Ollianna reached out and grabbed my hand. “Zam. I know what she means. I know where the crossroads are.”
I shook her off as I wobbled to my feet, pain radiating down my spine, my head feeling as though it weighed a hundred pounds. “Good for you. Go get your kid you want then.”
Ollianna’s eyes flashed. “I know where the crossroads are because they are next to Gashishum, the mountain range.”
“So?” I glared at her, frustration and grief making me a bitch. Okay, bitchier. I knew the range of which she spoke. Or at least knew of it. But what did that have to do with anything?
Her hand tightened on my arm. “Gashishum is Akkadian, and it translates to Impaler’s Stake. The Oracle said a spell is broken on the impaling stake. The crossroads are at the base of the mountain. The mountain is where we both need to go. But we have to hurry. The golden moon, it isn’t far off. Two weeks at best.”
“And the crossroads, the range? How far are they?” I asked because I hoped it was closer than the range I suspected she meant, the range I knew was five hundred miles, maybe even more to the south of us.
“Five hundred miles to the south, maybe a little more,” Ollianna’s words echoed my thoughts too closely for my liking.
Damn it, I hated being right some days.
25
Standing in the Oracle’s cave, I couldn’t help but feel that the whole journey here was a waste. If we hadn’t come, Lila wouldn’t have needed to be rescued. I wouldn’t have had to separate from my pride. We wouldn’t have had to trek through that fucking swamp. Face the gorcs. The twisted birds of prey that were controlled by Merlin wouldn’t have ever left their roosts.
I closed my eyes. “Why are we really here, Ollianna? What’s the fucking point of all this?”
Lila stirred in my arms and I tightened my hold on her as I opened my eyes and stared at the witch who stood across from me. With one hand, I pointed back at the Oracle. I didn’t dare touch her again. “All this way for a bunch of fucking riddles? That is no help, not really. It just sends us out again in another direction and we’re fucking hoping that we’ve not been sent the wrong way.”
“But we have a direction—”
“I don’t want a direction! I want one. Single. Fucking. Answer!”
Ollianna glared at me. “You think that I wouldn’t have liked that too, you childish brat?”
My jaw dropped. “Childish brat? How much have you lost because the Emperor has targeted you? Because your surrogate mother manipulated you into believing her lies? Because your past is nothing but shadows and lies used to keep you under control? How much, Ollianna, will you take before you start to get pissed off? Before you start to demand justice of some sort?”
She sucked in a sharp breath and her eyes softened before they fluttered closed. “Our lives have paralleled, Zam, even if we didn’t know it. Perhaps it is the Emperor’s blood in us both, but your words could easily have been my own.” A deep sigh slid from her and she opened her eyes. “The riddle can be pulled apart. We can do this. You and I.”
She held out her hand, palm up in an offering, just as Lila lifted her head, eyes fogged with sleep. “And me. Don’t forget me.”
The dragon in my arms flipped her tail out so it landed in Ollianna’s palm. I stared at her hand and Lila’s tail, and slowly put my free hand over it feeling a shift in energies between us, our lives tangling.
“Then we are in this together.”
“Until your brother is back on this side of the Veil. Until the child I seek is in my arms,” Ollianna said softly. She looked at Lila.
Lila lifted her chin. “Until my curse is broken.”
Ollianna smiled at her. “That is why we are here then, why it took so much to come to this point. It was not pointless; it is a journey. And a journey of this magnitude cannot be crossed in a single day, in a single answer.”
Damn it, I hated that she was all wise and sage-like. Because I knew in my gut she was right. This was not a simple thing we sought, and the Oracle had been a single step, not the whole pathway.
I gripped Ollianna’s palm and Lila’s tail. “To bring us together, to find our way through this fucking world side by side.”
Ollianna nodded. “A triad is a powerful weapon. One even the Emperor will fear if he knows what’s good for him.”
A shiver ran up and down my body and Lila caught it, her body trembling down to the tip of her tail. “A new path emerges from this one,” Lila said softly, her voice hesitant. “I can feel it under my scales. From here on out, what we’ve faced before will seem as nothing to what will come.”
I stared down at her. “Please tell me that is just your shitty pessimistic thoughts and not some sort of dark and twisted prophecy that popped out of your mouth.”
She grinned a sleepy grin up at me. “What? Did I say something?”
I shot a look at Ollianna who paled as rapidly as I felt the blood rush from my own head. “People are known to see the future when they come back from the dead,” Ollianna said.
My eyes narrowed rapidly. “Because so many people come back from the dead? We have data on this?”
Lila snickered.
Ollianna rolled her eyes and withdrew her hand. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. You’re telling me that there are a fair number of ‘return from the dead prophecy speakers’—”
As darkly funny as the conversation was, the roar of a dragon outside the cave spun us around and stopped any further discussion about the validity of Ollianna’s statement.
“That’s Trick.” Lila struggled to get out of my arms, but I hung onto her.
“Oh no, you don’t.” I ran for the entry, wincing as my head and body protested the quick movement, the new bruises from my slam into the rock making themselves known.
Around us, the stone groaned, trembling as though an earthquake rippled through it. “Not good, that is not good!” I yelled as we rounded the last corner before the entrance.
Ahead of us the shimmering magic that was between us and the world outside darkened as though it were turning . . . back into stone.
“Go, go!” I yelled at Ollianna, reaching back for her as I leapt forward, the magic sticking to me as if it would shut me in the cave with the Oracle. Ollianna’s hand clutched mine and I pulled her through. She screamed, but stayed on her feet.
Once we were on the other side, my first thought was maybe it would have been better to have been locked in with the Oracle for a few years. Because what waited on the outside for us was surely not going to end the day well.
I slid to a stop, my breath catching in my throat as I took in the scene that another day would have had me trembling in my boots. But there was so little energy left in me, I didn’t have enough to be afraid anymore.
I blew out a slow breath and made myself stand a little straighter. “To be honest, I expected Merlin and his puffed up roosters.”
Ishtar sat astride one of the dead and brought back to life hyena shifters. Maks sat on another. Ranging out behind him were another six of his Jinn, all riding the undead hyenas as well, all in various states of decomposition.
The creatures were falling apart and were mostly skeletal with pieces of flesh hanging from their forms, but still they were upright and I had no doubt they would attack us if given the chance. The teeth and claws though were still there, and the fire in their eyeballs was no small thing.
“You are seriously creepy fuckers,” I muttered under my breath. I loosened my hold on Lila and she crawled to my shoulder, hissing at the four in front of us, her body trembling hard. Through our connection, I could feel the fatigue in her, the effort it took to keep her eyes open.
Behind Ishtar and Maks, Trick lay flat on the ground, blood vines wrapped around his front and back legs, wings, and tail, pinning him to the ground. His eyes were squeezed shut with the vines covering them. He roared, but it was muffled. Why wasn’t he running the lightning through it all?
“He cannot use his magic
or the blood vines will drain him,” Maks said, seeing me stare at Trick.
Well, shit. I adjusted my stance a little, thinking through the scenarios. I could attack with the flail, but would that give us enough time? Lila could barely move. Ollianna was hurt coming through the Oracle’s doorway, and Trick was pinned down.
This was not the time for physicality. This was the time to outsmart the two in front of me. I swallowed hard.
Not my strong suit, I could admit it at least to myself.
“You will come with me,” Maks pointed at me, “and give Ishtar the jewels. Enough with these games.”
He paused and I raised an eyebrow even though my heart shook inside my chest. This was it; this was the moment that there would be no return. Time to stall.
“Or? What the fuck are you going to do about it?”
He smiled. “I take the dragon’s life.” Maks held up a hand and the vines tightened, driving into Trick with a thousand tiny bites. He tried to roar again but the curl of blood vines whipped around his mouth had effectively muzzled him.
Lila gripped my shoulder and leaned into her own roar of pure defiance.
Beside me Ollianna stepped up, the energy around her crackling. “We can take them.”
I lifted my hand, stopping her. Maks was gone. This was Marsum we were dealing with, which meant I would play as dirty as I had to in order to get us all out of here safely. A slow idea burned through me, one that would only work if I truly embraced a truth I didn’t want to. One I’d fought since Maks had killed Marsum.
I lifted Lila from my shoulder and handed her to Ollianna. I locked eyes with the witch and mouthed two words.
Be ready.
Her eyelids flickered up and down in response. I kissed Lila on the head.
“Is love a tender thing?” I asked her softly.
She stared up at me and those jeweled eyes twinkled because she knew the next line to that play.
I turned to face Maks . . . no, I would not call him that any longer. Marsum. I would call him by his real name. But . . . one last test to be sure. To be absolutely certain Maks was gone.
“Is love a tender thing?” I lifted my eyes to his. Maks would know this play. He would know this line. How could he not? It was famous, one of Shakespeare’s best known plays.
“Only if you want it to be.” His voice was rough with desire. My heart sank, and I let it go.
My Maks was gone, as he said he would be.
“Let the dragon go,” I said. The words were thick with tears as I started to lay out the first of my cards. “Let them all go and I will come with you.”
“No!” Lila cried out. “No, you can’t!”
Only I could. I could do this. I could get them all free, and I knew just how I was going to do it. I looked back at her. “They’ll never stop coming for me, Lila. You died once. I can’t let it happen for real. Not when I can stop it this time. Not when the answer is so simple.”
Marsum slid from the hyena’s back and walked to meet me. “Take my hand.”
Ishtar laughed softly. “Too much heart under all that tough exterior, Zam. Your love cannot save him.”
Marsum shot a look at her. “Perhaps wait to gloat until you have your jewels, desert bitch.”
Oh, did I see cracks in the alignment? Maybe my plan was better than I even realized.
“Ollianna, go to Trick,” I said with my back to my friends. “Get astride and be ready to fly. Trick, you fly them the fuck out of here, got it? The second they release you.”
He gave a low grunt. Marsum turned silvery blue eyes to me. “You do not have the upper hand, Zam.”
Everything in me hurt. My body. My head. My heart. Even the depths of my soul ached as though I were tearing pieces of it apart and casting them out on the desert sands.
I held my hand out to him. “That’s the deal. They go free. You get me. Ishtar gets her jewels. So. If you fucking dare, Marsum.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Ollianna carefully pass by the other Jinn and clamber up onto Trick’s back. The vines shivered over his body.
This was the moment, this was for all the money, all the chips, all the lives. This was me betting that I could fend off Marsum’s Jinn seductions and magic with Maks no longer part of him . . . and that’s when it hit me.
That’s the reason why Maks had done it, why he’d left completely. I couldn’t deny him, my heart mate.
But I could deny Marsum.
I put my hand in his, staring at it as his fingers closed over mine, felt the heat between us as always but . . . now it was different. I lifted my eyes to his. “Let the dragon go.”
“Prove you are with me,” he said softly, his eyes hungry on my face, on my mouth.
In for a penny, in for a fucking thousand pounds. I yanked him toward me and planted my mouth on his, rough, hard, with no finesse. He didn’t respond at first, maybe he was too shocked. He started to kiss me back and I turned my head away so I looked up at Trick and Ollianna.
“Let them go, Marsum. I am standing here with you. Let them go.”
He snapped his fingers and the vines slid from Trick’s body. The big dragon didn’t hesitate, didn’t so much as wait an instant before he shoved off the ground and into the sky, his wings hammering a down draft that stirred up the dust around us. I turned and leaned into Marsum. So far so good, and now was the gamble that would make all the difference in the world.
Now I would lay out the rest of my cards to see if Marsum would play.
“If we go now, we can keep the jewels from her,” I said under the cover of Trick’s wings, looking up at Marsum . . . and winked.
His eyes widened and a smile slid over his face. A split second was all it took. He grabbed me and all but threw me onto the back of the hyena he rode, then yelled at his Jinn as he pointed at Ishtar. “Kill the desert bitch!”
The Jinn with him turned on her without hesitation, raising their hands, their magic billowing around them.
For a moment, I was back in the Oasis, watching Marsum and the Jinn kill my family. The magic, the heat of the desert, the smell of fear. Ishtar screeched and there was an explosion, and for a few moments that was it. There was the noise behind us, and Marsum’s arm wound around my waist as we galloped away. What a fucking coward. He wouldn’t even kill her himself? Damn it, I’d really hoped that would be the case.
“I knew you’d come with me. Eventually.” He laughed a laugh that I’d known once and it twisted the knife deep in my belly.
“You don’t know much about Shakespeare, do you?” I asked, the movement of the hyena under us lurching, the pace so awkward to sit compared to a horse.
“No. Should I? I will not be serenading you with sonnets,” he said, his hand slipping up to cup a breast. I shook my head and shoved his hand down, only he tried to go much farther down. I grabbed his hand hard and dug my nails into it as I twisted around to look at him.
“You should bone up on your Shakespeare. I gave you fair warning.”
He frowned. “What?”
I snapped an elbow back into his face as hard as I could. “Is love tender?”
He bellowed and lifted a hand coated in thick magic. “What is it with you desert women?”
I laughed. “It is too rough, too rude,” I grabbed his wrist and held onto him as the magic crawled over me, “too boisterous!”
A tiny voice from a dragon who was my sister called from above. “And it pricks like a motherfucking thorn!”
His head snapped up and I twisted hard to the side as I let him go, throwing myself off the back of the hyena.
I shifted forms as I jumped, landing on four paws at the edge of a pit of toxic waste. I danced away from it as Marsum roared and spun the hyena around, but I was already racing away, headed straight east as fast as my body could go. Lila paced me from above, sticking close.
“He’s gaining!” she yelled. I didn’t look back. I didn’t have to.
“It’s all good. We’ll lose him up ahead!”
So far, the plan I’d concocted in 2.3 seconds was panning out better than I’d hoped. As long as nothing fucked it up, I could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.
As soon as the desert opened up, we could lose Marsum, find a place to hide and hunker down for a few hours. No problem. With my connection to Maks severed I had to believe that Marsum wouldn’t be able to find me.
Paws crossed I wasn’t about to fuck this up royally.
“Where are Trick and Ollianna?”
“Headed to the crossroads. I told them we’d catch up!” She swooped low as a bold flare of magic, sparkling and deadly, shot through where she’d been only a moment before. I wished she’d gone with them. The fact that she was barely keeping up to me said it all.
She was running low on reserves.
The best I could do was get us to the rocks . . . my ears pricked forward at the sound that came toward us. Not from behind. From in front.
Hoofbeats. My head snapped up and I narrowed my eyes. Fuck, so much for everything going as planned.
A rider on a gray horse I knew all too well, towing a black horse behind him, galloped through the blasted lands, dodging toxic waste pits.
“Damn it, Ford! You’re going to get us all killed!”
26
Ford showing up to rescue me and Lila from Marsum, and whatever else he thought we might face, was kinda sweet in an “oh, you really shouldn’t have” way. But it also put a serious crimp in my plans of run from the big bad Jinn and hide from him.
I leapt over a flashing green puddle of ooze and put all my efforts into getting to Ford as fast as I could.
“Lila, tell him to turn around!” I yelled up at her.
She took off as if she’d been standing still in midair. Maybe she did have some rocket fuel up her ass still.
I dared a glance back.
And slowed.
Marsum was gone. The hyena was gone.
I slowed further until I was barely trotting along, my ears swiveling to pick up any sound from him giving chase. How had he disappeared like that? Had he gone back to help the other Jinn deal with Ishtar?
Oracle’s Haunt: Desert Cursed Series Book 4 Page 21