“I guess it’s about time.” I glanced over at Vanzir. “You and Smoky and Shade keep an eye on things, okay?”
He cleared his throat, his kaleidoscopic eyes staring at me. “No worries there, chick. But you . . . don’t forget us, okay? We need you here.” And that was as close as he could come to saying he was worried about us.
I forced a smile to my lips. “Yeah, you’d never know what to do without Delilah and me bugging you.” And then, because I was nervous and fretting, I slid my arms around his waist and gave him a quick hug. “Behave while we’re gone,” I whispered. “And watch out for everybody.”
He didn’t seem to know what to do at first, but then, he returned the hug and, with a glance to make sure Smoky wasn’t around, planted a quick kiss on the top of my head before breaking away. “You’ll be back, Camille. Don’t ever think you won’t.”
As if on cue, Smoky peeked into the kitchen. “Camille?” He motioned to me to follow him. I gave Vanzir a little wave and followed Smoky through the living room, into the parlor, where he closed the door behind us and turned, taking my hands in his.
“My wife, listen to me. Don’t forget our Soul Symbiont Ritual. If you or the fox get into trouble, both of you do your best to seek me through the connection and I will come. I hate letting you traipse off like this. Morio is strong, but even he cannot stand up against some enemies.”
He wrapped his arms around me then, and I leaned into his embrace with a soft sigh. He smelled so good, musky and dark and strong.
“I wish we had more time. I wish we had some alone time for just us, like I had with Trillian. I love you, you know?” Pressing my hand against his chest, I looked up into those glacial eyes of his. He’d scared me so much when we first met, but now he was part of my world and I couldn’t imagine not having him by my side.
“Oh, love.” Smoky swept me up so I was facing him at eye level, holding me tight. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, his lips soft against mine. I wanted to hang on and not let go.
We’d been through so much loss lately, so much stress, and now Trillian was off into danger, too. And then, it hit me full force. While Otherworld was my home, it would never be the same. Even should we win this war, so many people had died already, including our father and friends, that returning would forever be bittersweet. The knowledge slammed into me that my sisters and I were effectively orphans. I shuddered, tears forming at the corners of my eyes, and buried my head against Smoky’s neck.
“Don’t ever leave me. Don’t ever let go. I couldn’t bear to lose someone else I love. I’m going to be worrying about Trillian until the day he sets foot back through the front door.” I sniffled as he stroked my back, while tendrils of his hair rose to help brace me against him.
“Camille, my love. You are one of the bravest women I know. You daily face danger with steel nerves. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of you, and how much I admire you.” He pushed me back a step, his voice dropping to a soft whisper. “You realize that I fell in love with a woman devoted to carrying out her duty? You know we’ll weather this. We’ll manage to walk through all of this. Trillian will return safe, and the four of us will live a long and happy life.” He lifted my chin with another tendril of hair. “Now, breathe.”
I inhaled a deep breath and then let it out slowly, the tension flowing from between my teeth. “You’re right. Even though Father is dead, I will forever be a soldier’s daughter. I’ll buck up.”
He hadn’t been chiding me, but sometimes Smoky knew when I needed a reminder of why we were doing what we were doing. Of the fact that strength and courage weren’t qualities we could afford to lose. He might want to sweep me away to hole me up in an ivory tower, but he knew all too well that I was needed on the front lines, so he’d stay with me, fighting beside us.
“I’m all right.” I took another deep breath and shook my head, wiping my eyes and hoping my eye makeup hadn’t smeared. “We’ll get the job done, as we always do. And if anybody can rescue Darynal, it will be Trillian. They’re oath brothers.” I paused, then whispered, “I had to let him go.” With a little hiccup, I added, “Right?”
Smoky set me down, kissing my nose. “Right. You had to let him go. I just wish you weren’t heading off with Morgaine.” He grimaced. Smoky didn’t think much of the Fae Queens, and he didn’t trust Morgaine at all.
When we first met, he and Titania had been at odds over his barrow out near Mount Rainier for years, until she finally gave up and focused on Talamh Lonrach Oll. Smoky had always maintained that the barrow was his until recently, when he’d admitted to Menolly that he had, indeed, taken it from Titania. Dragons were greedy by nature, so that didn’t surprise me. But at least everybody was tolerating everybody else, so we were good for now.
The doorbell sounded. Aeval—it had to be her.
“It’s time,” I whispered.
He nodded. “Very well. Let’s go out there and see what the Triple Threat has to say.”
We returned to the living room, where Aeval was waiting. Behind her stood Morgaine, Bran, and as I had suspected—Mordred and Arturo. But next to them stood someone I hadn’t expected to see—and who I really didn’t want to see.
Voluptuous and wanton, Raven Mother waited beside her son. As Bran stared at her through cunning eyes, I could see the resemblance and it made me far more nervous than I’d been a few minutes before. I gave the five of them a nod and turned to the Queen of Shadow and Night. Technically, Morgaine was one of the Fae Queens, too, now. She was the Queen of Dusk and Twilight, but it was hard for me to acknowledge her as such.
I was about to say hello to the others when the floor suddenly rocked, lurching like the rug had just been literally yanked out from beneath our feet. I caught hold of Smoky as he planted himself firmly against the chair nearest us. Aeval barely blinked, and neither did Bran, but Morgaine stumbled and landed on her hands and knees. Arturo and Mordred staggered but managed to keep upright. Raven Mother stood as if nothing could shake her.
Delilah and Morio, who had been standing nearby, managed to keep on their feet, too. From the kitchen, Hanna let out a string of swear words I didn’t even realize she knew as a clattering of pans hit the floor. A moment later, the swaying stopped.
Dizzy, I stepped away from Smoky. “Earthquake?”
The Seattle region was riddled with fault zones, highly prone to quakes. In fact, the area was long overdue for a major shake. And by major, we were talking eight points or better on the Richter scale. I hoped our house would stand whenever it came because it was going to happen, no question about it. The question was just when.
Raven Mother shook her head. “That was no earthquake. I know the heart of the earth, and the beat did not emanate from deep within her body.”
As she spoke, once again I found myself falling down a deep well, and when I opened my eyes, I was staring into the glistening black eyes of Yvarr. He swished past me, the flames of his body coiling like snakes. Jumping back as one of the tendrils of fire nearly brushed against me, I looked for a way out but couldn’t find one.
“You have the Raven near you. I smell her. Give her to me now and perhaps I will pass you by when I find the door out of my prison.” Yvarr turned his terrible gaze on me, and swung his head around to hover in front of me.
I shook my head. “Raven Mother is not mine to give. I do not own her. Why would you think I do?”
Yvarr squinted. “You bear the mark of the Raven—you bear the smell of her. There is something . . .” And then his voice dropped even lower and took on an even more menacing tone. “But what is this? You are connected to the Black Beast. I knew you were—I can feel him on you. You are one of his chosen. You are a tricky one, and so is he. The Black Beast uses you as an arm into the other worlds.”
Oh fuck. He must be able to sense the Black Unicorn horn. I had to throw him off track until I could figure out how to break this trance. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe you smell dragon sweat on me. I
’m married to a dragon, and he would kill any creature who bothered me.” Might as well try a bluff, because I didn’t seem to be leaving here in any great hurry.
Yvarr paused and then, leaning in closer so that his glowing black eyes filled my vision, sniffed at me. My skirt whipped up, as if I were standing in front of a giant vent, as he inhaled. When he exhaled, the material billowed around my legs and I felt like I was posing for a mockup of Marilyn’s famous photo, only in some freakshow horror movie.
“You do smell of dragon. Perhaps that is what I sense. A very powerful dragon.” Then, he laughed and reared back, like a snake coiling to strike. “But not so powerful as me. Not so ancient as me. I am old beyond counting, girl. Old beyond the oldest dragons! I am their ancestor. I am one of the mighty wyrms of history. Many of us still slumber under the mountains and in the clouds, waiting for the touch that will waken them.”
I was about to say, “Sleeping Beauty, you aren’t” but decided against it. For one thing, he probably wouldn’t get the reference. For another, if he did, what good would it do to make him angry? Somehow, I didn’t think my charms would work on him like they did Smoky.
But then, something he said intruded on my thoughts. I carefully returned his gaze. “Sleeping? You were sleeping? What woke you up?”
He paused, his calculating stare burning into me. “What wakes the ancients? What wakes the fathers and mothers of the dragons? There are creatures and gods who lurk in the depths, who slumber in a darksome sleep even deeper than mine. What wakes us all? A call. A summons. The waking of old gods and ancient enemies. The rise of those we fought in the before-times. Old Lords of your kind—your nonhuman self—imprisoned me. They went to sleep, too, but now they awake and so do I.”
At that moment, before I could move, he blew a flame at me. There was no way to dodge it, so I steeled for the blast. But the moment before it engulfed me, I found myself on the floor, next to Smoky. Aeval was kneeling on one side of me, Raven Mother on the other.
“Holy fuck.” I sat up, shaken. The two women helped me to my feet.
“Camille, what happened? Are you hurt?” Smoky jostled for a better position near me, with Morio hot on his heels. “Love, speak to me.”
My pulse racing, I shook my head. “I was facing Yvarr again. I don’t know how, but I barely escaped just as he breathed fire on me. Would his attack have killed me, seeing that I was out on the astral and not there physically?”
Aeval glanced over at Raven Mother, who pressed her lips together. Finally, the Queen of Shadow and Night stroked my cheek lightly. “Yes, he could have burnt your soul to a crisp. Yvarr is an ancient enemy and his flames sear more than flesh. Tell us what the wyrm said.”
I told them, leaving out nothing. “He said ancient Fae Lords are waking and so he wakes, too. What was he talking about?” The appearance of Yvarr had to mean there was more to what was going on than we’d been told.
Raven Mother paced. After a moment, she stopped, folding her arms across her chest. “For the sake of the gods, Aeval. Tell her the whole story. If you do not, then I will.”
“Tell me what? I’m not going anywhere until I know just what’s going on. I’m done being a pawn.” While it was a bluff and they probably knew it, right now I wasn’t in any mood to be somebody’s toy unless it involved sex.
Aeval scowled at Raven Mother. “I thought we agreed—”
“Oh, listen to the Raven. You wouldn’t be afraid of telling my cousin the truth, would you?” Morgaine broke in. “You wouldn’t fear she might change her loyalties? She might decide I was right? But then, you’re the Queen of Shadow and Night. Of course, you aren’t afraid.”
Her voice oozed with honey, sweet and glomming. It set me on edge worse than anything Aeval had ever said, but I decided to let them duke it out. I wasn’t about to get between two Fae Queens and an Elemental Lady, even if they were all supposedly on my side.
I held my breath as the three women stared at one another. Together, they were powerful enough to level not only our house, but quite probably the city if they had a mind to. I dreaded thinking of what the outcome of a war between them would be like.
Aeval stared at Morgaine, a hostile smile on her face. But she merely said, “The Dusk and Twilight presumes much, but since the bat is out of the belfry, so to speak, yes, I will tell her.”
A smug look slid across Morgaine’s face, but she quickly resumed her aloof, detached air. “Good, then I will not have to explain on our journey.”
Raven Mother let out a cackle. Her bloodred lips were vibrant, sexual to the point of being overwhelming. Her hair was bluish black, dark as ink, dark as night, and she was wearing an Elvira dress, her breasts voluptuous and round, threatening to burst from the bodice at any moment. Raven Mother was chaos incarnate, she was a trickster, an Elemental who lived by her rules, and her rules only. She was alluring and yet lurid.
“Oh do let me, Aeval.” Before the Fae Queen could answer, Raven Mother turned to me. “During the days leading to the Great Divide, the Great Fae Lords managed to ally themselves with the wyrms of the Earth. Together, they ripped apart the worlds. And then, before the Fae Lords moved to Otherworld, they imprisoned both their enemies and their allies.”
“How do you imprison the forerunner of a dragon?” I held her gaze. She wasn’t embellishing—that much I could tell. This wasn’t hyperbole.
“You lock them away behind magical gates and throw away the key. They were imprisoned rather than killed, not because of charity, but because arrogant men—these mighty Fae Lords—thought they might, again, one day need to harness the wyrms’ powers.”
“They put them in stasis, to use as weapons,” Delilah whispered.
“Yes, very aptly put. So these noble and stalwart warriors harnessed the elements of Earth and Fire and Ice and Water and they locked away the giants of the world, keeping them like canned goods on a shelf, in case they might one day need them again. Slavery of the worst kind.” She shook her head.
I blinked. Had the Great Fae Lords really done this? Had they not only engineered the Great Divide but locked away these creatures in stasis? Granted, the wyrms could be terribly destructive, but if you’re going to destroy your allies after using them, death would have at least been a noble end for creatures of their power and might.
Smoky let out a rumble, low but audible. I glanced at him. “Is this true?”
He nodded, one short, quick inclination of his head. “Unfortunately, it is. The Fae Lords were—and are—arrogant in their assumptions. You think my kind egotistical, but the Great Fae Lords considered their magic infallible. They were mistaken. The fact that Yvarr is rising and able to shake the house from his prison on the astral plane means that he will break free. There is no question of this in my mind. It’s simply a matter of when.”
The blood drained from my face and I could feel myself go cold. An earthquake of a very different sort, and possibly more deadly than the one I was thinking of earlier.
“And only the Merlin can fight him. But why don’t the geniuses who engineered all of this clean up their own mess?” Delilah leaned against a chair, looking for all the world like she wanted to smack something—or someone. And she wasn’t alone. I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable myself.
“There are several of the Great Lords left, but they slumber, as well. Locked in stasis, locked in time.” Raven Mother’s smile never wavered, but now I could read the irony and disdain beneath the upturned lips. “They grew weary of their lives and went into hibernation.”
“Like a vampire who walks into the sun when he’s too tired to go on.” My voice was soft but she still caught the words.
“Not quite—vampires choose to release their souls and move on. The Great Fae Lords fear death. They lived for so long that they dread finding out what the Land of Silver Falls is like. They’re cowards, too tired to continue on, yet too fearful to die.” Raven Mother turned to Aeval. “I know where two of them sleep even now. And the wyrm is correct—there ha
ve been portents that they might be waking.” She frowned. “They are hiding deep within my woodland. For many eons, I did not know about them, but then, one day, one of my spies stumbled on their lair. We’ve been watching them ever since. I thought of killing them, but decided to wait and see what happened.”
This was news to all of us, that much was apparent. Aeval let out a little humph and frowned. “You would be within your rights to destroy them, of course. There is little the Fae can do against your kind—but it might not be the wisest move.”
“Yet, if they wake, what will they do?” Morgaine interjected, looking as nonplussed as the rest of us felt.
Confused, I cleared my throat. “I thought some of the Fae who divided the worlds still walked the back paths of Otherworld? Or was that all a children’s story designed to make us behave?” I couldn’t count the times our father had warned us to behave or he’d send us to the “great ones” for punishment.
“Yeah, were those just boogeyman stories? So to speak?” Delilah’s eyes narrowed, almost to cat slits. She didn’t look happy, and I realized that she was growing uncomfortable. I had the feeling that this trip wouldn’t endear her to the Triple Threat any better. She already disliked them.
“Oh, the older ones do exist, but they were not the ones who created the Great Divide. And many of the ones who were born Earthside have become recluses, retired from the world. They seldom ever see the public. The majority of Otherworld Fae were born and bred there and have known no other life.” Raven Mother let out a long sigh.
“They can stay there,” Aeval said, her tone grumpy.
Raven Mother simply laughed. “Yes, well, I doubt that most of the Otherworld Fae long to cross over here. But we waste time discussing this. The fact is, if the Great Fae Lords wake, I doubt if they’d know what to do with the world the way it is—either Otherworld or Earthside. The problem lies simply with their waking. For when they wake, the enemies they imprisoned will feel it. And, like Yvarr, they will begin to shift and turn in their prisons. When you enslave someone magically, like they did the old wyrms, you risk forming a bond between yourself and that being. If you sleep, they tend to slumber. But if you wake . . .”