I could being attached to Marsum. I should have been freaking out, melting down, raging at being tied to him. Maybe I was getting older and wiser, but I could see that Maggi was doing what she was for a reason, even if she didn’t know exactly how it was going to work out. I had been dying, that much I knew. And, now, I wasn’t.
My body still tingled with the magic that connected Marsum and me, dampening the sickness that had raged through me only moments before. But for how long?
Lila flew up so we were face to face. “No, no, we need to get to Trick and Ollianna. She is part of our triad, remember? She is the one we are going to work with to make things happen that will bring Bryce back and stop the Emperor. How the hell are we going to drag dipshit along like this?”
I held a hand out to her, welcoming her to my shoulder. She landed lightly, still agitated if the shivering of her wings was any indication. “And!” she glared at Maggi, “just because you put handcuffs on him, how is that going to stop him from hurting us? I mean like me and Ford and anyone else?”
“They diminish his power, little one. They were made to completely shut a person’s power away from them.” Maggi sighed. “I foolishly thought they might be used on the Emperor. They can only be used once, though.” There it was, she’d had an inkling as to what the cuffs would be used for.
Lila groaned. There was silence for half a beat before she flew off my shoulder and around my head to once more stare me in the eyes. “What the hell have you been doing tonight? Not hunting for dinner! I can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?”
I laughed, because it was kinda funny in a twisted, warped world sense.
Marsum took that moment to sit up, one hand between his knees, his other hanging midair attached to me. He lowered that arm a little more so he stared at me over the links of the handcuffs.
“Really? I never would have pegged you for the kinky kind.” He licked his lips, nerves showing.
I shrugged. “You aren’t exactly trustworthy. Can’t touch your magic, can you?”
“I could have saved you.”
I pointed at him. “But you didn’t. Maggi did.” I pointed at her with my free hand.
She smiled at Marsum. “Hello, Davin.”
Marsum’s face contorted. “No.”
Okay, now this was interesting. “You knew—”
She tipped her head at him as he stared up at her, shock written clearly on his face. “Marsum’s uncle, I suppose. Cousin maybe? He was a friend of mine, fighting the pull of the jewel into the darkness the longest. When he was killed, it seemed to speed up the violence in all the jewels. Like a cascade effect.”
The moon was on the downward spiral of setting and the urge to move, to get our feet going, was strong. “One last question.” I turned to Maggi. “Did you know that Marsum would come to me?”
She shook her head, but her eyes didn’t quite meet mine. “I did not.”
Then how had . . . the answer came through my now-clear skull in a crack of understanding. “Wait!” I held up a hand and the words poured out of me as I pointed at Marsum. “The falcon you were being carried off by after the Oracle’s Haunt, it was being manipulated by Merlin, who was somehow in thrall to the Emperor. Let me guess, Merlin intercepted you somehow and sent you back this way?”
Those blue eyes narrowed. “He did. There was a woman with him.”
That had to be Flora. So she’d gotten to Merlin in time to help him, and now they were meddling again. I couldn’t help the tight smile as I snapped my fingers. “Damn you, Merlin. What are you up to now?”
The reasons behind Merlin’s actions were rarely clear, but it looked like he was in his own way trying to help me make it through this journey I was on—at least that was what I believed. I paced back and forth in front of Marsum, dragging his arm with me, thinking fast. I could see no way out of this.
“Okay, fine. Let’s go.”
“You are kidding me,” Lila said, doing her own version of pacing as she circled my head. “Please tell me . . .”
“Look, do you see him doing any magic? Trying to kill either of us?” I pointed at Marsum.
Lila turned her back to him. “He was a brute to me. And he called me names.”
“I know, but he can’t do anything.” I turned my back to him too, as if to prove a point.
He snorted and a hand slid over my ass, his fingers tightening on my cheek. I reached back and grabbed his fingers as hard as I could. The smile on his face said it all. He wasn’t in the least bothered by coming with us. Maybe he even wanted to.
What if he and Maggi were somehow working together? Sweet baby goddess, I just didn’t know.
“Excellent,” Maggi said, a smile on her lips. “Let us go.”
I twisted Marsum’s hand and turned him toward our camp. There would be no dinner tonight, but we could sleep and be on our way in only a few hours. Already, the energy I’d been missing the last few days was coming back, and I was ready to move. Ready to get to the crossroads, to Ollianna and Trick, and then on to the Wyvern’s Lair.
I had shit to do, and very little time to do it in.
The three of us walked and Lila perched herself on my shoulder. The campfire wasn’t far ahead. Not far enough indeed.
Because once we were there, I was going to have to explain to Ford that not only was Marsum coming with us, but so was Maggi. I grimaced, thinking about how we were going to manage that conversation. Then again, Ford was not Steve. He would likely just take what I said and be good with it. That was how he did things.
Already I was planning how this would work. Ford would have to stay in his lion form. I’d have to ride with Marsum on Balder and Maggi would ride Batman.
Nobody was going to be happy with this new setup.
We walked together up and down the rolling dunes for fifteen minutes, maybe a little longer before Lila broke the silence, echoing my earlier thoughts. “Ford is not going to be happy about this. None of it.”
I shrugged, knowing she was right. “Ford is not in charge.”
“Lover’s spat already?” Marsum said. “Terrible start to a new relationship. It won’t last; I can tell you that.”
Lila shook her head, then ducked her mouth close to my ear to whisper. “I will back you up on taking the two of them along, you know that, but I’m afraid of what will happen if he gets loose. And it will happen. You know it as well as I do.”
“He can’t,” I said, without hesitation. “If that happens . . . there is only one answer.”
We’d run. There was no way we could stop Marsum with all his knowledge and power. I was pretty sure Lila thought I meant I’d try to kill him, but I didn’t want to share my body with all those miserable Jinn masters either.
“As long as we are in agreement,” she said.
“We are.” I sighed. “But right now, I’m exhausted.”
“That’s because you are still fighting the power that is trying to eat you from the inside out,” Marsum said.
“How do you know that?”
“I have the knowledge of the Jinn masters at my fingertips. I know a great deal more than anyone realizes.”
Maggi lifted a hand, drawing my attention to her. “He is correct. There were several before Marsum, and they all had great knowledge. Including Davin.”
Marsum grunted. “Davin is not in charge now, any more than Maks is.”
“That does not mean I cannot appreciate him,” Maggi snapped. “He was a good friend.”
“You were not friends,” Marsum drawled and I choked on nothing. Sweet cherry pie, that was information I wasn’t sure I ever would have guessed. Maggi had a fling with a Jinn master?
I wanted to ask to be sure I was hearing this right—curiosity and the cat and all that shit.
The conversation might have gone on but for one itty bitty thing.
To my right came the sound of big cat pads running across the sand, and through my bond to the pride I was the alpha of, I could feel Ford as he approached. Worried and then furious as he caught a glimpse of Marsum next to me. I couldn’t really see him in the darkness. There was just a shifting of movement as his dark body rushed us. As an extremely rare black lion, the night was a perfect camouflage for him as it was for me in my cat form.
I stepped up and blocked him from tackling Marsum at the last second, putting my cuffed hand on the captive and holding the other out to Ford. “No, he’s bound and can’t hurt any of us. Stand down.”
Marsum burst out laughing. “Oh, the blinders of the naïve. It’s quite something to see up close and personal. Stand down, what a crock of shit.”
Ford shifted from four legs to two in a blur, which, of course, also left him completely naked. Not necessarily a bad thing seeing as he was built like most male lions, well-muscled and stacked with not an ounce of extra fat on him. He pressed toward me to get closer to Marsum.
“He’s not Maks anymore, and you know it!” Ford snarled the words, the testosterone in the air thick like an old lady’s flowered perfume. I pushed him back, easily, as he didn’t try to use his size and weight against me like my ex-husband Steve would have.
Time to be the grownup here, the alpha, the reasonable one. Even if inside I was freaking out a little. “I know. But he’s bound with these handcuffs . . .” I held up my hand that was literally attached to Marsum, “and his life is tied to mine now. You hurt him, it hurts me and vice versa. I would have died had Maggi not done this. Also, say hello to Maggi.”
Ford took a step back and then forward again, his eyes darting to me and then to Marsum, then sliding to Maggi. He’d never met the Ice Witch, so there was no recognition from him. His emotions were all over the map, but at the front of them all was fear. He was afraid for me.
Damn it.
“And if he breaks the handcuffs?” Ford snapped. “What then? He’s letting this happen for a reason. I don’t care who made the cuffs!”
“If he breaks them, then I will deal with him,” I said. “Everyone does what they do for their own purposes, Ford. I’m not stupid. I know what he wants from me. You’d do best to remember that. And the cuffs are magic. Maggi slapped them on us, and it saved my life.” He needed to get that through his head, that I would be dead if not for the cuffs.
Ford held his hands up and then slowly dropped them to his sides. “This is not happening. It can’t be. This is ridiculous. A damn nightmare!”
“It’s happening,” I said, knowing with those two words I was hurting him. Something I didn’t want to do, but I was anyway.
Goddess, I was an asshole.
To be fair, I was in the same boat as Marsum. I didn’t have a choice with the cuffs on.
But I . . . almost didn’t mind, because it meant that maybe I had a better chance at getting Maks back. And it was easier than telling Ford I didn’t want him the way he wanted me.
I tugged on our cuffed hands, pulling Marsum toward the camp. We weren’t far now, only a hundred feet or so. The fire had been banked and had only a faint glow in the darkness, and the horses stood sleeping with their heads down, their forms just barely visible against the dim embers of the low burning coals.
I slowed my feet as just the faintest of smells caught me by surprise. I grabbed the back of Marsum’s belt and pulled him to a stop as he tried to pass me. Ford moved to my other side, scenting the air the same as me.
There was something—or had been something—checking out our camp.
Humans.
That couldn’t be right. “Ford, you smelling that?”
“Yeah, that’s weird.” He looked at me and I gestured with my chin for him to move ahead of us. Tied to Marsum as I was, fighting would be tough. Humans, this far out and away from the wall? That was beyond strange. And strange was rarely good in my traveling of this world. Strange meant that something was up, something that could kill us.
Maggi dropped back a little. “Lila, watch her,” I said.
Marsum said nothing, but I could feel him flexing against the cuff, testing it. I stopped and waited for Ford to clear the campground. He did a few passes around, wider and wider, then finally waved for us to come in. “All clear. Whoever it was just passed through. They didn’t even touch anything.”
Not that we were afraid of humans, but they were, on a good day, unpredictable. They often carried weapons that evened the playing field against any supernatural. A bullet could kill any of us as surely as a spelled arrow, or a well-placed knife. I’d heard rumors that on the other side of the wall that separated us from the main human populations were weapons like we’d never seen.
As we approached, Ford tugged on a pair of pants, shirt, and boots and set to getting the fire going higher, not that we had anything to cook over it.
“Dried jerky again,” I said. “Sorry about that. Between Maggi and this one, I’ve been preoccupied.”
There was no response from Ford. Hell, he didn’t even look my way. Another time I would have said he had every right to be pissed off at me, every right to hold me to task. But not tonight. Not with Maks’s life on the line here, or mine for that matter. Not with Maggi having done what she’d done. Hell, I didn’t even have it in me to be mad at her.
“Ford, are you going to walk around sulking all night?” I asked.
Marsum chuckled. “Oh, this is going to go well. Why not just kick him in the balls while he’s down? You just brought the body of the love of your life back to camp. What’s he supposed to think? And rightfully so.”
I didn’t look at Marsum, but instead kept my eyes on Ford. His back slowly stiffened, and he turned to look at me, the hurt in his eyes etched there as if I’d tattooed it. And now I felt like even more of a shit. I slumped a little where I stood. “Ford—”
“I’m going to get us something to eat. I’m tired of jerky.” He turned away from the fire and stalked out into the darkness. His emotions came through loud and clear to me through our pride bond. Anger, hurt, confusion, love.
Damn it, that last one would be the death of me. I was sure of it.
“You don’t have a real soft touch, do you? I’ll give you that. You’re a classic Jinn and a right bitch when you want to be.” Marsum sat against one of the saddles, stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles. He lifted his arms up and behind him so that his biceps flexed as he cupped the back of his head, dragging me a little closer.
I arched a brow, choosing to ignore him and his words that were meant to be weapons. “That move work on the ladies?”
“With Maks’s body, yes.” He grinned and there was nothing in my mind but an image of Maks in bed with Nell, taking his pleasure with her. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing something real or just a picture that my own head made up.
I took a step in his direction, hands fisted at my sides before I could catch myself. Lila zipped in front of me, holding her little clawed hands up, waving them rapidly. “He’s doing this on purpose. He’s pushing your buttons. Already.”
“Easy buttons to push, just like yours,” Marsum drawled, the words thick as though he were tired.
I forced my fingers to relax as I stood there, breathing through a combination of rage and hurt that was thick enough to choke me. I counted in my head to ten, then twenty, then to thirty before I was able to move properly again.
“Maggi,” Lila turned
her head to the witch, “why did you really do this? It can’t just be out of the goodness of your ice-cold heart.”
Marsum’s blue eyes slid to the tiny dragon as she landed on my shoulder and dug her claws into my scalp. Her idea of a massage was not the same as mine, but I said nothing as she raked my skin as gently as she could in what could only be an attempt to soothe me.
“I’d be curious as to the answer myself,” Marsum said. “You are not known for being helpful, at least not without your own reasons.”
I wasn’t sure that I liked Marsum agreeing with me.
Maggi spread her too big for traveling skirts and sat on the sand, crossing her legs beneath her body. The firelight flickered, dancing over her pale skin. “Her bloodline alone is worth saving. And there is something she needs you for yet, I believe.”
“What do you mean she needs me?” Marsum rubbed at the back of his head, a move I’d seen Maks do how many times as we sat across the campfires as we traveled to the Witch’s Reign? Too many to count and it tugged at my heart strings.
“I bound your lives together. That’s how I stopped the magic from eating her. That being said, it will only last a short time before it will start destroying you both. At that point, if you haven’t found what you need in order to expel the destructive magic from her body, you will both die. But I have faith that at least Zam will survive.” Her eyes lifted to mine and I didn’t like what I saw there—that Maks would take all the magic into himself to save me. As clearly as if she’d spoken, the truth hovered between us.
“Well, that’s comforting.” I stood next to Marsum, not really sure what to do with myself. Did I sit next to him? Did I smash him in the head and knock him out again?
Did I kiss him and hope love was enough to break the spell like some fairy tale?
“Nope,” I said and everyone looked at me. “Never mind. Just talking to myself.”
“Is that the magic making you crazy?” Lila asked.
“Nope, just my own head.” I sat as far from Marsum as I could get, which left our arms reaching for one another.
Wyvern's Lair (Desert Cursed Series Book 5) Page 6
