by R. E. Butler
“That’s handy,” Owen murmured.
“Definitely,” Hope said with a chuckle.
When they finally reached Skyye, the clouds disappeared entirely, as if just crossing onto the old stone floor caused the protection spell to fall back. Ben looked around at the ruins of an ancient temple. The stone columns and sculptures were broken or fallen, and a stone fountain was dried up and covered with ivy.
“Fae worshipped gods and goddesses here,” Crimson said as he stopped whatever spell he’d put on his sword to cover it with flames and tucked it into the sheath between his wings. “Modern fae don’t worship the gods and goddesses. There are some small factions of followers, but they don’t travel to Skyye because it’s too treacherous.”
“We had a safe trip, though,” Jenna said. “And I’m thankful for that.”
Hope nodded and lifted her wrist to look at her watch. “It’s almost time.”
Crimson and the two fae males worked to clear out a large cauldron in the center of the room, while Ben, Nathan, and Owen took the wood they’d brought in their packs and set it inside. Hope showed Jenna the spell, which had been written on a piece of parchment.
“Everyone needs to step away from the center of the room. Only the mountain lions should be at the cauldron during the spell, or Hrixalda might feel like she’s being ambushed and not show up.”
Immediately, the fae and other shifters stepped back, leaving only Hope, Jilly, Melody, and the male mountain lions.
Ben kissed Hope. “For luck. Not that you need it.”
“Thanks.”
She kissed his brothers and then moved to the cauldron, which was half-buried in the stone floor. She knelt in front of it, setting the spell ingredients before her. When the moon was in the right place in the sky, directly over the temple, she began the spell by lighting a purple candle.
She chanted, “I call the goddess Hrixalda to this realm. I am Hope, one of your creations.” Tilting the candle, she allowed the purple wax to drip into the bowl of ingredients as she repeated the spell in a louder voice. As she spoke the spell a third time, she tossed the contents of the bowl into the fire; the flames turned from red and yellow to purple and deep blue.
Hope set the bowl on the stone floor, rose to her feet, and shouted, “I call for your presence, Hrixalda. I call for you now!”
Ben, along with everyone else around the cauldron, held his breath. Time seemed to freeze. The birds and insects nearby were silent, and even though the fire was still burning, the crackling and spitting of the flames on the wood had ceased.
He scented the saltwater of Hope’s tears and turned to comfort her, when the heat from the fire doubled and everyone took a protective step back. He shielded his eyes from the blazing blues and purples, putting his arm around Hope to ensure she was safe.
Then the fire died entirely, leaving him blinking at the spots left behind. When his vision cleared, he let out a surprised grunt at the female standing on top of the extinguished bonfire. She looked like someone going to a costume party as a goddess – long white gown, golden laurel crown, and sandals on her feet. But there was power in the air that he was certain came directly from this female, and his cat even seemed to recognize her as their creator. Without a word, every cat dropped to their knees in reverence, except Hope, who remained standing.
“Hrixalda?” Hope asked, her voice wavering slightly.
“It is I,” she said, her voice booming. “You called for me.” The goddess stepped down from the wood and onto the floor, brushing her hands on her gown. “It’s about damn time.”
Ben’s head shot up. Had she really just said that? He looked at Hope, who was frowning.
“What do you mean by that?” Hope asked.
“I’ve been waiting for one of my cats to call for me to break the curse. It’s been... oh I don’t even know how long.” She waved her hand dismissively.
Jilly and Melody rose to their feet and joined Hope. “It’s been generations,” Jilly said.
Hrixalda tilted her head and looked at the three females. “I’m not getting warm and fuzzy thankful vibes from you. Why are you angry? You called me here. I didn’t have to answer your summons, but I did.” She folded her arms, her eyes narrowing.
Hope shook her head and gave the goddess a tight smile. “It’s just surprising that the first words out of your mouth were sarcastic.”
Hrixalda fluffed her long tresses, stacks of colorful bracelets jangling on her wrists. “I’m a goddess. I can behave any way I choose, anytime I choose. I think you better reconsider how you’re acting immediately, or I’ll disappear and never answer your summons again.”
“Wait, wait,” Melody said. “We can start fresh. Hope, Jilly, and I are lionesses. We only recently found out about the curse, and it took a lot of effort on Hope’s part – including finding fae to help bring us here – in order to cast the spell.”
Hrixalda’s smug smile slipped. “What do you mean you just found out about the curse?”
Hope glanced at Ben and his brothers with her brows raised. He could tell without words that she was thinking the goddess had a screw loose.
“The curse erased the memory of itself from the females,” Jilly said.
“No,” Hrixalda said, her brow furrowing. “No, it didn’t.”
The lion males rose to their feet, joining their mates. “It absolutely did,” Owen said.
“I was the first one to have the curse broken,” Jilly said. “My mates are black panthers, and they shared blood with me the moment we met. If it weren’t for one of their people having a book about mountain lion shifters, I wouldn’t have known what happened to me.”
“That’s not possible,” Hrixalda said. “All the females had to do was come and apologize. The curse didn’t mask itself from them.”
Jilly took a step forward. “It most certainly did. I was raised with the females. I was poisoned three times during my youth, turning me from the way I was meant to be into a cold and callous female who didn’t care about anything.”
“It’s true. Whatever you thought the curse was going to accomplish, this is what happened,” Melody said. “My father believed that the females did something to the little girls to change their personalities, but he was just guessing and didn’t actually know. He took off with me when I was an infant and hid me from the pride. I grew up without knowing my family or the pride because of the curse.”
Ben remembered the words of the curse, the strange poem that they’d found in the history book of their people. He recited it for the goddess, watching her eyes narrow as each sentence made it clear that the curse not only punished the females who’d tried to have the goddess killed, but ensured that the generations afterward wouldn’t even know about it.
As punishment for your jealousy, love you’ll know nevermore
To carry on this legacy, or deaths you’ll have to answer for.
Three by three to seal their fate, the hatred of all your males,
Only finding one’s Truemate, will thus remove the veils.
“The curse prevented the females from even understanding why they were poisoning the little girls,” Jilly said.
Ben thought back to his own mother. She’d contracted with his father to bear children, but she’d wanted nothing to do with them. He’d always felt like something was missing from his life because his mom had chosen to disappear once he was born. She’d left King, leaving him and his brothers without a mom. He’d envied the kids in school who had moms who were around. Who loved them. Humans didn’t understand why the females acted so cold, not even recognizing their own children. But the pride knew. It was the curse. Cast by a petulant goddess, who’d punished a whole group of people for the sins of a few.
Hope sniffled and jerked off her jacket, grasping the sleeve of her shirt and sliding it up her arm to reveal her bicep. “My mom was under the curse. She disappeared when I was born. And the females in the pride poisoned me once when I was four.” The scars on the underside of her arm were
little white dots, the only evidence of the venom from the claws of the females who’d poisoned her. “Do you seriously believe that the curse is known to the whole of mountain lion kind and the females are just ignoring you? Just continuing all this time to claw up the arms of little girls because they hate you? You’re out of your mind.”
Hrixalda’s eyes flashed. “What? How dare you!”
“No,” Hope said, shaking her head. “How. Dare. You.”
Jenna took a few steps forward, her mate holding onto her hand to keep her from getting too far away from him. “I think we’re going off the rails here. If you’ll forgive me, Hrixalda, it appears that the mountain lions have done as you asked. The females came here to ask you to release them from the curse. Whatever bad blood exists, it can be put aside.”
“This doesn’t concern you, lockinfae.”
“It does if you’re not being fair,” Crimson said, joining Jenna, his father and friend coming to his side. “Nothing about the curse makes sense. You should have slaughtered the females who came after you, then forgiven everyone else. Instead, you made it impossible for your people to move on together. It’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life – females clawing up little girls, ignoring the pull of truemates, wreaking havoc among their people. You’re a piece of work, lady. Goddess or not, you’re the one who should apologize and lift the curse immediately.”
“Please lift the curse,” Hope said. Ben put his arms around her.
“Please,” Jilly and Melody said at the same time.
The goddess didn’t look benevolent. She looked pissed.
“I’ll not stand here and be questioned by my own creations,” Hrixalda said. “I expected to be worshiped and revered, not accused of damning my own people. You have someone try to kill you and tell me how forgiving you’d be.”
“Wait!” Ben said. “Please, don’t leave.”
“Goodbye,” Hrixalda said. “Maybe in another few generations, you’ll come to your senses.”
“Wait!” Hope wailed as the goddess disappeared in a cloud of smoke and sparkles, followed by a booming sound that rattled the columns and cracked the ancient floor.
Hope’s knees went out, and Ben held her close as her tears fell swiftly to the ground.
“I’m so sorry, sweetness,” he said. “I’m so damn sorry.”
Chapter Eleven
Hope was devastated. She stared at the place where the goddess had stood, wondering how things had gone so very wrong.
“What a fucking piece of work,” Crimson said, hands on his hips and fury on his face. His wings snapped in irritation, punctuating his words.
“How the hell did that go sideways?” Logan asked. “Why was she such a bitch?”
Jilly, comforted by her mates, shook her head. “I don’t understand why she wouldn’t break the curse. She was unwilling to see she’d made the situation worse.”
“I messed up,” Hope said. She squeezed her eyes tightly, letting her mates hold her between them. “I shouldn’t have talked back to her. I didn’t respect her, and now she’s gone forever.”
“It’s not your fault,” Nathan said.
“It’s entirely my fault,” she said. Taking a step away from her mates, she scrubbed at the tears on her cheeks and sighed deeply. “I’m so sorry, everyone.”
“This whole thing is on that bitch goddess,” Melody said. Her mates echoed the sentiment. “She didn’t want to see how badly she’d treated her creations. She probably expected us to greet her with flowers and gifts, not to tell her how fucked up the world she left us in is.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Hope said. “Jenna said to be gracious until she lifted the curse. I didn’t do that. I...verbally attacked her.”
“I’m not sure she would have lifted the curse anyway,” Jenna said. “She seemed intent on being told she was right to cast it in the first place.”
Desmin nodded. “She seemed surprised that you were all miserable under the curse. It sounds like she’s pretty far removed from the turmoil she created.”
“I agree that it’s not your fault,” Riyad said. “She’s a few bricks shy of a load, in my opinion.”
“I didn’t even get to punch her,” Hope said. While everyone chuckled, more tears spilled down her cheeks. She’d failed. No amount of humor or blaming the goddess was going to change the fact that after all they’d gone through to get here, she was leaving the fae realm with the curse intact. No redemption for the females who were still affected. No healing the rift between the males and females.
She felt utterly, entirely ruined, to her core.
“Let’s go home,” Owen said.
Hope was the last one inside the temple, staring at the cauldron where the fire had blazed so brightly. With a sigh, she turned and walked out, praying that someday, someone else would be able to reach the goddess and break the curse. She hoped it would happen soon.
* * *
Darkness had overtaken the mountain, making the path down more treacherous. Nathan walked on one side of Hope, with Ben on her other side and Owen in front of them. They were close together, using lanterns to light the rocky path.
“Ouch, damn it,” Owen said, lifting his foot and hopping a few times.
“You probably hit a spiky thorn bush,” Crimson said, a few paces ahead of them. “I didn’t see one, but they’re around the trail.”
“Lovely,” Owen said with a grumble.
Nathan scanned the path ahead more closely, avoiding the bush that had poked Owen.
He kept his senses alert, but it was tough to focus on anything but Hope and the sorrow that surrounded her. Through their connection as mates he could feel how broken up she was. He knew she felt as though the weight of the entire mountain lion people was on her shoulders, and now, knowing that the curse wouldn’t be lifted, she was even more dogged by the situation. He didn’t like feeling helpless himself, and he knew it was wreaking havoc on Hope’s emotions.
He wished he was the sort of male who always knew the right thing to say at the right time, but words failed him. He didn’t want to offer a trite ‘it wasn’t your fault’ or blame the goddess for overreacting to the females. The only thing he could say was that he loved her, so he did.
She stopped walking. In the golden glow of the lantern, he could see that her cheeks were wet with tears. Around them, the rest of their party continued on, leaving the four of them alone.
She opened her mouth, but instead of words, a snarl escaped her lips. She lunged at him, twisting as they tumbled to the ground, landing hard on the rough trail. Nathan’s head cracked against a rock, and his vision blurred for a moment.
“Shit!” Crimson yelled. “Off the trail, now!”
Three swords blazed to life, and he saw a nightmarish creature just off the trail where he’d been standing. It was part dragon, part snake, with a huge maw filled with glistening fangs.
“Don’t get bitten!” Desmin shouted.
Nathan jerked into action, rising to his feet and pulling Hope with him. His brothers surrounded them, their claws and fangs ready to protect their mate. The shifters gathered with them, the males tucking the females behind them for safety as the fae fought to drive the strange creature back. It was at least seven feet tall, with small, dark wings and horns curving from either side of its diamond-shaped head. It roared, and the ear-splitting sound echoed around them.
The creature rose high on its belly, looking like a cobra about to strike. Crimson flapped his wings to lift off the ground and struck, his flaming sword cutting the beast’s head off in one smooth motion.
“We gotta run,” Riyad shouted. “The blood will call his friends here.”
“Did you see that thing?” Nathan asked Hope, looking down at her in his embrace.
“It was...going to bite you,” she said.
He frowned at her thick voice and mumbled words. “Baby? Are you hurt?”
“I feel...weird,” she said. Her head lolled to the side and her body went limp in his arms.
“Crimson!” Owen shouted.
The fae hurried back to them. “We gotta go, people.”
“Something’s wrong with Hope,” Ben said.
Nathan lifted her into his arms and he immediately scented blood. Crimson snarled and raised his sword into the air, setting it aflame again. Hope had a long scratch on her arm, which was oozing. The liquid seeping from the wound was an odd green color.
“Fuck,” Crimson said. He called for his father and friend. “She was bitten by the korshern. Open a portal to the healer, Dad.”
Fortunately they were far enough down the mountain to open the portal, and they rushed through, stopping in front of a small home. Crimson pounded on the door, then shoved it open without waiting for a response.
“Fenton? Fenton!”
“What’s the ruckus?” a male asked as he came into the front room, tying his robe closed.
“She was bitten by a korshern,” Desmin said. “She’s a mountain lion shifter.”
“How recently?”
“Minutes,” Nathan said, fear rising swiftly inside him. Hope was growing cold in his arms, her breathing getting shallower and her heartbeat slowing.
“This way,” Fenton said, hurrying down a hallway. Nathan, Owen, and Ben followed him, with Crimson and his father on their heels.
Nathan laid her on a bed in a small room and straightened, his cat howling in dismay at the wound. Her arm was twice the size it should be, and blue tendrils were snaking up it and across her shoulder.
“Baby?” he asked, leaning over.
“She’s unconscious from the venom,” Fenton said. He tied a tourniquet above the bite and stuck a pair of long, thin tweezers into the wound. The squishy sound of the metal moving in her flesh made Nathan’s skin crawl. In seconds, the male lifted a strange-looking tooth with serrated edges from the wound and dropped it into a wooden bowl. “Toss that into the fire, Crimson.”
“She had a tooth in her arm?” Owen asked.
