Forged from Flame

by Kasey Mackenzie

  When Jake had convinced me I could no longer return to my old life, I’d disguised my features by dying my hair red, wearing my hair curly rather than straight, and popping in green contact lenses. In the months that we’d been staying on the farm, I’d gone back to my natural straight blonde hair and blue eyes. I could see why Bianca had borrowed part of my own disguise strategy. Ice blue eyes tended to draw much more notice than brown, especially when paired with darker skin tones.

  Suspicion didn’t fade, however. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared toward the firewall. “Prove it.”

  Bianca nodded and gestured. The other two exchanged a glance before popping contacts out of their eyes. After blinking several times, they leveled resentful expressions my way, revealing the same pale blue eyes that met my gaze in mirrors.

  My breath caught, and I pushed to my feet. Jake clasped one of my hands. Our emotions bounced back and forth between the bond, amplifying our shared hope and excitement tenfold. My pulse started pounding again. Could these really be two of the siblings I had only learned about months ago but been eager to find ever since? It seemed like the past 29 years had been building up to this moment when I might finally be granted my most heartfelt wish: relatives who shared the same blood.

  Our sociopathic father most definitely did not count.

  Still, I had to be sure. “What are your names?”

  The woman’s lips remained locked. The man crossed his arms over his chest before replying. “Nic Willapana.” The Selkie of their little trio.

  His companion, the Air-channeling Gryphon of the group, rolled her eyes and gave in. “Amadia Patterson. My friends call me Dia, but don’t go getting any ideas. I’m not sure I believe I’m related to someone who was stupid enough to get killed by our dumbass father twice.”

  Thrice if you counted when his minion shot me in my condo after Dorian lured me there and used magic to abduct Si Si. Not that I planned to volunteer that information any time soon.

  Nic nudged Dia none-too-gently with his shoulder. “Says someone who was stupid enough to get captured by our dumbass father.”

  And apparently had to be rescued by another one of his minions; if someone on loan from an on-again, off-again associate like Dorian Garcia could be considered a true minion.

  The names matched those on the stolen paperwork sitting in our safe inside the cabin I now shared with Jake. Okay, so maybe Bianca was telling the truth and they were my long-lost siblings. It still didn’t explain why she not only rescued them but brought them here, risking certain death if either Garrett or Dorian caught up with her. Hell, she risked certain death if Liam were to catch sight of her.

  At which point, of freaking course, Liam stepped out of the forest.

  Instinct pulsed again. Shifting the firewall to surround Bianca instead of the other two took only seconds of magical effort. Liam’s lips twisted as he stepped alongside his brother and leveled a glance upon the opalescent wall that traced a perfect circle around Bianca. Her nostrils flared, but she met his gaze without flinching. More impressive than it might sound. Liam was one scary SOB.

  It wasn’t because of his looks—he was nearly as gorgeous as Jake—or because he raged like a lunatic when upset. No, his was the caustic fury that could etch as deeply as acid. And just like acid, he would be relentless in his pursuit of what he deemed justice. I’d seen him direct that fury against Jake once and hoped never to do so again. I knew that we could take Liam together if he attacked, but not without paying a high price.

  “So, this is the whore for whom our brother gave up his life because she spread her legs for someone else.”

  His tone was so pleasantly conversational it took a moment for his words to penetrate. Dia and Nic’s eyes widened once they did. Their gazes whipped toward Bianca, obviously expecting the Phoenix to erupt. Hell, I expected her to erupt.

  Instead, she arched an elegantly-curved brow and folded her arms across her chest. “Liam I presume.”

  “I see Colin mentioned me.”

  “Of course. He told me all about the family he both loved and resented.”

  Jake’s nostrils were the ones to flare this time, but I set a hand atop his arm and sent a quelling sensation across our bond. I wanted to see where this went.

  Liam’s expression remained mildly amused. “Doesn’t everyone both love and resent their family? What I want to know, Bianca, is the same thing my sister-in-law asked moments ago.” Whoa; that was the first time he’d called me that. “Why should we believe anything you say?”

  He raised a single finger. “Point number one: You refused to bond with our brother despite the wildness touching you both.” Up went a second finger. “Point number two: The last time Colin begged you to bond, you threw in his face the fact you were leaving him for that bastard Garcia.” Another finger popped up. “Point number three: Our brother then killed himself rather than consider bonding with someone else.” One more finger rose. “Point number four: You show up with two of Cassidy’s supposed siblings and some fantastical story that you can lead us to our brother’s salvation. Why would you risk your life to rescue two people who should mean nothing to you and then come to where you know people blame you for Colin’s death?”

  Liam’s voice maintained the same pleasant level as his words hit the air, but their impact was no less impressive than they would have been if shouted. Bianca swallowed, and I imagined beads of sweat having nothing to do with the August heat dripping down her back. She glanced over at Dia and Nic, her hand suddenly moving to scratch at her stomach. No, I realized as her gaze moved back to me, she had cupped her fingers protectively over her belly rather than attending to some itch. Time slowed to a crawl as my mind chewed on that clue.

  “Because,” Bianca murmured as she kept her attention focused on me. “I care very much about Dia, Nic, and Cassidy—they share the same father as my two unborn children.”

  I had to give Bianca credit: She knew how to keep the dramatic revelations coming. My brain had guessed the whole pregnancy angle a second before she voiced its reality but damn, I had not seen the identity of her children’s father coming.

  An hour later found the six of us in a communal cabin on the outskirts of the forest that encircled Greener Pastures, waiting for reinforcements to return from running errands. We wanted the counsel of Clan leaders, not to mention more eyes to help watch over my siblings while we questioned Bianca. Not to say we didn’t trust them, but of course we didn’t.

  Dia and Nic slouched on an ugly but comfortable sofa in the cabin’s living room, which was open to the kitchen and dining area. Bianca sat at the massive table made of reclaimed wood, inhaling the pile of sandwiches Jake had prepared after learning the three hadn’t eaten anything substantial in two days. Bianca may have prepared disguises for my siblings, but she’d underestimated how long it would take them to travel by water from Garrett’s hideout to this farm a couple hours outside St. Louis. I had to admit to being impressed by their cleverness. By pooling their three abilities, they’d floated on a raft formed from Dia’s Air, concealed by reflective bands of Bianca’s Fire as Nic used flows of Water to travel along interconnected waterways, walking only when they had no other options. No wonder all three were now starving. Magic never came without a price.

  Only Bianca had admitted weakness so far; likely because she was now eating for three. Seeing the looks of concern Dia and Nic snuck when they thought nobody was looking, I suspected they also wanted to make sure the pregnant woman ate her fill before giving in to their own hunger. It spoke well of them both.

  I carried a second plate of sandwiches over to the sofa and held it out with a pointed expression. Nic pounced right away, grabbing a sandwich in each hand. “Thanks,” he managed between gulps.

  Dia waited a moment before more leisurely plucking a sandwich from the plate. I couldn’t tell if she treated everyone this way or if she was just trying to make up for decades of missed sibling rivalry.

  “You’re welcome.” I set t
he plate on the coffee table. It might have been rude, but I focused on Dia’s face while she ate. Like me, she obviously favored her mother more than our psycho father. His striking eyes were really the only feature she seemed to share with him. Well, the only physical feature. I didn’t know either of them well enough to comment on any resemblances in personality.

  I flicked a glance to the front windows on the far side of the room where Liam loomed, keeping watch out for his parents and the two bondmates who completed their Quatrain. In between making sandwiches, I caught sight of Jake peering at the letter Bianca had given him. He’d confirmed that the handwriting was Colin’s, and that the voice in the letter also seemed authentic to his twin. I knew that he would share the contents with me later.

  My gaze moved back to Dia, who had made a sizable dent in her first sandwich. Nic was not too proud to snag a third, something that prompted her to reach for a second. I perched on the edge of a recliner. Rare were the times I’d been struck speechless and yet now, when faced with two of the siblings I had dreamed of finding, words escaped me.

  Nic suffered no such problem once he’d satisfied the worst of his hunger. “So you’re the Phoenix.”

  My lips twisted. “I’d say you must be Captain Obvious except I already know you’re the Selkie.”

  He gave an unabashed grin that made his nose crinkle in a manner that could only be termed adorable. What a big sister sort of thought. “Touché, Phoenix.”

  “My name’s Cass. No reason you can’t use it.”

  “Cass then.” He hesitated briefly. “Have you always known what you were?”

  Dia pretended not to care about my answer, but she went without taking any bites of her sandwich in the time it took me to answer.

  “I’ve known I was a Phoenix only in the few months since our, and I quote, dumbass father killed me not once but twice.”

  She had the grace to flush at my use of airquotes around her earlier sarcastic words. Nic’s nose crinkled again but he bit back the laughter that bubbled beneath the surface.

  I couldn’t help winking. “The day he first killed me I was in the middle of a paranormal investigation to disprove claims that a warehouse in downtown St. Louis was haunted. Never expected my life to take a turn for the supernatural. How about you?”

  He paused before grabbing yet another sandwich. “My adoptive parents were big believers in the supernatural and figured out what I was after my fatal drowning turned out to be not so fatal.”

  So, his abilities had been ignited by his first death like mine had been. Fairly common for the orphaned children of wildlings.

  “They hired a Freeholder to train me once they figured out where to look for help.”

  Dia let out a snort. “You mean they hired the Freeholder to train you. Freaking rich people.”

  The affection in her tone hinted that these two had spent enough time together for her to soften toward him. Hopefully I could earn the same consideration at some point. I wanted to ask a thousand questions, wanted to chip away at the walls between us, but the sound of car doors slamming intruded. Just like that, she redoubled those walls.

  The front door swung open and in stepped the four we’d been expecting. Wen Zi, taller than his daughter but shorter than his sons, entered first. He had skin a little darker than his children and brown eyes that often flashed with humor or, in less pleasant circumstances, fire that had nothing to do with magic. His wife and bondmate Breena followed close behind, bright red hair in an intricate braid and green eyes surveying the room. Next came Ju Li’s parents: Wen’s brother Shan, the Gryphon of their magical quartet, and then his wife Ju Hai, their Selkie. This Quatrain had spent the past few centuries honing their abilities to a razor-sharp edge. They had children spread out across the world—I’d wrongly assumed the three siblings I knew about were the only ones Jake had—and had also known the agony that came from outliving some of those offspring. Such were the dangers of living a vast lifespan, especially when one took oath as Beholden.

  Good thing we were nowhere near as fertile as humans.

  Liam and his father exchanged a wordless nod as the four newcomers crossed into the dining area. I found my body placed protectively between my siblings and bondmate’s family. For now, however, their attention was focused on Bianca.

  She stood, hands resting on her vacated chair and calm eyes regarding the parents of the man who had committed suicide rather than face eternity without her. Jake and Liam assumed the wildness had driven Colin to act so desperately; were also convinced that Bianca’s own wild selfishness had driven her to betray Colin and run into Dorian’s arms instead. I was not so sure. Nothing involving Elementals tended to be quite so simple.

  I expected Breena to speak first because she usually did. Instead, she merely watched Bianca with an expressionless face.

  Just when the silence grew excruciatingly tense, Wen spoke. “Tell us, wildling Phoenix who bears a wardstone gifted by our fallen son, why should we grant the sanctuary you seek?”

  Bianca’s face maintained its composure, but her fingers tightened on the chair ever so slightly. “I ask not for my sake but for that of my twin children.”

  Breena’s own neutral mask slipped at that revelation. We’d mentioned Bianca’s pregnancy in the text message summoning them home but not that it involved multiples. Breena had borne twins of her own, and all three of them had nearly died during childbirth. Fortunately, their Quatrain had proven strong enough—and Colin’s magic weak enough— for all to survive the magical onslaught of a double Elemental birth.

  She furrowed her brows. “How do you know you bear twins?”

  “Because Garrett had me artificially inseminated in his quest to cure my infertility and prove that our kind can be artificially inseminated. As with human women, the chance for multiples was greater, and twins were the result. Two ultrasounds have confirmed it.”

  Wen’s gaze flicked toward me and then back to her. “And you are sure you carry Garrett’s children?”

  She nodded. “Absolutely.” Her lips tightened as her eyes flashed with anger that could have done Wen proud. “I believed Dorian would be my children’s father. They only told me they had impregnated me with Garrett’s sperm afterward.”

  The anger made perfect sense. Dorian may be an insufferable jackass, but at least he wasn’t an evil psychic freak.

  Wen pursed his lips and then nodded. “For the sake of our new daughter’s unborn siblings, we will help you. But we have requirements.”

  I relaxed the tension I hadn’t realized gripped my body. It still felt odd being considered a part of the family, especially since Jake and I had not yet formally married.

  Bianca seemed unsurprised. “Of course. Name them.”

  “First, you will aid us in recovering Colin as you claimed you could do.”

  “Absolutely. I would do that alone if I had to.”

  He bared his teeth. “Pray it doesn’t come to that given your delicate condition.”

  Whoa. I didn’t think he meant her pregnancy.

  “And your next requirement?”

  “You will do what you should have done years ago and bond with Colin as soon as he is able.”

  “Done and done.”

  Wen’s gaze moved to me once more. “Finally: You shall swear fealty to Clan Zi in general and, more specifically, to my daughter-in-law, Cassidy Grant.”

  Chapter 3

  My mouth and eyes widened as my gaze flew to Jake, who had closed the gap between us. The fact he had also placed his body between his family and my siblings endeared him to me all over again. I managed to keep my hands to myself, but my confusion danced across our bond before bouncing back to me, flavored with his own.

  Jake expressed that puzzlement out loud. “What on earth, Dad? That’s the kind of thing you discuss way ahead of time. Not just spring on someone.”

  Yeah, especially not to someone who wasn’t even sure exactly what swearing fealty would entail. Sounded like another Elemental policy strai
ght from the Middle Ages.

  Wen slid a reassuring look our way. “Please trust that we have a very good reason to require this, which we will explain. But not until they swear fealty.”

  I couldn’t hold back an uttered, “They?”

  His expression seemed carved from granite when he turned it upon the two standing behind me. “Yes. All three of our visitors must now swear fealty or we have no choice but to kill and behead them.”

  Whoa! I knew my in-laws could turn ruthless when it came to protecting their Clan, but this was beyond bloodthirsty. Beheading and burying their bodies separately from their heads meant they could never regenerate.

  “I will not stand party to killing innocent children or my own brother and sister.”

  Breena broke in. “And you will not have to. They will swear fealty.”

  “Th—this is crazy, Breena.” No way did I feel comfortable calling her Mom. “I get why you want them to pledge loyalty to the Clan—”

  “Not loyalty,” Jake interrupted in a soft tone. “Fealty. By pledging personal fealty to you, they will be bound by magic to obey your every command and to protect you even unto their own deaths. It’s an oath so rarely given I don’t think I’ve ever met an Elemental who was liegesworn.”

  Great, just how I wanted to start building our familial relationship.

  Some aspects of Beholden society were positively medieval; not so surprising given how ancient some of them were. Breena and Wen exchanged a meaningful look before she placed a hand on her son’s arm. “Actually, you’re standing with four people who once were, although the man we swore fealty to has long since died.”

  Jake and I traded a glance of our own and then leveled narrowed gazes upon his parents’ Quatrain. I was dying to ask a thousand questions, but now just wasn’t the time.