by Chloe Adler
I pause, trying to find the right words, but Thorn squawks at me to keep going.
Here goes. “I gave mine to Nolan, knowing that I can’t ever wear it again.”
Thorn jumps up and down, his wings mantling and sending a pile of mail on the coffee table sliding to the floor.
I pet his back to calm him. “Hear me out, please.”
He settles again, watching me.
“It won’t do you any good to tear it off his neck. I’m sure that’s where your mind is going. It won’t ever work for another person now, only him.” I rub my hands on my jeans and look out the window even though it’s too dark to see anything other than the faint glow of light from Caspian’s house.
“It’s not hopeless, just difficult. I did make a similar amulet for Chrys once. It’s not as powerful as the one Aurelia made me, but it’s a good one.” Would it protect her from that demon if it wanted her though? I shake my head. Probably not.
“I need to get my hands on my mother’s grimoire. There’s something about Aurelia’s amulets. They’re just . . . better. Stronger. Longer lasting. And you can’t tear them off, most importantly. If I can figure out how she makes them so powerful, I can use it not only to make better amulets, but also to protect our town, maybe find a cure for the ghouls altogether.
I stand up and go into Dominic’s kitchen. I open all the cupboards to check and see what’s available—and to jog my thoughts into some semblance of order. “I don’t have the herbs I need here to make a new one for myself.”
Thorn flies to the counter and watches me.
Rummaging through Dom’s stash, I shake my head. “Only the main cooking herbs are here, which are great for a lot of spells, but not one for full protection. The first time, I had to use whatever herbs I could find here and I left out some key ingredients. I’m pretty sure Aurelia uses oil of abramelin. I couldn’t find any mandrake either, which coalesces and intensifies all the others. The abramelin is for protection against demonic forces.”
He extends one foot and taps the counter with a single talon, pointing out that we can always get some and bring it here.
“But even with every herb I could want at my fingertips, it’s not enough. Even Aurelia’s grimoire isn’t enough. I need Aurelia. And I just don’t see that happening if I stay here.”
A grumble starts low in Thorn’s throat, growing into a puff of smoke. I’m sure it’s meant to be intimidating, but it’s all I can do to stifle a laugh.
“I can imagine what you’re thinking.” He’s probably trying to figure out a way to stop me or follow me. “But I’ll be safe at my mother’s house. Even if something is foolish enough to come in uninvited, Aurelia is one scary witch.”
I turn around and close the cabinet. I’m such a coward not to tell the others, but at least if something happens, Thorn knows the whole score. He hops over to me and head-butts my arm. The move is affectionate and exasperated and resigned all at once.
Chapter Ten
Dominic
“I’ll step outside for a few minutes,” Burgundy says, then walks out the door and leaves me alone.
The effects of Burgundy’s blood are instantaneous. A few drops, and my tiny little bones are knitting back together. After another minute I stretch my wing out and give it an experimental flap.Then I shift.
Bones crunch and twist. I wail in agony as they spread out to their full human length. Writhing on the floor in pain is not a pretty sight, nor one that many can endure. My eyes are squeezed tight, mostly to keep them in their sockets but also because shifting is disorienting enough without being aware of vision changes on top of it all.
When the tearing, popping and grinding stop, I lay naked on the floor, panting for a minute. No matter how many times I do this, it never gets easier. And though the bones in my arm are whole again and won’t pull, twist or even tear further as a result of the shift, that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt. My medium shift is the least painful, probably because it’s closer to my human size and shape. But my small and large shifts are excruciating. I can only equate it to what I’d imagine it feels like to have a baby, without anesthetic. Lucky for us, it doesn’t last nearly as long as labor, a few minutes at the most.
I’m finally on my feet and leaning forward to catch my balance when Burgundy knocks once and enters.
She stands in the doorway, staring at my naked body, her violet eyes widening. She appears entranced, licking her lips and staring at me the way Nolan was staring at her only minutes ago. Hungrily.
“I’d offer you a blanket,” she takes a step inside and closes the door behind her, “but I like the view better this way.”
I can’t help smiling at her joke but I cup my hands over my groin, suddenly self-conscious.
Burgundy disappears into Caspian’s bedroom and returns with his comforter. Taking the blanket from her, I wrap it around my body and move to the couch. I need a few moments of downtime.
Burgundy sits next to me. “Would you like some more of my blood?”
“No, I’ll be fine. I can’t thank you enough for healing me.” I clear my throat repeatedly. It’s lined with sandpaper.
“Oh I know you don’t need my blood but I can give you some oxytocin to deal with the way you’re feeling right now. You know, the feel-good hormone.”
“I know what oxytocin is, but no, thank you. Really, I’ll be fine. I just need a few minutes.” And some water.
She leans closer to me. “I’m in an open relationship, and I find you very attractive, if you’d like something else.”
Damn. She’s a stunning woman and I can’t imagine it being easy for any person to resist her, but I’m just not interested. I only want Iphigenia.
I shift away from her an inch and then look up, my eyes lingering on her full red lips.
She grins. “Oh good, you’re thinking about it.”
I’m not. I’m thinking about Iphi’s lips. “I . . .”
“You?”
To Burgundy’s credit she doesn’t lean in or touch me. She waits. I push my hands underneath my thighs and sit on them. My feelings for Iphi are insanely strong, even if they are unrequited. Sure, I could turn off my desire for Iphi or redirect it toward Burg, even pretend for an hour that she’s the woman of my dreams. It would be so easy to take her up on her offer, to lose myself in her soft curves, to let myself go. After all, Iphi’s chosen her men and I’m not one of them. Shit, who am I kidding? Using Burg to forget about Iphi would be disrespectful to both women and it would be dishonest to myself.
“I can’t,” I say after a pregnant pause.
“Can’t physically, like you’re not able to, or can’t mentally, like you don’t want to?”
“My body wants to, believe me. You’re a gorgeous woman. Anyone who plays for your team would be lying if they said they didn’t want you. But—” I ruffle my hair. “I—”
“Shhh.” She waves the awkwardness away. “It’s written all over your face. You don’t have to say it. You’re in love with someone else. They are a very lucky person.”
She catches me off guard. What a perceptive woman. I bark out a laugh. “I hope they see it that way someday. Right now they see me only as a friend.”
“That’s where love begins.” Burgundy stands up and rubs her palms together. “If you ever want some unsolicited advice, you know where to find me. Now let’s go back to Iphi’s so she knows everything worked and you’re fixed up.”
I stand up, pulling the comforter tighter around myself, and follow Burgundy out the door.
Caspian
Burgundy and Dominic open the door and step inside. Dom really should have stopped at his house for his clothes before coming here.
Iphi, who returned a moment ago, rushes over to them, a handful of clothing in her arms and his glasses perched on top. She touches Dom’s arm through the blanket and leans in. He shivers and who could blame him? “Here, I got you these,” she breathes.
Burgundy narrows her eyes. “Oh I see,” she mutters, leaning
into Dom’s side. “That’s a little more complicated.”
What the hell is she referring to?
Iphi looks between the two of them, color flaring in her face, but says nothing. Is she jealous that Burgundy leaned so close to Dom? Something invisible crackles in the air between them. Maybe he scored while he was over there. Nah, they weren’t gone long enough.
“Where did you get these?” Dom asks and Iphi giggles sweetly.
“I ran and got them at your house while Burgundy was helping you.”
Dom’s eyes widen. “Did Caspian or Thorn go with you?” He shoots me a look and I yawn, flashing my fangs.
What do you think, Dom, that we’d let her go alone?
“Thorn did. But it’s not like you can’t let me out of your sight. I’m not helpless.”
“We don’t think you are but those ghouls don’t play nice.” Dom throws me a look.
I flash my needle-sharp claws at him and roll my head. We’d never have left her alone, dude. He gives me a slow nod and relaxes. Dom always could read me in my shifts. Rhys, on the other hand . . . Ack, poor Rhys. I miss him and I’m pretty sure Iphi does too, even though she hasn’t said it.
Thorn flies over and lands on Iphi’s shoulder.
Dom throws him a half smile. “I’ll go change.” He goes into the bathroom with his clothes and the comforter, which I secretly hope he drags into the toilet.
While Dom’s in the bathroom changing, Burgundy sidles up next to Iphi.
“Any problems?” asks Iphi.
“Well, there was one thing,” says Burg.
“What?” Iphi’s eyes widen.
“Dom said no to sex.”
Oh, what a smart vampire girl.
Iphi’s cheeks flush and she turns away, pretending to straighten a picture on the wall that’s already straight. “Why?”
“Why did I offer him sex or why did he say no?”
Thorn flutters his wings. I bite back a growl. Nolan looks like a kicked puppy.
“Yes to both,” says Iphi.
And one point for Iphi.
“I offered because I’m in an open relationship, I find him very attractive, and after his ordeal I thought a release would be welcome. Some flesh-on-flesh contact to forget his woes.”
“Understandable.”
“And he said no because,” she leans toward Iphi and stage-whispers, “I think he’s in love with someone else.”
Iphi jumps back as if scalded. Does she know that someone else is her? I do. Thorn must, even though he doesn’t react. Rhys may not be here but that vampire is anything but daft. Nolan and Iphi are probably the only two who don’t know.
Less than an hour later everyone leaves, including me. I go behind the Palace to shift back into my human form, then knock on Iphigenia’s front door.
“Who is it?” Her voice is weary; the poor thing sounds bone tired.
“It’s me. Caspian.”
She opens the door and then inhales, covering her mouth with her hand. I look down and realize I’m naked.
“Come in, come in.” She motions and steps aside for me to enter, then closes the door behind me. “Why didn’t you go back to your house to put on some clothes?”
“I know it’s late, but I couldn’t wait. I wanted to see you as soon as they left. To talk to you. To make sure you’re all right.” I take a step forward, holding out my arms, but she hesitates. I wait for a second and then drop my arms. They fall heavily to my sides, as though I’ve just carried two DSLR cameras equipped with heavy telephoto lenses for several miles. Or a single broken heart.
Iphigenia
“Sorry, I’m just really tired.”
He looks down and away, turning sideways to hide his genitals from view. I know my actions are hurting him but if I’m going to leave I need some space, at the very least. To decide.
“Do you want me to go?” He takes a step toward the door and I look away from the flash of his toned ass.
“No, please stay for a few minutes.” I chew on the inside of my cheek, glad that I’m the only empath in the house. I don’t want him to stay but I feel incredibly guilty about it. I swallow, trying to moisten the pain in the back of my throat.
He walks to the couch and grabs a blanket off the back, wrapping it around his midsection, then sits and looks at me.
I move to join him and he reaches for my hand but I pull back, sitting on the opposite end of the couch where I turn toward him and cross my legs.
His brows pinch. “Iphi, what’s wrong?”
I suck in a lungful of air. “I am beyond grateful to all of you for giving me this place, the Palace, especially after the way my mother treated me, but I can’t stay.”
“What? Why not? Did we do something wrong?”
“No, no of course not. It’s nothing to do with you, with any of you.”
Caspian scoots even farther away from me, his fingers twitching in his lap. “But . . .”
“Hear me out.”
My emotions fracture like a mismatched collage cut from magazines and old photographs, then pasted back together to form an incoherent mess. “It’s complicated. I need to get back to my mother’s. Right now I need her on a myriad of levels.”
“To change Thorn back, and . . . ?”
“She can help me find a way to keep the ghouls at bay or maybe change them back.” I don’t add the part about me needing my own amulet now or that I’m not confident about making it myself. There’s more, of course. I bite my lip. How can I tell him that I don’t deserve two men? That I’m overwhelmed? That I may have feelings for Dominic? That the balance of the Edge is precarious right now and the timing is just off? Omit, deflect, evade. “I can’t waste time trying to solve this by myself. I need help.” There, that’s true enough.
He shakes his blond mane, and for the first time I notice it’s the same color as his lion’s, a golden wheat. “But Aurelia’s not the only powerful witch you know. What about your sisters?”
Damn him and his logic for making this harder. But he has a point. Chrys and I aren’t nearly as powerful as Mom, but Sadie is growing into her considerable power more every day. And she has access to her lover’s family’s grimoire. It would be foolish not to ask her for help. “All right, you have a point. I’ll try working with Sadie first, but, Caspian . . .”
He leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees.
“You have to accept that I know more about this than you do. And if there’s any chance that I’ll need Aurelia’s help, I have to leave the Grove. And soon.”
A vein pulses on the side of his forehead. “What about us?”
“I . . . I don’t know. I can’t think about that right now.” The reality of my statement hangs, cold and harsh in the stale air.
Chapter Eleven
Thorn
The next day I keep Iphi company as she practices her self-defense moves in the center of our field. It feels off somehow to do it without Rhys, but he’s been radio-silent since Iphi asked for space. Caspian’s not out here watching her or trying to touch her either. I know if I were in my human form, that’s where my mind would be, but my brother doesn’t appear at all. Dominic, though, comes out several times to bring her bottles of water, nuts and a sandwich. When she isn’t completely focused on her stretching, she beams her megawatt smile at him, and my blood, already lizard cold, drops a few degrees more.
“Thorn.” Iphi calls me over as the light shifts to that perfect hour before darkness falls. “Come with me to Sadie’s?”
I flutter my wings and hop onto her shoulder. She stops at her house to gather some things but doesn’t shower or change out of her workout clothes. As she walks to the parking lot, I wonder whose car she’s borrowing but my answer comes as the lights of Sadie’s work truck lance the fading sunlight.
“Hey, sis,” Iphi calls as Sadie gets out.
Sadie envelops her younger sister in a warm hug. I flap up and out of the way in time not to be included.
“Thorn,” Sadie greets me as
I hover near her sister’s shoulder. “Come on, guys, get in.”
She returns to the driver’s side. Iphi opens the passenger door and slides in, then holds her arm out to me. I land on it, and she pulls me inside and closes the door. The drive is quiet at first but tension hangs in the air, like the moment before I ziplined down through a rain forest in Costa Rica.
Sadie pulls over to the side of the road onto a lookout that faces the ocean. We’re still in the hills above the boardwalk, above downtown. The sun is setting, casting an orange and purple glow over the big top on the pier below. “Want to tell me what this is all about?”
Iphi stares straight ahead for a moment, and I wish I could comfort her somehow. But I don’t suppose she’d want an impromptu wrestling match or to learn how to set farts on fire. As the father figure to four boys, I learned to be whatever they needed at times, but I haven’t learned what Iphi needs yet. Papa Thorn indeed. I snort and Iphi starts. Oops. She looks down at me and sighs.
“Come on, Iph, spill it. This isn’t just about helping you replace your amulet. You forget, I know you.”
Like I know my brothers. We can always tell when one of us is bothered or hiding something. Or at least I’ve always believed that.
Iphi turns to look at Sadie, who is outlined in the dying light. Her flaming-red hair is muted now. Her sea-foam green eyes stare at Iphi without blinking.
“I guess if anyone would understand, it would be you,” Iphi says after a moment.
Sadie doesn’t say a word. She just let’s her sister sit with her thoughts. Like a good listener should.
“I’ve fallen in love with more than one man and they with me.”
“Sounds perfect.” Sadie smiles, and it’s genuine, lifting up the corners of her eyes.
“For you, maybe, or for Burgundy. But not for me. I can’t do it. I don’t know how to tell them. I don’t know how to end it with them . . .” She bites her lip and looks out the window.