“Tranquil?” Anna cracked a smile. “Not a word anyone who has known me for more than a couple days would use. I’ve been on my best behavior so as not to embarrass my Rasoren. I’m stubborn, sarcastic, ambitious, judgmental and have been known to fly into a rage easily. Not very pretty to see, I’m afraid.”
Meadow laughed. “I see so much of Obsidian in you. Or maybe that’s you in Obsidian.”
You don’t know the half of it, girl.
Just as they came to the end of the stone pathway where it opened into the vast clearing, Obsidian joined them. “Thank you, Meadow, for keeping Anna company while I spoke with Truth about tonight. Will you be joining us?”
“Unfortunately, no. I must help my mother with the wine, but I look forward to talking with your Kyrsu again soon.”
Anna watched as the dryad vanished into the crowd, then she turned her attention to Obsidian. “I don’t need a babysitter. If you want to go have fun with your friends without me, go.”
“I’ll not leave you after what Reaver did yesterday.”
Sighing at his predictable answer, she glanced around until she spotted Oath and waved him over. “Oath, you and the rest of your underaged friends will all help to keep me entertained tonight, right?”
Oath nodded his head so fast it almost vibrated.
“See,” she whispered along her mental link to Obsidian. “I’ll be protected, and you can go court whatever girl has caught your fancy.”
It sure as hell better not be me, Anna thought to herself.
“Oh, Anna. There is no girl.”
“Really? You like guys?”
Obsidian snorted. “It’s far more complicated than that, but I’ll tell you later. Not here.”
He wouldn’t even tell her over their mental link? Dammit. It had to be bad.
“Okay, later it is.”
Obsidian agreed and led her out into the gathering, his friends arrayed around them, once again acting as an honor guard and keeping the curious onlookers at bay for a little while longer.
As they made their way farther into the gathering, Anna spotted more of the humanoid looking males.
Anna’s attention soon turned from the gargoyles in their hybrid forms to something even more interesting—tables laden with food. They sat in ten long rows at the center of the clearing, situated in a rough horseshoe shape. A wide variety of fruits, breads, meats, and vegetables covered the surfaces. It all smelled heavenly. Anna’s mouth began to water.
Oath, Lark, and Nightshade peeled off to check out the food choices on the side tables, leaving only Truth walking at Obsidian’s shoulder.
It wasn’t until she was closer that she realized all the tables were made from magic.
“Wow. That must’ve taken someone some energy to shape all those from shadow magic.”
“You can sense shadow magic?” Truth asked with sharp disbelief. “But you’re human. That’s not possible.”
Fuck. She’d just stepped in the proverbial crap.
“Anna is unique. You must know that she was changed by the Battle Goddess even as I was.” Obsidian speared Truth with an intense stare. “Anna has many abilities the elders don’t yet want revealed. Do I make myself clear?”
The sharp command in his tone nearly had Anna standing at attention. This was the voice of a Rasoren—prime war leader of the gargoyle Legion.
“Is she gargoyle stock?” Truth asked in a low voice. “Has our enemy found a way to breed gargoyles and humans?”
“No.” The one word rang out.
It wasn’t a lie. She didn’t have gargoyle parents, after all. Truth must have sensed a hint of deception for his eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared to take in Obsidian’s scent.
“No more questions until after we’ve met with the Council of Elders.”
“Well, if that’s settled, I’m starved.” Anna hooked an arm through each of theirs and guided them toward the food. “Let’s go eat.”
Chapter 20
The evening went without further mishap. Obsidian’s mood improved once he had a heaping plate of food in front of him. It might have helped that there were hundreds of different delicacies to be had. Soon his friends returned from where ever they’d gone and took seats at the table Obsidian had claimed as his own.
Music and song continued for the entire meal.
“How much longer will this be going on?” Anna asked.
“Do you wish to retire before the dance starts?”
“Is that an option? If so, then hell yes. Sign me up for some downtime.”
“Not really, unless you aren’t fully recovered. The mentors would understand if you were tired still from yesterday’s events.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
Obsidian studied her in silence and for once she couldn’t guess at his thoughts, but soon the meal concluded, and the music changed, a deep, throbbing drumbeat joining in.
Anna noted that all the dryads were now getting up and dragging their gargoyle counterparts up as well. She stood before anyone could grab her hands and pull her up into a dance.
The music increased in volume. The crowd began clapping, stomping and swaying to the music. Anna attempted invisibility without actually calling on her shadow magic. But it didn’t work, and Oath and Nightshade darted up on either side and grabbed Anna’s hands and pulled her away from Obsidian before he could stop them.
Behind her, she could hear Obsidian and Truth laughing as they were dragged into the dance by others.
People spun by Anna at a dizzying speed. She soon found herself being handed off to strangers, but all were friendly and happy. Soon, even she began to relax and enjoy the dancing, which was a fast-paced mix between Celtic circle dancing and something of the stylized moves found at a powwow.
After an hour of dancing, more young dryads and gargoyles appeared, carrying large pitchers and ladles. When one young dryad child—she couldn’t be more than fourteen—offered Anna a drink, she was happy to accept.
The first sip surprised her. It wasn’t water or alcohol. It was a cold and sweet nectar-like drink, blessed with the gift of quenching thirst and delivering much-needed sweetness to fuel them for another few rounds of the circle dances.
The three moons of this planet rose higher in the sky, casting the revelers in a surreal silvery glow. Thick mist rose from the warm ground, adding to the magical feel.
After another hour, the dancers took a rest, returning to the tables where they laughed and nibbled at food and drank.
It was during one such rest period that Obsidian’s foster mother, Master Maradryn, joined them at their table. She eyed them in silence for a moment before just spitting out her concern.
“I’ve come to caution Obsidian against entering into a relationship with a dryad this day if that is his plan.” She eyed his wingless form.
“I know the rules.” Obsidian sounded sullen.
“But Anna must be curious and if I know you at all, you haven’t told her.” Maradryn tilted her head as if challenging him to deny her words. “A normal Rasoren and Kyrsu can be father and son, brothers, long-standing friends, or if unrelated, the pair might even be lovers. But they also need to get along off the battlefield as well. If they are unmated when they first form the bond, they both must pick mates together, and those mates need to tolerate each other at the very minimum.”
Anna’s poker face cracked in two and she was left gawking at them with her mouth gaped open. “That’s one hell of a tall order.”
“Yes. And that’s with a normal bond. What you and he share goes beyond that. Your power seems to naturally share everything. Strength. Knowledge. Pain. Likely pleasure too.”
“Oh, my God. I want off this ride.” Anna muttered under her breath, then cleared her throat. “I’m not sure how things are around here, but I’m not down with any kind of three-way poly relationship. I don’t swing that way. And in case you have forgotten, Obsidian is like a brother. There’s going to be a whole lot of nope during this conversation.”
/> Speaking about little brother, he was awfully tight-lipped. She turned to him to find him deep in thought and looking unhappy.
At last he sighed and joined the conversation.
“Why are you even bringing this up, Maradryn? The Council still doesn’t want me to court anyone, because of my...condition. Has that changed? No? Then why does any of this matter? We all know the spring rite can’t be anything more than a fanciful diversion for me. It means nothing.”
“Then why did you take on your wingless form?”
“I don’t know!”
The last came out so scathing even Anna winced.
Maradryn just huffed. It was almost a laugh. “I’m not a gargoyle, but I know a lie when I hear one that obvious.”
“I don’t…I know I can’t…”
“Surely you must have realized we didn’t mean for you to never take a mate. All we wanted is for you to wait until everyone knows and is comfortable about what Anna is. Then once you find that one woman you wish to spend your life with, bring her to the Council, and we will explain the full ramifications.”
Okay. There was way, way more going on than Anna knew.
Maradryn touched Obsidian on the shoulder. “Though I think you’ve already set your heart on one particular female to be your lifemate, haven’t you my dear?”
“What is going on? No cryptic talk. I want clear, uncomplicated answers.”
Maradryn chuckled. “Then you are sure to be disappointed. I don’t think there is anything uncomplicated about either of you.”
The music swelled louder, the drums drowning out Maradryn’s words until she leaned closer and whispered in Anna’s ear.
“He’ll tell you everything later. I’ll just say it’s unfortunate you look upon him as a younger brother. It would solve many issues if you didn’t.”
What the hell? She loved him like a brother. End of story. She wasn’t being obtuse, naïve or stubborn. It just was how she loved him.
The only way she could love him.
Chapter 21
Anna was unsettled. Obsidian knew it, felt her spike of uneasiness like a shivery essence flowing along their link. It took a lot to upset his Kyrsu, but he’d sensed her unease many times since she’d woke from her healing sleep. That he was the cause left a churning void in his soul.
Well, to be honest, he was now more than a little unsettled, too.
After last night in the healers’ quarters, he’d awoken with the knowledge that he wanted Anna. Heck, he’d known even that first night, when he’d shifted from stone to flesh and found Anna awake and in his arms.
The need to let her know his interest was the reason he’d shifted to this hybrid form. Well, that and to let others know his intentions. He was interested in only one woman. The woman sitting across from him now.
A woman who was absolutely horrified at the thought of him as anything other than her brother. His less than subtle decision to shift to this form was now circling back to bite him.
There was no avoiding the final dance now that he’d announced his interest in courting a female. When no dryad succeeded in seducing him off a bench later tonight, everyone would know Anna was the object of his desire, which had been his plan. But he hadn’t counted on Anna’s near horror at the thought of them becoming a couple.
Some trauma had occurred in her past that made it hard for her to trust males. He knew that, but he hadn’t thought it extended to him, or at least he thought he’d regained her trust in the last two days. But it wasn’t enough time. In her moment of horrified disbelief, he’d seen into her unguarded thoughts, a glimpse of what she kept hidden.
Now Anna stood there waiting for him to say something. If he didn’t want to make things worse between them, he needed to be truthful but also soothe her fears.
With a sense of desperation, he returned to the subject Maradryn had opened. At least he wouldn’t have to lie about that.
“After the dancing is over,” he whispered along their link. “I will fill you in on everything my mentors and I have discovered about our bond. But it is a long conversation, best carried out when we are alone and have no distractions to interrupt us.”
“Sounds serious,” Anna said. “That all you’re going to give me?”
“I…” He scrambled for something else to say. Then at last an idea occurred to him. “The nature of how I can convert other species to gargoyles has changed a bit as I matured. The council wishes for me to remain celibate until they fully determine any dangers I might represent to the dryads. They have not yet finished their study.”
Her eyebrow arched nearly to her hairline. “Yeah. Okay. I see why this is a conversation for later.”
A new throb echoed through the air, saving him from searching for further safe conversation.
The new drum beat rose and fell like the surging of some great beast’s pulse. Around him, several of his brethren were extracting themselves from the crowd and making their way over to the benches where the unmated were expected to go and present themselves.
A few curious onlookers were casting furtive glances in his direction. They were expecting him to join the others moving toward the benches.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. You look like a deer staring down a truck’s high beams.”
That sounded more like the Anna from his youth.
“This new look,” she indicated his hybrid form in a sweeping gesture, “Going by what Meadow and Maradryn said, it’s to say you’re seeking courtship, isn’t it?”
He swallowed around a lump in his throat and nodded.
Anna compressed her lips and switched to their link. “Is there a dryad you’re hoping will come dance for you?”
“There is none.”
Her expression shifted subtly, like she was approaching a dangerous beast. “Is this for me?”
He glanced off into the darkness for many moments and then issued a soft ‘yes’ that was barely above a whisper.
“You going to lose face with the legion when you’re left still sitting at the end of the night?”
“There is no shame in not being chosen.”
Anna rolled her eyes at him and muttered under her breath. “That’s not the answer to the question I asked.”
“It was my foolish decision. As my mentors would say, I will have reaped what I deserve.”
“But you are also Rasoren, future war leader of the legion. Are they going to judge you differently?”
Obsidian looked around, eyes searching the crowds. He remained deep in thought for several minutes. At last with shoulders slumped, he admitted the truth he’d been too stubborn to see. “I should have thought this out better.”
“Like thought to ask your Kyrsu her opinion first?”
“Yes that.” He glanced down at his hands and started to chuckle bitterly. “Why should they put their trust in a leader who doesn’t even take the time to learn his second in command’s thoughts?”
“Okay. You can stop beating yourself up now. This is how this is going down. We’re going to go sit over on one of those benches, you’re going to magic us up a checkerboard using some of your shadow voodoo you’ve learned while I slept, then we’re going to play a few rounds, ignoring everything and everyone around us.”
“I can do that. But…”
Anna just cut him off.
“Onlookers gonna speculate. Let them. They can stew on what we might be to each other until they die of old age and they still won’t have a clue how deep our bond runs. But I know what we are. We’re a team. I’ve always got your back.”
She glanced heavenward as if praying for divine deliverance. “Even if it’s during a freaking dryad fertility rite.”
“There is...”
“You’re welcome. Just don’t take this the wrong way. I have no intentions of getting hitched to my little bro.”
The other revelers decided just then that he was taking too long and gently pushed him in the direction of the benches with a great deal of laughter and even a few innuendoes.<
br />
“If this turns into a fucking bachelor party, you owe me big time,” Anna hissed under her breath as she followed close on his heels.
While he and Anna were guided toward the benches where the other single gargoyles sat, the youngest, including Oath and his peers, were herded off towards the tree line and onto the stone pathways that led deeper into the forest.
“By the way, if I see any stripteases or lap dances, I’m calling my shadow magic and vanishing in front of everyone, the Council of Elders be damned.”
“Don’t worry. If that kind of thing goes on, it’s saved for more secluded locations.”
“I’m warning you...if I see jiggly titty I’m outta here.”
Anna’s crass words caused a grin, and he relaxed. Perhaps he hadn’t made so great an error in announcing his willingness to court his Kyrsu. Sure, she had—to borrow one of her phrases—shot him down, but that was because of something that had happened in her past. She was fierce and resilient. In time, if he was patient and didn’t screw things up, she might come to love him romantically.
Until then, he’d be a loyal training partner and friend.
With hope a warmth in his belly, he led a grumpy Anna to the nearest empty bench.
∞∞∞
“They came, they danced, they went away again. Is it over?” Anna was clenching her jaws to stop a yawn, but he sensed her weariness. It had been a long two days.
“I have fulfilled my role as tradition requires. We can go now if you’d like.”
“Hell yes. I’ve eaten and drank enough tonight to descend into a food coma until noon tomorrow.”
Obsidian was still smiling gently at Anna’s words when Truth came up to them.
“Banrook cornered me after the dance. He wants to talk to you sooner than the council meeting tomorrow.”
Obsidian mentally cursed. He’d expected the other council members to notice his shifted form and knew they would want a word with him, but he’d hoped they’d wait until the meeting in the morning.
“They want to speak to me, too?” Anna was suddenly bright-eyed and suspicious again.
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