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Wrath led us out onto the grounds, where Peyton and Rex were waiting. They drove us to the rippling waters of Dovetail Lake—a large pond or small lake, depending on how you looked at it. We remained silent. So much rode on what would happen next. If Lainule failed to rally…I didn’t want to even think about the consequences then.
Peyton and Rex waited in the car for us. Since it was daylight, the chance of being attacked by Shadow Hunters was almost nil. We headed out, to the portal leading to Summer.
A guard was on the lookout for us. I don’t know how he knew we were coming, but it was obvious he’d been expecting us. Wrath looked at him.
“My Lady?”
“Still lives, my Lord. ”
Wrath nodded, then led us through the shimmering veil into the realm of Summer. I reveled as the warm weather hit but was struck by the leaves on the trees. There was no mistaking it this time. They were turning color. Autumn had found its way into the Court of Rivers and Rushes, and the bloom was fading even as Lainule’s powers waned.
We followed him through the grass, to the royal barrow. Once again, we were ushered into a hushed chamber, and from there, Wrath led us to Lainule’s bedchamber. As I entered, I couldn’t help but let out a prayer to whoever might be listening that this work.
“Approach the bed. ” Wrath motioned for the others to stand back as I slowly drew close to the four-poster bed and climbed the steps beside it. Lainule looked still as death, but her lips were parted and I could still see the rise and fall of her breast as she took shallow breaths.
“I have your heartstone. ” I leaned down and handed her the box, but she could not reach up for it. Biting my lip, I turned back, but Wrath would not speak to me, and I realized it was up to me to figure out what to do.
I opened the lid and the pulsing of the heartstone filled the room. I thought I heard panpipes, and drums echoing in the distance, and a sudden wash of the scents of apple and honey and sweet wine rushed past me. I closed my eyes as a ray of sun broke through the room, coming from the center of the heartstone as its brilliant green rays collided with the lights that sparkled in the air and on the walls.
Slowly, hoping I was not making a mistake, I lifted the heartstone out of the box and held it in my hands. It burned brightly against my skin, and I cried out, almost dropping it as my skin reddened. I turned quickly, on instinct.
“Rhia—come help me. ”
Rhiannon nimbly climbed the steps and sat beside me. She reached up, took the heartstone from my hands, and gasped, her head dropping back as a low growl of ecstasy rolled from her throat. I stared at her. Her hair sprang out of its braid, wild around her shoulders.
“On her chest—the stone must rest on her chest. ” I knew what to do, but it turned out I wasn’t the one who could actually do it. However, I could pull down Lainule’s comforter to expose her perfect, tanned breasts. They were lovely and I stared at her. Unearthly she was in her beauty, even though she was almost dead.
Rhia slowly lowered the stone to rest on Lainule’s chest, between her breasts, and a rumble filled the chamber. The music grew louder, the drums grew stronger. I clasped my hands to my ears, but Rhia reached out and grabbed them, and we held hands, waiting and watching. The roar was deafening, and yet the music caught me up in its rhythm and I began to drift.
The stone began to glow so brightly that I thought it would blind me. And then it began to—melt? The gem began to liquefy against Lainule’s skin, and the liquid emerald pooled between her breasts. I wanted to reach out, to touch the glowing gem’s essence, but I knew better. I kept hold of Rhia’s hands. We watched, wordless, speechless, as the gemstone liqueur began to soak into Lainule’s body, leaving a red mark on her skin where it had been.
As the drumming grew louder and the panpipes more frenzied, Lainule’s eyes began to flutter.
Wrath uttered a low moan and fell to his knees, hanging his head. He looked both overjoyed and bereft, the two emotions waging war in his eyes. Grieve and Chatter looked slightly confused, but then Grieve looked up at me and caught my gaze and I felt a stirring from my wolf, but this time it wasn’t seductive so much as a recognition of something I felt I should understand but didn’t.
Another moment and the heartstone had vanished into Lainule’s skin. Her breathing grew stronger, and in the next beat she sprang to a sitting position, her eyes flying open. She turned to me, her face a whirl of expression, and then she looked at Rhiannon.
The next moment, tears began to trickle down her cheeks. “Thank you, my girls. Thank you. You are both my salvation and my doom. ” And with that, she rose from her bed, glowing like the sunrise, and I realized that I’d never truly seen her in her power. I’d only met her after Myst drove her from her center, from the core that made up her wellspring.
“What do you mean, your doom?” My words hung in the air as Lainule ducked her head, smiling.
She leaned down to give me a kiss on the forehead. “Worry not about it at this moment, child. What is to be is now in motion. What was is passing away. What is important is that we now have some control over this situation. Now I can fight back. ” She turned to Wrath, who sprang to her side. “My Lord, I am so sorry…”
“No more. Say no more. ’Tis all forgotten, my beloved. ” He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, long and deep, and I felt their bond—an ancient one from times long past. “I will go with you, wherever you journey. You know that, my sweet. ” He rested his head on her shoulder.
“I can be a trial at times, and my whims are not always pleasant, but you have always been there, to walk by my side. ” She held the back of his head, a tender look on her face, and I felt like we should turn away, leave the room—this was a private moment, intimate in a way beyond even sex.
“And always, always shall I be. ”
They kissed again, and then Lainule turned to me. She held out her hand. “My stepdaughter, come. You and your cousin. ”
I stepped forward again, Rhia beside me. “Lainule, I am so glad to see you are well and healed. ” I gazed at her. Something was different, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
“Healed? I suppose you can call it that. Come now, I must be off to rally my warriors. There is to be havoc tonight—I can feel it rising in the air and Myst is behind it. ” She paused, looking at me again. “What did you do to yourself? Cicely…the fan…”
I hung my head. “I was facing Myst. I summoned up a hurricane. I became the storm. ” And that’s when I realized that’s exactly what had happened. I hadn’t been caught up by the hurricane, I had become the hurricane. I had carried the winds with me as I moved. I turned to her. “That’s why you warned me about the fan—why you had Ulean warn me?”
She smiled faintly, the aloof reserved nature creeping back. “Yes. Once the fan masters you, you will be forever ridden by the Element. You now belong to the air, my young one. It is good your Cambyra nature is Uwilahsidhe—the owl. ”
“What would happen if I’d had something where its primary element was earth?”
“You would be soil-bound, tied forever to the earth, unable to fly. You would be hobbled when in owl form. As it is, you have enhanced your natural abilities, but the price is a great one. However, you have paid a far greater price by restoring me. Do not think I will forget your deed. ”
I wanted to ask just what price I’d paid, but before I could, Lainule turned to Rhiannon. “By your births, you and Cicely are tied to each other’s fate. Your life is about to shift, my dear, in ways you could never imagine. But there will be time enough for that later. I must be away, to round up my Summer Guardians. Quickly, tell me what is happening. I can feel the shift on the slipstream. ”
And so, a thousand questions whirling in the back of my mind, I forced myself to push them away as we told her about Lannan, Geoffrey, and the rumble we expected that evening.
Lainule dismissed us but bade us stay within the r
ealm for a while longer. “I will have news for you. Go and rest for a moment. ”
Wrath stayed with her, while Rhiannon, Grieve, Chatter, and I left the barrow. The leaves on the trees were no longer fading—I could feel the shift, but they hadn’t regained their color as I’d expected.
“I want to go flying while we’re here. ” The feel of the sun on my skin made me long to shed my clothes and soar into the sky.
“Aren’t you tired?” Rhia wrapped her arm around my waist as we sat on a stone bench outside the barrow. The cobblestone seat was engraved with runes and swirls, with delicate chips of peridot and garnet caught in the mortar holding together the smooth, rounded pebbles. I traced the stones with my fingers, listening to the zing of magic that raced up my hands.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, letting the sun stream on my face. “Exhausted of this battle? Yes. Tired? No. But I want to fly. I need to stretch my wings. ”
“Then do so. ” Grieve leaned over me, looking strangely out of place. “Fly free, my love. Take it on the wing. ”
I glanced around. “Would anybody mind?”
“Go ahead. It will be all right. And we are safe here. ”
I stood, shedding my clothes. I was beginning to feel less self-conscious about the process, and nakedness was starting to be commonplace with me. Rhia watched, a smile playing on her lips.
“I’ve never really seen you change. We’ve always been in battle, or you’ve shifted before I came on the scene, or something or other. Now I get to watch what happens. Does it hurt?” she asked.
I shrugged. “A little. More so when it’s cold, but that’s one of the downsides. It’s like…shedding your skin. Putting on a new mask for the night. Or, rather, taking off a mask. ” I wasn’t sure exactly whether the owl form was my natural form, or the two-legged Cambyra/magic-born, but right now I didn’t care.
I stepped away from the bench and looked for a tree. The oak nearby would do. Nimbly, I swung up, caught the lowest branch, and climbed up the bark face, ignoring the abrasions it caused my knees and feet. After a few minutes, I was high enough to edge out on a thick limb—carefully, considering it was between my legs. I did not need a set of pussy slivers to deal with.
Cautiously, I held on to the trunk as I stood, balancing on the branch, bending slightly to keep several of the higher branches from knocking me off. The ground was a dizzying distance below, but it didn’t bother me. Instead, I clutched my moonstone pendant and closed my eyes, feeling the power grow. Then, with one long deep breath, I spread my arms and toppled forward.
The rush of air whistled around me as I fell. The rush of plummeting to the ground sent me into a delighted giggle as I began to transform. Arms to wing, torso to body, nails to talons—and then I soared. The updraft carried me aloft, and I realized I could hear laughter in the wind around me.
Ulean? Is that you laughing?
No, but I am here.
Who did I hear?
The wind spirits. Sylphan ones. They are playing in the currents and they dance now around you. They want to play.
How do they play?
With their biting winds and whirling leaves.
And then I felt them. I could feel the swirl of their bodies, the tailwinds in their wake. I spun and flew, diving into the center of their circle and through to the other side. They wheeled around me, laughing. I rode the currents, soared upward, screeching loud as the freedom of being on the wing overtook me. All I wanted to do was fly, soar, hunt, ignore everything else. I rode the winds, feeling free again for the first time in a while.
As I swooped down to speed past Rhia and Grieve and Chatter, I heard their laughter as they watched me, Rhiannon pointing with wonder in her eyes. And then, as I circled, I saw the great horned owl—my father—waiting in the tree for me. I soared up, losing my playful spirit, intent. As I settled on the branch near him, I could feel his desire to hunt.
Come with me. We will hunt. You need the practice.
And so I followed him, wings outspread, into the wide field, as we went to catch our prey. Hunters, we were, and usually cloaked in shadows. Maybe there was a little bit of Myst in us both.
Chapter 14
We’d circled the meadow twice when I caught sight of a mouse and gave chase. I was winging in hard, fast, talons down and ready to snatch up my dinner when Wrath suddenly landed and turned back into himself. Worried, I gave the mouse a pass to freedom and made a sharp turn, gliding back to him. With a soft landing, I touched the ground and willed myself back to form.
It was becoming easier to change each time. My father had told me that eventually I wouldn’t need the necklace. It really was just a booster and had triggered my latent abilities at first, but now that I was aware of that side of myself, the inner knowledge of what to do was coming to the surface.
Whenever I shifted back, I ended up in a crouching position, and this time was no exception. I fell forward, catching myself with my hands, then slowly rose, stretching into my full form. I stood naked, unabashed as various Fae walking by glanced at me. Grieve handed me my clothes and I quickly dressed.
“What’s going on? Is Lainule all right?” I asked, worried that maybe she’d had a relapse. I pulled on my jeans and fastened my bra, then pulled my turtleneck over my head. It was too warm for the realm of Summer, but once we left we’d be right back in the middle of a snowstorm.
“She’s fine now, thanks to you. ” My father gave me a long look, almost a sad one, but then shook his head. “You and Rhiannon saved her life. We’ve been summoned back to her chambers. She has rallied help for the meeting tonight with Altos. ”
I nodded, not wanting to think of the potential carnage that lay ahead. “I’m ready. Let’s go. ” I reached for Grieve’s hand as Chatter reached for Rhiannon’s, and we followed Wrath back to the barrow.