But I had a feeling he would show up for the golden moon, wanting whatever power he could get from it.
“You shouldn’t have bargained with the Emperor,” Bryce said, breaking the cozy moment as only a brother could.
“What?” Lila and Maks yelled the question at me, in perfect tandem. I grimaced. Damn it, I was hoping we’d just pretend that part of the night hadn’t happened. Like a bad dream.
“What is he talking about?” Maks asked, not yelling this time.
“There was no choice! And it saved three lives.” I refused to cringe. The decision had been made, and I would live with it, even if it took me straight to the Emperor’s throne. I took a deep breath. “The Emperor . . . he held Bryce captive, and he knew how to take the power I’d absorbed out of me. I made a choice.”
“But what did you give him?” Lila asked.
“I told him I’d bring him the flail.” I spoke quietly, but even with the whoosh of her wings and the rush of air around us, I knew they’d all heard me. Perks of hanging with shifters that had cat genetics running through them, and a dragon with the most excellent of ears. I wanted to not think about what I’d done, what I’d agreed to.
Maks tightened his hold on me. “No matter what, we are in this together. We are. We will find a way through this too.”
I nodded and laid my head on his shoulder, feeling the shift in my life. Maks, Lila, and I were the triad the Oracle had spoken of. I was even more sure now that Ollianna had proven herself a traitor.
“Do we really need to go to the crossroads?” Bryce asked.
“She has the dragon’s stone,” I said. “We need that to deal with the Emperor. And the crossroads is where the Oracle said we have a chance to dethrone him.”
“And Ollianna needs the stones to take to him?” Maks asked.
I nodded, anger flaring up in me. I hated being fooled, and I’d been fooled not only by Ollianna, but Maggi too. Fool me twice, shame on me. “I think Ollianna was playing us all along.” I shook my head. “She was so good.” Hells bells, I’d not seen it at all.
“No, I think in the beginning she wasn’t,” Lila said. “I think she is being taken by the Emperor. You said it yourself, he’s been all over your dreams. Isn’t it possible he was doing the same to her? Convincing her to help him?”
I frowned. “But she swapped out the stones when I hugged her in the dreamscape over a week ago. And then she asked me where we were, right before the first ophidian attack. And like a damn moron, I told her.”
“You couldn’t have known she would use that information against us. She was supposed to be with us, not the Emperor,” Maks said. “We have to take the stone back from her. She can’t be trusted with it. Look at what she’s done. Controlling the ophidians, a creature that not even the Jinn masters could manage.”
I looked up at him. His blue eyes were all Maks, but there was more there now. I touched his face. “Do you have their memories?”
His smile was wry, a twist to the side. “Some of them, and all the information my father could leave with me.”
One last gift from Marsum then, one that we could use.
Lila flew hard, not slowing for a minute. I dozed off and on through the night, warm in Maks’s arms.
As the sun rose on the day that the golden moons would rise, Lila finally slowed. “I need to rest. I’m done.”
She took us down slowly, releasing the horses and us just before she landed. We wobbled out of her way and she lowered herself to the ground. Lila in her full size was easily as big as her father, but leaner as though she carried more muscle.
With a sigh, she lowered her head. “Maybe I should take the necklace off. Then you can carry me?”
I hadn’t wanted to suggest it but agreed. She lowered her neck so I could reach the clasp. The chain had expanded to reach all the way round her neck and as I unlatched it, it shrunk to a more manageable size. I dropped it into the pouch on my waist that held two stones. Two stones of power and a third held by Maks. I glanced at him, seeing no ill effects of carrying the amber stone.
“How close do you think we are?” Bryce asked as Maks tossed him a pair of pants, shirt and spare boots from the saddlebags. Ford’s clothes. My heart twinged thinking about him and the others taken by Ishtar. I would get them back. I would not leave them with her.
“An hour’s ride,” Maks said. I arched a brow at him and he shrugged and tapped his head.
Damn, he was going to be like a walking encyclopedia and map all wrapped in one.
I turned back to Lila to find her on the ground, tiny once more, and fast asleep. I bent and picked her up, cradling her in my arms as I took Balder’s reins and slid off his bridle, then did the same for Batman. Maks gave the remainder of the oatballs to the horses which they happily chewed down. We were in a green strip, by the looks of it, with trees dotting the landscape here and there, and even the sound of water nearby. I steered us in that direction first, the horses following happily, stealing bites of grass here and there.
“We need to rest before we do this,” I said, plunking myself down on the bank of what had to be the smallest river I’d ever seen.
Bryce and Maks sat, one to either side of me, and Lila sound asleep against my chest. For the first time in months, I was at peace.
I was with my family, and that was home in a way nothing else ever would be.
I closed my eyes and just breathed in the air, hearing the world move quietly around me and knowing that right then, in that moment, I was where I was supposed to be. All the pain, all the hurt, the wounds of the heart, the sacrifices we’d made had brought us to right then.
“Whatever comes next,” I said, “we were meant to be here.”
Bryce leaned his head against mine. “Whatever comes next, I’m with you.”
“Do you even have to ask?” Lila mumbled, and I laughed as I put a hand on her back.
“No, I’m not asking. But this feels . . . right . . . like we were meant to be here all along. The four of us.” I tipped my head back against the trunk of the tree I leaned against. Maks wrapped his arm through mine and rested his hand on Lila too. She grunted in her sleep and curled closer. Bryce took my other hand and held it.
Sleep stole over me, and I should have been worried. I should have feared the dreamscape.
I opened my eyes, still there under the cover of the trees, Lila asleep on my chest and the horses grazing, but Bryce and Maks were not there. “Damn it all to fucktown,” I muttered under my breath.
Keeping Lila tucked in my arms, I stood and did a slow turn. If I left her here, she could be hurt, which meant she was coming with me regardless of how long it took to find my way to whatever had called me here.
Only it didn’t take me long, not at all.
“You have failed me, Ollianna.” The Emperor’s voice echoed to me from the south, from the crossroads where Ollianna and Trick were supposed to be waiting.
“I did as you asked,” she snapped. “I betrayed someone I cared about. I took one of the stones from her, and I am here. At the crossroads, where I am to get my child! And if you will not help me, I will take a child however I can.”
I frowned and crept closer, the landscape shifting quickly with each step. I ended up not far from them and watched the scene play out.
“You were to bring the stones to me. Not keep any of them for yourself,” the Emperor said. “Conniving witch that you are.”
“I made a deal with you,” she said. “You are the one who is failing that deal.”
He grunted as he paced in front of her. “You want a child? From whom? I see no man to give you a child here.”
Ollianna clasped her hands behind her back. “I will take any child I can get.”
My mouth dropped open. She wasn’t suggesting what I thought she was suggesting, was she?
He grabbed his own daughter and dragged her to him. Yup, yup, she was.
I backpedaled faster, running back the way I’d come, whispering all the way, “Wake up
, wake up, wake up.”
I did not need to see, hear, or think about what was happening to Ollianna. I gagged so hard, I jerked awake, still clutching Lila. “Dried shit on a camel’s asshole is not as bad as what I just saw.”
Maks was awake, but Bryce slept on. “What happened?” Maks asked.
“Oh, just my auntie Ollianna asking for a child from her father!” I shuddered and gagged again. “What is wrong with people?”
“Power,” Maks said. “It’s about power. She wants a child, maybe that’s true, but she wants a child with power even more than that. It’s why she took the stone, why she helped you. She saw you as a path to more power.” He frowned. “So your aunt is sleeping right now?”
“Well, sleeping?” I raised both brows and he chuckled.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes, she’s technically asleep.”
“Then let’s go. Maybe we can catch her off guard. The horses rested as Lila flew, and we’ve had a few hours here.” He stood and held out his hand to me.
I took it with a groan, my body protesting. “Remember you promised me a movie night?”
“Indiana Jones, yes? I’d like to see that. I’ve always enjoyed history.” He smiled and I laughed.
“Maybe we can get some tips from a great hero like Indiana.”
Bryce yawned and stretched. “Nobody can do it like Indiana. I wish I could get the VCR to work back in the Stockyards.”
We prepped the horses, and mounted up, me riding double with Maks and Bryce on Balder.
The first half hour, we talked about the Stockyards, Indiana Jones, and the things that Bryce would fix when we were back. As if we weren’t walking into the fight of our lives against a powerful witch working for the Emperor.
Or maybe to remember some of the smaller things we were fighting for.
“Do you think you can sneak into the crossroads and steal the jewel back from Ollianna?” Lila asked as she woke up.
I mulled it over. “I don’t know. And what about Trick? Where is he?”
Lila gave a little whimper and then hissed. “That bitch better not have hurt him.”
Maks lifted his hand. The road we were on curved to the left. “The crossroads are just around that corner.”
I glanced at the ground, taking note that it was still far too hard for any ophidians. That didn’t mean Ollianna couldn’t have another snake creature waiting with her. One bigger and uglier.
The morning was overcast, clouds rolling through the sky above. But no sign of the storm dragon, and still no sign of Corvalis. “Let me get a closer look.” I slipped off Batman and shifted to four legs.
“I’m coming with you,” Maks said, shifting to his caracal form as he dismounted.
“Why am I always getting left behind?” Bryce muttered.
I grinned up at him. “’Cause you’re too big to hide. Hold your horses. Both of them.”
He rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. I wondered at his complacency, and then I saw a flash of fear in his eyes before he looked away.
Being caged had been harder on him than I’d realized. We’d talk about that, but later.
Everything could be dealt with later, if we survived the now.
I trotted forward, Maks on my left, his hip bumping mine every other stride. “I’m not letting you out of my sight for a while,” he said.
I hip-bumped him back. “Fine by me.”
We slowed as we drew close to the rock formation that would give us cover. The place we’d sneak a look and the place Ollianna would be watching.
“Stop.” I whispered, “She’ll expect us here.”
I looked up at the rock formation and leapt up to a tiny ledge, then leapt up to another and another until I was on the top of the rock. On my belly, I scooted across until I could look down at the crossroads properly.
I bit my tongue to keep from gasping.
Ollianna wasn’t alone. And she wasn’t surrounded by snakes.
She was surrounded by her witch sisters.
All of them.
27
I slipped and bounded back down the rock to where Maks waited. “See, I was still in sight,” I whispered.
“What’s wrong?” He followed me back to the horses where I shifted, mounted and turned them back the way we’d come. “Zam?”
“Hurry,” was all I could manage.
There was no plan that could stop all those witches, no way we could face them, at least not head on.
We rode all the way back to the place by the river, and while they respected me enough not to ask until we were there, once we arrived the questions flew.
I held up my hands, stopping them. “Ollianna has called in reinforcements. Far as I can see, every single one of the witches from the swamp are there. Waiting for the power of the golden moons.”
“And what do you think they will do?” Lila asked.
I shook my head. “I have no idea. I doubt they are there to stop the Emperor since Ollianna is working for him.”
Maks cleared his throat. “I have a thought. The last time the golden moons rose and the power of the crossroads was invoked . . . that was when the wall was put up.”
I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. “And?”
“They have the dragon stone, and presumably, they have Trick.” Maks looked to Lila. “He could be used as a blood sacrifice to invoke even more power.”
She gasped. “No, we have to save him!”
I held out a hand to her, slowing her down. “We have to figure this out, Lila. We can’t just go running around the corner and into the crossroads without a plan or we’ll all die. And we don’t know for sure—”
“You mean like you did with that damn horde of gorcs?” she snapped.
“The gorcs didn’t have magic,” I pointed out, not upset by her words or the point she was trying to make. I knew how I’d be if it were Maks being held as a potential sacrifice. Look at me, growing up and shit.
Again, it was Maks who stepped up to help spell things out. “We have to draw them away, Lila. If we can split their forces, then maybe we have a chance at holding the crossroads. I’m not even worried about what we could do with the power that will be there, so much as blocking those who would do harm.”
A tingle along my spine preceded a thought I didn’t like. What if that was why the Oracle sent us here? Not for any other reason but to protect the crossroads? Not to help us, but to keep the world safe? I kept my thought to myself even as it grew clearer that the reason we’d been sent here might not have anything to do with us at all.
Bryce nodded. “Agreed, this is about protecting, not taking any of the power for ourselves.”
Lila’s eyes pooled with tears. Another chance at the curse on her being broken, lost. Another chance at my own curse being broken, lost. “Agreed,” she said.
“Agreed.” I echoed her and held my hand out, palm up. Maks put his hand on mine, then Bryce, and then Lila sat on top of our hands. It struck me how similar this moment was to when we’d made the pact with Ollianna.
And look how that had turned out.
I gripped Maks and he gave me a wink. “It will be okay.”
“Last time I tangled with dragons it didn’t turn out so well,” Bryce said, but he was grinning.
Of course he was. A lion going into a fight was always a happy little shit. I shook my head. “Idiot. We need a plan.”
We had very little time to figure this out.
“What we need is an army of our own,” Bryce said. “That would be the best thing.”
Another tingle along my spine turned me toward the other side of the creek. A flash of something reflective in the air; there and gone before I could even say for sure I’d seen anything at all. Calling to me, pulling at my feet.
Bryce was talking strategy, his voice a distant white noise as another flash amongst the trees beckoned me.
I waved at my companions absently, already walking away from them. “I need a minute.”
They let me go as I walked down into the creek, across to the other bank, and wove my way through the sparse trees.
The witches had come here looking for trouble.
Would their natural enemies have followed them? I was hoping that was exactly what I was seeing. Or maybe that was hope making me see things that didn’t exist.
“Titania?” I called out a name, that of the queen of the fairies, to be exact. “You want to go witch hunting with me? That’s why you came, isn’t it?”
Silence answered me. Of course, why would they want to leave their swamp now that they had it all to themselves?
But I stood there, waiting. Just in case I was wrong. In case I hadn’t been seeing things.
“Zam? We need to plan,” Bryce called across to me, and again I waved him off.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bright flash, rainbow iridescent and moving like a little zing of lightning. I spun and dropped to one knee, my hand going to my knife at my side.
The glittering, dancing figure of the queen of the fairies floated slowly down to me. “Desert bred, desert born, with the blood of so many running through your veins.” Her voice was soft and sharp at the same time. Where before she’d been nude, now she was covered in dark green armor that clung to her body from ankle to wrist. Her blue spiderweb hair was braided and woven close to her skull with a much smaller coronet rather than her larger crown from the first time I’d met her. Her gossamer green wings blurred as she approached me, a faint humming in the air like the buzzing of a large bee. “You are hunting witches again, Bright one? Funny that you share their blood.”
“Not by choice. And I don’t think it’s dominant.” I grinned. “And yeah, they are holding the crossroads—I have to stop them.”
“You believe they will free the Emperor if they can?” The way she offered the question made me doubt my own words and I hesitated.
“I think that’s the plan. But you don’t.”
She shook her head. “I have watched them, been a slave to them, and been bound in their power. They have loose tongues when they believe there is no one to listen. What they plan is far worse than releasing the Emperor. He will be but a matchstick to a raging forest fire should their plan succeed.”
Wyvern's Lair (Desert Cursed Series Book 5) Page 23
