Had she called them?
He feared she must have.
“How are you feeling?” Lillian asked, her voice holding an edge of uncertainty.
“Like I’ve been stomped on by the Lord of the Underworld,” he answered her truthfully. What had happened? He hardly dared to breathe, for more than the obvious reason. It couldn’t be good if Lillian were acting skittish around him.
“Fancy you should mention him. He might be the only one able to save us from my stupidity.”
Lillian ducked her head and swallowed hard, he could see the muscles working in her throat and could smell her guilt even over the stench of the bog mud. Why in Light’s name was he covered in the sticky crap?
He refocused his attention on Lillian. “Tell me what has happened.”
Over and over, throughout their many lifetimes, he’d always bowed to her command in every facet of their lives except when it came to her protection. In that, his word was law. And she’d always bowed to his demands without question.
But not in this lifetime. This time around, she repeatedly tried to protect him when she judged him to be in danger, every time at the expense of her own safety. On the one hand, he secretly admired her, for she valiantly defended those she loved. But on the other hand, she was going to give him a stroke.
By her expression, she’d found her way into another great, steaming pile of trouble.
“You’re going to hate me,” she said in a weak voice.
He was about to say that was nonsense, but she tilted her chin up and brushed her mane back from her neck and he saw it.
It circled her neck, the golden glow of its spell shimmered ever so slightly in the moonlight.
WITH EQUAL PARTS SHOCK, horror, and disbelief, Gregory reached up and touched the twin to Lillian’s tattoo where it circled his own neck. At his touch, the ward spells flamed briefly but didn’t cause pain or otherwise incapacitate him.
The stirring of power was more of a warning. One Gregory acknowledged by moving his fingers away from the slightly raised skin.
“Lillian...” He pitched his voice low, holding steel in the tone. He needed answers, not evasions, or worse, apologies. “Tell me what happened. Tell me everything. Leave out no details. It might mean our survival.”
Lillian swallowed nervously, but she started to speak, haltingly at first, and then with more certainty. “I’ll tell you what I remember and what I think I know.” She paused and fidgeted with the tattoo around her own neck. “There were times when things became foggy. The siren almost rolled me under with her tidal power more than once. I only escaped because you fought, and she had to turn all her attention back to you or risk losing us both.”
What she told him coincided with the few snippets he did remember when he wasn’t fully under Tethys’ control. He still didn’t relax since nothing she’d said even remotely hinted at an explanation about the powerful weaving circling their necks.
She continued her tale, and Gregory interrupted at key parts for clarification. A hollow pit opened in his middle where his stomach should have resided. He’d never been ill a day in any of his lives, but for the first time, he thought he just might discover what it felt like to heave up one’s last meal.
“Why didn’t you stay away where you would have been safe? Why must you always act so rashly?” The words flowed out of him. He hadn’t meant for it to happen, but more came flying out. “Had you only gone to ground somewhere, I would have remained as stone, out of the siren’s reach.”
Lillian jerked like he’d slapped her. Then her eyes narrowed, and her nostrils flared. With her tail flicking in agitation, her anger was impossible to miss. “Well forgive me for caring, I was concerned.” She snapped her teeth at him, her wings unfurling as if she prepared for a physical fight. “Tethys was enslaving everyone in sight.”
“And you, what? Thought it would be a good idea to make it easier to get to me through you?”
“You’re an ass,” she said and whirled away from him, then spun around and slapped him on the chest. “How dare you judge me? If our positions had been reversed, you would have run to my side without a second thought, even if I’d been standing upon the steps leading up to the Battle Goddess’s bloody throne. So, you don’t get to judge me for coming to your rescue.”
“I protect you. It’s my purpose.”
“Says who? Did the Father sit you down on his knee when you were a mere speck of power and tell you that was your role?”
“It was implied!”
“Ha. I call bullshit! We’re two halves of the same being, equal in power and purpose.” She smacked him along one arm for emphasis. “I bet in the beginning we were more similar than we were different. How could we not be? We were one creature. Did our separate personalities develop over time? It makes sense in a way. You always choose to be born as a gargoyle, whereas, from what you’ve said in the past, I’m more varied in my choice of forms. You’re stuck in a rut. Always choosing to be a gargoyle, imbibing more and more of their nature into your own. Gargoyles are protective. It’s hardwired into them, and it’s becoming hardwired into you. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me to my face without lying. Go on, tell me.”
“Why must you question everything? Can’t you just do what you’re told?”
“Do what I’m told? Like a child! Is that what you think I am? I’m twenty. By human standards, I am an adult. Start treating me like one.”
Gregory slapped his ears flat against his mane. “I’ll start treating you as an adult when your actions show rational, mature reasoning behind them. Choosing agents belonging to the Lady of Battles over Tethys is not a mistake my Sorceress would ever have made.”
“Well, I’m not your Sorceress, am I? I don’t have her memories or her magic. I don’t even possess her soul now. My hamadryad stripped me of all that. Even she didn’t think I was worthy.” Her voice quivered, and she turned from him.
“Lillian, it’s not...that’s not what I meant.”
“But it’s still true. An ugly truth, but true all the same.”
“No,” Gregory said, feeling that sick heaviness again in his middle, but for different reasons this time. His words had harmed her, and he would do anything to take back that pain. “Your spirit is beautiful. You’re brave, noble and protect those you love with everything within you. Perhaps you’re not, at present, the Mother’s Avatar, but you are and always will be my Sorceress.”
Lillian turned back to him. “But I lack her power and knowledge, and we sorely need it.”
She fell silent, and so did he. In good faith, he couldn’t contradict her.
“We’re supposed to be equals, Gregory. But we’re not.”
He sighed, feeling cold seep into his body. “I know.”
She gripped his chin and lifted it until his gaze was level with her throat. “I may not be the Mother’s Sorceress at the moment, but as a mature adult, I accept that this,” she touched the tattoo-like brand, “is one hundred percent my fault, and the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I just hope it doesn’t kill us. I gambled and lost. That’s my epic fail to live with. But I had to get you away from Tethys. She was going to use you, use us, to kill millions of humans.”
“All the Magic Realm will suffer if the Lady of Battles can now command us.”
Lillian flashed fang. “So, save the Magic Realm and screw all the humans in the Mortal Realm?” She sounded more tired than angry, or perhaps defeated was a better word. He could understand that emotion.
He shook his head, his own anger and frustration spent. “All the Realms will suffer equally under the Battle Goddess’s rule.”
“Okay, you win this round.” Lillian drew in a big breath, her shoulders squaring, and with a little shake, she seemed to rid herself of her weariness. “We’ll just have to defeat her, but first we need to free our allies from the siren. As I see it, I tossed a wrench in her plans. I’m free of her influence and, now, so are you.” She gestured at him. “You’re coherent and capable of logical thought. W
hich, I might add, you couldn’t have claimed two hours ago.”
Gregory drew in a deep breath and let it out again. He couldn’t really counter her argument this time, either. He had been, without a doubt, firmly under the siren’s sway.
Oh, but he knew in his gut Tethys would have been a better choice for the greater good of all. “It shames me I failed you so badly, that you were forced to make such a terrible choice to begin with.”
Lillian took three swift steps toward him, and then she was hugging him with all the strength in her arms, even her wings came up to encircle him. “Can we stop raking ourselves and each other over the coals for a while?”
“Yes.” He hugged her back, the act giving him much-needed comfort.
“Promise?”
“Yes,” he rumbled. “And Lillian, it is you as you are now—sweet and rash dryad and fierce and equally rash gargoyle—who has captured my heart. It is you, not the Sorceress of old, who I fell in love with all over again in this life.”
He seemed to have shocked her speechless but then she tightened her fierce grip, as if unwilling to release him. “Would it be naïve of me to hope the villains will take a break for a while, long enough to allow us to figure out an action plan?”
Gregory barely refrained from snorting in humor. Instead, he said, “Tell me more about your family, and everything they said about the collars they gave you.”
AFTER QUESTIONING LILLIAN twice, he debated what he’d learned for some minutes. When she talked about her parents, it was with a bitter tone, though it softened when she mentioned the unknown brother.
Clearly, she had come to the conclusion that her parents had, in the end, purposely betrayed her.
Gregory was not so sure now. Not after learning more about the collars. From what he had gathered based on his long experience with magic and his enemy’s tactics, the physical collars were merely designed to carry the true enslavement spell. It was an ingenious way to ensure that the victim could not simply cut off or use magic to otherwise remove a physical collar.
What made Gregory think Lillian’s parents were innocent was that the collars, at least the physical ones, had disappeared within seconds of attachment. He could only surmise that the solid collars were designed to return the wearer back to the Magic Realm, probably to some dark chamber deep within the Battle Goddess’s temple.
That he and Lillian were presently still here in the Mortal Realm, instead of enjoying the dark twin’s hospitality, must mean that Lillian’s father had tampered with the collars as he’d said, changing the spells woven into them, thereby preventing Lillian and himself from falling victim to the Lady of Battles—at least not this day.
Of course, they still had the secondary spell burned into their skin like a brand. But that didn’t prove malicious intent on the part of Lillian’s father. In fact, the spell was very similar to the type of magic his adversary had used to graft the demon seed onto Lillian’s soul.
And he had very nearly missed that spell’s existence until it was too late. The other gargoyle could have overlooked a well-hidden secondary spell.
However, he wasn’t telling Lillian any of his theories yet. She’d already been hurt enough. He wouldn’t intentionally give her false hope, only to cause her more pain later.
In the end, the only way to learn what the newcomers intended was to confront them and use magic to determine if they spoke the truth.
His plan had only one glaring problem.
He couldn’t call on his magic. It was walled off, out of reach for now. He had a sneaking suspicion only Lillian’s command could now unlock that power.
They hadn’t tested that theory yet. Gregory was reluctant to try, fearing any order might open a mind-link between them, which, with his thoughts so focused on her parents, could only give away more about his theories than he wanted to risk.
And that, as Lillian would say, was a Catch-22.
Looking over at Lillian where she sat on a fallen log, he wondered if they dared risk finding out what the ward spell would and wouldn’t allow them to get away with.
One of the first things he found was that the spells wouldn’t let them travel more than twenty feet apart, which suited Gregory fine.
Lillian wouldn’t be able to get into trouble without him knowing about it, and the forced proximity might allow him to find out just what Lillian was keeping from him.
She was still visibly upset by today’s events. Her tale had been reasonably detailed, except for a few parts. Like the times when she’d almost fallen prey to the siren’s song and later when the collars activated.
By all accounts, Lillian’s distress was justified, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.
What wasn’t ‘off’ about this situation? With a mental shake, he gave a great, huffing cough.
Regrettably, that action graced him with a big whiff of his own scent.
Mercy, that stink certainly didn’t mellow with age. Even with the mud now mostly dry, it was still breathtakingly terrible.
The sound of distant hoof-beats reached Gregory’s ears, and they swung around to the south, tracking the sound as it grew closer.
“Now what?” Lillian asked, echoing his own silent thought.
Honestly, Gregory didn’t know.
Though by the sound, the hoof beats came from two different equines. His pooka and unicorn allies always seemed capable of finding him, even when he didn’t particularly want to be found.
This time, he couldn’t assume they were coming to his aid.
Chapter 30
FROM HIS HIDING SPOT in the deepest shadows underneath the boughs of a young fir, where even the light of the full moon couldn’t touch, Gregory watched and waited. No more than ten feet from the same tree line, his other half sat in a patch of moonlight, intentionally badly hidden in the waist-high grasses.
It was Lillian’s idea to act as bait.
He hated it but agreed only because it was the best way to observe the two equines and judge whether they were presently still his allies in truth.
Besides, he mentally reassured himself, I’m close enough to protect Lillian.
Even without using his Avatar magic, which he feared to use until he learned more about the tattoo around his neck, he was still more than capable of taking out both the unicorn and the pooka, should that be required.
He sincerely hoped it didn’t come to that.
A glimmer of silver between the trees quickly resolved itself into the unicorn. He galloped into the meadow and stopped when he spotted Lillian.
He approached her with a nicker and craned his neck to sniff at her. “You’re not actually trying to hide, are you?”
“Yes,” Lillian said. Gregory watched as she slapped playfully at the unicorn’s muzzle.
“It’s good to see you. I’m surprised you escaped Gregory at all if that’s your best attempt at hiding,” the unicorn said with an accompanying bob of his head.
“She’s not hiding, you twit,” said another mind-voice that was familiar with its liberal dose of disdain. “She’s playing decoy to Gregory’s hunter.”
A black pony emerged from the shadows. He looked directly at Gregory and said, “At least that’s a better attempt at hiding.”
Lillian stood up, her expression losing its earlier joy. “I’m glad you both escaped the siren, but what became of my grandmother?”
It was the pooka who answered. “Vivian is safe. She stayed behind so we could reach you faster.”
The tension in Lillian’s shoulders and wings visibly eased.
Gregory emerged from the shadows and joined Lillian.
“It’s good to see you’re both free of the siren. Maybe now we can do something to teach her to be choosier about whose territory she invades.”
The pooka froze in place, his eye showing white for a few seconds in surprise, but after a moment he stretched forward to nose at Gregory’s neck. “It seems you have escaped the siren’s snare merely to be caught by an even more p
owerful faction.” The pony tilted an ear forward and back in question. “How did such a thing come to pass?”
Gregory remained silent, not in the mood to give answers to the pooka’s surly tone.
Lillian stood, brushing off bits of grass. “I was foolish enough to trust my parents.”
“Ah. They showed their true colors. How disappointing. I rather liked them.”
That caught Gregory’s attention enough to draw him in. “We never did find the time to have that particular conversation as I recall.”
“Yes, I was there when Gran first stumbled upon them in Lillian’s grove while you both were still deep in your healing sleep. That time I only witnessed them aiding both of you by sharing their power. They seemed genuinely concerned.” The pooka gave a mild shake of his head, his equivalent of a shrug. “I suppose the concern could be real, and they still might serve the Lady of Battles.”
Gregory hadn’t expected the pooka’s words to be reassuring, and they weren’t. However, he had hoped for something more substantial.
Eyes narrowing, he accepted that he’d just have to hunt down what he needed to know himself.
“We have some hunting to do,” Gregory said, including the other three. His instincts cried for him to find some safe place to hide Lillian until he ascertained the siren’s condition and the Riven’s strength and numbers, but the brand on his neck would not allow that, so she came with him.
He dropped to all fours and raised his nose to the breeze, seeking the trail her parents had taken.
Lillian dropped down next to him and gently bumped his shoulder. “We hunt.”
“We hunt,” both the unicorn and pooka echoed.
Gregory snorted. It hadn’t been what he’d meant, but the Wild Hunt would ride this night after all. What remained to be seen was if Lillian’s parents would join the Hunt or become its prey. Whatever the outcome, Gregory would make certain this Hunt left many victims in its wake.
Tethys, too, would have that same choice, and then the Riven would feel the cold, passionless wrath of the Wild Hunt of old.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 47