In this way, the cockatrice spell books were only reproductions. While the content was dark and grisly in most places, she didn’t have the same physical reaction she did when in close proximity to the actual books. Said books she hadn’t had the guts to actually pick up and touch yet. Not when seeing them in person wigged her out. She had scanned copies of both Edgar and Lenny’s books on her iPad, since in some places their margin notes varied.
It was the file for Edgar’s version of the book which she opened, idly paging through it, still not understanding most of the writing, until her finger froze in shock.
The drawing was, as best she could tell, the very rock pile she now sat atop.
“What the hell?” she muttered, pinching and zooming in to get a better look at the graphic.
How had none of them ever picked up on that before? Maybe because brush now obscured one of the sides of it, grass and moss covered part of it, and the forest around it made it hard to see it from a distance.
When she checked the file for Lenny’s copy of the book, sure enough, it had a drawing of the rock pile in it, too.
“Son of a bitch,” she whispered.
The problem was, she couldn’t read the text. She didn’t understand the language at all. Even trying Lina’s trick of just thinking that she understood it hadn’t worked.
And she’d forgotten to move the translated files to her iPad before leaving for Maine. She didn’t dare risk poofing home to do it in case Lina or Mai were at her house to ask why.
She wanted alone time to think about this.
Okay, once we figure out the nuke and stop that, we need to buckle down and get to the bottom of this bullshit.
Another hot gust of air blew past her, rippling gooseflesh on Elain’s skin and setting the hair on the nape of her neck on end.
“What are you?” Elain called out to the air, sensing…something. A presence.
An angry presence.
Baba Yaga appeared in front of her. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” She let go of her amethyst amulet.
“Was that you messing with me?”
“No. That is my point. Do not open lines of communication with things you do not even understand. Especially not here.”
“How will I learn to understand them if I don’t talk to them?”
“Because some portals must remain sealed.”
“So I’m right? This is a portal?”
“What does the book tell you?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know.” Elain held it up. “I can’t read ancient cray-cray. Care to help a girl out?”
Baba Yaga’s gaze narrowed. “Why not summon Lina and Mai here? Or Zack and Kael?”
“Because I have a feeling you’re about to school me again, and had you wanted them here, you would have told me to bring them instead of asking why I didn’t.”
“Very true.”
They were back in the past now. Elain knew this was a mirage, much as her previous jaunts to Baba Yaga’s house. Mostly open land lay around them.
Baba Yaga pointed to where, in the distance, a flock of black vultures devoured a carcass. Possibly a moose. Several were perched on top of it, while many others gathered around, awaiting their turns.
“See? Even there is beauty. The beauty in balance. Balance between light and dark, good and evil. It just is what it is. Neutral. Null state. If it weren’t for vultures and other scavengers, the world would be awash in carcasses. Human and animal. For every peacock, there must be a vulture. For every butterfly, a cockroach. Earth in balance.”
“Shades of grey.”
“Precisely.”
“I thought we were past the days of fortune cookies?”
“We are. This is but a reminder that sometimes very old things that have been lost to history need to stay lost, or risk the wrong people discovering them.”
“The wrong people like Aliah?”
“According to you, there might still be more of those spell books out there.”
“There are?”
“I was not confirming,” Baba Yaga said, “because I do not know. I was repeating your own stated supposition based upon finding that there were two of them.”
Elain deflated. “Oh. I thought you were about to tell me something.”
“Again, there is a huge blind spot in my visions now. I see around things, events that I know must involve at least one of you three. I see incidental things that make little or no sense out of context like that.”
Elain pointed at the vultures. “Why are you showing me that then?”
“To show you them.” She pointed behind Elain.
Elain turned, knowing it was a vision, but gasped as she saw a group of about twenty people walk into view from around the back of the hillside where the cave lay. They were carrying a captive bound to a pole, a woman, struggling, pleading through her gag.
Elain stood, almost forgetting to grab hold of her iPad before it fell and hit the rocks. “Holy shit,” she muttered.
“Yes,” Baba Yaga said. “Before the cockatrice settlers were cleared out of this region, they were frequent visitors to this space.”
“The wolves cleared them out? Is that why the wolves settled here?”
“Partly. The cockatrice also managed to enrage the indigenous peoples, who didn’t appreciate the cockatrice abducting and using their people for ritual sacrifices. They had done an excellent job of thinning the cockatrice numbers even before the wolves arrived.”
“How?”
Baba Yaga nodded toward the group approaching their location. “Because the cockatrice used to do things like that. Capturing victims to use for their dark magick.”
In the front of the line, leading the way toward the rock pile, the dark-haired man wore trousers and a loose shirt made of rough-woven cloth. In his hands he carried a familiar-looking knife and book.
“Are those the—”
Confusion erupted as a shower of arrows exploded around them, striking most of the party. The young woman bound to the pole let out a cry of pain as her captors dropped her and ran for the cover of the rock pile.
“Okay,” Elain said. “I’ve seen enough.”
“Not quite.”
The massacre didn’t take long. Once the young woman was freed and reunited with an older man Elain suspected was her father, the man walked over to the fallen cockatrice leader and spit on him. Then he reached over and picked up the knife and book.
The vision faded, leaving Elain standing and still staring in the right direction, but now looking at a wall of old-growth trees.
She turned to Baba Yaga. “Where’d that book and knife go? Was that Lenny or Edgar’s?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “That was all of the vision I saw.”
“When did you see that?”
“I returned here a couple of times over the past weeks, laying my hands on the stones.” She looked around. “Be very careful what do you here, Elain. You are extremely powerful in ways you do not yet understand. All three of you. It would be too easy to accidentally open a portal.”
A hot, screaming wind suddenly enveloped them, sending chills through Elain. “What the hell is that?”
Baba Yaga’s gaze narrowed, but she looked unfazed. “Something that is not very happy.”
“Something, or someone?” Elain noticed the wind only touched them. The surrounding trees seemed unaffected by the gusts.
“Someone,” Baba Yaga grimly confirmed. “And it wants you.”
Elain blinked and found herself, her stuff, and Baba Yaga standing on the ground next to the rock pile. “Sorry, my dear. That was…creepy.”
“No shit. But shouldn’t I try to make contact with it if it wants me?”
“Absolutely not. Not until you better understand what it is and how to protect yourself from it.”
“How the hell am I supposed to understand what it is if I can’t talk to it to figure it out?”
“This is one of those blind spots I spoke of. All I know is that
it’s imperative you do not pierce that veil. If I see something that makes sense and can help you, I’ll tell you. Until then, the clearest bit of advice I can give you is to stay away from it.”
A thought occurred to her. “Is it Aliah?”
“It could be any number of innocent souls lost on this spot. There are bodies within the pile, sacrificed at the beginning to make it. Countless victims sacrificed upon it. Would you like me to take you back that far, to its construction, to see what I mean?”
“No!” Elain held her hands out, clutching the iPad as a shield against the woman. “No, thanks. I’m good.”
“I am not your adversary,” Baba Yaga said. “And no, I don’t wish to see that nuclear vision come to pass any more than you do. I am working with you. But you have to trust me.”
“I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Not really, no. Why do you offer Ryan more trust than you do me when you know his reputation?”
“Really? You have to even ask me that? Because to the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t played supernatural matchmaker for the past Goddess knows how many eons with people’s souls.”
Baba Yaga took a deep breath. “True. That’s a fair point. But I was only following the path.”
“Gigi said you were bending rules and trying to make things suit your purposes.”
“Did you ever stop to think that’s the way the Universe wanted it? Had the Elders ever decided to stop me, they easily could have.”
Baba Yaga closed the gap between them. “I might appear to be all-powerful, but there are things above me and my ken that make me look like an ant compared to a human. As I told Gigi myself, if I wasn’t meant to walk my path, if my tapestry had been woven a different way, do you not think the Universe would have righted itself?”
She pointed in the direction Elain had seen the vultures and the carcass. “Shades. Of. Grey. Everywhere. Balance. What I have done throughout my life, throughout my time in the Triad, was maintain that balance as best I could. Did some things work to suit my purposes? Of course they did. But ask Brighde and the Cailleach about their reputations in the sex department, especially around their respective mates, and I’m sure you’ll find those two backpedaling at light speed.”
“Fine. Can you help me with the vision about the bomb?” She told Baba Yaga what they knew so far. “If I show you the backward vision we’ve worked out, can you try to help me interpret it?”
“I can certainly try, but I don’t know if I’ll be of any help.”
Elain held out her hand. Baba Yaga gripped Elain’s hand, and Elain closed her eyes to send the woman what they’d seen, slowing it down even more to give Baba Yaga time to process everything.
When Elain finished, she opened her eyes and Baba Yaga released her. “Well?”
The woman seemed to be thinking about it. “That is far more than I saw in my visions. Nothing else I’ve seen matches with any of that, or seems to fit into it in any way. But I will take the information you’ve given me and try to discover anything I can.”
“I appreciate it.”
“I know you find me insufferable at times, but I promise I am on your team.”
Elain thought about the sports metaphor she and Ryan had come up with to describe their respective roles. “I still need a sit-down with Ryan. Not just about this, but about a lot of stuff.”
“He’s not a bad person, either.”
“I know. I can tell.”
“I have my differences of opinion with him, but I do respect his role and responsibilities. Neither of us have it easy.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that this isn’t exactly a job one can skate through on their good looks and sparkling personality.”
The wind on top of the rock pile had died down. Baba Yaga looked up at it. “I strongly suggest you don’t go up there again alone. Take Ryan or even try to summon me. Definitely don’t let Lina up there. Not until you know exactly what you’re dealing with.”
“Can’t I ask Blackie to rent a bulldozer and raze it to the ground?”
“I wouldn’t do that, either. Just as with a certain…artifact, you don’t know what might be unleashed by removing the physical restrictions that bind the energies within it to this plane.”
Elain knew she meant the Tablet of Trammel, but didn’t want to say it out loud. “Like the stone icons?”
“Exactly like the stone icons. And the spell books. And anything else there might be along those lines.”
“Like the amulet and other crap we saw in the books?”
“Exactly.”
Another thought occurred to Elain. “Is it possible the spell books have some sort of self-preservation magick built into them?”
Baba Yaga seemed to consider it. “It wouldn’t be unheard of for an item to attach itself to a person for protection.”
Elain blanched. “Are we or the babies at risk from the crap we already have?” They hadn’t had much of a chance to go through the items with their efforts focused on deciphering the vision.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“Oh my Goddess, Elain, when I’m being straightforward, do me a favor and do not read into my words. Please.”
“Fine. Sorry. I had to ask.”
“It’s Saturday. Take the evening off and enjoy your men,” Baba Yaga counseled. “You have a tiny vacation right now. Use it. Perhaps it will clear your mind.”
With that, Baba Yaga disappeared.
That actually wasn’t bad advice.
After one last glance at the top of the rock pile, Elain gathered her things and returned to the guest cabin.
Chapter Seventeen
It had been just over three weeks since Ellie’s birth. That night, as Elain cuddled in bed in the guest cabin with her men, she knew she wanted to rekindle this part of their lives. A perk of her shifter genes was faster healing.
Dr. Alberto had said at Elain’s last appointment that when she felt ready to engage in sex with her men, she was fine to do so, as long as she used some sort of contraceptive until she decided to go back on the pill, unless she wanted to risk getting pregnant.
And Elain’s post-partum symptoms had disappeared two days ago. No more spotting, and she’d healed up and had no more pain.
Yay, shifter genes.
She’d picked up a few packs of condoms on her last grocery run and packed them with her luggage. She wasn’t exactly up for the guys getting frisky with her boobs for reasons physical and emotional while she was still nursing Ellie, but…yeah.
Cuddling wasn’t cutting it anymore. Her men had been more than patient and loving, never even hinting at anything more than simply being parents and snuggling.
Even Brodey.
The babies were safely tucked in their travel cribs in the next room with the baby monitor standing sentry. A new portable set she’d purchased for the journey, and to which Kale and Zack had helped her reset the passwords so that people couldn’t tap into them.
She said it was due to a news story she’d seen on TV about WiFi privacy. Fortunately, she didn’t have to tell them about Brighton.
Tonight, Elain wanted more than cuddling with her men. And when she crawled into bed with them, they could tell right away something was up.
Ain cocked his head at her. “I have a suspicion you’re about to tell us something.”
“Nooo,” Brodey softly whined.
She reached over and lightly smacked his shoulder. “Just for that, buster, you go last.”
“Huh?”
Ain pulled her down for a kiss.
“Ooohhh,” Brodey said from the far side of the bed. “Dammit.”
Cail chuckled. “That’ll teach him to jump to conclusions.”
Ain let her lift her head to break their kiss. She pulled the long T-shirt off that she’d been wearing, exposing that she only had on a nursing bra. “I present to you, the temporarily forbidden zone,” she said. “Once Ellie’s on the bottle, then we’ll talk.”
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Ain grinned. “Understood.”
“Oh, wait.” She reached over to the bedside table and pulled out the condoms. “And these. Dr. Alberto said it’s unlikely I’d get pregnant this soon. No offense, I don’t like those odds.”
“Too bad we can’t just edict you to not get pregnant,” Cail said.
She paused. “Can you?”
“Do you really want to risk it?” Ain asked. “Especially when we don’t mind using rubbers?”
“Um, no. Never mind. Carry on.”
And carry on they did. Ain got her rolled over onto her back and dove between her legs, his lips and tongue quickly bringing her over the first time without any kinds of edicts being needed. While he did that, Cail had captured her mouth in a kiss, which left Brodey…
Well, sort of on the sidelines without being able to engage in any additional sexy torment. He settled for draping an arm over her tummy while he nibbled kisses up and down her neck and shoulder on that side.
Which was fine with her, because being the center of sexy attention of all three of her men felt amazing.
She reached down and found Brodey’s cock, wrapping her fingers around it and lightly squeezing, enjoying his low moan of pleasure as she did, when—
“Dammit,” he gasped.
Cail and Ain looked up. “What?” they asked in unison.
Elain couldn’t help but giggle. “Sorry, babe. I swear I didn’t do that deliberately.” Considering she now had a handful of his cum, she knew exactly what had happened.
He climbed out of bed. “I’ll get you a washcloth. See? That’s what happens when I go a month without coming.”
Cail had leaned in for a kiss, but she sat up. “What?”
Brodey returned with a wet washcloth for her to wipe her hand. “Well, yeah,” he muttered. “I mean, you weren’t feeling up to doing anything. I wasn’t going to be a dick and ask you.”
She studied his face in the dim light as he climbed back into bed. “But I thought you said—”
“I said I could rub one out if I wanted to. I didn’t really want to. I mean, I wanted to, I just didn’t have the heart to. It’s not the same without you. You just had our baby. I figured if you weren’t in the mood, after the sacrifices you’d just made, I could wait as long as you could.”