“It’s…it’s me, Sia. I have something important to tell you, and—”
“I don’t care.” Wren planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes, then turned in just the right direction to make eye contact, had Sia not been invisible. “I don’t trust any of the Winged Blue anymore, not after what I overheard the triplets saying.”
Wren’s face showed quite clearly that she not even remotely happy to see…well, to hear, Sia. What had she overheard the triplets say? Sia wondered. What could they possibly have said that would make her distrust the Winged Blue so completely? It didn’t sound as if there was a shred of doubt in Wren’s mind that the Blue were now officially on the “bad guys” list, but Sia knew she had to convince Wren to trust her again. Just a little, just enough to get her to follow Sia down the hallway to wherever the two women in her vision were located. Because maybe, if she were lucky, they would overhear some part of the Winged Red’s plans that would clear things up for Wren…so she could once again trust the right group of Wingeds.
“Whatever you overheard, I swear, I…it’s not true. And also, I need to tell you about my vision.” The words rushed out of Sia’s mouth almost without help, and she allowed them to continue tumbling out into the air of the red-colored room and into Wren’s ears. She knew she didn’t have much time, either to save Wren or to save the Winged Blue. And the humans, as well. “So, I need you to know that a while back,” Sia said, “I started having visions, just like my grandfather. Then they stopped, I think because of a potion he gave me. I’m pretty sure, based on my last vision, one of the Winged Red has somehow taken over his mind. The one who was just kissing you. And in that vision, I saw a woman, with dark, wavy hair, who was standing above far too many Winged Red and who was about to lead them into battle. Oh, and she looked something like you and has a mole right above her left eyebrow. It’s in the shape of a heart, which is kind of cool, but she clearly isn’t. Cool, that is. I think that we should sneak down the hallway and find her, and that other young woman, the one you were…the one you were kissing, so we might overhear part of their plan.”
Sia took a deep breath, and as she was exhaling, Wren’s answer came. “You may be able to describe that woman because you actually saw her in that vision you just told me about, but you could have figured that out some other way, like from spying on her, and on me and on Ember. Which you kind of already did, when you appeared in my new bedroom. Why…why should I trust you?”
“I don’t know…I don’t know how to convince you, other than by having you hear it directly from her, her and your new buddy…but what do you have to lose?” Sia knew it wasn’t that simple, because if the woman in her vision was Wren’s mom, Wren actually did have something to lose. Something big.
“What do I have to lose?” Wren said quietly, a look of furrowed concentration on her attractive face making it seem as though she were actually considering Sia’s words. Wren bit her lip, which somehow managed to make her even more attractive to Sia. But she had to ignore her baser instincts right now, Sia reminded herself. She had to resist doing what she was picturing right then—sweeping Wren up in her arms and kissing her, and somehow managing to prove to Wren that better kissers than that horrible Ember bit…woman existed. Better kissers, and less-evil ones, too.
“I just…I have a lot to lose either way,” Wren finally said. “But I’d rather know for sure that Passea can be trusted, and Ember, too, so as long as you don’t switch the invisibility magic with one that’ll turn me into a Winged toad, I’m willing to trust you…at least enough to not turn me into a feathery amphibian.”
“I promise, you stay just as attrac…I mean, uh, you’ll stay yourself. Completely.” Sia tried to ignore Wren’s cute smirk, which appeared in the middle of that butchered sentence. Damn it, Wren had caught her little slip. She had other things to worry about right then, though, and decided to just be happy about the fact that Wren couldn’t see her blushing. She walked over to Wren and, taking Wren’s hand in hers, opened it, pressing the invisible half-empty bottle of potion into her hand.
It was visible once again the very second Sia let go of it, and Wren lifted it up to her face, examining it. “Looks like it’s at least marked appropriately. Here goes nothing,” she said, and she uncorked the small bottle and downed what was left of it. “Or, here goes something, I guess,” she added. Wren sounded surprised, but she was smiling by the time she’d looked down and seen her hands starting to fade. “This is pretty awesome,” said a now-invisible Wren. “Now what?”
“Now, we tiptoe into the hallway and go in whatever direction you suggest and try to hunt down Ember and Passea. Any idea where they’ll be?”
“None,” Wren told her, “but let’s just try going past my room, because I think I saw what looked like more sleeping quarters down that way.”
Sia began to walk forward, but Wren crashed into her before she could get very far. “Ouch! Wren, that was my foot. Watch out…please.”
“Fine,” came Wren’s voice, from slightly to Sia’s left. “I’ll go first. Stay where you are and follow me. Except…here, take the potion. And my hand. I don’t want you to fall behind.”
Sia felt Wren’s hand moving down her left arm, and then she could sense the pressure of the potion bottle in her left hand, followed by the warmth of Wren’s fingers and palm. She tried to ignore how good Wren’s hand felt in hers. In place of that thought, she redirected her attention to the pull from Wren’s hand that now traveled up her left arm, letting Wren lead her out of the room and down the hallway to their right.
The size of the hallway indicated that, unlike Torien’s home, this was more a palace than a mansion, and it was much more richly appointed, too. The walls were all constructed out of large, jewel-like stones, and their particular shade of red looked more like that of rubies than garnets. Sia didn’t have much time to wonder whether they were real or bespelled; nor did she have a chance to wonder what kind of person would build a palace out of such rare stones. Instead, she had no choice but to concentrate on keeping her footsteps as quiet as possible and also on not stumbling. It seemed clear that Wren wanted to find out if Sia was telling the truth, based on her quick and mostly silent pace.
After passing four or five doors to their right, Sia heard what she thought were women’s voices coming from a pair of large golden doors at the end of the hallway. Wren stopped there for a second, and then her movements became much quieter, only the final gentle tug on Sia’s arm letting her know Wren had moved closer to the door.
Sia joined Wren there, still holding her hand, and placed her ear against the door, hoping the voices would be loud enough for her to hear.
Sia was relieved to learn that she could hear them perfectly. At first she noticed that neither of the women who were talking sounded happy in the least. Nor did they sound like they were trying all that hard to keep their voices down, which made spying on them pretty darn easy. Sia would have been grateful for this if it hadn’t been for the way Wren’s grip on her hand fell slack at the first words they both overheard. She hadn’t thought till then that learning the truth about Passea might break Wren’s heart, hadn’t thought through what it might do to her. What kind of friend was she to Wren, if she hadn’t realized instantly how much this might hurt her?
“So, Piru is still acting under our orders, correct?” These were the first words they heard, from a voice that sounded old enough to be Wren’s mother. And Ember’s reply turned Sia’s guess into a certainty.
“Yes, Passea, he is.” Ember sounded somewhat bored, a fact that didn’t manage to surprise Sia in the least. “He will continued to mislead the Blue until the last moment possible, I promise you. My magic has always been pretty fucking powerful, as you know, and I topped myself off when I swallowed some of your daughter’s blood.”
“You weren’t supposed to do that!”
Passea sounded truly angry, but Ember didn’t seem intimidated in the least. “Aw, you know she wouldn’t notice. She’s too love-s
truck by me right now to think I’m capable of the slightest misdeed, the dumb little kitten.”
“My daughter isn’t dumb.”
“Sure she isn’t, Passea. But back to more important things. Do I still get to keep a human as a personal slave once we take over Earth?”
“Do whatever you want with them once we arrive, Ember. You know that lesser species are too stupid to even understand enslavement. They’ll probably be grateful to us for taking charge of all their decision-making.”
Now Sia wanted to stop the Winged Red more than ever, the quickly whirling pool of anger within her head almost causing her to slam that closed door open and tell Passea off. Her time spent on Earth with the humans and from getting to know Denise had taught her quite well that the humans would mind. However, she just might be okay with Ember taking Wren’s stepdad for her personal slave. That would be a good way to get even with both of them. But all those other humans? No way in hell would she let the Winged Red’s plan come to pass.
“And of course I’ll still be taking care of Wren, just to remind you. That’ll be fun!” Ember cackled at the end of her sentence—it wasn’t a pleasant laugh, that was for sure. No, it didn’t hold even a shred of anything sweet or good.
“Yes, you will. But remember, Ember, you aren’t allowed to harm her. You’ll just have to take out all that aggression on any of the Blue that get in your way.”
“Yeah, that’ll be fun, too, but remember, the prophecy was vague about Wren and her part in this. Whatever dumbass wrote that prophecy didn’t seem to want to make it clear enough to actually be understood completely. And now, thanks to Wren, we don’t even have access to it.”
Now that was good news.
But what Ember said next definitely wasn’t. “So, I’ll keep Wren safe, as long as she doesn’t get in my way. Or annoy me.”
“Ember…” Sia could hear the unspoken warning in Passea’s voice, clear as anything, and she hoped Ember had heard it, too. But now that Wren had to believe her, she could get her back to Shyon, safe and sound. And they wouldn’t have to worry about Wren getting hurt by that bitch Ember anymore. Unless the battle with the Winged Red didn’t go well. Which there was still a chance of, Sia admitted to herself, the unpleasant thought triggering a sudden jolt of pain in the middle of her chest.
Just then, she heard Wren rush toward the wall to the right of the double doors. She realized that between her immense anger and her growing list of worries, she hadn’t heard the sound of Ember walking to the doors; only a moment later, one of them began to open.
“I’m looking forward to all of it, especially seeing the shocked look on Wren’s face when she discovers it all was a lie.” Sia could see Ember’s face now, her expression of self-satisfied pride souring Sia’s mood even further.
“I’m afraid that I’m not looking forward to that part, no matter how necessary it is. At least I won’t be here to see it,” came Passea’s somewhat gentler voice from beyond the now-open door. “And remember,” she said, her voice regaining all of its previous harshness and then some, “you are not to lay a finger on her. She may be the Winged Blue’s only chance of winning, but she’s still my daughter.”
“Sure, whatever you say, Passea.” Ember shut the door behind her, muttering the word “Idiot” as she began to walk down the hallway and away from the closed golden doors.
Sia felt Wren begin to move, leading Sia forward once more with her still-invisible hand. They crept almost soundlessly down the hallway, following Ember. Then she opened a door to their left and disappeared inside. But before she shut the door, Sia overheard her say, “Like I’d actually keep her stupid daughter safe. She’ll make a delightful plaything before I—” Sia was somewhat grateful when Ember shut the door, cutting off a sentence whose ending was best left unheard. “Come on!” she whispered to Wren. “We’ve got to get back to your room, and then we’ve got to get you home.”
“You’re right,” came Wren’s answer in a muted, defeated-sounding tone.
Sia took over leading, and soon enough, they reached Wren’s room, where the invisibility potion started to wear off. “Good timing on that!” Sia said, the tightness in her limbs beginning to loosen now that she could return to speaking at a normal volume. “Now, how’d you like to get out of here?”
“I’d like nothing more than…than…”
But before Wren could finish her sentence, she began to shake, shuddering violently, and her face started to disappear. First her mouth, then nose, and then, finally, her bright, beautiful eyes faded away.
Sia didn’t take time to think. She just unstoppered the portal-making bottle, poured out a little more of the liquid, and shouted, “My house!” Then she grabbed Wren’s hand and dragged her through the portal, not looking back for a single instant.
Chapter Thirty-two
The journey through the portal from the land of the Winged Red to Sia’s home seemed like it was over in a second, and perhaps it was. Or maybe Sia had been completely distracted by her current worries about what was happening to Wren. What had all that shaking been about? And her face disappearing had been equally alarming to Sia.
They had landed in a heap on the kitchen floor of Sia’s home, where her mother and her brother sat eating what looked to be a midnight snack. She would have asked for some of the fruit and bread for herself, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she had now noticed that Wren’s face was no longer blank. But it clearly wasn’t Wren who had traveled through the portal with her, because underneath her lay the last person in the world she wanted to be lying on top of: Ember, whose red wings were out for all the room’s inhabitants to see.
“Where are we?” Ember asked, and Sia couldn’t get off her fast enough.
“What have you done with Wren?” Sia asked in return.
“Who’s that?” Zyr looked from Ember to Sia as Sia took a few steps back for safety’s sake. “What have you done, bringing a Winged Red back to our world?”
“That,” Sia answered, jabbing an accusing, angry finger in Ember’s direction, “is a young woman who is officially my biggest enemy, number one on my crap list.”
“I think you mean ‘shit list’?” Ember appeared nervous as she said this, but she clearly wasn’t as panicked as she looked, or she wouldn’t have bothered to correct Sia. “And what do you mean, I’m your biggest enemy? I thought you were still trying to convince me I could trust you again. I mean, now I do, but I’m confused, and—”
“Stop with this horse-shit innocent act, Ember. I can’t believe you had me fooled all along. But how you managed to be in two places at once and disguise yourself as poor Wren, I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll all come out in time. Too bad we Winged Blue are above torturing people, unlike you jerkholes!”
“Language, Sia. And keep it down. Your father’s sleeping. I told him to try to get some more rest while I waited for a potion to finish melding, one I’d forgotten about until it was my own daughter who had disappeared. And apparently I woke Kriss when I left my bedroom to make it. Now it looks like I won’t need that potion after all.” Zyr leveled a fierce glare at Sia, but it was clear to her that Zyr was more relieved than angry. At least, Sia hoped that was the case. “You had us worried, very worried!” Zyr said. “And now you’ve brought this young woman through the portal instead of Wren?”
“I didn’t mean to, I swear.” Sia raised her hands in a Winged Blue gesture of innocence, one that she believed the humans used sometimes, too. “I thought she was Wren,” she explained, lowering her hands with a frustrated thump on her thighs. “But she’s Ember, one of the highest-ranking Winged Red, as you can see, and she and Wren’s mother are assembling forces to attack us. Very soon.”
“I’m not Ember, Sia. Please, you’ve got to believe me!” Ember sounded convincingly pained, but it was obviously an act, Sia thought; somebody that evil was definitely capable of such convincing theatrics.
“Prove it!” Sia yanked Ember up from the floor and dropped her into one of the kitchen
table’s empty chairs. Then she flipped the nearest chair around and sat opposite her.
“How’s she supposed to do that?” Kriss asked, and Sia knew him well enough to know she hadn’t imagined that hint of a smile at the end of his sentence.
It was a fair question, but Sia didn’t care. She wanted to watch Ember squirm, even if she was only doing it for show. It would be satisfying either way. “Go ahead, try to prove it, just try.”
“O…okay. Remember all that stuff I told you about my stepdad, when we were sitting on that rock in my favorite clearing?”
“You could have gotten that information out of Wren while you had her in captivity.”
“But…I…if you don’t believe me, if you don’t trust me, how on Earth am I supposed to convince you?”
Zyr rose from the table, wiped her mouth with a cloth napkin, and pushed her half-empty plate in Sia’s direction. “Go ahead and finish my fruit and bread. You look hungry. I’m going upstairs to get one of my experimental potions. I’m not sure it’ll work, but it may get us some honesty out of this young lady. Either she’s telling the truth, or we’ll be able to drag some of the Winged Red’s plans out of her in the event she isn’t.”
“I’ll drink anything you want.” Ember looked like she meant it, which surprised Sia. Wouldn’t she want to put up a fight, try to avoid letting them learn anything about the Winged Red’s battle schemes?
“Why? Why would you?” Sia took a small bite of the slice of purple peach that sat on her mom’s small, flowered plate. Zyr had been right—she was hungry; apparently all that stress had helped her work up an appetite. She would have assumed that her fear in the land of the Winged Red would have done the opposite. Her stomach had felt like it contained a cloud of fanged butterflies the whole time she’d been in the Winged Red’s land. But apparently, now that she was safely back in her homeland, and with Ember as their captive to boot, her stomach had decided to settle itself. And then some.
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