I closed my eyes.
His free arm encircled my waist, his hand slowly sliding up my back. His breath was hot on my face, his lips hovering over mine. “Do you feel this?” His mouth pressed softly to mine, and he ran his tongue along my bottom lip.
My chest burned with desire that shot straight to my core.
He placed gentle kisses along my cheek and down my neck, finding the spot that made me squirm. “How about this?”
My hands gripped his back, holding him in place.
He returned to my lips, his tongue exploring my mouth. My tongue joined his and an explosion of need erupted inside me. My grip on him tightened.
David lifted my tank top over my head and pushed me backward on the bed, leaning over me on his elbow. His free hand cupped my breast, his thumb softly brushing my nipple through my bra. His mouth hovered over mine, making me desperate for him to kiss me again, while his eyes watched my face. “You feel this, Ellie. I can see it in your eyes and the way your body is reacting to me. You want this and so much more, but I’m not Collin. I won’t coerce or cajole you into anything you don’t want. I want this to be just as much your choice as it is mine.”
He placed a soft kiss on my lips and then got off the bed.
I rose up on my elbows, confusion replacing lust. “Where are you going?”
He picked up his bag and smiled softly. “To bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I stared at him in disbelief as he left my room, my body crying out for more. Was David right? Was there a chance I could feel something with someone else? To my surprise, I realized how badly I wanted it to be with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, glancing at the closed door on the other side of the hall. David’s demonstration had left me wanting more. I considered going into his room to finish what he’d started, but I’d been the pursuer in my last several relationships, and I liked that I was the one being seduced this time. David was taking things slow, so I’d wait for him.
When I headed back to my room to get my bag, I looked down the long hallway, my gaze inexorably drawn to the place where my mother had died. I squeezed my eyes shut as the memories of her ragged dying breaths filled my head. I stepped back into the bathroom and flipped on the light, leaving the door cracked open. I knew it was babyish to need a night-light, but there were too many memories in this house.
I stood in the doorway to my old room, wrestling with whether I should get my bag and move into another room. But maybe it was time for me to face the demons of my past as well as the demons of my present. After I changed into a pair of pajamas, I left the door to my room open so I could see the bathroom light. I pulled the dream catcher from my bag and hung it on the bed over my pillow. I lay there for several minutes, listening to the wind blow tree limbs against my window as I began to get drowsy.
I thought about David in the other room, probably happy to be sleeping in a real bed for the first time in several nights. I wondered what it would be like to be curled up next to him, his mouth on mine, his hands roaming my body.
Fatigue had taken over and my mind hovered in the purgatory between wakefulness and sleep. A bird squawked repeatedly outside my window. My foggy mind struggled to identify the creature. I blinked and tried to focus, then gasped.
Wapi was sitting on a tree branch watching me through the window, a ghoulish smile on his face.
Had I put fresh markings on the doors? Was there still salt on the window ledges?
I tried to sit up, but the tentacles of sleep refused to let go, pulling me deeper. Panic exploded as I was pulled under. This was no normal sleepiness. Somehow, supernatural forces were controlling me. “David,” I called out, but the sound was drowned out by Wapi’s cries.
“Witness to creation, Okeus is ready for you,” Wapi said, and then everything turned to darkness.
I came to in a dark earthen tunnel, the smell of dirt and mildew flooding my head. I lay on my side, and tiny rocks poked my legs and arms. I sat up, feeling groggy and unsure of where I was or what I was doing. A dim light shone at the end of the tunnel.
This was a dream.
I climbed to my feet and held onto the wall to right myself.
A scream echoed through the tunnel, and I pressed my back against the earth wall, my heart racing. This felt more real than any of my other dreams, even those with the spirits and the ones about my mother.
The scream echoed again and I had two choices: find a way to escape, or help whomever was screaming. I really wanted to leave, but I couldn’t live with myself if I made the decision to walk away. Still, I wasn’t sure I could purposely make myself go toward the screams either. Especially after the way Ukinim had tricked me at the lighthouse.
But I took one step forward and then another. The light grew closer and closer as I moved toward it. The end of the tunnel opened into a big room, and when I was only a few feet away, I stumbled on a pile of bones. I covered my mouth to hold back a cry of fright, while another scream came from ahead. The smell of decay and blood hung heavy in the air.
I was in the badgers’ lair.
Trying to stay in the shadows, I pressed my back against the wall and edged closer to the entrance. A woman stood in a corner, her feet spread in a defensive stance, her face a mask of terror. The badgers paced in front of her. Each time she tried to slip by, one of them would slash at her with their claws.
I couldn’t stand here and watch this. I held up my palm and began to recite the words of protection, keeping my voice low.
“I am the daughter of the sea, born of the essence present at the—”
Nothing happened.
The badgers heard me and slowly turned around, their eyes glittering in the moonlight that streamed through a hole overhead.
“Witness to creation,” Ukinim growled, his eyes enlarging.
The woman saw me and became frantic. “Help!”
The badgers slowly advanced on me, and I caught sight of another opening on the other side of the room. I took several steps backward, and the woman began to sob.
“Don’t leave me. Please!”
Squatting, I reached into the pile of bones and grabbed a long one with a jagged point, trying to ignore the muscles and slimy bits that were still attached. “Go!”
She headed for the opening, but the smaller badger blocked her path. Her sobs echoed off the walls.
“Let her go,” I said, rising again, my voice shaking with fear. “I’m the one you want.”
“Wrong,” Ukinim said with a growl. “We want you both.”
Ilena trapped the woman in the corner as Ukinim advanced on me.
I raised the bone in my hand, ready to strike.
Ukinim lunged and I jumped to the side, barely escaping his claws as I jabbed the bone into his eye with as much strength as I could muster. The badger shrieked and rushed toward me but veered sideways and bumped into the earthen wall, jamming the bone deeper and eliciting more shrieks. I scrambled backward and grabbed two more bones while keeping my eyes on my enemies, staying on Ukinim’s blind side.
Hearing her mate’s distress, Ilena turned and growled, hunkering low to the ground.
“You must die, witness to creation.”
“Not if I can help it,” I mumbled as I approached her and her intended victim.
Ukinim squealed behind me, violently shaking his head.
Ilena crouched lower and then pounced. I jumped out of the way, but her claws sank deeply into my upraised forearm.
I cried out in pain.
The woman continued to sob in the corner, even though the exit was clear. Why was she still here?
“Go!” I shouted.
Ilena lunged at me again, swinging high. I scrambled backward, trying to determine how to use the bone in my right hand as a weapon. It was shorter than the one still protruding from Ukinim’s eye, and I would be risking significant injury if I got close enough to strike.
Ukinim’s cries had quieted and I n
oticed movement at my side. He was advancing toward me. “I will make you pay, witness to creation. I will take your own eye.”
Blood ran down my arm, and my wound throbbed.
Now I was trapped between the two of them, and the woman was still in the corner.
“Run!” I shouted.
She finally ran for the exit, but Ilena spun around to chase her. Anxious to save the woman, I jammed one of the bones in the badger’s ear. She squealed, but the bone fell to the floor. The wound wouldn’t incapacitate her, but I had bought the woman enough time to escape.
The sound of Ilena’s cries of pain caught Ukinim’s attention, and a low, menacing growl filled the cavern.
Now I was alone with two very angry badgers. Fantastic.
But during the struggle, I noticed something: when Ilena cried out, Ukinim’s good eye rested on his mate for a good second before returning to me, and Ilena had stopped tormenting the woman when I injured Ukinim.
I’d just discovered their weakness.
They paced and stalked until they had me in the corner where they’d set upon the woman. I had one bone left to defend myself.
Ukinim bared his teeth as he snarled and leapt. I cringed at the sight of his paw swinging toward me. I lifted the bone high, hoping it would offer some defense, but just as his claw was about to reach my face, I suddenly flashed to an entirely different location.
I stood next to a tall tree in a field of grass and white flowers. The full moon hung in the sky above me. I spun around, trying to figure out where I was, when an owl hooted above my head. I jumped backward, grabbing my bleeding forearm.
The owl flew down to a lower branch.
“You’re Ahone’s messenger.” I tried to keep the bitterness from my voice.
“Your journey is almost complete.”
“Does that mean you’re going to kill me?”
The owl hooted, then said, “Neither I nor Ahone will kill you tonight.”
“There are so many things wrong with that sentence,” I mumbled, raising the bone I still held in my right hand. “Are you here to give me Ahone’s symbol?”
“You have one more task on your journey.”
“And then what?”
“And then you will be rewarded.” The owl’s eyes penetrated mine. “Some things are merely illusions. The beautiful becomes ugly when the scales of sleep fall from your eyes. The ugly becomes beautiful when you look for the truth.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“The dream world is shifting again. Ahone saved you from Ukinim, but he can’t save you from where you are going now. That is up to you and how you use the resources you’ve been given.”
I blinked and suddenly I was on an island. The moonlight glittered off the rippling waves. I was on the sound and not the ocean, I realized. My pajamas had been replaced with a flowing white skirt that blew around my legs and a gauzy white shirt that hung open, exposing a white bikini top. The wound on my arm was gone.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment with great anticipation.”
I spun around to face Okeus. He stood on an embankment, watching me with a patient expression.
It was my day of reckoning.
I froze, my heart slamming into my rib cage.
He smiled, and his face lit up with a beauty I hadn’t expected. The last time I saw him—the night of the ceremony—he was wearing a loincloth, but tonight he was dressed in jeans and a fitted T-shirt that covered a well-developed chest and muscular arms. His jet-black hair had been long on one side and short on the other, but tonight it was all trimmed closer to his head, the breeze tousling his dark waves. Okeus was the manifestation of masculine perfection.
He held his hands out and chuckled. “Not what you were expecting?”
“No.” I had to force the word out, my fear stealing my breath away.
“There’s no need to be afraid, Ellie.”
He used my name. Every other spirit and god used one of my titles. Never my name.
“Why not?” I asked, walking backward, drawn instinctively to the water. “The last time I saw you, you threatened to torture me for hundreds of years.”
He walked over and offered his hand as I entered the sound. “I spoke in haste, Ellie. Before I had a chance to think. You’re perfectly safe.” But the sentence sounded unfinished—the “for now” was unspoken but understood.
I refused his hand, crossing my arms under my breasts. I stayed in the water, taking another step into it. Now it reached my calves, and the edge of my skirt was brushing the top of the waves.
“I wish to start over.”
“Why?”
“Because I think we each have something the other wants.”
Was this how his messenger had approached Collin?
He tilted his head as he studied me, a pensive look on his face. “Come, dine with me. I have a meal prepared for you. As well as a surprise.”
I took a step backward, moving still deeper into the water. “What is it?”
He winked. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Come sit with me anyway.” He reached for me again, but I stepped to the side. I couldn’t get away from him by walking into the sound. I only had one option: to hear him out and look for a way to escape. I began to step out of the water, swinging wide of him.
He laughed and climbed the embankment, turning to wait for me.
I glanced down at my palm with dismay. The words of protection hadn’t helped me with the badgers. I was trapped, especially since Ahone wouldn’t intervene this time. Without the mark on my palm, what resources did I have to save me from Okeus?
So far, Okeus was nothing like the monster I’d seen the night of his escape. The god who’d carved his mark into my arm with a razor-sharp claw. The question was, why? What did I have that he wanted, other than the obvious? But if he wanted my Manitou, wouldn’t he just take it? And if he planned to take me to Popogusso to torture me as he’d threatened in the past, why waste time trying to butter me up?
I followed him to a table covered in a white cloth that was fluttering in the breeze. Multiple candles crowded the table, their flames flickering. Several platters of fruit and cheese covered the rest of the space. There were two chairs at either end, and Okeus pulled one out for me.
I reluctantly sat, grabbing the sides of my seat with my hands.
He took the chair opposite me, an amused smile on his face. “You look nervous, Ellie. I only wish to talk.”
“Why are you calling me Ellie?”
One of his dark eyebrows arched higher than the other. “Ellie is the name you prefer, correct? As opposed to Elinor?”
“Yes. But the others call me by my titles.”
“They use them as a sign of respect.”
I wanted to point out that I was sure it wasn’t, but I was more interested in getting some other answers from him. “Why are you dressed like that?” I asked, waving my hand toward him. “The last time I saw you, you were dressed more . . .”
“Native?”
I nodded.
“I thought you’d be more comfortable if I looked more like you.”
I hated to admit it, but he had a point. In fact, his clothes, the table, his manners were all setting me at ease in spite of myself. “Why do you care if I’m comfortable?”
He laughed and passed a plate of sliced peaches toward me. I loved peaches, and the smell wafting toward me made my stomach grumble.
“Have a slice, Ellie.”
I knew enough about folk- and fairy tales to not to accept any food from him. Too many stories ended with people getting stuck places as a result of eating something they shouldn’t. “No, thank you.”
“Suit yourself.” He set the plate down in front of me, sighing in disappointment. “I suppose you want to know why you’re here.”
“Yes.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I’ve already told you that I realized I spoke in haste over a fort
night ago. And I would like to offer a proposition to you.”
“What kind of proposition?”
“Ahone took something from you, something you love. I would like to give it back.”
My breath stuck in my chest. “Daddy?”
His smile widened.
I was smart enough to know it wouldn’t come without a price. “What do you want in return?”
“Are you always this cynical, Ellie?”
I forced a grin. “You said we both had something the other wanted. What is it that you want?”
Something was off. I knew this was a dream, but everything felt a bit too perfect. The food was too beautiful. The temperature too comfortable.
The owl had warned me. Some things are merely illusions. The beautiful becomes ugly when the scales of sleep fall from your eyes. The ugly becomes beautiful when you look for the truth.
I stood up. “I think I’m ready to go.”
Okeus stayed seated, and I saw irritation flicker across his face before it was replaced by his jovial demeanor. “But Ellie, you just got here. Sit. Please. We’ll discuss a business proposition.”
Business. “I can hear it just fine standing.”
His eyes narrowed. “I must insist, Ellie. I still haven’t shown you your surprise.”
I slowly sat down, keeping my eyes on him. I was ready to flee if necessary, even though there was nowhere for me to go.
“Would you like to have your father returned to you?”
“That’s impossible.” But was it? Hadn’t I spent the first days after his death stalking the hidden gate to Popogusso, hoping I could somehow get him back?
“See for yourself.”
A light glowed in the trees and a shadowy figure appeared in their midst.
My breath caught and my head was swamped with a cloud of confusion and disbelief. I stood and took a step toward the trees.
“Ahone was wrong to take him from you.”
I spun to face Okeus, finally finding my anger. I latched onto it like a life preserver. “You wanted to take him from me first.”
He stood and moved toward me, stopping several feet away.
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