"Good luck."
They'd all need more than luck if Kizira's body was not found before the Tribunal meeting.
Chapter 15
Lorwerth took stock of the camp he'd established as a headquarters for his mission. They were close enough to Atlanta for his men to make runs, but far enough away, in North Georgia, that security was simple.
After instructing a unit of his men to execute a security sweep of the perimeter, he stepped over to a wooded area near the camp. Any of his men still in the camp would think he was taking care of personal needs.
A blurry image wavered into view, though never entirely into focus. This was the person he'd raze the entire continent for, if asked. Cloaked in a gray robe with a hood so deep no face could be seen, Lorwerth's benefactor had revealed nothing about himself.
No age. No family. No preternatural political ties.
He had only indicated to address him as my lord.
That was fine by Lorwerth, who quickly got to the point. "I've had three teams in the city. They've each killed a Medb witch or warlock, my lord."
"What Beladors have they encountered?"
"None until early this morning. They battled with a Maistir called Quinn, an Alterant known as Evalle, a Belador warrior called Devon, a warrior called Casper who did not show his powers, and a witch of unknown origin, but not Medb. Oddly they had a human with them, military type."
"Did your men capture the Alterant?"
"No. The Beladors killed two of our team members. There was another female they couldn't identify, and she killed our demons. They seemed attracted to her."
"A shame they did not bring the Alterant, but they'll have another opportunity."
Lorwerth waited during the pause. He'd come to understand that his benefactor wanted only information he requested, no unnecessary talking.
"What of the dragon king, Lorwerth?"
"No sign of him, my lord."
"Then we must move to the next step at nightfall. Are your men ready?"
"Yes." That one word should convey the faith Lorwerth had in his men and his ability to lead them.
"Very well. Protect the tomb I brought you."
"With my life, my lord."
Chapter 16
Reese tried to envision anyone with worse luck than hers.
Nobody came to mind.
She'd been sitting here for what felt like two or three hours, watching a two-foot-tall gargoyle named Feenix fly around the room. He chased a colorful plastic whirligig that flew whenever he tossed it in the air.
Someone had placed a spell on it.
This entire floor was his playroom and Storm had made it very clear that if anything happened to Feenix, no one could save Reese from him or Evalle.
That was right before he stuck her in this corner on a chair and warded an enclosure. She'd figured out Yaahl was correct about this being Saturday. By now it was probably noonish. If she had her powers, she'd give breaking that ward a try, but she didn't.
The whirligig lost speed as it usually did after two minutes and fell down inside her corner.
Feenix came flying down and landed six feet away. He stared at his toy then at her, looking perplexed.
She smiled at him and he smiled back.
This had potential. "I'm Reese."
"I know. Thorm told me. You Reethe."
That lisp was too cute, but he had ignored her until now. She had to stay serious to figure out how to escape. "I would love to play with you."
Feenix started clapping and chortling as he walked in a circle. "Play, play, play!"
Now we're making progress. Reese said, "I'm stuck over here. I can't play unless I get out of this corner."
Feenix stopped clapping and frowned at her.
She was losing his attention and asked, "Do you know how to get me out of here?" Granted it was a long shot, but she couldn't risk sitting here if he had a way to break the ward.
In the preternatural world, anything was possible.
Feenix waddled over to a bright yellow beanbag, one of three different-colored ones in the room. He picked up a stuffed alligator, hugged it to him and sat down, still frowning.
Oh, no. What if she'd upset Feenix? He was clearly Evalle's pet from the way those two had hugged before Evalle left.
Reese had to fix this fast. Evalle had been her only ally and the one person who had kept Storm at bay. "Tell you what. Never mind about getting me out of here. Tell me what games you like to play."
The little gargoyle let out a fat sigh and jumped up, waddling back over to her. He sat down and pointed at his toes. "One, two, three, four ... "
That went on for the next fifteen minutes. She finally realized the majority of his vocabulary came down to a handful of words and numbers up to twelve. He was very proud of eleven and twelve.
When he stopped, his eyes focused on the whirligig. Well, hell. Just because she was miserable didn't mean he had to be. She tossed it to him, but the thing didn't fly.
It landed in front of him. His eyes lit up. He grabbed it and threw it in the air. Before he abandoned his alligator to take off after it, he turned and said, "Thank you, Reethe."
What a sweet gargoyle.
She hadn't gotten to hear her baby talk or watch him play. Her eyes burned at the loss and she shook it off. She stood up, pushing her hands against the invisible wall. Not budging.
"Who are you?"
She jumped at the question, then did a double take at the matched set of young men who walked in. With an extra look, she could tell a slight difference between them. One had a devil-may-care look in his eyes and the other's gaze held a suspicious glint.
"I'm Reese. And you are?"
The devil-in-the-making said, "I'm Kardos, the fun guy. The sourpuss here is Kellman."
Kellman gave his brother a put-upon glare.
Feenix had been at the end of the huge room. He shouted, "Kellman! Kardoth!"
Kellman could smile after all.
Feenix flew at him like a cannonball, but slowed down to land in Kellman's open arms. The little guy was chortling like mad again.
That meant Reese was off the hot seat for upsetting him.
Feenix asked Kellman, "Play?"
"Not right now, buddy. Kardos and I have to go see Kit."
"Kit? What ith kit?"
"That's a lady we know. I'll tell you about her later."
Feenix leaned out to see Kardos. "Where you go?"
Kardos reached over and patted his head. "Camping. We'll be back in five days."
"Fun?"
"Yeah, we think it'll be fun. We'll be out in the woods doing ... stuff. I don't really know. Kellman got us sucked into doing it."
"Kardos, give it up. You wanted to go the minute you heard the sun was shining in the mountains."
"True. I'm waterlogged."
Sounding confused, Feenix asked, "What fun? NATHCAR?"
"No NASCAR. We won't have a television."
That perplexed Feenix. "Peetha?"
"No pizza. No way to cook it."
"Take me. I cook." Feenix pointed his mouth up and shot out a burst of flame.
Reese jumped.
The guys were laughing. Kellman said, "We should take you. We wouldn't have to build a fire, but Evalle would be so sad if you went with us."
"Oh." Feenix put one fat little digit on his lip. "I thay here."
"That's what we thought."
A buzzer sounded.
Kellman said, "Okay, Feenix. That's our ride at the front door. See you when we get back." He lifted Feenix into the air and the gargoyle flapped his bat-like wings.
Reese panicked. "Wait?"
Kellman asked, "Why?"
"I really need to get out of here. I said I'd wait for everyone to return, but I've got an appointment and I need to know how to leave the building."
Kardos eyed the ten feet between them. "Can you walk to the door?"
No. "Uh, I got myself stuck in this corner somehow. I was up here visiting and bam
, just got stuck."
The brothers exchanged a loaded look. Kellman said, "If you're stuck there, Storm put you there, which means no one here will lift a finger to free you even if we could and we can't."
"No, that's not what happened--"
Kardos laughed out loud. "Don't try lying around Storm. If you can't convince me, you have no chance around him."
With that they left with Kellman asking, "Did you leave Evalle and Storm the note?"
"Yes. It's on our kitchen counter. Stop being so anal."
There went the first people she'd seen who might have helped her find her medallion if she'd actually planned a strategy instead of sitting here silently griping.
Reese shook her head at that idea. Even if she'd been ready, it never would've happened. Not with this tight-knit group. She needed that medallion for any hope of escaping.
Slumping down on the chair, she was ready to scream, but Feenix was happy again so she just grumbled under her breath.
Twenty minutes later, she heard voices.
Footsteps came upstairs. Storm walked in, took stock of Feenix first, who had been playing at the far end of the room. The gargoyle called out, "Thorm!"
Storm said, "Hi Feenix. You okay?"
"Yeth." Feenix returned to whatever had been entertaining him.
That one word must have confirmed that Reese had behaved, because Storm didn't inquire further. He walked over, cleared the ward and said, "Let's go downstairs."
Her energy churned, but nothing like before. If she made a run for it, she doubted even Evalle could stop Storm from taking her down.
Miserable demon. She followed him back to the conference room where he handed her off to Quinn, saying, "She's all yours, buddy. Evalle hasn't slept in almost twenty-four hours. We're going to eat, grab some rest, and I'll be in touch tonight once I check the cemetery."
"That works. Thank you."
Storm walked out of the room. Evalle's voice joined his. Reese listened as their voices drifted upstairs along with their footsteps.
When she brought her gaze to Quinn's, he said, "None of us are convinced that you're here by accident. Now is the time to come clean. I don't need Storm here to determine whether you're telling the truth. If you don't convince me otherwise, I'm handing you over to VIPER to put in lockup while we figure out what to do about these killings."
That put her heart in her throat.
She couldn't negotiate from a point of weakness. That meant she needed something to trade him. She took a stab, saying, "Whether you believe me or not, I'm not aligned with those people you fought in Midtown and Piedmont Park. This seems to be a big issue between the Beladors and the Medb. If they're looking for Kizira's body and you know where it is, why don't you tell them and solve the problem?"
Even better, tell her and solve all her problems.
"No one knows where it is. The body has been stolen."
Did the news ever get better? She considered all that had transpired and asked, "Are you looking for the body?"
"Yes."
"If I could help you find it, would that buy my freedom?"
His stern face lost its rigid edges. "What do you mean by help? Can you locate it?"
"Depends on if I can touch somewhere that the body has been. I have a gift of vision." It wasn't as simple as that and her remote viewing gift had flaws, but why complicate a negotiation with negativity?
If he was trying to hide his surge of interest, he failed. Everything about him had stayed calm, but his eyes filled with hope.
Not that she wanted to crush that hope or ruin her chance for freedom, but she had to qualify one thing. "Remember when everyone wanted to know how I killed the demon and I said my powers were tied to a medallion I lost? I can tap my gift if your people can find it, but they have to hurry because the medallion has a shelf life." She wasn't sure that was true, but time was absolutely of the freaking essence for her.
Quinn's forehead smoothed when he relaxed. He reached in his pocket and withdrew a cord with her medallion dangling from it. "I'll give you one chance to prove that you're telling the truth."
Chapter 17
The realm of TAmr Medb
Maeve studied the water flowing over her decimated scrying wall. The rare gems of all sizes and colors still sparkled.
All that failed to hold her attention when her gaze kept being drawn to the huge blackened area and holes where only shards of the largest gems poked out at odd angles.
That arrogant dragon had destroyed her scrying wall.
Not her wall. She had better taste.
That idiot Flaevynn, the woman who had reigned as queen in Taur Medb until Maeve reincarnated, had created the garish wall.
Thankfully, Maeve's return had forced Flaevynn to blink out of existence.
Lights from hundreds of candles in her private chamber struck the jewels that remained, creating a brilliant glow on the gaudy display. Certainly not a structure Maeve would have created, but that wall had held information from the six hundred and sixty-six years of the last queen's existence, which Maeve needed now more than ever.
A swish of sound behind her announced the doors to her chamber opening.
She looked over her shoulder as Cathbad the Druid strolled in with a consoling look on his handsome face.
He said, "There you are, darling. I've given you space to come to terms with your loss. It's time we talked."
"Talk?" She swirled around, her feet floating inches above the floor. "My wall is destroyed and my throne was stolen. They. Stole. My. Throne!" Her gaze went to the empty spot where her dragon throne had sat for two thousand years. She was not finished with Daegan.
Not by a long shot.
"Yes," Cathbad said, continuing toward her. He lifted a hand to her cheek. "I know the anger you carry and I wish to share your burden, but that won't happen until you're ready to look forward instead of behind."
She hissed and spun up into the air.
Energy flashed away from her in fiery red lightning bolts, striking everywhere. Candles melted from the burst of heat. Stones on the scrying wall exploded. The walls of her chamber shook and groaned from her anger.
Staring down at Cathbad from high above him, she snarled, "Do not lecture me on when to let go of my anger, druid."
Unfazed by her show of might, Cathbad smiled. "Ah, but you mistake my words, love. I am not telling you to let go o' your anger, but to channel it so that you may receive your pound of flesh."
Floating back to eye level with Cathbad, Maeve said, "A pound of flesh will not satisfy my hunger for vengeance. Daegan owes me for the rest of his life."
Cathbad lifted his hands in supplication. "Do not shout at me. I did try to encourage you to kill him when you could have in this tower. He was at your mercy in this realm."
"Kill him? That would be too simple a payment for his debt. Most of the two thousand years he spent as a throne passed while you and I slept. I barely got to enjoy any of it. I had practically no time to watch him suffer. He dared to betray me then tried to kill me. No, he will be my throne again, but it will be far worse this time."
Heaving a sigh, Cathbad relented. "Very well. Let's get busy figuring out how to accomplish that."
"I want more than just having him back. So much more."
Cathbad gave her a measuring look. "I can't wait to find out what's churning in that beautiful head of yours, Maeve. I'm just glad I'm not on the receivin' end."
She didn't acknowledge that one way or the other. No one was safe from her wrath until she had her hands on Daegan again.
When the silence dragged out too long, Cathbad took to pacing. "We'll need a way to ambush him for any hope of catching him unaware in the human world."
"I can't go after him there. He'll be waiting for a chance to kill me."
Spinning on his heel, Cathbad said, "That's not so easy to do. But killing him will be just as difficult, from what I recall of dragons."
"That's not what I have in mind for him."
&n
bsp; "Now, Maeve, we may only get one shot at the bastard, and if that's the case, you do want to destroy him, don't ya?"
"No!" she roared, shaking the entire room again, but much worse this time.
"Maeve, calm down. You don't want a repeat of--"
Her head warped out of shape and she grew six feet taller. Red, black and silver flashed around. She screamed, her throat burning from the sound. "I will have him back! That dragon will not be allowed to live, or die, only exist. Here!" Her eyes burned liquid red.
She lifted her fists and shoved them down as if hammering a table. Power exploded from her, blasting Cathbad fifty feet away to where his body slammed the wall. He hung there a moment, groaning, then slid to the floor.
Her heart thundered in her chest. She wanted to burn everything in sight. She could do it, too. Wreck this tower. She would--
"Maeve, darling, you ... you must control yourself or you will lose this battle." Cathbad walked slowly back across the room, dusting himself off and straightening his shirt.
She grabbed her head. It throbbed from the power overload. Glaring at him, she demanded, "What are you saying, druid?"
"That you can't face an enemy as deadly as Daegan and be out of control," he replied with more steel in his voice this time. "You want to win, then you must hold your power in a tight fist until we need it unleashed. I don't know what is causing this reaction, but you've done this twice in two days. I can't protect your back if you allow him to goad you and leave yourself at his mercy."
He was right, damn him.
She'd lost control once before, right after she'd returned from a Tribunal meeting to find her private space ransacked and her dragon throne gone.
Her reaction had been three times as bad then, killing two of her guards, but that was natural culling if they couldn't hold up to a strike.
Outside this realm, she would be vulnerable, but even more so if she lost track of where she was at any moment, which would allow Daegan the perfect chance to attack. She might die from an overload of her own power.
But she needed to kill someone, needed to watch blood flow.
The only thing protecting Cathbad was the blood deal they'd made to protect each other while they were waiting to be reincarnated in current day. And there was the fact that he was also stronger in this realm.
He could take that hit and walk away.
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