“The only one forbidding things here is me,” Zilya said with a sneer. She nudged the arrow with her toe, forcing it in another quarter inch. A muffled scream made it out past Mick’s tightly clenched teeth, although Jenna could see how hard he tried to stop it.
Next to her, Gregori’s hands rolled into fists, and Jenna could tell he held himself still through strength of will alone.
“Make up your mind, Human,” Zilya said. “I will not wait much longer.”
Jenna caressed her belly. She didn’t cry. There were not enough tears in either world for the choice she had to make now.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” she said softly. “I’ve never even met you and already I love you so very much. But this man wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me, and he has been brave and strong and kind and true. I love him, too, and I can’t let him die. I hope you have a wonderful life with whoever is lucky enough to get to raise you. I’ll never stop fighting to get you back. I promise, someday I’ll come for you.”
She lifted the medallion and put it over her head in one swift motion. As it came down, it brushed the Keys that already lay there and three pure, chiming notes rang out in unison. When the sound finally stopped, the thin chains that held the Key of Merlin, the Key of Solomon, and the Key of Zoroaster had vanished, and the three shining stones they’d held could be seen aligned in a single row across the front of the medallion. The new amulet glowed with a soft green light.
“No!” Zilya screamed, her face twisted with fury. “That is impossible!” Incandescent with rage, she raised her foot to slam it down on the arrow.
Gregori yelled, “Change, Mikhail! You can control it now! Change! Change, dammit!”
Jenna held her breath as across the clearing, Mick’s fallen figure shimmered, glowing with the same color as the amulet she wore. A bellow of pain and triumph mixed together echoed through the space, and then the man was gone and a massive green-furred beast reared up off of the ground, pulling the arrow out of its chest with a claw-tipped hand.
It growled at Zilya and she growled back, raising hands that dripped with caustic magic, gathering it into a ball of deadly intent that she aimed directly at his head.
Before she could throw it, Mick sent the arrow, still dripping with his own blood, winging through the air. It hit Zilya so hard, she flew backward and was impaled against a tree, where she hung, cursing bitterly, until the light faded out of her eyes and her head fell forward onto her chest. All that could be seen of the arrow was the feathers at its far end, buried to the hilt in Zilya’s breast like some bizarre form of jewelry.
It was over. The faery who had cursed her family was dead.
Jenna couldn’t quite take it all in.
What she did take in was the sight of Mick, still bloody but clearly much stronger and already partially healed, changing back into his normal, insanely attractive self and running over to embrace his brother, and then, after a moment’s hesitation, Jenna. Who hugged him back so hard it threatened to reopen his wound, to make sure he got the message that she didn’t care what form he took, as long as that form was alive and well.
“I don’t understand,” Jenna said, staring from Mick to Gregori and back again. “What happened?”
Gregori’s smile was practically luminous with relief. “You solved the riddle,” he said. “It was always all about the last two lines: A magic key to a gift divine. True love must merge when stars align.”
“Jenna’s riddle was about my new powers?” Day said, sounding as confused as Jenna felt. She was glad she wasn’t the only one. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
His brother snorted, an unusually undignified sound for him. “It’s a fairy-tale riddle, Mikhail. They never make any sense until they’ve been solved. It was your willingness to sacrifice everything for each other that broke the curse, melding the three magical Keys with the talisman intended to claim the baby for Zilya. Instead, you two claimed each other, and the strength of your love not only ended the curse but also enabled Mikhail to be able to control his transformation.”
Jenna shook her head. “Does this mean that if my parents had been willing to stand up to the curse and sacrifice everything to break it, the riddle would have somehow worked out for them too?”
“Who knows,” Gregori said. “It is the nature of such things that they work out the way they are supposed to. Perhaps it was always meant to end like this.”
Jenna had a sudden longing for the simplicity of the Human world, with all its own insanity. Celebrity marriages and political wrangling somehow seemed almost sane. Okay, not really. But they still made more sense than fairy tales and the Otherworld. “Hey,” she said as a thought hit her. “Does this mean that the medallion now has control over Mick? If so, then he should have it.”
She held it out to him, but he just shook his head.
“Keep it,” Mick said. “I have already trusted you with my heart. I might as well trust you with my body too.”
Jenna didn’t know how to respond to that. She was distracted for a moment by activity down at the bottom of the hill. The boy’s parents had obviously heard the commotion and come out of their house; they stood next to him protectively, staring up at Jenna and the two former Riders up above. Jenna raised one hand hesitantly and the little boy waved back.
She took one step forward and then stopped as a powerful ripple flowed across her belly, almost making her fall. “Oh,” she said. “And ow.” Another ripple quickly followed the first.
“It might be best to leave family reunions to another day,” Gregori suggested, putting one hand on her back. “It would appear that we have more pressing issues.”
“But . . .” Jenna looked longingly down at the dark-haired child, then clutched at her abdomen, which suddenly seemed to have dropped two inches. “Holy crap, OW.”
“If you want your baby to be born in your own world, you and Mikhail had better make tracks for the door you entered through,” Gregori said in a firm tone. He and Mick helped her up on Krasivaya with some difficulty and no small amount of awkwardness, even after the horse bent its forelegs down to make things easier, and Mick swung up behind her.
“What about you, brother?” Mick asked. “Will you come with us?”
“Not right now,” Gregori said. “I will go to the Queen and report all this, then join you as soon as I can.” He winked at Mick. “After all, family is important.”
He strode over to where Zilya’s still form hung from the tree and yanked the arrow out with one decisive motion. Then he threw her body over his horse’s withers, mounted up, and rode off in the direction of court.
“You know,” Jenna said between gasps, “I really like your brother.”
“I am quite fond of him myself,” Mick said, urging Krasivaya on toward the doorway to the Human world. “I can’t wait for you to meet Alexei.”
“I think I have someone else to meet first,” Jenna said, feeling the contractions gripping her more strongly with every step the horse took. “Do you think we could go faster?”
Then all she could do was deal with the strange sensations that seemed to possess her body until it was no longer hers. In between the rippling contractions, she focused on Mick’s strong arms, holding her steady and safe as they moved from the Otherworld into the caves they had entered a lifetime ago. As they rode through the sparkling lights that marked the boundary between the worlds, Jenna found herself sitting atop a Yamaha motorcycle instead of a white horse.
“I’ll never get used to this magical stuff,” she muttered as they came out into the bright radiance of a Texas day. And then she was too preoccupied with labor pains to care about anything other than the fact that it looked like she was going to give birth to her baby in the middle of an empty road surrounded by rocks and sand and dust. There was no way she could ride any farther on the motorcycle, no matter how tightly Mick held on to her.
Sud
denly, something blocked the light and Jenna looked up to see a silver Airstream pulling to a stop in front of them. Barbara hopped out of the driver’s seat of the silver truck at its head, with Chudo-Yudo and little Babs following on her heels. Babs looked different: a bit older, with her choppy brown hair grown out enough to be tied up in a lopsided ponytail on one side of her head. Barbara, on the other hand, looked exactly the same, all black leather and toughness, with a cloud of ebony swirling over her shoulders.
Mick helped Jenna get off the bike, although it was more of a slithering thump than a graceful dismount, then held her upright as they greeted the others.
“Hello, Day. Hello, Jenna,” Babs said gravely, giving Jenna’s greatly expanded belly an intrigued examination. “Is that your baby in there? Before I could not see it was there, but now it is much larger. How is it going to come out?”
“With great discomfort and right away,” Jenna said through gritted teeth.
Barbara chuckled and put one arm under Jenna’s shoulder so that she and Mick could half walk, half carry Jenna into the Airstream.
“Not that I’m not glad to see you, because, great gods, I am,” Mick said to Barbara. “But what are you doing here? Your timing is impeccable, even for you.”
“Interesting thing, that,” Barbara said as they lay Jenna down on Barbara’s bed. “Gregori sent me a message saying that he thought it would be a good idea for me to be here on this date at this time. He said he had a feeling I would be needed.”
“Really?” Mick said. “We just left him.”
“That’s the interesting part,” she said. “He sent me the message six months ago, right after you went through to the Otherworld.”
Mick’s eyebrows rose toward his forehead. “But we hadn’t even met up with him yet at that point. How could he have possibly known?”
“That’s a damn good question, isn’t it?” Barbara gave Mick a not-so-gentle shove toward the door. “I suggest you park your steed where no one will bother it and get back in here. I’d like to get Jenna to the hospital before she gives birth in my trailer. The damned thing is already temperamental enough as it is; I’m pretty sure that playing midwife would only make it crankier.”
* * *
AS the dawn crept sleepily through the hospital window, Day sat in a chair next to the institutional bed and watched Jenna nurse her little girl, who she had named Flora after her grandmother. He thought he had never seen anything so amazing in his entire long, long life.
Jenna’s pale face was glazed with exhaustion and incandescent with joy, and the baby was about as perfect a Human being as he had ever seen, plump-cheeked and healthy, with her mother’s dark hair and icy blue eyes. The one thing she didn’t have was a curse hanging over her head, for which he was eternally grateful.
In truth, he was grateful for so many things; he could have listed them all day and not run out. Not being dead—that was a big one, since it turned out that he had much to live for. The success of their mission, being reunited with Gregori, and finally being free of most of the burden of guilt he had carried for the last year. He still needed to seek out Alexei at some point and clear the air between them.
But mostly he was grateful that a woman like Jenna could actually love him, the man who had charmed many but loved none. That was the greatest miracle of all. Especially since he occasionally turned into a light green Paranormal creature.
But somehow she had come to trust him, just as he trusted her. He’d never given his whole heart to anyone other than his brothers before. It felt strange and a little bit unreal, like a fairy tale come to life. He had thought he was saving Jenna, but in the end, she had saved him from the black hole of despair he’d been wallowing in, and given him back at least one of the brothers he thought he had lost forever. Now he just had to convince her to let him stick around so they could take care of each other, and that beautiful baby, forever.
He’d formulated twenty different ways to suggest such a thing—and discarded them all—when the door to the room swung open and a man burst in, a large bouquet of red roses in one hand and a gigantic teddy bear with the price tag still dangling from it in the other. Day’s teeth bared in a growl, but the unruffled expression on Jenna’s face told him that whoever this was, he wasn’t a threat.
The man’s suit was expensive, and his haircut probably had been once, although it was overdue for a trim. Lines of strain curved around his mouth and Day could see a hint of desperation in his eyes, despite the bright smile he aimed at Jenna and the baby.
“Jenna!”
“Hello, Stu,” Jenna said in a calm voice. “This is a surprise. How did you know we were here?”
This is Stu? The Stu? Day didn’t think the man meant Jenna any harm, but he scooted his chair a bit closer to her anyway. She patted his arm softly, signaling the beast to stay quiescent.
Stu took another couple of steps into the room, holding the flowers and the bear carelessly, as if he’d forgotten they were there.
“When you disappeared six months ago, I set up an alert for any woman answering your description who showed up in a hospital to give birth around this time. It was the only way I could think of to find you.” He shook his head. “Where the hell have you been, Jenna? I threw all my money and power into tracking you down, but it was as if you’d disappeared off the face of the Earth.”
Jenna and Day exchanged glances, and Jenna giggled. Of course, it was the literal truth, but there was no way they were telling Stu that.
“It’s not funny,” Stu said, the anxiety he’d been trying to hide surfacing more strongly. “When I couldn’t find you, my father disowned me. I lost everything. The money, the influence, everything. He thinks I’m an idiot. A failure who can’t even keep track of one pregnant woman.” His voice cracked. “But now I’ve finally found you again, and if the baby is mine, maybe taking it to my father will earn me my place back.”
“Her,” Jenna said gently. “Her name is Flora. And I’m sorry, but that is never going to happen.”
“I’ll give you whatever you want,” Stu said. “When my father reinstates me, I’ll be able to buy you and the baby anything you could ever desire.”
Jenna shook her head, her long dark hair sliding over one shoulder. “No, Stu. You don’t have anything I want.” She smiled up at Day, her arms tightening around Flora’s swaddled little body. “I already have everything I desire.”
“But that’s my baby!” Stu protested. “You told me so.”
“I was wrong,” Jenna said, looking her former lover in the eyes. “At the time I said that, I really did believe it. But I’ve since discovered that the baby’s true father is someone else. I’m very sorry.”
She shifted the baby into the crook of her elbow and put out her other hand. Day took it, feeling as though he had been kicked by a mule and given the greatest gift in the world, all at the same time. He thought he’d lost everything, and it turned out that he’d been given a miracle.
Stu’s patrician face suddenly turned red and blotchy. “You’ve ruined my life, you bitch! What am I supposed to do now?”
The sound of a throat clearing came from behind him and Barbara’s low voice said, “You might want to consider running away before I kick your ass into the next state.” She stood in the doorway, all head-to-toe black leather, scowling at Stu with her arms crossed over her chest.
When Stu didn’t move, Day rose from his chair and took one step forward, allowing his eyes to glow and his form to shift subtly so that he somehow took up even more space in the small room.
Stu gave an alarmed squeak, dropped the flowers and the stuffed animal, and left in a hurry, rudely shoving his way past Barbara. She raised one eyebrow and twitched a finger, and from beyond the room Day could hear the sound of someone tripping over what sounded like an entire cart full of hospital breakfast trays. The cursing wafted down the hallway for a minute or two and then stop
ped.
Barbara ignored the mayhem and stepped into the room, holding one hand out to Day. “I heard,” she said, a tiny smile hovering at the corner of her mouth. “Congratulations, Dad.”
“I’m not really the baby’s father,” he protested. “You know that.”
“Yes, you are,” Jenna said in a firm tone. “A child’s father is more than the person who happened to be there at the conception. You were there for all the moments that mattered afterward.”
“And I will be there for all the ones that matter in the future,” Day said, feeling as though he was going to explode with pride and joy. He sat on the edge of the bed and put an arm around Jenna and Flora.
Barbara patted the baby gently on the head, then touched the tiny nose in wonder with one finger. “Speaking of the future,” she said. “Do you two have any idea what you are going to do now?”
They looked at each other, and Jenna nodded slowly.
“I think that once Jenna and the baby are up to traveling, we are going to go to the deep forests of Russia and see if we can find my mother,” Day said. “I don’t know if she is still alive or not, but if she is, I think she might like to know she has a grandchild. After all, as Gregori said, family is important.”
“Maybe she’ll be able to give us some insight into Day’s new powers,” Jenna added. “Something that will help him to figure out the best way to use them.”
“Oh?” Barbara said. “Did you have something in particular in mind?” Mischief glinted in her amber eyes.
“Well,” Day said, smiling at Jenna, who nodded as though she had read his mind. “Jenna told me once that just because I wasn’t a Rider anymore, that didn’t mean I couldn’t be useful. It seems to me that the Baba Yagas still might have need, from time to time, of a strong and loyal friend. Even if he isn’t technically a Rider.”
Barbara gave him one of her rare grins and winked at Jenna. “I think that’s a great plan,” she said. “After all, Baba Yagas have never been all that good with technicalities anyway. Besides . . .”
Dangerously Charming Page 26