Lillian had almost managed to put that particular danger out of her thoughts, but it was just as real as the human military—and far more dangerous, as the demon seed presently trapped within her hamadryad proved. But as dire as the situation was, it was really just a waiting game. In time, her tree would finish killing the demon seed, and Lillian would be free to rejoin her hamadryad, reclaim her soul, and take up the mantle of her power to become an Avatar once again. Then they could face the Battle Goddess on a level playing ground.
Easy as one-two-three.
Sure. As if anything in her life was ever easy. But presently, there was nothing she could do about it, which left her to help with more mundane difficulties. She turned to Gran. “Since the masquerade was my brilliant idea, how can I help?”
“Flyers,” Gran stated with a chuckle. “Your expertise on the computer would be lovely.”
The impromptu council meeting broke up. Whitethorn, Greenborrow, and the banshee herded Gregory in the direction of the back door, while Gran and Goswin ushered Lillian off to the one corner of the living room that doubled as the home office.
Chapter 13
ALL AROUND HER, THE ocean realm called to Tethys, urging her back into the depths where she belonged. Unfortunately, that would have to wait for some days yet. She had a task to complete, which was why Tethys currently found herself stationed under a small boat as she waited for the sharks to come like they had the last time the human’s had put out bait to draw the predators close. Once the humans were distracted, she would ease up closer to the boat, within striking distance.
Half hidden by the boat’s shadow, she studied the two humans. An older male and a younger female occupied the cage. With their backs to her and their attention focused on their equipment and the milling sharks, they were oblivious to the danger that even their stout cage wouldn’t protect them from.
Yet Tethys hesitated.
As far as humans went, these ones were better than many she’d met over the centuries—their hearts held kindness, their minds a sharp intelligence, an essence bright with potential. She would regret snuffing out that rare quality.
She reached through the bars of the cage and then hesitated a second time. Unnoticed by her prey, she fought a silent debate within her own heart. These ones thought of themselves as protectors of the ocean realm. And perhaps in a better world, that would be enough.
Yet, more was needed. Their lives would continue to serve the ocean realm. She whispered a prayer for them as she reached her hand inside the cage a second time. Her fingers closed around the male’s ankles, and she commanded the water magic to swirl the breathing device from between his lips.
The male tried to free his feet and simultaneously make a grab at his breathing tube. When he realized it was out of his reach, he struggled harder as panic set in.
She allowed the male enough freedom to fight harder, his exertion would end his suffering faster. The female she buffeted with ever-changing water currents, slamming her from one side of the cage to the other.
After a short time, the male’s struggles lessened. As the siren waited for his end, she took no pleasure in it but wasn’t overly moved by his fear either. She did feel guilt, for her actions stressed the dolphins—peaceful, forgiving creatures that they were. Once this unpleasantness was over, she would make amends to them.
Her gaze traveled from the dolphin pod disappearing in the distance and slid back to the cage and her work. The human male was dead. But she noticed her momentary distraction had almost allowed the female to escape. She’d managed to fight the currents long enough to climb halfway out of the cage. As Tethys watched, her head broke the surface, and she heard the woman scream for help. Another human from aboard the boat leaned over the side and grabbed the woman’s arm.
As her intended prey was pulled over the side and out of sight, the siren dropped away from the cage. She circled the boat at a leisurely pace, listening to the woman’s hysterical cries.
In the world above, the two remaining humans had edged closer to the side of the boat. Their frightened visages peered back at her, tracking her movement through the water. She didn’t hide from them, wanting their attention.
Another powerful tail flick and she surfaced to study the humans in turn. The male seemed to be the same age as the female. Both were young—adults, but not far into adulthood. Flicking her glance back down to the cage below, she wondered if the older male was a mentor to these younger ones.
Perhaps it would have served her better to keep the older one alive. He may have been more knowledgeable about this new world and everything going wrong with it.
No matter. It was too late for regrets. Her power was great, but even she could not heal death. The young male would have to do.
Rising a bit higher out of the water, the siren spat salty brine from her lungs and out her gills and dragged in a lungful of air. It tasted odd. Not oily like the water, but oddly heavy with strange odors.
She drew a second breath, then on a third, she began to sing. Within the first few notes, she’d snared the male, as was clear by his mesmerized, vacant look and the easing of tense muscles.
The human’s companion wasn’t as affected by her song, which was very rare. This female must have suffered damage to her hearing at some point in her life. With the slightest change in her song, Tethys ordered the male to sit. His female companion started shaking his shoulder, shoving him sideways with the strength of her grasp. But Tethys’s influence was more powerful than simple gravity, and the male swung back into position without a flicker of emotion on his face. His companion backed away, her horror almost a tangible flavor on the back of the siren’s tongue.
The human continued to backpedal until her legs touched the edge of the boat’s one side.
With a nod of her head, Tethys acknowledged the human’s survival instincts. But even with an entire width of the boat between them, the female still wasn’t safe, and perhaps the human was intelligent enough to know it, for a sad, desperate look flooded her features.
Tethys hesitated and then gave the human an equally sad smile. She would take no joy in this one’s death either. The human was a fighter, young though she was, and perhaps deserved a better fate than the one planned for her.
But the ocean deserved a better fate than what humans had left it. With a powerful flick of her tail, Tethys drove herself higher out of the water. Between the webbing of her tightly fisted fingers, a power built, water aided by magic solidified into a long trident with bright, crystalline points.
Half-twisting in a powerful thrust, the siren sent the trident flying. It speared the female in the upper chest, sending her flipping over the side of the boat to land with a great splash on the other side.
Tethys moved quickly, darting under the boat and up the other side to the body’s location. The woman was already dead, a clean, quick death. Grasping the corpse, she heaved it up and out of the water and onto the boat where it would be safe from sharks, since she still needed the body.
Once done, she sank below the waves in search of the one whose distress was so suddenly overwhelming.
She sang Surefin’s name as she swam.
Chapter 14
LILLIAN THUMBED OFF the phone and tossed it to the opposite end of the couch with a practiced accuracy as she finished scrawling contact information on her notepad. “The fairgrounds are booked, and the call just before that one was the jousters confirming they can make the three-day midweek appointment. They can’t manage the weekend, they’re already booked for another fair. The hall just called back to say we can have it for Saturday after all, so the medieval banquet has a location.”
“Told you not to worry.” Gran didn’t look up from where she sat at the desk, leaning over her keyboard typing.
“It really was a miracle getting the hall last minute. There had been a wedding booked, but the bride just contracted chicken pox.” Lillian groaned in sympathy for the unknown woman. “Poor thing, guess she never had them as a child
. But the timing.”
“She’ll recover.”
Lillian stopped sorting papers and glanced up at Gran with growing suspicion. After staring a hole in the back of Gran’s bent head didn’t elicit a response, Lillian tried polite tact. “Pardon?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Tell me you didn’t somehow give the poor woman chicken pox.”
“Me directly? No.”
Lillian was just drawing breath when the phone rang again. She huffed, aimed a glare at the cordless and then a second at Gran for good measure, before snatching up the phone. Her ‘hello’ had a bit more force than intended.
LILLIAN THUMBED THE ‘off’ button hard enough to make the plastic and rubber creak and then heaved it at the end of the couch, where it bounced before coming to rest precariously close to the edge. She pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed at her eyes in a futile attempt to soothe away the deep-seated, ever-present throb of a headache.
She never did get back to the conversation about the woman with the chicken pox.
In the four days since she’d come up with what she now thought of as the ‘moment of insanity’ plan, she’d thought about nothing but the masquerade, arranging, verifying, and playing phone tag for what seemed like weeks. If she ever wanted to start a career along the lines of a wedding planner, she imagined she now had enough experience to add a line to her resume.
She glanced around the living room, hoping for a distraction from all the notes scattered across the coffee table, all of which still required a follow-up phone call. But she didn’t see a single distraction.
In fact, she hadn’t talked to anyone face-to-face in hours, and today’s four-plus hours talking on the phone after a quick lunch didn’t count as basic human contact. She hadn’t seen much of Gregory the last few days, either. Needs had them keeping opposite hours.
Gregory and the other fae did most of their spell work at night, using the cover of darkness to help shroud their work. Lillian, Gran, and several other members of the Coven worked in the daylight hours fielding phone calls and whatever else needed doing in the daylight.
Come each dawn, Lillian would get up, pack a hearty breakfast, and seek out Gregory. When she found him, she ached at seeing firsthand the steep toll it cost him and the other fae to cast great works of magic in this magicless realm. She would curse fate silently for the set of circumstances that prevented her from helping Gregory in his monumental task.
Gregory and the other fae metalsmiths were usually putting finishing touches on the newest batch of spelled weapons when she arrived with breakfast. Yesterday morning, Gregory had been too exhausted to eat, his complexion a paler grey than his usual lustrous, ebony tones. A caress of fingertips along his shoulders proved the greyish tone was, in fact, his skin starting to turn to stone.
He’d seemed unconcerned and simply nuzzled her in greeting and then leaned some of his weight on her as they walked back to the center of her maze. Once there, he’d hoisted himself up onto his pedestal and turned to stone before her eyes.
While Gregory seemed unconcerned for himself, Lillian worried on his behalf.
This morning when she’d gone to take him breakfast, it was to find he’d finished early. A quick search found him already turned to stone on his pedestal. She’d sat on his stone knee and ate a tasteless breakfast.
Yet another day of phone calls and errands helped her focus on other things, but it did not banish the worry and fear. And suppressing those emotions was stirring up other problems—like a migraine great enough to shatter her skull. She closed her eyes and staggered to her feet, no plan beyond ‘escape’ foremost in her mind.
She succeeded in navigating her way to the kitchen and was almost to the back door and freedom when the phone rang again. Anger coiled in her gut, and she growled, her eyes homing in on the wall phone where its red light blinked out a rapid, annoying pattern. She stalked across the floor and swiped at the phone with one hand, swatting it with enough force to disconnect it from the wall.
Lillian was rewarded by lovely, blessed silence. She curled her lip at the phone and spun back around to the door. The freedom of nature and the dark, endless forest called to her. Her focus was all on that goal, or she might have acknowledged the sound of footsteps and the door between the living room and kitchen swinging open.
“Hey, Lillian, wait,” her brother called from behind. “Did you ever hear back from the...whoa! What happened to the phone?”
“It annoyed me,” she hissed over her shoulder.
“You could have simply said you were taking a break, rather than giving the phone a makeover.”
Lillian whirled on her brother, not in the mood for his brand of humor.
“Its ring hurt my ears.” Her voice came out rich and low, almost a raspy growl, nothing like her own. She fought past the pounding in her head to try to make sense of it, but the need to be outside was more pressing.
Her brother blanched and stepped back, forcing Gran—who was a step behind him—back as well. His move, which was clearly protective, sparked a touch of lucid reason in Lillian’s mind. Her brother was afraid. Of her? Why?
Lillian blinked and shook her head, but it did nothing for the pounding in her head or the ringing in her ears. Was she going to pass out? No, her body itched and burned, and it wasn’t the tingle of encroaching faintness.
Gran pushed at Lillian’s brother, finally forcing him out of the way. She eased past him and stopped a short distance from Lillian. “Darling, you need to listen to me. You’re not in danger, and I won’t keep you long, but you need to answer a couple of quick questions.”
Lillian jerked her head once in acknowledgment of Gran’s words. It was all she was able to do as instincts reared up within her and clamored for her attention, to run free, to slide from shadow to shadow as she hunted for prey in the forest. Hunger burned in her belly, making thought harder.
“How long has it been since you and Gregory have had time to spend together?”
“Days,” Lillian growled out, not sure if it was entirely true, but it felt like longer.
“I know Gregory has been sleeping in stone to recover faster. Did you see him yet today?”
“Yes,” she bit out and turned from Gran, taking a long stride to the back door.
“Lillian?”
She shook her head and gathered her thoughts. Gran wanted to know something else. It was important. She sighed. “Gregory was stone.”
“Then he hasn’t actually seen you today?”
“No,” she snapped. “Isn’t that what I just said?”
Gran placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The slight pressure was uncomfortable, her skin overly sensitive. Lillian was tempted to swat at it but remembered what she’d done to the phone and held back. Something was wrong.
“Lillian, you need to go seek out Gregory now. It’s imperative.”
“Why?”
“If I had a mirror, you wouldn’t need to ask,” Gran muttered. “You’re going gargoyle on us. Go to Gregory. He’ll know what to do.”
“He’s sleeping.”
“He’ll wake for you. He’ll feel your need.”
She did miss him. They could hunt together. Or perhaps he would hunt for her. The wildness in her blood changed focus. Gregory sounded more appealing than a few trees. She had the strangest urge to purr.
SHE NAVIGATED THE FAMILIAR labyrinth with ease, its cedar scent wrapping around her senses, soothing some of the wildness in her blood. Not much. But enough to reach the maze’s center with a relatively clear mind.
With a groan, she dropped to her knees in front of Gregory and bowed her head, pressing her forehead against cold stone as she fought for control. She wrapped the fingers of one hand around the tip of his tail. The stone was cool to the touch, but already growing warmer.
“Gregory,” she whispered.
“My Sorceress?” His tail twitched under her fingers as stone gave way to flesh.
“Something is wrong.”
Cha
pter 15
ALARM HUMMED THROUGH him even before he was fully awake. It was not danger that awoke him, but Lillian’s distress. He inhaled a deep breath and snorted with understanding when her mixed dryad and gargoyle scent hit him full force. It was a lovely scent. One his brain was happy to bask in for a moment more than he knew he should. It also explained her distress.
He opened his eyes and gazed down. She knelt with her head bowed and pressed against his pedestal. No wings. No tail. Still mostly dryad. She hadn’t been caught in a painful mid-shift. Not yet, at least.
“Lillian.” He touched her shoulder, closing his claws with a gentle pressure to get her attention. “Beloved, look at me now. You have to fight the shift for a little while longer.”
She jerked as if his tender urging was the harshest command. But she did as he asked. She looked up at him, and he was relieved to see she was only mildly changed. They still had time to get to the safety of the forest. Though not much, judging by the way her dark irises had expanded until no whites showed in her pain-filled eyes. Her ears had already elongated into points only partially hidden in her hair. She hissed in pain, and her black talon-tipped fingers dug into his calf muscle. As he watched, small black horns erupted from her forehead.
Gregory loosened her hold on his leg and transferred it to his hand, then jumped down to stand beside her. His wings mantled over her protectively. “My beloved Sorceress, I must get you to the forest where we can hide while you learn control. Can you stand?”
She didn’t respond verbally but gave a quick, jerking nod. Moaning in pain, Lillian forced herself to her feet.
“This way.” He urged her in the direction he wanted her to go, and she didn’t fight him. However, she only made it a dozen steps before she grasped her head and sank back to her knees.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 36