by Kira Brady
Corbette pushed himself to his feet. His left arm hung limply at his side. Dirt and blood covered his body. She couldn’t tell how much of the blood was his. “Emory!” She flew to his side.
“Lucy. You came.”
“Always.” Gently placing her hands on his shoulders, she gave him a searing kiss. “Let’s finish this.”
He held the distaff in his right hand. She held up the spindle. “We need to put it on the other end,” she told him. “One side to create, one side to destroy. Balance.” She screwed the spindle to the black end of the distaff and gave it back to him. The sharp point glistened as Aether swirled around it.
“Tiamat,” she said. “It’s time to move on and leave this world to your children. You are hereby relieved of your life and banished to the Land of the Dead into your sister’s keeping. May the Lady have mercy on your soul.”
Corbette raised the Scepter.
“Wait.” The burned man clamped his hand on Corbette’s ankle, and Corbette paused with the Scepter poised to strike. Lucia realized it was Kai. With that much burnt muscle and so little skin left, he should be dead, but she could see a halo of Aether ringing his body. Something supernatural was keeping him alive. “The baby. Mercy—”
“There is only one chance,” Corbette said. “You know what you’re asking?”
Kai nodded. “Please.”
“So be it. On the count of three.”
Kai pulled himself to Tiamat and placed his hand over her belly. Lucia could think of only one thing he might be trying: binding himself to Zetian for all eternity. Grace and Leif had done it, but they had love going for them. Was there enough connection between Kai and Zetian for it to work? With the skin blistering across half his body, he had a one-way ticket through the Gate himself whenever that supernatural halo that was keeping him alive abandoned him. To her surprise, the halo flowed into Zetian’s belly. With her newly strong Aether senses, she could almost see the third spirit weaving itself through the baby’s life strings.
“One. Two. Three.” Corbette swung the Scepter down through the Tablet of Destiny, which shattered, and plunged it into Tiamat’s heart. The goddess screamed. Blue fire shot out of her body, through the Scepter, and into the sky, a beacon of Aether blinding the battlefield. It was beautiful and terrible all at once. All fighting stopped; the only sound was the call of the phantom birds. In another flash of light, the spirit birds shot out of Zetian’s body and flew up along the beacon of blue fire. A crash of thunder shook the field, and the fire cut off from Zetian’s body, leaving her a worn husk but for the threads of softly glowing Aether that Lucia could see wrapping her and Kai together. The spirit birds caged Tiamat in the middle of their flock and escorted her across the sky. With a roar, the Behemoth chased the storm demons after them. They reached the Gate just as the first rays of sun burst over the Cascade Mountains, and disappeared in a golden flash of light.
Chapter Twenty-One
Tiamat’s army foundered after the death of their leader. The Behemoth chased the storm demons beyond the Gate. Some of the Drekar who’d fought for her fled. Corbette took a moment to watch the tide of battle turn in their favor before pulling the Scepter out of Zetian’s chest. Unless he cut off her head, her Drekar blood would heal her. He hoped for Kai’s sake that Tiamat’s possession hadn’t destroyed her mind.
“What will we do with her?” Lucia asked.
Corbette studied the Dreki for a long moment. She’d been lovely, ruthless, and dangerous even before Tiamat had taken over her body. He wondered what Kai had seen in her to make him risk everything to keep her alive. “When a man saves another’s life, he becomes responsible for it. If the binding worked, Zetian will be able to use Kai’s soul to keep the baby alive. They’ll be trapped together for all eternity.”
“It worked.”
He raised an eyebrow, but saw no reason to doubt her. “We have no way of knowing what powers the child will have. Will it Change to dragon? Or will the Lady gift it with a totem when it comes of age? Will it rival Tiamat in her ability to manipulate the Aether? Will it use its power for good or evil? Is chaos in its nature, or can nurture give it a shot at a normal life? Have I spared its life only to have it show up on our doorstep as the next violent, power-hungry demigod bent on destruction? Just as my father once did for Norgard, allowing the viper into the nest with the hope that he wouldn’t bite—”
“Peace, peace.” Lucia slipped the Scepter from his hand and laced her fingers through his. She rested her face against his chest. He laid his chin on the top of her head, welcoming the comfort she offered. “These are tomorrow’s troubles. Mercy is never the wrong choice. I love you more for it.”
“Lucy—” His voice broke. “I never thought I’d see you on this side of the Gate. I planned to go back for you.”
“I know. You’re predictable like that.” He could hear the smile in her voice.
He kissed the top of her head. “Predictable, huh? And can a woman who loves change and surprises be happy with a predictable man?”
She raised her head from his chest to catch his lips. She tasted of smoke and Lucy. If this could be his reality, he’d never change a thing. She broke away. “Only if that man is you, Emory Corbette.”
Deeper in the gardens, the fight went on as rebel troops rounded up Tiamat’s guards and pursued those who’d fled, but the square had calmed. His men began to gather around them to see the shell of the woman who’d tried to take over the world. Corbette held his hand up. “No one touch her. Get a medic. See to Kai.” His Thunderbird hadn’t moved since the binding except the faint rise and fall of his chest.
“You need a medic,” Lucia said. “Your arm is a dead weight.”
“I only need one for this.”
“For what?”
With Kivati, Drekar, and humans drawing near, Corbette dropped to his knees. He took her hand with his good one. “Lucia Crane, will you be my mate? Will you let me shelter you when you grow cold, feed you when you grow hungry, comfort you when you grow weary? Will you let me change with you through the years, bearing children with you, as the Lady wills it, and growing old with you? I can’t promise you perfection, but I can promise that I will love you with every last breath in my body.”
“Emory—” Tears filled her eyes.
“Will you let me love you in this world and the next, forever bound not by magic, but by the strength of our love?”
“Yes. Yes!” She threw herself at his chest, and without the balance of both arms, he fell backward with her on top of him. She rained kisses across his face, eyelids, nose, and forehead, before finally coming to the place he wanted her kiss most. He tried to show her the depth of his feeling with his lips and tongue. She met him, an equal, taught him what she liked, brought him to the edge of reason.
Slowly, he became aware of cheering around them.
Lucia sat up, her cheeks pink, her face bright with a smile. “Decorum, my lord.”
“To hell with it.” He pulled her back to him and kissed her again. He’d been wrong to doubt the Lady’s path for him. Through hell and back, Lucia had guided him. There wasn’t another soul he’d rather have at his side. He was truly Lady-blessed. The Aether flowed gently around them, clean and sparkling once again, and he felt his totem stretch its wings to embrace the soft white wings of the Crane. For however long the Lady gave them, he would cherish every moment with Lucia now that he’d found her.
Kai woke in the infirmary at Kivati Hall. Kayla Friday, healer and mate to the werewolf, stood over him with his wrist between her fingers. “Will the patient live, nurse?” he croaked.
She cracked a smile. “Seems like it. I’ll tell the men to lock up their daughters.”
He closed his eyes again. “They’re safe from me,” he whispered. Searching inside for his brother’s spirit, he found only the warm memory of his brother’s love. Jace’s spirit was gone. Back through the Gate? They’d see each other again; Kai knew it. He found his totem, whole and hearty, as well as a thick st
ream of Aether that pulled his soul across the room to a heavily padlocked door. He didn’t need to ask what was through that door. The sparkling water connected him to Zetian as clearly as his arms still grew from his torso. The binding had worked. Their life forces were woven together. He could sense how his light brightened the corners of her shell and flowed through the babe in her womb.
The baby’s own soul reached out for his own, and his heart flipped in his chest.
His baby, with a soul like a Kivati, not an empty Drekar, just like Constance had said. But he could feel there was something unnatural about this child. Monster child. Tiamat’s spawn.
The baby tugged on his soul again, and he felt love rock through his chest so fiercely that he almost fell off the bed. His child. He would move heaven and earth for the little one.
“How do you feel?” Kayla asked.
He was silent. A Kivati bound for eternity to a Drekar. It was . . . improbable. He felt like some of his brother’s blessing was on them. Jace had helped it happen, and, well, while his baby was in Zetian’s womb, he would risk everything to keep her safe. Was there anything left of Zetian after Tiamat possessed her? He’d never been a coward. Rolling to his side, he pushed himself to a sitting position. “Everything seems to work.” He held up his hands. There were no burn marks. The skin of his face was smooth beneath his questing fingers. A cold realization flooded him.
Kayla confirmed it. “Drekar blood. It seemed a shame to waste your pretty face, considering. You don’t mind?”
He shook his head. “Too late for pride. Besides, the Kivati already hate me.”
“If that were the case, you’d be locked up for your safety too.”
Kai shot the door another look. “I thought she was considered a danger—”
“People still see her as Tiamat, or at least the baby as Tiamat’s direct heir. There have been multiple attempts on her life. The door is locked from the inside.”
“What’s going to happen to her . . . us?”
Kayla squeezed his shoulder. “That’s up to you. But . . .” “But we can’t stay here.”
“No. Tiamat killed a lot of people while she wore Zetian’s skin. No one is going to forget. It’s not safe for her here. If you want the baby to have a chance . . .”
“We gotta get out of here.” He rose to his feet and swallowed. He’d been born in Seattle. Sure, sometimes he’d dreamed of escaping the rain and traveling the world, but when it came down to it, the Pacific Northwest was home. “Timbuktu, here I come. This one-cow town was getting a little crowded anyway.”
Kayla put a hand on his arm, and he gave her a tight smile. “Lucia said the world isn’t as ruined as we first thought. There are wide stretches of civilization, and if Asgard is right and the Aether is f ixed—”
“It holds an electric charge?”
“Yes. We can rebuild technology. It will take time.”
“But there’s hope.”
“There’s always hope.”
Was there hope for him? He could take Zetian and the baby away from here and travel the world. Where would they go? Who would welcome the spawn of Tiamat once they found out the child’s origins? They could never stop running. That kid better grow up fast and grow up mean, because he or she was in for a long, hard road. Hiding. Fighting. He rubbed his temple. What a life. “Thanks, Kayla.” He took his first step toward the locked door, and the connection through the Aether pulsed. He could feel Zetian waiting for him. The hundred yards down the rows of infirmary cots felt like a hundred miles, but then he was at her door. He knocked. “It’s Kai.”
He heard the creak of a bed and footsteps to the other side of the iron door. It was the safe room where they usually kept dangerous occupants—moon-mad wolves and predators so out of their minds they couldn’t shift back to human. He expected her to give him lip—Zetian had never made it easy for him even before her possession—but the door opened quickly after the clink and whirr of a dozen locks.
Zetian appeared. She wore a long white shift that clung to her growing belly. Her dark hair hung unbound, setting off too-pale skin and those wide cat eyes that were so often glaring haughtily at him. Now they only looked lost.
“May I come in?” Gods, he’d fucked her six ways to Sunday, but this felt like a blind date. The gulf between them stretched out. How much did she remember of her time imprisoned with Tiamat? He felt his face flush.
She opened the door wider, and he stepped in. Shutting it behind him, she moved all the locks back into place. He had a moment to survey the forest-green padded walls. The sturdy iron bed was bolted to the claw-scraped granite floor. Some creature comforts had been added to make the room less bleak: a checkered quilt, a washbasin, and a green Tiffany lamp. A stack of books sat on the bed, one opened and placed spine up to mark her page. He took a step closer to read the title. What to Expect When You’re Expecting. He quickly looked away.
“Thank you,” Zetian said.
Turning around, he couldn’t do anything but stare at her. He’d done a lot of fucked-up shit in his life, but what had happened between them took the cake. She was thanking him?
She cleared her throat. “You saved my life.”
“I’d been planning to get down on my knees and apologize—”
“No.” A bit of her old confident swagger flared to life in her eyes as they slid down his body. “Believe me, you were the only bearable part of the whole ordeal. It was my own fault Tiamat took me.”
“You shouldn’t blame yourself—”
“I welcomed her with open arms. Her power was—glorious. But it was never mine to use. Anyone else would have died with her. Corbette should have run me through with the Scepter. But you bound yourself.” She gave a rueful little laugh. “Stupid. I’m stuck with an arrogant Kivati Thunderbird for the rest of my life. But . . .” Tears filled her eyes.
“Don’t cry.” He hurriedly searched for a tissue, but the pockets of his hospital scrubs were empty. “The Zetian I knew never cried. But—?”
“You don’t understand. I’ve had centuries here. Yawning, empty years of wars and power struggles. I’ve done terrible things. Much worse than you, young honorable thing that you are, can ever imagine. I destroyed beautiful things just because I could. But you took away my eternity. Because of you I’ll die, when you do. I don’t have endless, lonely years to fill. I have a brief span, a laughable handful of years—”
“I’m not going to die tomorrow,” he growled. “I’m only thirty. I could live another three, four hundred years—”
She laughed again, a high chime that shot straight to his cock. “Infant.”
He straightened and gave her his best bad-boy smirk. “Oh, I’m all man, baby. You need a reminder?”
“Yes.”
He’d been bluffing, but the heat in her eyes was all Zetian. It sent his blood raging south as Tiamat never could. The woman was in possession of her own body, and she wanted him. Still, he hesitated. “You don’t mind being trapped with me for eternity?”
Zetian had never been one to wait for what she wanted. She closed the gap between them and tore open the front of his scrubs. The smile on her face said she liked what she saw. “Because of you,” she whispered, “I’ll get to see the blessed land beyond.” She took his mouth, and the spark between them flared to life.
He’d never been able to get enough of her body. They had all the passion of a love-hate relationship, but now it meant something. It was like the first time all over again, except this was the first of forever. They had chemistry. They had style, a no-holds-barred attitude and a penchant for giving the finger to authority. With the bump of her belly between them, he could hardly forget they were already bound by blood. The Aether wove between them, a bond no man or god could break apart. What would the future hold? Could he keep his mate and child protected far from Kivati territory? Could he keep Zetian satisfied for a lifetime of being bound to one man? He didn’t know, but the challenge of it would keep him entertained for centuries.
/> He met her tongue thrust for thrust and molded his hips to hers so she could feel the bulge of his erection. Infant, my ass. He’d show her he was man enough to match her ancient experience any day. Bring it.
The coronation ceremony took place outdoors beneath the glow of the Lady Moon. The Kivati attended in their totem forms. Crows covered the trees and gabled roofs. Cougar, Bear, Fox, and Coyote paced the wide grassy lawns of Kivati Hall. Even the Wolves had journeyed down from the Great White North to attend. No Kivati living would miss the chance to see the woman who had brought the Raven Lord to his knees or the prophesied Crane who had led them out of darkness.
There were no lights but the stars. The Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a river of Aether. The Kivati were at home in the darkness. From the earth, the deep heartbeat of the Lady thrummed in the soles of their paws and talons.
With a cry, a giant Raven launched himself from the top of Kivati Hall to a place of honor at the edge of the grounds overlooking Puget Sound. Cries rose from the assembled animals—howls, growls, and guttural songs. The cacophony would drive a stranger into the night screaming with terror, but Lucia heard each note like a symphony of earthly song. These were her people. They looked to her to lead them, to protect them, and to inspire them. They would defend her to their last breath. The weight of that responsibility would have sent her running before, and it had. But she welcomed it now and wrapped the edges around her like the blue cloak she’d once worn. She belonged here—her toes sending roots deep into the fertile soil, her wings stretching to the stars above.
Beating her wings, she flew in a circle over the assembly with a nod to each of the Lady’s four sacred directions. A Thunderbird perched at each compass point with their House crowded in front of them, all except the south, where Will’s place remained a gaping hole. The Southern House was a mass of angry, hurting animals. Their leader had died, and the strongest fought for dominance to take his place.
She saw her sister and parents in the crowd and brushed her wings over them. They had reunited and told her everything. She wanted to know more about Sarah, her birth mother, but there would be time later. The Lady had blessed her when Constance and Milton had taken her in and hidden her parentage. She gave another bugle call, and the cries of her family rose into the black night to join her. Landing on the east side of the lawn next to the Hall, she let Aether spark through her and she Changed. Her white feathers turned to snowy hair and moon-pale skin. She didn’t pull clothes from the Aether, but stood before her people naked as the Lady had made her, her chin up, her eyes looking across the growling and pacing predators to the giant Raven who waited at the cliff’s edge. Lifting his head to show the shaggy feathers at his neck, he raised his wings and gave a loud throaty caw. The Animals repeated his cry.