“Some from the new generation and the old,” Priest said. “Tate’s and Jade’s parents got word out to a handful of families when we settled here. The news hasn’t traveled as far as we’d like for it to, but most of those who’ve heard relocated with us.”
Jade grinned and waggled her eyebrows at Katy. “It’s a hoot. Lots of the elders have built a reputation with the people in Eureka Springs. They’re known as people who’ve gone off the grid and everyone thinks they live without electricity or running water.”
“Do they?” Katy asked, the scientist in her rising up in interest.
Tate scoffed. “They’re elders. Not stupid. They like their hot water and internet as much as everyone else, but the rumors help keep people away so they can shift whenever they want. In the time since Jade and I were born, we’ve taken up Ozark land from the Ouachita Forest to just south of Springfield.”
“But none of them are from primo lines?” Alek asked.
Priest shook his head. “We’ve got twenty families at most and only eight of those in your generation.”
“Do you have anything from the primo lines?” Naomi said. “Something Jade and I could use to help narrow our focus on each family?”
“We’ve got the primo medallions,” Jade said. “My mom saved them.”
Naomi brightened. “Those are perfect. The more power and history, the better.”
Katy straightened in her chair, all the information shared throughout their meal and opportunity clicking together at once. “Wait a minute. If Draven is the problem then why wouldn’t we just go straight for him?” She locked gazes with Priest. “If we stop him, then everyone else is safe.”
“If my brother gets control of our primos, no one is safe. Not our clan and not the singura.”
“But you’re high priest and Draven already has his gifts. You can do everything the other houses can do and you don’t have to worry about ticking off this Keeper person.”
Priest waited, patiently listening.
Seriously? He didn’t see it? It was easy. Assuming he could really do all the stuff everyone claimed he could. “So, we’ve got his charm. You use it, find him, and we bring him to justice.”
In the silence that settled around them, Katy wasn’t sure if she’d hit the idea lottery, or inadvertently stepped on the mother of all land mines, but the tension and awareness in the room grew supercharged in a second.
When Priest finally answered, his voice seemed not just to register in her ears, but as an echoed thought as well. “What does that justice look like for you, Kateri?”
Brutal.
Bloody.
Painful.
She shoved the raw, uncensored thoughts and the cold fury that went with them into the dark well she’d built to keep her life in check. Balanced and responsible. “We find him and have him arrested. He can stand trial and be judged like everyone else.”
“And do you think a singura jail could contain my brother?”
No. Absolutely not. And the fact that her anger had blinded her to such a harsh truth made her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
But it’s not what you really wanted anyway. You want him to pay. To experience every pain your mother and father felt.
Not waiting for her to answer, Priest kept going. “This will end with my brother’s death and it will come by my hand.”
“But she has a point,” Alek said. “If you can use the same skill as a sorcerer to track him, then why not use the charm and short-circuit any need to find the primos? You find him and we deal with him ourselves.”
Priest shared a look with Naomi, a question unspoken.
“You should tell them,” she answered. “They need to know the truth. All of it.”
He sighed and clasped his hands in front of him on the table, his thick biceps clenching as though it took every ounce of control to hold himself in place. His gaze stayed rooted on the table, though his eyes were distant. “I learned of my brother’s plans to steal each primo’s magic too late. My only recourse the night he acted was to strip from him the magic he’d stolen.” He paused and lifted his head, meeting Katy’s stare head-on. “With it came his darkness. It’s in me. It took nearly twenty years after his attack for me to find balance and keep it contained. I don’t dare touch anything of his. Not without risking letting it loose again.”
“He could have bespelled it, too,” Naomi added. “If Draven is smart enough to find my son, he has to know I’m alive and that the first place I would come would be to Eerikki. It’s why I wouldn’t let either of you touch it when we found it beside your father’s body.”
Still watching Katy, Priest lowered his voice, the softness behind it that of a man trying desperately to pull a punch he sensed would hurt. “You want retribution. It moves inside you the same as his darkness does in me, even though you hide it. But finding the primo families first is the wiser course. Draven will come for me eventually and, when he does, I’ll deliver your vengeance. Gladly. Both for what he’s done to you and your brother, and how our clan has suffered.”
Vengeance.
The word resonated through her, carried on the deep rumble of his voice and strangely placating the incessant need that had prodded and driven her for weeks. How he saw what she’d fought so hard to contain, she had no clue. It terrified her. Made her want to put as much distance as possible between them.
But it also comforted. Offered an ally and acceptance free of judgment.
He pushed away from the table and stood, the legs of his chair grating against the stone floors that so perfectly fit his home’s wilderness lodge design. “I have a client who’ll take most of the day tomorrow, but most of our local families will be here on Saturday for training. I’ll reach out to the seers in our clan, make sure they’re joining us.”
Standing as well, she blocked him from wherever he was headed. He couldn’t just up and leave, expecting her to bide her time until he was ready. “Why waste a day? Let’s start tomorrow.” Well, maybe she wouldn’t. Without any powers of her own, the best she could do was leverage her technical contacts from college, but she’d be on that first thing for sure.
He scanned her head to toe and his lips curled in the barest grin. “Tomorrow won’t be wasted, kitten. You’ll need it to rest and get ready for Saturday.”
“Why?” A quick check of those still seated around the table showed Alek didn’t have a clue what he meant either. Naomi, Jade and Tate, however, either kept carefully blank stares, or outright avoided her gaze. “What’s so important I need a day to gear up for it?”
“For starters, you’ve had a long trip here and need time to unwind. To settle yourself in my home.” He cupped her shoulder, the contact so careful and tender it seemed as if he barely trusted himself to allow the connection. “But more than that, on Saturday you start your training.”
Training? Like exercise and fighting the way Alek did every day? Or Volán 101 and all the undoubtedly weird stuff that went with it?
Before she could so much as open her mouth and clarify, he turned her and guided her from the kitchen. “Tate, you and Alek handle clean up. Jade, take care of Naomi and make sure she has whatever she needs. I’ll take care of Kateri.”
A command.
The same authority he’d exerted since he’d prowled into the pub and issued his plans for getting them all safely home. Though, oddly, she didn’t bristle at it. Nor did anyone else. The authority simply surrounded him. Created a natural order with those he came into contact with. No different than a predator stalking among less capable beasts.
Well, except for Alek. And Priest had handled that, too. Establishing a hierarchical order in a way that seemed to have helped her brother level out.
Too distracted by her thoughts, she let him guide her from the room, obediently putting one foot in front of the other as if some unknown part of her had already high-fived his plans
even while another part insisted she dig in her heels and interrogate him for the rest of the night.
His footsteps were eerily silent beside hers, his power a tangible presence between them as he guided her through his home toward the open staircase at its center. The lodge feel suited him. Contemporary in its lines, but grounded in openness and nature. Exactly the kind of place she’d want for herself someday—isolated from the world’s chaotic hubbub with plants, trees, rocks and water featured in every view.
She was just tired. That was all. He’d been right about the trip here taking its toll, and everyone else seemed comfortable in following his guidance, so maybe she’d be wise to give herself the reprieve. Feed her curiosity with simple things like wandering outdoors.
Or finding out what she could about the man shadowing her every step.
Reaching the top of the staircase where a catwalk branched left or right, she hesitated.
Priest motioned her to the right. “My room’s on this side. Everyone else is to the left, so you’ll have privacy and quiet.”
“You really don’t have to do this. I don’t mind sharing with Jade and Nanna.”
He inched closer, not quite touching her, but near enough his heat caressed her skin. When he spoke, his voice rumbled with the depth of a storm’s distant thunder. “I want you where you belong.”
Wanted.
Needed.
Possessed.
The thoughts coalesced all at once and sent a pleasant shiver down her spine. She shouldn’t like the idea. Didn’t want to. And yet she ached to touch him. “I’m not sure how to take that,” she managed barely above a whisper.
“Take it to mean I want you comfortable and protected. The rest we’ll figure out together.” Not taking his eyes off her, he lifted his chin toward the hallway beyond. “Go, I’ll show you where everything is.”
Giving her space, he did just that in short order. Like everything else in his home, the design was simple yet spacious and tastefully done. Rich chocolates, grays and taupes offset nature’s hues outside the many windows. Even the master bath had ample natural lighting, the wide glass integrated in such a way it afforded privacy even as it made her feel the walls didn’t exist.
Exiting the bath, she paused beside the sliding glass door that led to a private deck outside his bedroom. Above the night-shadowed treetops, stars nestled against a blue-black sky, but for once her focus wasn’t on the scenery. It was on the man reflected in the glass. In the way he moved and the effortless strength as he hefted her suitcase onto the foot of his king-size bed.
“You can open it if you like,” he said as he faced her.
She froze, meeting his gaze in the reflection for at least two heartbeats before she faced him. “How did you know I like the windows open?”
He smiled, a wolfish one that said he was more than a little pleased he’d struck a chord. “I didn’t. I only guess because you seemed to enjoy the drive here in your brother’s Jeep. That and you’re Volán. Most of us are drawn to nature.”
He prowled forward, stopping only inches away from her and reaching to the door’s handle behind her. The glass whooshed open, and the cool night air swept in, laden with quiet chirps and leaves rustling on a slight wind.
Still, she didn’t move. Just stared up at him as he studied her. At five foot five, she wasn’t exactly short, but between the near foot he had on her height-wise and the breadth of his muscled torso, she felt positively tiny.
His gaze roved her face, focused on her lips, then traveled lower to her neck. His fingertips whispered along her collarbone, slipping beneath the leather cords that held the charms her grandmother had insisted she wear after her parents’ death. He pulled the charms from beneath her shirt, letting them rest between her breasts. “Do you know what these mean?”
Right now she barely knew her name and was doing good to keep her breaths steady and even. “Not really.” She’d done good in those first few days just to keep from losing her mind, let alone ask questions about what she’d always viewed as Nanna’s superstitions.
He lightly touched one of the three and her heart kicked as though the connection was skin to skin. “The armadillo is for protection. A shield to hide you from harm.” He moved to the next and her pulse accelerated another notch. “The turtle is a protector, too, but more nurturing. A connection to the Earth’s energy.”
She swallowed as much as her parched mouth would allow, everything inside her poised and eager for his next touch. “What’s the bird mean?”
His mouth curled in a crooked smile. “Not just a bird. A raven. To give you courage and insight when you need it.” The smile slipped and he rubbed the talisman between his finger and thumb. When he let the charm slip free and straightened, she nearly wept at the loss. As if gravity had suddenly lightened and left her floundering for purchase.
Rather than step away, he reached both hands behind his neck. A second later, he lifted a necklace free. The black leather was nicer than those she wore, pliant, well-worn and shorter in length. Hanging from it was a beautiful medallion—a four-pointed star with a creature etched at its center.
He leaned close before she could study the animal and wrapped the soft leather around her neck. The talisman lay heavy at the hollow of her throat, the heat from his body still present in the smooth metal.
She rubbed her fingers over the top of it, exploring the fine details. “What’s this one?”
His gaze fixated on the simple gesture and the gray in his eyes darkened to that of an impending storm. Only when she dropped her hand did he lift his focus to her face. “Mine.”
He stepped away, his breath coming heavier as it had when they’d first met. Like then, she had the sensation that it wasn’t just the two of them in the room anymore. As odd as the sensation was, she didn’t mind it. If anything, it tempted her to go to him. To comfort him the same as he’d done for her.
Before she could, he turned and strode to the door, pausing only long enough to cast her one last look. “Sleep well, mihara.”
Chapter Six
Sleep well, her ass.
Katy upped her stride from a casual jog to full-out sprint, her long legs pounding on the edge of the winding asphalt road back toward Priest’s house. All night she’d tossed and turned, the driving need for action wrestling with the educated approach of patience and planning.
Oh. And then there was the all-too-consuming awareness that came from lying in Priest’s bed. Between the leather and forest scent of him embedded in the sheets and the lingering sensations he’d imprinted on her memory, the only way she’d sleep well any time soon was if she drank or sexed herself into an unconscious state. No way she’d bother with the latter. She’d never met a man who could work her over well enough to take the edge off, let alone sex her into sleep.
Well, not until Priest. Something told her he wouldn’t stop with a woman until she was either comatose or purring.
And what the hell had he called her? Nahina she’d heard her whole life, an endearment she hadn’t realized until recently was a Volán’s equivalent of sweetheart or dear, but mihara? That was a new one.
Ahead, the growing glow of headlights wavered against the darkness, paired with the escalating pitch of a car’s engine. She slowed and moved well off the street. In another fifteen minutes, the sun would finally make its way into the world for another day and she’d be less of a hit-and-run target for unsuspecting motorists. Until then, she’d have to chance plowing through the winter foliage piled up in the ditch and pray she didn’t break her leg instead of burning off frustration.
The car finally passed and Katy loped back up to the road.
Her foot connected with the pavement just as the barest rustle of leaves sounded not twenty feet to her right.
For the third time since she’d snuck out of Priest’s house forty-five minutes ago, prickles danced against her neck and sh
oulders. As if she was being watched. Or followed.
But that couldn’t be right. She’d been running at a respectable pace for nearly an hour and, aside from the one rustle of leaves, she’d heard nothing. No footsteps. No voices. Only the soft lure of wind in the trees and soft chirps of cicadas and crickets.
She pushed harder, shoving her concerns aside and putting the last of her flagging energy into a final sprint. Another five minutes and she’d be back at Priest’s place, hopefully unwound enough she could enjoy a simple cup of coffee and watch the sun come up without people or her thoughts giving her any trouble.
It was actually more like seven minutes before she stole into the house as quietly as she’d left it, leaving her tennis shoes by the front door and padding to the kitchen on silent, bare feet. Thankfully, whoever organized the kitchen had done so with a mind for common sense, making the coffee brewing process more of the peaceful ritual she craved than a scavenger hunt.
The machine did its thing, the quiet bubble and churn as the water made its way through the reservoir a satisfying soundtrack while she stretched her still-shaking legs. By the time it finished and she’d prepped a mug with a not-so-healthy amount of sugar and half-and-half, the sun was just nudging the horizon.
Now if she could just make her way out to the high balcony off the main living room without waking Priest. The couch was plenty big enough to handle a man his size and was conveniently situated so it faced the mammoth fireplace along the far wall, making it easy for her to sneak by. The tail end of a blanket dangled off one edge, but otherwise, no sounds or movements sounded in the open room.
She eased the sliding glass door open just enough to slip through, closed it behind her and ambled out into the crisp morning air. Even with her cool-down time in the kitchen, her skin was still misted with sweat, but the chill as the wind swept against it felt good. Invigorating.
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