Her eyes were on mine even as they faded. “I will never truly be gone. I will be there in the sandstorms and the oasis, in the death and birth of every creature the desert owns. You always knew that. I am the goddess, and you are one of my many children.”
“This is the Ish I remember,” I whispered as she slumped into my arms. “And now you would leave me.”
“You are not alone.” She touched my face gently, like she had when I was a child. “You stopped Merlin, you saved the falak, and you will free the stones. Send their power out into the world, Zam. That is where they belong. Where the ground heaves and pools bubble, that is where the power of the earth is strongest, and you will free the stones.”
Her hand slipped from my face and her body changed in my hands, the weight of her lessening until there was nothing there, just a wisp of the material she’d been wearing and nothing more.
I reached back for the flail and dragged it to me, laying it on the pile of stones in front of me. All of them, I’d brought them all to her and now I had them back.
A stick poked at me and I looked up into the very, very old face of Flora. I knew her by her green eyes and that alone. “What are you going to do with them now?”
“What should have always been done,” I said. “I’m going to set them free.”
We stayed with Kiara’s pride for only two days. She assured me we were part of the pride, and I knew it was the truth, but we didn’t belong. They protected those who belonged to the desert, and I . . . Maks, Lila, and I were there to protect pretty much everything else.
The first morning came a smell like rotting flesh through my window. Rotting flesh and . . . “Steve?” I rolled over Maks and climbed up to the window ledge. Balder snorted and shook his head as I hopped into his stall. There, circling the courtyard was a lumbering, rotting to the bone in places, Steve.
I grimaced. “Even in death, he couldn’t fucking do as he was told.”
“Useless piece of shit.” Lila shook her head.
Maks climbed through to Balder’s stall and stood with me. “I can take it from him—”
We both turned as a snarl ripped through the air and Kiara raced across the courtyard in her lion form. She slammed into his legs and sent him flying.
“Ohhh, shit,” Maks said and then burst out laughing.
Because Kiara sent dead-Steve head first into the poop pile. His bare legs and what was left of his bare ass stuck out like he’d been planted there, kicking feebly, unable to right himself on his own.
Kiara grabbed his foot and yanked him out. He wobbled and pushed to his feet, doing a slow turn. Now, all of this was funny, but the amount of shit in his mouth and stuffed up his nose and in his eyes . . .
Lila sighed. “A rose by any other name . . . or in this case, Steve is still Steve and his mouth is still full of shit.”
Kiara grabbed him by his other leg and swung him around, smashing his head into the ground. Again he got up. Unable to die now because of Maks’s magic.
I stared at Steve, and while I wouldn’t say I was moved to pity, I was moved to some sort of compassion. A gentle touch on Maks’s arm and he removed his hold on Steve’s body. The asshole of all assholes fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Kiara stood over him a moment, then grabbed his foot and flung him back into the shit pile.
At least there, he’d do some good for the world. And Kiara got her moment to get in one last blow. I hoped it helped her heal and move on with Bryce.
A day later, we were ready to go.
Saying goodbye to Bryce was the hardest part of leaving. I was sure we’d be back. I just didn’t know when, or if he’d be here when I came home.
“Kitten,” Bryce said as he pulled me into a hug.
“Fuck, not you too,” I muttered.
“Shem spread the word.” He didn’t let me go. This was no one-armed classic hug of a brother to his little sister. No, this was a hug that said it all. He knew I was going for what could be a long time. Maybe we would never see each other again. Maybe one of us would die for real before we got a chance to say these words.
“Kiara is good for you,” I whispered. “And you’re going to have beautiful cubs. Name a girl after me. Please.”
He snorted and didn’t let go. “What about you?”
“No cubs for me, I think.” I sighed. “I don’t think it’s in the cards for my life. Which means you need to have extra.”
“Be careful. We just got our family back, I . . . I don’t want to—” And then he choked up and the side of my face got wet from tears that weren’t my own. And he hugged me tighter, and I clung to him as if I were that little girl in the dark again, crying after a nightmare.
“I’ll be safe.”
“Promise,” he whispered.
“Promise.”
And then like the brother he was, he shoved me away. “Go on then. Get the hell out of here.”
I wiped my eyes and lifted my hand, but he had his back to me. I bit my lower lip as he leaned against the wall and his shoulders shook.
Crying for me, grieving me going. My big brother had finally shown me that he loved me, and I was leaving him behind.
I spun and ran, found Balder by scent more than anything and leapt on his back with my eyes closed and my own tears streaming. He bolted off without waiting for a signal.
Maks leaned over and took my hand as we galloped away, and I squeezed it hard. The falak—we named her Faith—coiled around my neck and Lila perched on the front of the saddle.
“We’ll be back,” Lila said. “You know that.”
“Feels like I’ll never see them again,” I whispered.
That is the curse you hold, Zam; the curse to love deeply.
The ride to the Oracle’s Haunt was ridiculously quiet. Easy even. Not one fight. No serpents or gorcs. Nothing.
Not one thing.
My sleep was filled with nightmares. Maks and Lila were no better and we often ended up piled together, clinging to each other for comfort.
The haunt bubbled with its superheated pits of toxicity and I paused beside the first one. “Marsum.”
Yes, I know. This is really goodbye.
I bit my lower lip. “I’m sorry.”
You saved my son and the Jinn. This is a price I willingly pay for my people. Just as I know you would for yours.
“Do you want to say anything to him?” I offered the flail to Maks. He shook his head. And Marsum said just one thing.
Tell him I’m proud of him, of both of you. And maybe even that little dragon.
I nodded and lowered the flail into the pit beside me. The spiked flail shivered and convulsed as it tried to drink down the liquid and couldn’t.
I let the handle go. “Goodbye.”
See you on the flip side.
Maks grabbed me and I buried my face against his chest. This shouldn’t be so hard. There shouldn’t be so many goodbyes after we’d won the battle. After we’d won the war.
The flail sunk beneath the fluid and we stepped back to give it room. Super charged, superheated, it shot into the air in a spew of fluid that cut through the sky, carrying the flail up with it.
A boom like thunder rattled the air and the flail shattered. Colors—far more than had been in the stones—shot in every direction as the power of the jewels was scattered throughout the world, where they were meant to be.
One down, one to go.
We rode to the Oracle’s Haunt. “Are you sure?” I asked the falak as she shimmied off me and made her way, her tiny legs pulling and her tail dragging, toward the stone that led into the Oracle’s Haunt.
She turned and waved at us as the rock shimmered and she slid through. Gone. And for the moment, safe. No one would look for her alongside the Oracle. They would come for the Oracle, and not even see the tiny dragon in the shadows.
“Thank you,” I said, holding my hand up, palm out in a simple wave.
Balder snorted and bobbed his head. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”
We
rode through the blasted lands quickly, heading south, finding our way to the Blackened Market.
We paused on the edge of it and I stared at the ruins of a place that held so much corruption and pain for those who would look to us for help.
“You ready to find the hatchlings?” I said to Lila. “’Cause I’d bet money the second we step in that direction all this quiet we’ve been enjoying will be over.”
Lila swooped over our heads. “Then bring on the noise. We’ve got babies to save!”
Maks moved Batman close enough that our legs bumped and he leaned over and kissed me. “Only if you promise that at some point, you’re truly going to show me evidence of this amazing Indiana Jones. Human who can do what no supernatural can.”
I laughed and kissed him back. “That’s an easy promise to make.”
“Race you,” he yelled as he booted Batman forward. Balder flicked an ear at me and I looked over my shoulder at the desert I called home, the desert that I’d loved and protected even when at points it had tried to kill me.
“I’ll be back,” I whispered. “We’ll all be back. Try not to get into trouble while we’re gone.”
Balder snorted and I leaned forward. “We had to give them a fighting chance against a unicorn, you know.”
He reared up and plunged forward, galloping flat out within just a few strides. The wind whipped around us, drying the last of the tears on my cheeks.
We’d be back. I felt it right through to the center of my heart and soul.
Just as soon as we were done with the adventures that waited for us out there in the big wide world without walls.
Afterword
So I guess you can tell that Zam, Maks, Lila and the horses (aka one horse, one unicorn) are off on some more adventures! The truth is, I’m sure they will have hundreds more adventures . . .and one of them you can read for FREE!
Yup, that’s right! Sign up for my newsletter, and January 1st, 2020, I will have a FREE read for you “Den of Thieves” will be the continuation from this last moment with the group.
Newsletter Sign Up
If you’re already signed up, then you’ll be good to go! Be sure to open the newsletters as they show up (even if you don’t read them) the reason is, that newsletter provider programs WILL think you aren’t interested, and will start sticking them in SPAM of all places ;)
Also by shannon mayer
The Rylee Adamson Series
(Complete)
Priceless (Book 1)
Immune (Book 2)
Raising Innocence (Book 3)
Shadowed Threads (Book 4)
Blind Salvage (Book 5)
Tracker (Book 6)
Guardian (Book 6.5)
Veiled Threat (Book 7)
Wounded (Book 8)
Stitched (Book 8.5)
Rising Darkness (Book 9)
Blood of the Lost (Book 10)
The Elemental Series
(Complete)
Recurve
Breakwater
Firestorm
Windburn
Ash
Rootbound
Destroyer
The Nix Series
(Complete)
Fury of a Phoenix
Blood of a Phoenix
Rise of a Phoenix
The Desert Cursed Series
(Complete)
Witch’s Reign
Dragon’s Ground
Jinn’s Dominion
Oracle’s Haunt
Wyvern’s Lair
Emperor’s Throne
Fine even MORE at
www.shannonmayer.com
Emperor’s Throne: Desert Cursed Series, Book 6 Page 26