by Jaymin Eve
“Where’s Mischa?” I asked, scanning the room.
Amongst the many Stratford inhabitants I could see the council leaders: Torag, from the Eastland trolls; Julianna Medow, the six foot, stunning redheaded vampire; and Galiani of the Greenlands, the fey representative. Kristoff was still missing, which was lucky for him, because he was a dead man walking when I finally dealt with Larky and had time to hunt down his slimy sorcerer ass.
The quads’ parents were there; the boys were with them. I couldn’t halt the pure joy I felt at seeing Jo and Jack Compass. They were like a second family to me.
No one answered me, so I asked again, with more force this time. “Where’s Mischa?”
Jonathon sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll show you. We’ve had to lock her and Nash away for the moment.”
Shit. I followed my father as he strolled along the row and past the front dais, where the council members ran the town meetings. He took me to the side of the huge room, stopping in front of a set of double doors. I’d never been in this room but had seen council members and elders emerge from there. Always figured it was some sort of “leaders’ lunchroom.” Inside, they sat around bitching about us, drinking coffee and eating cookies.
I really hoped there were some cookies inside. Chocolate chip – double chocolate would be even better. Fuck, I’d even eat oatmeal and raisin right now.
Jonathon pulled a large key from his pocket; it slid easily into the huge, magically-etched lock holding the entrance closed. The click was silent, as were the doors as they slid across. I was sort of holding my breath, having no idea what to expect on the other side.
Braxton moved toward me, the warmth at the base of my neck firing to life. I had to stop the stupid smile from spreading over my face. Just having him close made almost every situation better. Yep, I was a sap, but might as well own it. Plus, it was Braxton. There was not a single thing about him which was not worth a decent fangirl. Not one thing.
I don’t know why but I expected the room beyond to look like a dingy dungeon. When I stepped inside, I found it was light and airy and about twenty feet wide, a big room, outfitted with a round meeting table, a few couches, a kitchenette, and a wall filled with books – spell books by the look of their spines.
Two figures sat on the furthest couch, watching a television which was mounted to the wall.
“Nash…” Braxton brushed a hand along my back as he strode past me and across the room to the little boy, before hauling him up off the seat and into his arms for a hug.
I took a moment to note how much better the six-year-old supe was looking. Healthy, well fed, shiny brown hair and nice olive skin tones, instead of the sickly white he’d been when we found him. He was living with Jo and Jack now, but I knew the plan was to find his family as soon as all of this dragon marked stuff was over. Until then, the Compasses were sharing their overabundance of love with the young supe.
I was distracted then by a pair of green eyes and a face very much like my own.
“Jess?” Mischa’s voice was hesitant. She’d said my name like a question, as if she couldn’t believe I was here.
“Hey, sis,” I said. My smile was slight but natural. I wasn’t mad at her any longer. Okay, I for reals thought she was an idiot, but that didn’t mean she was a bad person.
She rose from the couch, and I had to say, she looked like shit, wearing sweatpants and a baggy shirt which hid most of her body – a body which looked extremely thin, the bags under her eyes so dark and pronounced they might as well be suitcases.
“Why are they locked in here?” I asked Jonathon, but Mischa was the one to answer.
“Because when the dragon king calls for the marked, we have no choice but to follow. He’s stopped projecting at the moment. He must be traveling. But when the call comes we have no power against him.”
Shit! I’d felt nothing from him in Faerie. Now that I was back in Stratford, I was genuinely curious as to whether it would affect me the same way as the others. My dragon was pretty great at resisting magical stuff. By forcing Josephina to choose a soul to be mated to, Larky had made me – his alleged mate – so much stronger than he probably imagined.
Mischa paused before me, and there was no way to miss that we were twins. She opened her mouth but slammed it shut just as quickly. I hated when she got all weird like this. I blamed the human influence from her years raised amongst them. Just spit it out, seriously, this waffling was more annoying than anything she could say.
“I’ve got to get back out into the hall, so I’ll leave you two alone for a bit,” Jonathon said, giving me a kiss on the cheek, and then Mischa. “Nash will be leaving with Jo and Jack just as soon as he’s finished visiting Braxton. The little one wouldn’t leave until his friend was back, but it’s too dangerous for him to be here.” His eyes flicked across to his other daughter. “Mischa also, but she refuses to leave.”
Mischa crossed her arms and got a stubborn look on her haggard face. “I won’t let him drive me from my home again. I spent too many years hiding in the human world because of that di … piece of crap. I stay here now. With my family.”
Hells yeah! I loved her fire. It was the supe in her; no amount of time in the human world could squash it completely. Although her fear of cursing was both funny as hell and weird to the nth degree.
Jonathon shook his head, but he wasn’t really upset. I could tell that he liked her fire as well. With another kiss on the cheek for both of us, he left. Mischa took my hand, and the moment we touched the bond between us flared to life.
I’ve missed you, I said to her mentally.
She jumped. I forgot we could do the mental talk thing now. Do you think we can shut it down for a bit? My mind is messy enough with just me in here.
Sure, I’m getting better at controlling it now. My dragon is teaching me. I erected the mental blocks I had been working on, and immediately the sensation of being linked lessened. Our bond was still there, but we were no longer in each other’s heads.
Mischa smiled. “Thank you. And I’ve really missed you too.” Her voice shook then. “Jess, I’m so sorry. I’ve been freaking out worrying about you, not to mention kicking myself for being the world’s biggest idiot.”
The girl was not kidding about her mind being a mess. She was a hot mess like nobody’s business right now.
I led her across to a small double couch, farthest from where Braxton was quietly talking to Nash. I took a second to watch the pair of them together, loving how happy both the boy and Braxton looked. Nash loved the dragon shifter that had befriended him when they were both locked in Vanguard, and I could see my mate felt the same. He was going to be a wonderful father, as long as we could stop our world from crashing down around us. At least Nash and the Compass parents would be away when Larky hit.
Focusing on Mischa again, we sat down facing each other. I gave her a moment to pull her shit together. Tears had formed in the corners of those stunning turquoise eyes and she was blinking rapidly to stop them falling. Finally, I tried for some reassurance.
“Misch, it’s okay, I’m not mad at you.”
She shook her head hard, black hair flying around her face. “I’m mad at myself and you should be mad at me too.”
I laughed. “Truthfully, shit happens. If it wasn’t you helping the bitch twins, it would have been someone else. Blame game is not my deal, and since you’ve clearly been beating yourself up about it the entire time I was gone, there’s really no need for me to lump in too.” I reached out and hugged her. Hard. I was fast realizing that you only got one family, and that they could be taken from you in an instant.
“I’ve been worried about you,” I said to her. “It really sucked balls being stuck in Faerie and not being able to talk to you.”
She nodded, losing the battle with her tears. They silently streamed down her face. “Dad has filled me in on what he knows, but I want to hear from you. Tell me everything that happened after I lost consciousness in the prison.”
Shit. Really … eve
rything? It wasn’t exactly a short story. Still, I would want to know everything too, so I couldn’t blame her curiosity. I started at the beginning, the castle in the land of illusions, Rose, all the rest of the assholeness which was Larky. My story wrapped up with everything we’d learned from the golden dragon, and I could see the absolute astonishment in my sister’s face.
“So, you might be pregnant with a magical dragon baby.” For some reason her voice broke there, but she managed to keep going without more tears. “And your baby could be strong enough to control all the races. And Larkspur is on his way here to both find you and destroy Stratford…”
She jumped to her feet, running both hands haphazardly through her hair. “I’m struggling to process this information. How are we supposed to fight the king when he’s so powerful now? You’re so lucky you haven’t felt his call yet. It’s … horrible. His voice and power fills my mind and overflows until I can’t even remember who I am. I know deep down that I need to fight against him, but there’s nothing left of me to do it.” She hung her head. I was starting to understand why she was a walking skeleton.
I watched as she started to pace. “Having his presence in your head must be just delightful,” I said, letting my sarcasm run free. “I’m guessing you aren’t getting a lot of sleep.”
She shook her head. “Nope, sleep is the easiest place for him to reach us. Our minds are open and vulnerable to his manipulations.” She swallowed roughly, and dropped back down beside me. “I’m going to ask you something now, but I don’t want to cop any crap for it. Can you do that?”
I was instantly curious. “Can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best.”
“Is Max back? And is Cardia out there with him?”
My curiosity fled. “Seriously? Babe! Seriously? You’ve got to get over it. He’s mated. There’s never going to be a chance for you.”
She leaned in closer to me, her voice barely a whisper. “Jess, I’m not a complete fucktard. I know he’s not in my reach any longer, but I have to tell you something, and it affects Max. I need to know you won’t tell him yet, at least not until I figure out how to break this news myself.”
My sister had cursed. This was bad.
Something hot and potent licked across my body – fear. I hated promising to keep secrets from my boys. That had caused me nothing but trouble recently. Still, it was clear that Mischa was desperate to offload and I could tell by the stubborn tilt of her jaw that if I didn’t promise to remain mute on it she wouldn’t tell me.
“I’ll keep quiet for now, but you better sort yourself out and tell him soon. Secrets are the death of relationships, and I for one hate them.”
Mischa nodded. “Trust me, he’s going to find out.”
Holy flaming ogre balls, this was going to be something insane, I just knew it. My mind started spinning with all the possibilities. Mischa took a few deep breaths and leaned in close to murmur.
“So … backstory first: I’ve never had a period in the human world. Mom was always telling me I was a late bloomer, but I knew there was something weird about me. Still, she would never let me go to a doctor, and since I wasn’t sexually active, there was no reason to worry about periods, or babies, or birth control.”
Okay, this was a weird and slightly disturbing backstory. She’d better get to the point fast. Her voice was so low there was absolutely no way for Braxton to hear. Still, I glanced over and was relieved to see the dragon shifter down on the floor playing some sort of army game with Nash and his little figurines. Dude even made playtime look badass.
“So then when my shifter side was unlocked, and Max and I were hanging out heaps, I never even gave birth control a thought. I really liked him, Jess, and we got along so well. He was the first real friend I had beside you. He seemed to like me also, even though I think for a time he was just confused about his feelings for you and me.”
Maximus had all but admitted that to me, but there had been a real thing between him and Mischa, even if it started because she looked a lot like me.
“You remember in the trial how Max wouldn’t give his alibi?”
I nodded. I had thought at the time it was about a girl.
“Well, he was with me, just kinda hanging out, but I made him promise not to tell anyone. I was insecure and trying to learn my way, still embarrassed from that first time when you told me that everyone could scent my attraction. Mostly I didn’t want to be defined by what I was doing with Max, so he kept it private for me.”
Asshole. Always on my case for keeping secrets, but looked like he had a pretty big one of his own.
“So you two did have sex,” I said. “All the times you told me you were a virgin, you just lied right to me?”
She crumbled forward. “No, I was a virgin for a lot of that time. We slept together once, just before the Four came to Stratford, when you and Braxton were in the prison. It was a sort of spur-of-the-moment comfort thing. I don’t remember how it happened. One minute we were talking and worrying and the next…” She trailed off, flashes of memory in her gaze.
She focused again: “I was really happy it happened, but he withdrew then. He said we had to focus on you and Brax, on getting you out of Vanguard. He distanced himself from me and never looked back again, and then the next thing I knew he was mated to Cardia.”
I blinked a few times. “You were still saying you were a virgin in the sanctuary though.”
She nodded, her movement shaky. “I thought if you knew what had happened you would lose your shit at Max or me. I worked double-time to pretend I was still the same virgin that had first come into your lives rather than a slutty chick who gave it up to a guy who didn’t really give a crap about her.”
I tried very hard not to sigh. “That’s some sort of human shit there again, isn’t it? Why would you think any of us would have cared that you two slept together? And the word slutty is not even in a shifter’s vocabulary. You’d have to sleep with twelve men in one night, minimum. Did he hurt you?”
My voice rose a little, and I saw Braxton glance our way, but when I gave him a ghost of a smile he turned back to Nash.
She shook her head violently. “No! Of course he didn’t. It was probably one of the best nights of my life, and that was with the fact that I was stressed and worried about you being in the prison. By the time we were escaping to the sanctuary, things got really weird between Max and me, and then he met his mate. It was so fast there was never enough time to even process my true emotions on it all.” She hung her head, dark hair falling to curtain her face. “I was an idiot, Jess. You warned me that we couldn’t be true mates, and I knew it was one of those things which happened because of the circumstances, but still … I couldn’t let him go.”
She rubbed a hand across her face, and I sensed something much bigger than her giving it up to one of the Compasses was coming. Something to do with the fact that she was talking about birth control earlier. She honestly couldn’t be…
“Just after you disappeared into Faerie, and Max met Cardia, I started to get sick. Pains in the stomach and lower back. Eventually I went to one of the healers in the medical ward, and they figured out what was wrong with me. When they told me I kind of lost my mind … hence why I acted like such a dumbass … dummy.” Her hand dropped to her stomach, and even though I knew it was coming I still gasped loud enough that Braxton was basically at my side in a second, Nash tucked in under his arm.
“What’s wrong, Jess?” He was speaking but I wasn’t comprehending. My eyes were locked on my sister, my brain a fuzz of confusion.
She was actually pregnant. With Maximus’s baby. It was all starting to make sense now. Her desperation in the sanctuary. The reason she did everything in her power to try and bring him back to her. She had known the entire time and he’d been holed up with his new mate. Mischa must have felt like her entire world was crashing down … and no one had been there to help her.
“Mischa?” Braxton’s voice was harder but not mean. He wasn’t angry with her
any longer either, even though I knew he had been pretty brutal with her when I’d first disappeared. “Someone better speak.”
I finally raised a shaking hand and laid it against his chest, letting the familiar beat of his heart soothe me. “I’m okay, Brax. Misch just surprised me with some information.”
Concern lined his face and eyes, and I could tell he was going to push me for more details. “I’ll tell you later. Go back to your game with Nash.” I gently ruffled the little boy’s hair. “He needs some playtime and so do you.”
Braxton very reluctantly left us, and I recognized the look he bestowed on me. I would be telling him later what happened, there was no doubt.
For now, I needed to sit down.
Chapter 14
Mischa and I sat side by side, our emotions all over the shop. I knew this information wasn’t anything which should have knocked me like this. Supes got pregnant; it happened by choice and accidentally, even with our very clearly defined fertile periods. Unplanned young didn’t occur as frequently as with humans, which was no wonder with the way they seemed to have a fertile period every month.
Mischa was barely holding it together. “What are you thinking?” Her voice was low and crackly.
“I’m the first person you’ve told?”
She nodded, wringing her hands together. “Yes, I was in denial for ages, thinking the healer made a mistake. I mean … I’ve never had a period. Maximus didn’t seem to think I needed any protection. I was just stupid.”
I shook my head. “Shifters have four fertile periods a year, and we’re always aware when they are. Maximus would have assumed you would know if it was your time. Like the rest of us, he probably forgot that you know next to nothing about our world.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I went back to the healer and demanded to know how it had happened. He thought that because my marks were bound by magic for so many years, before slowly starting to release, there was no way to predict my fertile period. Basically I wasn’t following any normal pattern for a shifter. My body was all out of whack, and with the surge of hormones it was like I created my own fertility.”