Finally, I turned to Lor, who smiled and opened her arms. Hugging me tightly, she whispered, in response to my unasked question, “Twin intuition and a little Riftborn magic.” She stepped back. “No matter what, she’s it for you.”
“He won’t need backup?” Rett asked anxiously. “Should maybe one of us go?”
“No,” I said. “Orion is coming here, and soon.” I gave him a reassuring smile and then shrugged. “Besides, I can travel faster and more stealthily on my own.”
Before there were any more protests or goodbyes, I’d stepped across Winfyre, arriving at the quiet edge of the forest near the eastern border. It wasn’t far from where Tiani and I had first met. I didn’t know if this was the way she’d taken out of here, or if I was drawn here for another reason, but this was as good of a place as any to walk out of Winfyre.
Walking through the woods, something caught my eye, and I stopped. A soft sound escaped me as I approached a tree and saw the fresh cut there. T. E.
Laying my hand on it, the connection in my mind sharpened, and I had a brief, sudden, intense burst of knowing. I could sense where Tiani was, and my heart leaped, then fell. I could taste the terror on her tongue, the swirling mist, and the danger. Then my stomach dropped, and I stumbled back, as I sensed her hurtling through space. The connection dimmed and flickered out, leaving only an echo behind.
I no longer had any idea where Tiani was.
Or if she was even still alive.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tiani
The wind tore at me, writhing and wild, a living thing, and a scream ripped from my throat. But it was cut off as my savior—captor?—twisted around, throwing me onto his back and yelling, “I said hold on,” above the rush of wind.
All I could see was shadow and mist, streaking by my face. Then, abruptly, it stopped.
My arms were around the broad neck of a black lion, my face pressed into a dark mane streaked with gold, and two enormous wings beat on either side. A wheezing gasp escaped me, then the shifter dove down, weaving through the mist and dodging towers of cliffs that loomed out of the mist.
Maybe I’m dead. Maybe this is a hallucination.
My heart, slamming in my chest, and the dull taste of blood in my mouth, suggested otherwise. Water ran down my cheeks and soaked my back. The shifter underneath me heaved and breathed, his fur warm and reassuring.
The mysterious shifter escaped the churning mist, and, all around us, everything began to lighten. I glanced down and saw that we were above a river. He flew for some time, following it, and I almost became sleepy on his back. Except for feeling the terror of falling and glancing over my shoulder for signs of pursuit. Even if Orion and Lind thought we were dead, they wouldn’t stay ignorant of that fact for long.
What now?
As though hearing my question, the winged lion banked left and drew in his wings, landing lightly on a patch of grass. The river was slower and lazier here, rolling along and glinting in the weak spring sunshine. A smell of wet earth and fresh rain filled my nose.
Gratefully, I slid down and cast a covert eye at the shifter. He gazed back at me with eyes the color of dark whiskey and then shifted back into the tall, hooded man with the irrepressible grin. My own lips twisted to the side.
“You could have warned me,” I said before I could stop myself.
He threw back his head and laughed, loudly and long. But it was a little raspy and rough around the edges, as though he hadn’t laughed in a while. My curiosity was piqued. Not only by the savior and flying lion aspect, but also by how he’d even known to be there. And why he saved me.
“You’re welcome,” he said, wiping at his eyes and tossing back his hood.
I started, studying his face. “Do I know you?”
He was a big, handsome black man with the beginnings of laugh lines by his nose, high, hollowed out cheeks, and a square jaw. His curly hair was a bit unruly, with a touch of silver at the temples, and he badly needed a shave. Something about him made me think he'd been on his own in the wilderness for quite some time, although it wasn't so much the beard. Rather, it was the look in his eyes.
“Fairly certain this is the first time we’ve met, although I’ve heard of you.” A strange look crossed his face, and his smile faded. My instincts had been right—I was sure of it, and the mystery deepened. Why would a hermit save me? “Not sure you would’ve heard of me.”
“Who are you?” I demanded. “Some hermit do-gooder?”
Something in his eyes flickered, and he shrugged a big shoulder. “More on that later. Are you all right? We need to get moving. Ayani and Lazu should meet us here soon.”
“What?” I asked. “Who?”
“Orion is going to figure out you’re alive very soon,” the hermit-lion-man said. “We have to get you back to Winfyre—”
“No,” I burst out, and my right hand gripped my left wrist. “No. I can’t. I’ll go east, into the Tiselk.” A trembling was coming over me. I hadn’t eaten in hours, and everything was catching up with me. “I-I’ll take my chances.”
"I saved your life, so you kind of owe me," the man said wryly. "And I owe someone in Winfyre. I think you'll do." I drew back, alarmed, and he shook his head. "Not like that. You're not my prisoner, Tiani. You're safe." He gave me a reassuring smile, and, against my better judgment, I did feel like I could trust him. He exuded a certain warmth and calm that was familiar. "Okay?"
“Maybe,” I murmured, not wanting to admit how much my heart longed for Winfyre. “But I’m…” I looked down at my wrist. Unmarked, unblemished. “Actually, no, I don’t know what to do.”
“Mm, I think you need to rest and eat.” He smiled again. “Tiani, please.”
“How do you know who I am?” I asked and shook my head. “How’d you get into Kizin?”
“Oh, well,” the man said and snorted. “Orion thought he had me locked up, nice and tight. Wanted to stick it to an old friend of mine. What he didn’t realize is that I let him capture me so that I could save you.” A crooked, satisfied grin crossed his face. “Glad it worked.”
“Thank you,” I said in a shaking voice, and his eyes went soft. “I…”
“Tiani?”
My hands, which had already been shaking, began to shake even harder, and then clapped over my mouth. I shook my head as I stared at him, his features rearranging and fitting themselves into an old picture of old friends.
“That’s not possible,” I whispered and backed up. I looked around. “Where am I?”
“Tiani,” the man said carefully. “You just went through a hellish ordeal. I didn’t want to alarm you, but everything is okay. You’re safe. But you’re not well—what Orion did to you—it’s a miracle you survived.”
I wasn’t listening to him; I was backing up slowly, wondering if I could run and get away.
“You’re safe.”
“You’re-you’re Brody Sampson,” I said, and he flinched. “You’re dead.” He shook his head. “Okay, you’re supposed to be dead.”
“I know,” he said, sounding almost rueful.
That was my limit. My eyes rolled up in my head, and I crumpled to the ground, colors blurring around me as I fell into darkness.
I jerked awake with a gasp, out of a dream of falling and of beating black wings, which were scattering feathers that I tried to catch. Then a shadow had crossed the moon and dived at me, all wings, teeth, and rage, waking me up.
Everything hurt. My body was slow and unresponsive as I forced myself into a sitting position and stared around. I was inside a cave, not far from a warm, flickering fire, and in the company of two wolves. Blinking, I stared at them, and they tilted their heads, tongues lolling out.
“Hello,” I said stiffly, assuming they were shifters.
We’re not shifters; we’re guardians of the wood.
My eyes went wide. “Oh, hello,” I said, a bit more reverently. “It’s nice to meet you.”
This close, I could see that one of the wolves was not bla
ck as I’d originally thought, but rather a deep, glorious gray. His blue eyes burned with intelligence and a certain amount of humor as he looked me over.
Hello, dragoness. I am Ayani. This is my brother Lazu.
Lazu’s fur was lighter, not quite white, but ridged with silver. One of his eyes was as bright a blue as his brother's, while the other was pure gold. Together, they made me think of wind in the mountains, leaping rivers, and eddies of sunlight falling through trees in the height of summer.
“I’m not…I’m not that.” My voice was a whisper. “Not anymore.”
The two wolves glanced at each other, and I looked away, toward the entrance. I could see a starry sky and the tops of trees. I frowned, craning my neck, and Brody appeared. Immediately, I recoiled, and he held up his hands.
“Please don’t faint on me again,” he said.
I shook my head and grumbled, “Can you blame a girl? It’s not every day you meet a ghost.”
“Oh, I’m not a ghost,” he said, almost revoltingly cheery. Then he sat down with a groan across from me. Lazu and Ayani got up, rearranging themselves on either side of him. Ayani laid his head on Brody’s knee and closed his eyes in contentment when Brody ruffled his ears. “Just a shifter who’s come home to save Winfyre Ridge from being ravaged by Orion and his lot.”
“Where have you been?” I asked. Brody didn’t answer, only bit his cheek and stared into the fire. “Do you know how much they miss you—how much they blame themselves for whatever the hell happened to you?” I’d asked Iris about Brody, and she’d given me a few sketchy but still heartbreaking details. “How it changed them, the weight that he—”
I broke off and looked away, not sure why heat was rising in my face.
“Couldn’t let my friend’s girl get taken by Orion,” Brody said, his cheeriness more forced this time, and I glared at him. He winced. “Okay, okay. How much do you know?”
“I know that you supposedly died after the Rift, and that the Alphas haven’t been the same since. That none of them ever talk about you except in cryptic hints, and they all hold an enormous amount of guilt about it. Oh, and they think you’re dead, but here you are.”
“Feistypants, you’ve got about this much of the story,” Brody said and held up his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. He dropped his hand into a fist and pressed it into the ground. “If I hadn’t been such an idiotic ass, this would be a very different conversation.” He heaved a sigh. “In fact, you probably wouldn’t be here. You’d be in Winfyre, with Alex, where you belong.”
“Alex?”
“Alexander, Xander, Alex, Xan, Lex,” Brody said, ticking off the names on his fingers. “Depending on his mood, depends on what you call him. Alex used to be the broody, stubborn side. Xander was his cheerful, normal, curious, and never-shut-the-hell-up side.”
“So, you’re here to help? How do you know Winfyre is in danger?”
Brody patted Ayani’s and Lazu’s heads. “These guys. They helped me get back.”
“Stop being cryptic!” I flashed at him. “What happened to you?”
“I fell through the Rift.”
I gaped at him, waiting for Brody to follow that up, but his brows knotted together, and there was a distant look in his eyes.
“How is that even possible?” I finally croaked out. “Where did you go?”
“It’s hard to explain,” Brody said slowly. “It’s a place of spirits and energy. Not the Rift, but an in-between place. Yet parts of it weren’t places so much as pools and portals into other worlds. Dangerous ones. Beautiful ones. Paradise.” His eyes closed. “But on that side, I don’t know if I ever slept, ate, or dreamed. Time passed differently. I was there for a reason, though.”
“What?”
“To earn back my shifter ability,” he said and curled his hands into fists. “I say I fell into the Rift, but it was more that I was drawn into it. I’d been using a crian shard to—”
“What?” I interrupted again. “A crian shard, and you’re Northbane? How? Are you insane?”
“Great, so those things are still around,” Brody muttered.
“Fewer than there were, I think, thanks to the Northbane,” I said. “That’s so dangerous. Did you know what it was? Why did you use it?”
“Did you struggle with shifting after the Rift?” Brody asked bluntly.
I went to answer, then stopped. Mulling it over, I finally said, in a slow, measured voice, “Well, I turned into a giant, scaly beast with wings. So, on the one hand, I couldn’t shift much. Barely ever. But other things changed, too. Stamina, healing, and senses. I did struggle a bit, though, to accept it at first. I think everyone did.”
“No, some people outright rejected it.” Brody’s jaw went tight. “My friends struggled, maybe Luke and Xander the most—more Luke, though, the worrywart. But I…I worried.” His throat worked. “My wife—”
“You’re married?” I asked, and then I gasped. “That’s right, to Xander’s sister. Where is she?”
A subtle change came over Brody, and, for the first time since I’d met him, I felt a little afraid of him. “What do you mean?” His voice was sharp. “You haven’t met her? Lor? Lorel?”
“Lorel, no,” I said. “I don’t think so. Although, I think Xander called Beylore, ‘Lor.’”
Brody stared at me for a second, and then a grin cracked across his face. “Lorel Bane Sampson. Bane Lore. Beylore. Always clever, that girl, with a goofy sense of humor.”
I breathed out a small breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “She’s a powerful Riftborn.”
Brody’s eyes lit up, and a slow, proud smile appeared. “She’s an amazing shifter, too.”
“She’s a shifter?”
“Hm, a lot of secrets in Winfyre, huh?” Brody asked. “Yeah. Don’t know…oh.”
“Want to clue me in here?”
“Nothing, I can just see why they probably kept it a secret,” Brody said. “Failsafe. Damn, that must mean Xander takes the brunt of it, then.”
“Brunt of what?”
“Protecting Winfyre,” Brody said mildly. “Handling the wards, sensing danger.”
I nodded and threw my hands up. “Yes, he was always, always on the clock. Do you know how hard it was to get that man to sleep or—” I broke off at Brody’s smothered grin. “What is that stupid look for?”
“Nothing, nothing—it’s nice to hear someone complain about Xander, is all.”
“So, you were a grumpy shifter. Continue,” I said gruffly.
“Ah yes, I was worried about Lori and the baby—”
“You have a kid?”
“No. Lori miscarried not long after the Rift.” Brody’s face became shadowed. “We almost lost her, too. If it weren’t for Rogda…” He sighed. “It’s no excuse, but it messed me up. I was angry and stressed, kept wondering if I was safe to be around my wife or any future children. Of course, this stressed out everyone else, who was going through the same thing—especially Xander and Luke. Luke, though, internalized it and plodded on. But Xander and I began to argue. A lot.
“He had his ideas about Winfyre, and I had mine. We’d clash. We never fought. I mean, roughhousing as kids, but not like this. It was a mess. I wouldn’t compromise. I was an ass.”
“That’s…surprising,” I said.
“Yeah, well, I think I was also jealous of my friends. They had a grip on their shifter abilities and were powerful animals. Xander is a damn dragon. And I was a sheddu. I resented it. I became sullen and depressed, didn’t want to shift, didn’t want to help…”
“Sheddu is a winged lion?” I asked, and Brody nodded. “Come on, that’s awesome.”
“If I’d gotten my head out of my ass, I’d have known that,” Brody joked, and I laughed. “Things got worse after that. I’d taken off and tried to find a shortcut. As usually happens, I did. I ran into this sketchy guy who swore this item made a shifter ten times more powerful.”
“The shard?” I guessed, and Brody nodded.
&
nbsp; “Yep. I stole it.” My eyebrows went up at that admission from this boy scout. “It worked, at first. I was powerful, able to grow in size and keep up with Xander. For a while, everything was better.” His eyes shuttered. “And then it came.”
I sucked in a breath, and a prickle went up my spine. “What?”
“An Excris I’d never heard of or seen, either before or since. It was drawn to the shard and the shifter using it. I don’t know what its name is, but we called it the Mimic.”
A shiver ran over me, and I scooted closer to the fire. “It could impersonate you?”
“Yes,” Brody said. “At first, it was a nuisance. It would copy humans in Winfyre and cause trouble. But it couldn’t speak, and the gestures were strange, so people knew. Then it copied a shifter and attacked them. That’s when we realized how dangerous it was.”
“What about the wards?” I asked. “How come they didn’t keep that thing out?”
“Hmph, smart girl,” Brody said. “I’m getting to that. We couldn't figure it out at first. And the situation was becoming direr by the moment. More Excris were slipping in. And what was worse, I was weakening. My power and shifting ability were erratic at best.
“I think Xander was getting suspicious, even though he didn’t want to believe the worst of me. Or couldn’t.” Brody hesitated. “Forgive me for leaving out some details, but suffice it to say that Xander and I had a bitter fight, then I went off after the Mimic on my own.”
Brody continued on, telling me a story of a long, dark night, and the choices and sacrifices made. The influx of Excris demons, Xander’s wrath, and his own to match. The forms of great beasts writhing through the sky, illuminated in brief bursts of lightning, and the exhausting grind of the never-ending onslaught. Until they had no choice but to call the Coven.
"Lori saved us," Brody said. "She saved me, pulled me back from the brink." He sighed and tilted his head up, as though seeing that stormy night and the losing battle. "It wasn't enough."
Dragon's Oath (Northbane Shifters Book 5) Page 22