Panthers of Brigantia Shifter Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  The assassin-in-training waved his hand, “I’ve already finished all of my tasks. What else am I supposed to do?”

  “Let one of them know so they can give you more.”

  “I’ve already done that. Twice. One of them muttered something about me, so I figured it was best not to keep bothering them.”

  Heaven turned and looked at the young shifter. Adjusting her body a little, she decided to ask him something that had been bothering her. “How is Dominique doing?”

  “Dominique?”

  “Sorry, um, what was his name? Starts with a D. It always starts with a D.”

  “Oh, you mean that very serious assassin who keeps to the shadows? Diony, I think.”

  “That’s the one.”

  The young shifter shrugged, “I couldn’t say. He keeps to the shadows, and I have only been there a day. Can’t figure out a lot in that span of time.”

  “What do your senses tell you about him? Think hard about your encounter.”

  “Is this some kind of training?” He tilted his head, his expression so friendly and innocent.

  “You can certainly think of it that way, though they aren’t going to teach you what I know.”

  “That’s because you are a druid.”

  “Life magic and death magic are complementary, not exclusive. The lessons that I learned apply to much of what you do, just as most of the lessons that you learned should be applied to what I do. All of us should be assessing the situation to avoid making the worst mistakes.”

  The young shifter looked away into the void, “I had never thought of that before now. You are right, though. Life and death magic are not exclusive, which means…” He rested his cheek on a hand and placed his elbow on his knee. “I suppose no one taught you that either.”

  “Not in words, no. I learned the hard way.”

  “What’s the hard way?”

  “Experience.”

  “Oh. I guess that could be a very hard way to learn about life and death.”

  Heaven nodded, “Yeah, my mother died during childbirth. I don’t think my sister ever forgave me.”

  The assassin-in-training looked surprised. “It wasn’t your fault that your mother died.”

  Heaven shrugged, “If she hadn’t gotten pregnant with me, she would still be alive. That is undeniable.”

  The young shifter moved around, his expression showing he found the logic upsetting. “But you didn’t kill her.”

  “Not in the way you are going to learn to kill, no. At the same time, it is undeniable that I caused her death.”

  “It is deniable.”

  “You are too young to understand.”

  The future assassin frowned, “I really hate it when people rely on that instead of trying to explain something properly. It means that you don’t have a real argument so you are going to point out something that is completely unrelated and pretend that is the cause of the confusion.”

  Heaven opened her mouth to argue, then realized he was right. With a sigh, she looked down at her dress and began to pull at it. “I started using magic when my mother tried to push me out.”

  The assassin-in-training stared at her, his mouth open.

  “Yeah, I shouldn’t have been able to, but that was the problem. My father came from a very powerful line of druids, and I got my talent from that side. My mother was no match for what I could do. So yes, I did kill her. Not many people know that.” She began to pull a string on her dress. “My sister has every reason to blame me because I did kill my mother. Literally. It wasn’t the birthing process, but her daughter fighting against her that caused her death.”

  A hand gently touched her shoulder, and for the first time in years, Heaven didn’t shy away. “You didn’t do it on purpose, so it really isn’t fair to blame you.”

  Heaven shrugged, “It doesn’t bother me so much anymore. The world has a whole host of other problems to make life miserable. After all of this time, I hardly notice.”

  “Maybe there is something I can do to help.” He tried to smile at her.

  “The best way to help me is to fulfill the promise that you show by being able to find this place on your own at such a young age. And to forget me.”

  He ignored her words and began to touch her hair, “It’s a very unique color.”

  Heaven tried to look at it. “What color is it now?”

  “A bright blue color. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Of course not. It isn’t my natural color.”

  “Why would you change the color of your hair?”

  “Frustration.”

  “You are going to wear yourself out by using your magic like that.”

  “I wish. If I can kill my mother in childbirth, do you really think that a little color magic is going to make a dent in my skills centuries later?”

  He smiled, “I guess not.” The young shifter pushed the glasses up on her face. “I like your eyes, too.”

  Heaven looked away. “They aren’t as pretty as yours.”

  “Mine? Most panthers have a similar color; mine aren’t anything special.”

  She turned around a little, “Yours are different. More intelligent. More intense.” She rested her head on her knees. “A person could get lost in your eyes.”

  He laughed, then suddenly stopped. “Did you hear that?”

  Heaven looked up, “Yeah, they are looking for you. Better get back.”

  He stood up. “Um, right.” Moving around, the young trainee quickly found what he needed. “I will look for you again.”

  “You won’t find me.”

  “Will you meet me if I ask you to?”

  Heaven looked at him, torn between the idea of having someone to talk to and losing the companionship all over again. “Tell me, assassin-in-training, what is your name?”

  “Caspian.”

  “I will have to think about it, Caspian. Getting involved in my life is a mistake I probably won’t let you make.”

  “Now that I know where you hide, do you think you can stop me?”

  Heaven laughed and stood up. “I know that I can. This is not my hiding place. My hiding place is something I keep on an entirely different plane.”

  “Druids can do that?” His eyes were wide.

  “No. I can do that. Now, you had better hurry because Dominique will be less than pleased if he finds you here.”

  “Diony. Do you know him well enough that you ask about him? If so, it is strange you don’t know his name.”

  “Oh yes, I know him. Much better than most people, and names mean very little, my assassin-in-training. And that is why I am warning you to hurry. He does not like waiting.”

  Caspian smiled at her one more time, “I’m glad you are smiling now. No one should suffer alone. And after thinking about it, he is very sad. I don’t think he would confide in me why, but if I had to guess, he misses you.” He gave her a small nod, then disappeared.

  Heaven stared at where he had been for a long time, almost hoping he would come through again. It was a moment of weakness that she would not have again for several hundred years.

  Looking up at the palace, Heaven knew that there was no one waiting inside. Her sister was long dead, and her lovers had all given up on her. Only one of her lovers had known that coming here meant leaving their normal plane of existence, and she had never made the mistake of telling the rest of them. Not that they could have come here without her if they had known. She just didn’t want anyone looking. Heaven had learned that the curious often found what they sought, and their means were not always harmless.

  She looked up at the large edifice she had built with her sister so long ago. It wasn’t the best place to prepare, but the only other places she had were too risky to use.

  With a heavy sigh, Heaven walked toward the door, then through it. She didn’t even have the energy to lift her arms to open doors. “I suppose I should eat something,” she muttered at the floor before reaching out and grabbing something from a palace in Wi
nstonshire. Her eyes barely registered the large fruit as she began to eat, her feet dragging her to the study where she would need to pack her stuff.

  Chapter 5

  Mistakes Abound

  Heaven swung the bag onto her back, then pushed it into Nowhere. That would allow her to access it without having to carry it everywhere. The process had taken her a lot longer than she had expected, not that she minded. She wasn’t looking forward to what was to come.

  Stepping through the walls and back onto a lush green lawn, she looked around at the sunless sky. This was somewhere she had created out of nothing to escape a world that was unkind. For a long time it was her refuge, then it had become her workplace, and finally it was her own personal hell, with nothing but painful memories.

  “Maybe I should destroy you and start over,” the words spilled out of her mouth for the millionth time. Heaven had thought she would do it because of how painful it was to be there. The problem was that it was the only place she had where she and her sister had ever been happy. If Paradise had just been happy with it, things could have been different, they could have created so much. After being shunned for so long by the druids, and then the seers, Paradise had decided that she wanted to destroy everything and everyone on their original plane. Her plan had formed slowly, taking centuries for Heaven to discover. When she did, her sister had already created three hearts more powerful than anything the Unwashed could make.

  Heaven pushed her glasses up with her fingers and pressed in on the bridge of her nose. She could have stopped the Unwashed in the very beginning, could have spared the world and so many people from what was happening now. On several levels it should have been her responsibility, but she could not fully forgive the world for having turned its back on them when the sisters had needed it. For her entire life, Heaven had been fixing large problems created by the magic users. No one asked her to do it. She just did it because often they used plans and instructions that her sister had created, which she felt meant she needed to stop it. Or maybe it was because it felt like her sister was still alive in some capacity, giving Heaven a purpose and a little bit of relief.

  Of course, she hadn’t needed to do it because Phoenix had become the pawn of the creators of another plane. They called themselves the Judges, and they seemed to think they knew what was best for Brigantia, despite not having come from there. They meddled and created their own form of justice, with Heaven occasionally blocking their progress. As good as they were, they were no match for her on her home plane. They had sent Phoenix after her on a couple of occasions, but Phoenix’s abilities were entirely different, and she could not travel across planes, not even into Nowhere. Heaven always remained a little in front of her. When the pair had eventually encountered each other on a mission, Heaven had wiped Phoenix’s memory as much as possible. She hadn’t been able to remove all traces of her existence, but Phoenix would never remember how she knew about the elusive druid. Part of Heaven wanted to help Phoenix because she had been so young and untrained when the Judges had taken advantage of her. But Phoenix wasn’t alone, so why did she need Heaven’s help? Orion was her anchor and protector. Over time, Heaven grew to resent Phoenix for how terribly the druid treated Orion, and yet he never wavered in his devotion. Now they were together again, working to finally get her back to Brigantia permanently.

  Heaven walked into the hedge maze she had created. Even though it constantly shifted, she never had trouble getting through it. She could have stopped the humans; looking back now, perhaps she should have stopped them. The prophecy was one of many things hanging on the walls of her sister’s room, all of which she knew by heart. But why should she always have to save them? No one appreciated it. They would just destroy everything all over again. Besides, the magic users should have been able to keep the humans from obtaining that much power—it was their responsibility.

  Like the rest of them, Heaven had underestimated the humans, not fully believing that they were the weak from the prophecy. After all, she had once interpreted the rise of the seers in Ishtar to be the place of the prophecy. They were a far diminished line of seers, and they were working with the humans to build an empire. She had been wrong, not for the first time. This time was different, though; this time, she sat back and watched as Caspian and a few other assassins killed the remaining pure-blood seers. She did nothing as Ishtar began to trample people all over the world. Wars broke out, then Ishtar began to crumble and Solona began to rise. Heaven had learned this was the pattern of the world, and she had no role in the world. She watched Phoenix and felt jealous as she changed, as the relationship between Phoenix and Orion was mended, then love bloomed. It took a very, very long time, but they always had each other.

  “Still a fool after all of these years. You were promised help, and so you still crave what you know you cannot have. How many lovers do you need to turn from you before you realize that you will never inspire that kind of dedication?” She laughed coldly at herself. “My sister’s curse was something so much worse than death. If she couldn’t live, neither could I.”

  Kicking a few pebbles on the path, Heaven shoved her hands into pockets in her dress. “Maybe I just won’t come back. But then where would I go?” Her eyes moved up to the palace, “I can’t create another plane as long as I’m holding this one together.”

  She turned and walked out of the maze. “Problem for another time. Now, it’s time to go see where they need me most.”

  Heaven stepped through an opening that took her directly to Copan, the capital of Ishtar.

  She could just make out three silhouettes working their way through the city walls. Caspian had managed to get them this far without incident, which in and of itself was a small miracle. All of them had altered appearances. Maverick’s blond streaks were hidden, making him look like an assassin at a glance. Miracle’s hair was chestnut colored. And Caspian’s hair was snowy white. But that wasn’t what caught Heaven’s attention.

  “Oh.” Heaven watched them moving along at a pace much faster than should have been possible. “Is that how she got her name?” Stretching out her arms, she transformed into a small goldish-silver bird. Keeping her distance, she kept track of them as they neared the palace.

  Then everything went wrong.

  Heaven landed on the top of a building and watched as Caspian took down one of the Unwashed. Unfortunately, the man had managed to send a signal into the air, narrowly missing Heaven.

  That’s not like him at all. Heaven quickly realized that Caspian had decided his own plan without letting the others know. Why else would he have gone after the only Unwashed with a signal? And there was no good reason why the assassin wouldn’t have been able to kill the Unwashed before he realized what was happening. Of course, Caspian would have made it look like he made a mistake, but Heaven knew that was not the case. Not by a long shot.

  She flew down and listened as he gave Maverick and Miracle directions. “You aren’t going to be able to take the heart on your own. For now, Maverick, get her down to the dungeons. No one is going to look for you there.”

  “Have you finally lost your mind, Caspian? They are going to bury you if we leave you to fight alone. How could you have messed this up so badly?”

  “I already apologized, but I am not perfect, you know. Don’t worry, I was supposed to make a mistake according to her prophecy. And according to the one you wrote down,” Maverick frowned at this, but Caspian kept speaking. “I need to be the bait. Two birds with one stone. Now go, because I will not protect her.” The tone in his voice was cold, causing Miracle to look away, a sad look on her face.

  Maverick held a finger up in Caspian’s face, “I swear, if you make it through this—”

  “You will what, exactly? Finally listen to me? It’s about the only damn thing you don’t do. Now, get out of here.” Caspian stepped out of their hiding place, stepping directly on the belly of the man he had killed. Stretching out his arms, he laughed, “Now this is a challenge.” All around the square
, balls of light materialized and floated around, creating terrifying shadows. Unwashed poured into the square and the ramparts around it.

  Caspian bowed to them, “Before we begin, I feel it only fair to let you know the name of your executioner.”

  Heaven watched as Maverick muttered, “All the bravado in the world.”

  Miracle whispered back, “It explains where you got it from.”

  He turned to her, a wry look on his face that quickly changed to a smile, “I would say don’t compare me to him, but only because I could never be that foolish.”

  “Or that skilled?”

  Maverick nodded. With that, they easily slipped past the Unwashed who were focused solely on the shifter standing in the middle of his own theater.

  Someone yelled out at him, “Why should we care who you are?”

  Another man yelled, “You can’t take us all. We will string up your corpse over our gateway.”

  Caspian threw his head back and laughed. His feet danced him out of the way as several arrows flew toward him. When he stopped laughing, he addressed them again, “I’m sure you are aware of what happened in Anilin. How you tried to kill Legend and failed? Do you remember why it was you failed?”

  There were murmurs before someone spoke, “Yeah, some nosy assassin and that bitch killed our men.”

  “That bitch?” Caspian looked scandalized. “Could you possibly be referring to the adorable Precious?” He tsked at them, “That is no way to talk about a lady. Then again, considering what you do to women, it is hardly a surprise that you can’t even talk about them civilly.”

  He danced out of the way of several more arrows. His steps were light and carefree, almost as if he was putting on a show for an enchanted audience. Again he laughed until the arrows stopped. Completely unphased by the exertion, he looked around, “And is that really how you see assassins? As nosy creatures that get in the way of everything?”