I struggled to breathe, to find the words. I needn’t have worried.
“Are you out of your mind?” Oka screeched. “You sent her into a place that held the ghosts of her past, you sent her and she battled a demon, and a shape shifter, and two trolls. And you ask if it was difficult? If you were any sort of a mentor, you’d be there, helping her! Useless like tits on a bull is what you are!” She puffed up and skittered across the island, bouncing on her toes with each word, stopping only when she was close enough to him that she could throw a swat at him.
With great effort, I pulled myself together, straightened my shoulders and nodded. “It was not easy. But it is done.”
“A demon?” The question was clear. He didn’t believe me.
Just like so many others, he would underestimate me, he would believe what I said was done in an effort to make myself look better than others.
And now I would let him wallow in that belief.
And I would let him see all I really was when the time was right.
CHAPTER 17
RAVEN’S LACK OF belief in my abilities hurt me, but I had to remind myself that that would work in my favor. Even if I didn’t like it. I leaned on the counter of the kitchen, let the cool of the granite top ground me.
“No, of course not,” I said softly. “Oka is being protective. There was a single troll. That was enough.” I tapped my fingers on the island, beckoning my familiar back to me. Her eyes widened and I tried to send her a thought.
Let him believe I am weak. Let him underestimate us both.
Her mouth opened as if she would argue and then she clamped it shut.
“Your familiar . . . she believes in you,” Raven said. “Perhaps you should tell her not to spread tales.”
Oka hissed as I scooped her off the island. I cleared my throat. “I’ll do that.”
I would have left the kitchen right then, gone to my room and collapsed onto my bed in order to sleep off the last few hours. Had it only been that many? But that wasn’t to be.
The door opened into the kitchen and Belladonna, Lark’s sister, strode in. I’d only met her once, but I’d remember her anywhere. Dark brown hair fell in loose waves over her bare shoulders and she wore a spider web black gown that clung to her sensuous curves. Her eyes flicked over me. “This is the witch you are training?” Her voice was not Belladonna’s and I realized this was the woman Raven had been speaking with in the library. The woman who’d spoken about Lark as if she were just a chess piece.
I stared, open-mouthed for a moment. Not Belladonna then, but a close relative.
Raven waved a hand between us. “Yes, this is Pamela.”
He did not introduce me to Cassava. She and I stared at each other and I wasn’t sure what it was, but I could not take my eyes from her. She was like a venomous snake coiled in the corner. As long as I watched, she would not bite me.
But I had no doubt the first time I took my eyes from her, she would strike.
I gave her a curt nod. It was the best I could do. She strode toward me and it took all my strength not to back away. Oka cringed against me, liking her no more than I did.
With a single finger Cassava tipped my chin up and stared down into my eyes.
“Perhaps you are right, Raven. She has great strength in all five elements.”
Right about what? About killing me when he was done with me?
I twisted my face away from her. Raven let out a sigh. “Pamela, before we go onto the next step, I have to go and . . . deal with something.”
I almost said Lark’s name. I wanted to. To ask him if it was Lark he had to deal with. But I bit my tongue. And then I realized that it meant he would leave me here with Cassava.
“I don’t want to stay here with her.” I kept my tone even. “You said you would train me, so train me. Don’t pawn me off on someone else like a child who needs a caregiver.”
I arched an eyebrow at him and he sighed. Torn, I could see it in his face that he wanted me to come with him. Cassava snorted. “She is like her mother, foolish and impetuous. That is a shame.”
Raven frowned and for the first time I saw a real anger flash over his handsome features. He held a hand out to me. “Get your boots on, Pam. You can come with me.”
I scrambled to get my boots, not even bothering to buckle them before I put my hand in Raven’s. I grabbed my cloak and tightened it around my neck, made sure Oka was settled on my shoulder.
Raven reached over, took the glass that held the ghost tears and then with a final look at Cassava we were gone.
Her last words echoed around us. “He thinks he is right, little witch. But do not trust him.”
We were gone from Jack’s mansion, and for a moment, I thought we would float longer in the Veil as we rode Spirit, but as fast as ever, we were somewhere new.
A cold wind slammed into me, stealing my breath. My eyes popped open and I stared around, unsure, at first, that my eyes were indeed open. White, everything was white and cold and it took me a few breaths to realize we were standing in snow up to my knees. On my shoulder, Oka shivered. I pulled the hood up, protecting us both from the wind.
“You can only come with me so far, and only if you promise me you will not interfere,” Raven said softly. “Can you do that?”
I wasn’t sure I could so I said nothing. Raven turned and looked at me. “Pamela, I need you to swear to me on the life of your mentor that you will not interfere with what I do here. I know things will look bad, but you must understand that I do what I do for a reason and a cause that is greater than a single life.”
His words made sense, and I didn’t like that I understood what he was saying. “So. This is why you are the bad guy?”
A small smile slipped over his face. “Yes.” He took a step and I followed him, slowly because of the depth of the snow.
“Why don’t you just tell people then?”
“What do you mean?” He turned and held a hand out to me. I took it and he helped me over a pile of rocks slick with ice.
“I mean,” I struggled to find the right words, “why not just tell people what they have to do to make things better? That is what you’re doing, isn’t it? Just that you are going about it in the shadows.” I didn’t like that in some ways I was doing the same thing. Keeping secrets from Rylee, going off on my own to try and help my family. Worrying them.
He sighed. “Yes, I am trying. But there are forces in opposition of what needs to happen. A woman known as the mother goddess has manipulated things for so long that belief in the truth is impossible. If she catches wind of what I am doing . . . then we are all damned.”
His words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. I swallowed hard. “I heard the mother goddess. She spoke to me.”
He whipped around, his black cloak spinning out. In a flash, his arms were on my shoulders. “What did she look like?”
I shook my head. “Look like? Nothing. She was a voice I heard in my head.”
A frown creased his brow. “She did not show herself to you?”
I shook my head. “Does it matter?”
“Yes. There is a true mother goddess, but I believed her to be asleep still, her spirit suppressed by the false one in her place.” He took his hands from my shoulders. “That you heard only a voice is good. I think.”
“She gave me protection while I was at the Pit. And she told me Oka would be there.” I didn’t want to say she’d also told me to stay with Raven, to keep on the path my feet stood upon. Or that he was my father.
We started forward again, though now, I was beside Raven. Our cloaks billowed out behind us as we climbed. Oka shivered against me. “This place calls to me.”
I twisted so I could glance at her. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head. “Like it is speaking to something inside me.”
Raven spoke without looking at us. “Many familiars have a block on them, Oka. Perhaps you were meant to come with Pamela only this far before being handed to a full elemental.”
He shrugged. “We do not always have a choice of where we go, or where we stay. Sometimes we just do what we must and that must be enough.” There was a heaviness to his words I didn’t like.
I drew a breath, tasted the cold flurries of the mountains on my tongue. We walked along a narrow ledge and slowly curled around the mountain. Oka had buried her face into my hair. “I will not leave you, Pamela.”
Her words were a comfort, yet I knew they were false. Everyone left me at some point. Mother, father, adoptive parents, friends, loved ones. It was the way of a life spent in the trenches. Battles were fought and there were always losses. I reached up and brushed a hand over her head.
“Don’t fuss about it. We will fight to stay together. That is all we can do.”
My words trailed off as I looked down on the valley that opened before us. A place made of immaterial wonder that I could barely grasp. It looked like a city made of clouds even though it was on the valley floor. Spiraling columns of gold and silver shot into the air, supported at the base by nothing more than insubstantial clouds. Or maybe fog.
The spread of the city was one that filled the valley. If I were to guess, I would say it was easily a couple miles in every direction. “What is this place?”
“Can you not guess? You’ve seen several of the other elemental homes. This is the Eyrie.”
I swallowed hard. “The home of the Sylphs? But why would you come here when they are hunting you?”
“Ah, well, that is a bit harder to explain.” He squinted up at the sky and then looked back at me. “Basically, I’m the queen’s consort. And she has supporters that don’t like me. When I am not here, they come after me. They don’t dare when I am at court for fear of her wrath.”
“Keep your enemies close,” Oka said softly and I had to agree with her.
Raven held a hand out to me. “Come, meet the queen. I think you will like her. She is strong and opinionated like yourself.”
We made our way down the slope and started across the valley floor. I was hard pressed to see any flaws in the Eyrie.
As the wind blew, the clouds and fog that supported much of the city shifted, thickened and thinned. But were always there. I wondered why they would set such a magnificent, glowing city, so close to the ground and I asked Raven about it.
“That’s a story for another time. Do not ask about it while you are here. It’s a sensitive topic.”
We were right in front of what could only be called gates, though they were not closed. A wide glittering-gold path peeked through the cloudy wisps at our shoes, at least thirty feet across. There were large panels to either side, open in welcome. Or maybe not so much.
Three Sylphs dressed in white leathers swooped toward us, weapons raised. I made a move to grab the sword from my back and Raven made a soothing motion at me. “They can’t hurt me here.”
And true to his words, the closer they got, the more they slowed. Until it looked like they were struggling against a headwind, and unable to draw any closer.
Behind them came a woman, not flying like they were. She was petite except for a huge belly that preceded her. Her long dark hair swept behind her and her eyes were on Raven. And they were not happy.
“Samara.” He said her name and I felt the weight of Spirit to it.
Her eyes softened, and a moment later, she was in his arms and they were kissing. He slid a hand to her belly. “How is our son?”
She smiled up at him. “Keeping me awake far more than I’d like, but growing and strong.”
Raven held her one hand and then motioned to me. “This is Pamela. She is a young witch I am training.”
Samara turned her eyes to me and I felt myself flushing. I didn’t want her to think there was anything inappropriate about my training with Raven. “Hello.”
She smiled. “I believe you’ve spoken about her to me before, haven’t you, love?”
He nodded, but his eyes were carefully hooded, hiding any emotion I might have been able to see. “I have.”
“Then she is welcome here in the Eyrie.” Samara swept a hand back toward the city. “Come, and be rested. I expect you’ve had a long journey if you are wearing clothes from the Pit.”
I glanced down at my body. “Yes.”
“Come.” She turned, and with Raven on her arm, led the way into the city. I had no choice but to follow.
As we walked past the gates, a strange feeling settled over my shoulders. I shook my head, tried to push it away, took a deep breath, but that only seemed to bring the feeling further into my lungs and through my body. I looked at Raven and he wasn’t looking at me, but at Samara.
What the hell was I getting myself into?
CHAPTER 18
THE EYRIE WAS as ethereal as any dream I’d ever had. Every turn I took showed me a new wonder. The floating fountains, the sweeping elegant spires of silver and gold, the soft hush of singing that was often heard late at night, the aviary at the top of one of the spires that held birds of every kind. Many of them familiars. Oka and I spent hours talking to them, listening to their stories. On the first day there was a large golden eagle on the uppermost perch that would not speak.
“Are you a familiar?” I held my hand out to him. He turned his head from me, his golden eyes unblinking as he ruffled his wings. A snowy owl shook her head and clacked her beak, reminding me sharply of Eve and Marco.
“He’s not a familiar. He’s a pet that belongs to someone. I think he might have been an elemental at some point.”
I stared at the golden eagle. “But why would he be an eagle now? Did he get stuck as a shifter?”
The owl shook her head. “I don’t know. But he does not speak to us so I assume he cannot communicate.”
The eagle was only there the once, and while I tried to talk to him, he ignored me. “Maybe I could help you?” I held out a piece of meat to him. He fluffed his wings, stretched them and hopped up to a higher perch.
Oka sniffed. “Snobby.”
“I guess.” I handed to meat to one of the other familiars who gladly took it. But my eyes wouldn’t leave the tawny and gold feathers. There was something about that eagle that drew me to him. A depth that was not there in the other birds.
The next day when we visited he was gone and I found myself disappointed.
Three days floated by like nothing. As if we weren’t really existing, but indeed dreaming, and the longer we were there, the deeper that dream went. A part of my brain frantically tried to warn me that things were wrong, that what was happening was not good and I was in trouble because I could not seem to see past the comforts around me. But I felt safe, and I needed to rest. That’s what I told myself. This was a chance to rest.
Most time during the day I slept, waking only for meals and perhaps a walk to speak with the familiars.
Sleeping that much was easy. My bed was made of the softest materials I had no words for, beyond even the cushioning that had been in my boots from the Pit.
We ate, slept, and ate some more. I was given a special closet of clothes that I picked through every morning, even though I ended up just lounging in them. Floating, soft material that clung to me, fitting as though the seamstress had known I would be arriving.
Sometimes Oka prowled the halls, chasing what few bugs dared to appear near her.
Yet in the quiet moments where I would catch a glimpse of the mountains outside the cloud city, I could not put aside the fear that not all was as it seemed. That there was something I needed to remember.
Raven kept himself closeted up with Samara. I did not begrudge him time with his wife. Consort. Whatever. But the long hours left me much time to think and I struggled against the languor of the Eyrie, even while I basked in it.
On the third day, I knew if I did not do something soon, I would stay like this forever. The Sylphs had no interaction with me at meals, or even in the halls. They looked past me as if I were not there.
On the table in my room, I stared at the glass vial that held Tim’s tears. Raven had suggested a stoppered vial once we were here. I’d agreed. The last thing I wanted was to knock the glass over by accident and lose the tears.
And now they were just waiting to be used. That was my task, I needed to bring my family home, to make it whole once more.
The final piece to bring him—Frank, of course—home from a death he had not deserved. I lay on the bed, and made myself consider the situation.
“Oka, what are we waiting for here? Why are we not moving forward?”
“I don’t know.” She stretched out beside me, her back legs sticking out behind her, so human in her positioning. Her head was on her front paws. “Maybe if you could cloak yourself, or make yourself invisible, you could find out?”
I sat up. “That’s brilliant. But I don’t know if I can.”
“You could try.” She dragged herself upright with a big yawn. It seemed it was not only me affected by whatever was going on here in the Eyrie.
I jumped off the bed and went to the closet where I’d hung my clothes. The dress I wore was of that same beautiful flowing material I saw on the few Sylph women here. But . . . it did not fit who I was, as lovely as it was. I slipped out of it and pulled on the leather pants, white top, and high leather boots from the Pit. Yes, these fit me much better. It was as though the second the Eyrie’s clothes left my skin, I could think clearer than I had the last few days.
“I think . . . they’ve been trying to keep me quiet. Maybe keep us both quiet?”
Oka sat up and yawned. “I wondered about that, but until now, I didn’t seem able to say anything.”
A spell then?
“How can we clear your mind? I need you at the top of your game,” I said.
Oka blinked up at me and held a single paw up. I took it and she leapt up into my arms. “Better already. It seems that the clothes had something to do with it.”
I touched the clothing hanging in front of me and a smell of lilacs flowed around me, lulling my mind. I took a step back. Maybe this was just how they dealt with visitors?
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