The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3

by J. A. Cipriano

  “No…” I whispered, collapsing to the ground.

  The Keeper walked toward me. Tears clouded my vision as the Keeper knelt next to me and held out a single black rose. “If I could, I’d give him back to you.”

  “Don’t talk to me!” I snapped, turning away from him and walking over to the edge of the pit. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. If I couldn’t bring him back, how could I ever repay him? How could I live without having him there by my side? He was the one constant in my life, the safety harness that had always kept me from falling over the edge. Without him, what was I?

  “I know… I know I never told you how much you meant to me, Mattoc… I know I wasn’t the best friend you ever had. Maybe it’s because you were always there with me since I was little. I just… I just never thought you’d be gone.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, and looked up toward the sky.

  Very slowly, I trailed my fingers over the burn that had marked the spot where he’d once been anchored to me. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a very good friend, Mattoc. You deserved someone… better.”

  25

  “So you’re staying,” I said, glancing at Kishi from beneath the brim of my Yankees hat. She was standing next to the glimmering, golden throne of the Summer Court, but the Queen wasn’t here. She’d left after telling us we were free to go, and that she wasn’t allowing Dioscuri into Fairy anymore. Which was fine by me.

  For whatever reason, the Summer throne room felt like a living, breathing thing now. It reminded me of a field of sunflowers just before harvest. Where the walls had been silver gold and marble, they had been replaced by writhing vines and blossoming flowers. Birds flitted back and forth through the air above us, hopping from vine to vine chasing after flitting insects.

  “Yeah, I’m staying,” Kishi replied. “I need to get a handle on this whole Breaker thing. Apparently, I have another hand of power which hasn’t even manifested itself yet. I don’t really want to be in Lot being poked and prodded by researchers when I could stay here and learn from someone who knows what they are doing.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t really care what you do anyway.” It came out bratty, but I honestly hadn’t meant it that way at all.

  “Lillim,” Warthor said, his voice firm and slightly admonishing. “Don’t be that way.”

  “Be what way?” I shouted, my composure breaking as I whirled on him, my hands balled into fists. “Be angry that both of you are staying in Fairy? Be mad that my friend is dead and never coming back?”

  Warthor raised his hands in surrender as I walked right up to him and invaded his personal space. “You can be mad,” Warthor said, “but when you leave, you need to be in control. That force Diana is bringing is still coming. We’ll barely have enough time to get you to the border by the time they arrive. If you don’t convince them everything is fixed, there could be a problem.”

  “I know,” I snapped. “You told me before. Someone has to go meet the Dioscuri. That someone has to be me since the two of you are abandoning me after my friend died.”

  “Stop being a brat about it!” Warthor growled, poking me in the chest with one slender finger. “I am not staying here because it’s fun. I’m staying here to keep the deal with the Keeper. Someone has to stay or he’ll take you away, and as much as you miss Mattoc, I can’t lose you, Lillim.”

  “I know,” I whispered, reaching out and pulling him close. Even though he stood there awkwardly in my embrace, something about it made me feel like it was the last time I’d ever get to do it. “I just feel like I’m losing everything. I feel like this is all my fault.”

  “It’s not your fault, Lillim,” Kishi said, voice strained. “I’ll be back soon and together we’ll figure out how to get Warthor home.”

  “If I don’t figure out a way home, first,” Warthor said, finally returning my hug instead of standing there like an obstinate scarecrow.

  “Yeah,” I replied, disengaging myself from Warthor and shaking my head. “It’s nice of you two to lie to me. We both know how time works here. A month in Lot is only a couple days here. Even if you figure it out next week, it’ll have been almost a year, and let’s be honest, Kishi. Your training is going to take what, a year, maybe two?”

  “Well…” Kishi said, looking down at her red tennis shoes. What were they suddenly super interesting or something? “The Queen says I need at least five years…”

  “Great, so I’ll be dead of old age by the time you come back to Lot. Hell, Lot probably won’t even exist,” I said, shaking my head as I crossed the room and took her hand in mine. “This is why you shouldn’t have been friends with me.”

  She smirked and patted my hand. “Lillim, I’m glad we were friends.” She gestured at the throne room, hands sweeping out wide. “I never would have seen this stuck in the tower my father liked to keep me in. I would have ended up married to some other noble who was also locked up in a tower. I know some bad things happened, but if you could look past that…” she trailed off.

  “Thanks, Kishi,” I replied, reaching out and hugging her. “It’s nice of you to say that.”

  She nodded, and we disengaged. We stood there staring at each other awkwardly for a few moments before I spoke up. “Okay, I guess it’s time to go home and face the music,” I said. “Hopefully it’s not the blues. Though I’m still a little sad I couldn’t keep the magic armor.”

  “Hey, I tried,” Kishi said, shrugging. “The Queen won’t let you have another set of magical Fairy armor.”

  “Her saying I’d just destroy it was pretty ridiculous, though.” I flailed slightly. “I mean it’s armor, you’re supposed to battle in it.”

  “Hey, at least she’s letting you wear your clothes. She could have made you go home in your underwear,” Kishi said with a smirk as she waved at me. I rolled my eyes, turned, took half a step, and stopped. The Keeper was standing there, still holding that black rose he’d offered me before.

  “I want you to take this, Lillim Callina. I want you to take it to remind you of the good you did here.” The Keeper stepped forward, bent until we were nearly eye to eye, and pressed the flower into my wrist.

  He closed his fist around it, engulfing my arm in his tennis-racket sized hands. A small pinprick of pain shot through my wrist. I tried to pull away, but the Keeper held my arm in place with such force that I may have well tried playing tug-of-war with a backhoe. Black light glowed from between his fingers, pulsing like a little heart.

  “Remember, Lillim Callina. Remember what you have done. Not the bad, but the good,” he said, and his voice tasted like raspberry cream and dark chocolate. It swept over me and I staggered, losing my balance and stumbling.

  His other hand shot out, catching my shoulder and keeping me from falling as he released my wrist, grinning at me. I looked down at my arm and sucked in a sharp breath. The image of a black rose was tattooed in startling relief onto my wrist. Its petals moved in a way that reminded me of a cat getting ready for a nap as I lifted my arm to get a better look at it.

  “My mom is going to kill me when she sees this,” I said, not taking my eyes off the tattoo. Every time I moved my hand, it seemed to shift as though its petals and leaves were caught by unseen wind.

  The Keeper laughed, a loud guffaw that echoed across the room like a springtime breeze. “I have just put my mark upon you, and you’re worried about what your mother will think?”

  “Yes,” I said, swallowing.

  “Your mom has tons of tattoos,” Warthor said, stepping forward to look at my wrist. “I doubt she’s going to care about one tiny rose.” He took my arm in one hand and slowly trailed his fingers over the top of it. “It feels like a real rose,” he murmured.

  I pulled my hand from him and traced my fingers over the delicate petals, and along the stem. It was so lifelike that if I wasn’t feeling my own skin, I’d say it was a living plant.

  “Oh you don’t understand,” I said, shaking my head. “She’s been trying to get me inked for years.
She’ll be pissed when she sees I got one without her.”

  Thank You for reading!

  Curious about what happens to Lillim next?

  * * *

  Find out in Pursuit or turn the page for a free preview!

  Author’s Note

  Dear reader, if you REALLY want to read the next Lillim Callina novel- I’ve got a bit of bad news for you.

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  Pursuit

  Chapter 1

  Masataka Mawara stared at me with flat, emotionless sea-green eyes that reminded me of a shark circling its prey. The fingers of his right hand inched backward toward the trident strapped to his back. I bet if I moved suddenly, that trident would pass through the spot my head occupied so quickly I’d have trouble dodging it.

  Behind him was an army of Dioscuri. They all wore the same black cowl over their heads that blocked their features from view so that I couldn’t tell who was who. Not that I’d have known who many of them were anyway because their identities were one of Lot’s best kept secrets. Why? Because each and every one of them was a royal guard, and as such, they could not be influenced.

  “Lillim!” My mother called, breaking rank and striding toward me so quickly that it made me take a step backward. She was wearing her black Dioscuri fighting suit and nothing else. Where was her kimono? I swallowed as a sinking feeling filled my stomach. I’ve never seen her without one of her kimonos.

  The cat suit clung to her body so tightly that it was very clear my mother’s body had held up remarkably well despite being older and having had a kid. I glanced down at myself in my blue jeans and red sweatshirt and fought the urge to poke myself in the tummy. Maybe I should stop with all the candy…

  “Diana, know your place,” called a broad-shouldered man to her left. He was bald and sported a short black beard that reminded me of the devil or a pirate. “Do not break rank.”

  “Stuff it, Reath,” my mother said over her shoulder as she came up to me. She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug that crushed me against her body.

  I swallowed, suddenly confused and embarrassed, and tried to push her away as heat spread across my cheeks. “Mo—” I started to say as she put her lips to my ear and whispered, “Run!”

  She released me, stepping back and staring at me with her cold brown eyes. I glanced around. I was still standing in fairy, just a couple inches from the border Kishi and I had crossed so long ago. Behind me, the sweltering heat of the Summer Court beat at my back, baking me in my clothes. At least I had a pass from the Summer Queen and was able to wear all my clothing. This would be really embarrassing if I was still in my underwear.

  My mother looked down at the border just an inch shy of her toe and back at me. She nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “Where is my daughter?” Reath thundered as he shouldered my mother out of the way. He stood in front of me in that hulking way big men do when they are trying to be intimidating.

  “You’re Kishi’s father?” I asked, taking a nervous step back. His arms had to have been as big around as my thighs and his neck was like my torso. “What do they feed you, a herd of buffalo?” I blurted.

  His face reddened and twisted into a snarling mask. Behind him, my mother suppressed a grin. “Yes, I am Kishi’s father,” he growled, narrowing his emerald eyes into slits. “Where is my daughter? If something happened to her… so help me.”

  “She’s fine,” I said with a shrug. “She’s back at the Summer Court with the Queen of the Hot and Bright. You can go see her if you want. She’s being lavished by pixies. I hear there are bonbons and palm fronds involved.”

  Reath glanced back over his shoulder at Masataka. When he nodded, Reath turned back to me. “You’re not lying.”

  “Why would I be lying?” I asked, fixing him with my best glare. “I don’t exactly make a habit of it. In fact, if they gave out trophies for honesty, I’d have three.”

  “I don’t know why you would be lying, but if I had to guess, it would have something to do with why the fairy queens revoked our free travel privileges into fairy.” Reath grimaced, showing entirely too many teeth. “Why are you here by yourself? Why is my daughter not with you?”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but as I did so, my mother shook her head minutely.

  “Diana, please excuse yourself,” Masataka said, taking a step forward. “You are influencing the suspect.”

  My mother turned, and though I couldn’t see her face, her tone told me she was fixing him with the look she used to make vampires hide under the bed. “She is not a suspect. She is my daughter. You will show her more respect, Masataka.”

  “She is a fugitive charged with the kidnapping of Kishi Al Akeer. Besides, she isn’t even your real daughter,” Masataka snarled. “She is an unauthorized reincarnation of Dirge Meilan masquerading about in your daughter’s body like some kind of parasite.”

  “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel, Masataka?” I asked, fighting the simultaneous urge to throttle him and to cry.

  “Step over that line, and I will, Lillim.” His face was set in grim determination as he swept his hand back in a grand gesture to show me the way past him.

  “Come over here and make me, Masataka.” I stuck my tongue out at him and made a face. “Oh, that’s right, you can’t.”

  “Your mother has protected you from me in the past, Lillim. But no more. If you do not come over here, I will step over that line and take you back to Lot. If you resist, I will hurt you.” Masataka’s face closed off so that it reminded me of a cold, unfeeling stature. He knelt down, picking up a handful of dirt at the border and letting it run through his hands. “I hope you resist.”

  I glanced from him to my mother. She had a look on her face that betrayed nothing, and the sight of it sent a chill hopping down my spine like an icy toad. My mother wasn’t exactly good at controlling her emotions or facial expressions. When you’re the strongest person in the room, people tend to give you a pass on stuff like that. But, right now, my mother was trying… That was not good. What could make her do that?

  “Lillim Callina, the charges against you are serious. You will return my daughter immediately and surrender yourself into Masataka’s custody,” Reath’s low baritone warbled through the air, and I glanced at him. I guess I should have been threatened by him, but I’d just killed a death god a few hours ago. Reath had nothing on Crom Cruach.

  “Go find her yourself. She’s about half a day’s journey that way!” I pointed toward a cactus behind me with a particularly large vulture sitting atop it. “Aside from that, I’m not turning myself over to you.”

  “Surely you have noticed your mother’s lack of adornment, the lack of her people here. Only my people are here,” Masataka said as he stood, hands motionless at his sides. “She cannot help you.”

  “Mom, what’s going on?” I asked, turning toward he
r. “Warthor said you were coming with a squad, so I came to tell you we handled it already.”

  My mother replied with a sigh. “I tried to get troops and people to come help, to come rebalance fairy but no one would listen to me. The council refused to authorize it. That is… until they realized Kishi was with you. Suddenly, I had these guys willing to come along. The only catch was, I couldn’t come, at least not in my capacity as head of the Dioscuri.”

  “So you’re here as a subordinate?” I glanced at Masataka. “To him?”

  “Yes,” Masataka said with a grin. “Until we return to Lot, I am the lead. Even your mother has to do what I say.”

  “I feel like I should buy you a cake,” I said with a shrug. “You know, to celebrate you finally being in charge of something more important that your brother’s birthday party. Mitsoumi does still let you plan that, right?”

  “Once we bring you back and have you executed for treason, I’ll make a cake from your bones.” Masataka grinned, and for the first time, well ever, I saw his eyes twinkle. “Won’t that be a dainty dish to set before the king?”

  I turned and ran, sprinting back down the dunes as fast as my legs could carry me. I’d barely made it twenty feet when my mother screamed. It was a short, horrible sound that stopped me in my tracks. I whirled, swinging my body around so fast I lost my balance, tripping over my own feet and smacking into the sand.

  I shook my head, spitting sand from my mouth as I scrambled to my feet. Masataka Mawara had my mother, the leader of the Dioscuri fighting forces, on her knees in front of him. With one hand, he jerked her head back by her hair and put a seven-inch black-bladed knife to her throat. It was a Becker BK7 and was thick enough to pry off a car door.