‘Because you’re not a goddess.’
The simple statement made him laugh. And once started, he couldn’t seem to stop.
‘You’re hysterical,’ she said after a few minutes, head tipped to the side like a curious cat.
Her comment made him laugh even harder until he was gasping for breath.
‘Stop.’
‘Would … if … I … could,’ he said between bouts of laughter. ‘Stop … me.’
‘I cannot. I already used too much power to bring you here and to help you with the pain of the transition. Any more and the others will know what I’ve done.’ She sighed as he tried to ask her about what she’d just said, but could only gasp for air, the laughter dying as the need to breathe became imperative. ‘Are you able to talk yet?’ He shook his head. ‘Well, think to me. I will hear it.’
‘Tip who off?’
‘The other gods who do not want me to interfere in the things that should be below me.’
‘Why won’t they let you interfere? You’re a goddess. Can’t you do what you want?’
‘There are rules that even I must follow.’
‘Have you broken the rules by bringing me here?’
‘Not quite. Bringing you here is skating along the edge of our laws.’
‘Then why do it?’
‘Because I cannot do nothing. It is our fault, what has happened, what will happen. I must do something to fight it.’
‘The Darkness?’ he said out loud, the hysteria gone now in the wake of his curiosity about what he was learning.
She nodded.
‘Then why have you brought me here? How on earth can I help?’
‘What makes you think you can help?’
He looked up at her. ‘You brought me here. I assume that wasn’t just for shits and giggles.’
She came down on her haunches in front of him and he could see her face properly for the first time. She was frowning at him, but that didn’t belie the loveliness of her face. A face that looked distinctly familiar, with eyes that were the same brilliant violet blue. ‘You look like Shelley.’
‘She is a distant relation.’
‘Huh.’ He should have known she was related to a goddess. Perhaps he should start calling her that rather than Kitten. He smiled. She’d hate that. Oh yeah, the next time he saw her, he was definitely calling her Goddess.
‘Your mind is very strange.’
He barked out a laugh. ‘You’re not the first to say that to me.’
She frowned. ‘You say that as if it’s a bad thing when it is the very thing that will help us the most. In fact, it is your Trickster nature that will be …’ A pained expression crossed her face and her lips pulled tight. For a moment, she looked as if she was fighting something, her hands curling into fists, fingers red, knuckles white. Then with a gasp, she stood and spun away from him.
‘Arianrhod?’ Adam forced himself to stand, even though his muscles were still weak and trembling. He took a stumbling step towards her.
She swung back, hand outstretched. ‘No. You mustn’t touch me. If you do, you will become a permanent resident of this place.’
He looked around. ‘What is this place?’
‘A place of the Nexus’ making.’
‘Eloise? She made this?’
‘Yes. When we spoke last year, this is what she created as a place that enabled her to speak with me.’
He stared out at the turbulent ocean, the storm, dark and threatening, on the horizon. ‘Christ.’ He turned to face the Goddess again. ‘What the hell are you doing calling me here and not her? She’s the one with the power. I’m nothing.’
Her frown was back. ‘You cannot truly think that of yourself.’
Of course he did. What else was he to think?
‘You are the Trickster. You are the one who is going to …’ Her mouth snapped shut again, jaw white, lips pulled back in a rictus of pain.
Adam reached for her. She was in pain. Distraught. Angry. Frustrated. Desperate. He wanted to do something to stop the roiling emotions inside her. To make her feel better. But she stepped back, hands raised, warding him off, and he remembered what she said.
‘What can I do?’
She shook her head and turned away, shoulders stiff, clenched fists shaking at her sides. Long minutes passed before her shoulders and hands finally relaxed and she looked up at the sky and yelled, ‘Damn you and your rules!’
Adam looked up at the dark, stormy sky. ‘Damn who?’
She spun to face him again. ‘One of those things I am forbidden to tell you.’
For some reason, her words really pissed him off. ‘So, if you can’t tell me anything, why the hell did you cause me so much pain? Why’d you make me think I was dead? Why the fuck did you bring me here?’
‘Because you would have been dead if I had not!’ Her shouted words flew over the waves. Above, lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled from horizon to horizon, a rolling echo of her anger. He cringed under the onslaught, hands over his ears, as the sound grew louder. It flew overhead and then flapped away, dissipating in the distance. He stayed crouched on the sand, hands covering his ears. Slowly, he looked up at her.
She was standing there, hand over her mouth, eyes full of sadness and apologies. They stared at each other. The only sound that of the distant storm and the thump of his heart in his chest.
Finally, he dropped his hands from his ears and stood. As he did, her hands fell from her mouth. ‘I’m sorry. You are just so maddening.’
He shrugged a shoulder. ‘It’s my calling.’
A bubble of laughter burst out of her. ‘I can see why Michelline finds you so irresistible.’
‘For a goddess, you sure can get things wrong.’
‘I am the goddess of fertility. I think perhaps I know what I’m talking about.’
‘I am far from irresistible to Shelley.’
‘That is your stubborn human brain talking. If you look into your Trickster heart, it will tell you the truth.’
He closed his eyes against the pain of her words. ‘I don’t have a Trickster heart anymore.’
‘What are you talking about?’
He looked up at her. ‘How can you know so much and not know this?’
‘Know what?’
‘I am separated from my wolf. It’s gone. I can’t access it while the dark magic from the Warlock Lightning is still in my body.’
‘Your wolf isn’t what made you the Trickster, Adam.’
‘Yes, it is. Without it, I’m nothing special.’
‘You are as bad as Eloise was for not seeing what is right in front of you.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He spun away, staring out at the oncoming storm.
She was suddenly there in front of him, blocking his view of the bilious green-black clouds. ‘I do know what I am talking about. I know only too well about the truths we all hide inside ourselves, holding them safe. Even if that means we keep them from ourselves.’
‘Oh yeah? And what is your great truth?’
‘That I am one side of the coin. This is your truth as well. You are not a true Trickster because your wolf is a Trickster, but because both of you are. What you had with your wolf, you still have. It is what binds you to him—and your body—despite the Darkness’ influence.’
Adam stared at her. ‘No. You’re wrong.’
‘About many things, yes, but not this. You are right—you cannot return to your body or use the bond while the dark magic of the Warlock Lightning poisons your flesh. But none of that will stop you from doing what you were brought here to do.’
‘And what is that?’
‘As the Trickster, you …’ Her mouth locked again, her eyes going large in her face. She trembled, looking like she was fighting it. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, glistening crystal clear as diamonds as they fell from her chin, towards the sand. Her hands spasming at her sides. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.
‘Don’t. Don’t tell me,’ Adam said, holding out his hand. ‘Not if it causes you pain.’
She closed her eyes, spun from him as she’d done before. Adam stood still, not saying a word, but in his mind saying over and over again, ‘It’s okay. Let it go. It’s okay.’
Finally, her shoulders stopped shaking, her hands went limp and she hung her head. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be sorry. You’re trying to help. You helped Eloise when she needed to believe in herself, and look at her now. And you brought me here because you wanted to help me. It’s more than others ever do.’
She turned her head to look at him. ‘I always thought kindness a weakness, but in you it is a terrifying strength.’
He lifted his chin. ‘I’ve always thought so.’
Her lips lifted into the breath of a smile. ‘You are very wise. But then, that is the heart of the Trickster. It is what makes you so very important.’
‘How?’
She opened her mouth and for a moment he thought she was going to lock up again, but then she just shook her head. ‘Somebody other than me must tell you that. I simply brought you here to see you safe for now. To tell you not to try to re-enter your body or join with your wolf yet. Not until it’s time.’
‘And when will that be?’
Her mouth worked for a moment.
He held his hand up. ‘It’s okay. I know. You can’t tell me.’
She shook her head.
‘Then how will I know? Who can tell me?’
‘You have already met her.’
He frowned. ‘That ghost. The one who was there when I became this.’
She nodded.
‘Who is she?’
‘I cannot tell you that, unfortunately.’
‘Does she work for you?’
She shrugged and managed to say, ‘In a manner of speaking.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘Hiding.’
‘From the thing that was chasing her? Was it the Darkness?’
‘A shadow of the Darkness caught in the ether. More than that, I cannot say.’
‘Can I go to where she is?’
‘No. For now, she is …’ She tipped her head, gazing off in the distance. ‘Elsewhere. But she is trying to bargain a way back to you. I hope she is successful sooner rather than later. We are running out of time.’
‘For what?’
Her gaze ran over him. ‘You cannot stay like this forever. The force that is keeping you in this state will fade eventually and at that point, if you haven’t done what you need to do to help your friends cure your body so you can return to it, then you will simply cease to exist.’
‘Well … crap.’
‘Yes, well put.’
‘You said she’s bargaining. Can’t you help her with that?’
‘The rules forbid it.’
‘The rules. Right.’ He frowned. ‘What happens if she takes too long getting back from wherever she is?’
The goddess shrugged.
‘Does that mean that I still have hope or that there is none?’ She looked as if she was about to shrug again but he pointed a finger at her. ‘Do not shrug at me again or tell me this is one of those things you can’t tell me. Find a way around the rules. If I remember my mythology correctly, the gods were always pretty bloody good at finding loopholes.’
‘I am trying to find one here, believe me, but so far, I am unsuccessful.’ She gestured away to the stormy sky around them. ‘There is a storm coming.’
‘No shit Sherlock.’
‘I am Arianrhod, not Sherlock.’
‘It’s just a saying that means …’ He shook his hands in front of him. ‘Never mind. You were telling me there is a storm coming, which I can see.’
‘No, you do not understand. This place is what your friend, Eloise, created, when she came to speak to me. It is a special place that she, as the Nexus, was able to pull out of the ether. It is a reflection of her power, but also shows the emotions of the universe at a deeper level.’
‘You mean it’s like one big mood ring?’
She blinked. ‘I have heard of those.’ She smiled, but the smile was bleak. ‘Yes. It is like a big mood ring. And the mood is not happy.’
The hair rose on the back of his neck as lightning played in the roiling dark green clouds overhead. There was something evil hanging over this place like a threat. His Trickster senses were going haywire—she was right, he still had them despite not being able to feel the bond with his wolf. Edgy nerves danced under his skin. He tried to comprehend the needy desperation and unforgiving sense of loneliness mixed with raging anger lowering from above. ‘Saying it’s not happy is the world’s greatest understatement.’
‘Hmm, yes. Things that have been brewing for some time are about to come to pass.’ Her gaze met his again. ‘It is not a good time to be a human or Were on your earth. An ancient evil is about to take a step that will allow it to enter into your plane of existence and there is nothing that me and mine can do to stop it.’
‘If you can’t stop it, what chance do we have against it?’
‘You have the Nexus. And you. Aligned with the power of the triumvirate, you have all you need.’
He snorted. ‘Eloise and Shelley, Skye and Bron I can understand. They have incredible power. But me? You’ve got that wrong.’
‘No.’ She swiped her hand, her frustration making the air zing around them. ‘You are one of the most important tools at our disposal in this war. It is prophesied that the Trickster …’ Her mouth snapped closed and she rolled her eyes, but didn’t fight it this time.
It didn’t matter. She’d got out something he could use. ‘There’s a prophecy about me.’ Crap. He didn’t like the sound of that. It kind of felt like his life was being taken out of his hands. ‘And this ghost woman is going to be able to tell me about that? To help me learn what it is I need to do to be of use against this evil?’
She nodded. ‘Not only that,’ she managed between clenched teeth.
‘What else?’
‘Find out … who she is. That will help when … the time comes.’
‘How do I do that if I can’t communicate with anyone?’
She held up her hand. For a moment, he could only see her tension, then it released again and she let out a shaky breath. ‘That’s fucking annoying.’
He barked out a laugh.
She blinked at him, lips curling a little before continuing. ‘Michelline is also key. The banshee-medium is as important in this as you. You must work with her to find the truth of both of your roles. It is essential.’
‘Uh, that’s going to be a little difficult.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, for one thing, she hates her power. I can feel it every time she’s forced to use it. It’s like an open wound and we keep making her pick at it.’ He shuddered.
‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to get over your empathy and she her hatred. She is key. What must be done cannot be done without her and her unique abilities.’
‘Ah, that brings me to the other difficulty.’ Her brows rose. ‘Shelley’s ignoring me. It’s like she’s refusing to believe she can see me. I know she can, but she hasn’t openly responded to anything I do or say since the night I became this. And she’s left the McClune’s compound and gone back to Melbourne, so I couldn’t even talk to her if I wanted to.’
‘Of course you can. You can go wherever you like. You are not stuck in one place.’
He frowned. ‘How do I do that?’ He knew that other spirits seemed to come and go as they pleased, but he didn’t know how they managed it. He’d walked through the wall into the corridor many a time, but wasn’t able to go further unless he was with someone. He couldn’t make the lift work—his hand kept going through the operating panel.
‘You think of where you want to go, or who you want to go to, and you just will yourself there. The ether will take care of the rest.’
‘As simple as that?’
She simp
ly smiled.
‘Okay.’ He clenched his hands, knuckles cracking. ‘So, I can make myself go to Shelley at will. That doesn’t solve the problem of her ignoring me.’
‘Make her see you. Make her listen.’
‘You don’t know Shelley.’
‘No. But you do. And you need her. Make her see that she needs you too. That she needs you more than anyone else.’
By the moon, he wished that was true, but he might as well wish to not have been hit by Warlock Lightning. ‘Do you want to tell her that?’
‘I have done all I can. For now. When there is great need, I will come again, but until then, you are on your own.’
‘Figures.’ He looked around. ‘So how do I get out of here?’
‘Like this.’ She waved her hand and everything went black again, then purple, then unbelievably bright. So bright he cried out and covered his head. For a moment, there was nothing but the pain of the light and the absence of all sound and then there was a pop in his ears and the brightness faded away as suddenly as it had come.
‘He’s stable for now.’
The voice came to him through the noise of wind that surrounded him. He opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. He was back in the medical room where his body was. Jason was still standing beside the bed. Bron and River now stood beside him. How much time had passed since he’d been taken by the goddess? There was no clock, so he couldn’t tell. He moved closer to see what Bron was doing. She was bandaging up his body’s arm. There was blood on the sheet from the wound. Black gunk drying on his chest and sides.
Holy hell! Hardly any time had passed at all. Maybe half a minute, if that.
‘I wish I could do more for him,’ Bron said, her hands shaking as she finished with the cannula wound. She seemed smaller somehow, diminished, like her light had been dimmed.
‘We’ll find a way,’ River said, his hand on her shoulder. Where his hands landed, there was a faint glow of gold. It grew brighter, growing thick around the point of contact and then, like a wave, rolled out and over and through Bron. Bron breathed in deeply and sat a little straighter, her usual glow steady and sure around her.
Adam drew in a quick breath. Holy shit! River was like some kind of power conduit for Bron. Probably the reason they were fated to be mates. He was a ready-made extra battery pack or something. He knew they worked together when she was healing—they all helped give her more energy for that—but this was something deeper, something more personal. Love and strength and trust all bound into one.
Wolf Bound Page 7