Amazon Queen

'So Padia is behind all this?' A priestess, it made sense.

Kale placed her hand over her eyes as if the early evening light bothered them. 'Yes. I don't know why she was so adamant about killing your mother's child, but she was. . I don't think. . ' She shook her head and stared at the clumps of green floating in her glass. 'What happened to me?' she murmured.

I waited for her to sort out whatever she was going through. 'Do you remember anything else? Why you came to the safe camp? When? Do you think someone drugged you?' My mind went to the flask she had dropped when we first entered the clearing.

'Drugged? Could I have been?' she asked. She sat there frowning, seemed lost in her own thoughts. 'Drugged. . that would explain how-' She looked up. 'I don't even know how I got here. I remember leaving the Northwest, knowing I needed to find you for some reason, or maybe it was your mother. That would make sense, that I was going to help her keep the baby from Padia, but. . ' Her words faded away. Uncertainty. . insecurity. . shone from her eyes. She stared down into the glass. There was only an inch or two of the green liquid left.

'How did I come to this?' she murmured.

My fingers dug into the stuffed cow in my lap. The dog, waiting for me to throw it again, looked up expectantly.

I wondered the same thing as Kale.

How had any of us come to this?

Chapter 20

The sheriff showed up a half hour later. I was still out with the dogs when Bern whistled the alert.

I plucked all three puppies from their box and slapped my leg to call the mother dog to my side. Then I walked quickly in the direction of the main road.

The car, a white sedan with a gold stripe down the side, pulled to the side of the road as I approached. An older man wearing a tan uniform rolled down his window.

'You live around here?' he asked.

I shook my head. 'Not lately. My boyfriend owns the house, or what was a house, next door.'

'Oh yeah, sorry about that.' He cast his glance to the home behind me, then back at me, a question in his eyes.

I smiled. 'Damn dog.' I gestured to the mother dog walking beside me. 'She disappeared the night of the fire. Jack dropped me off so I could look for her. I found a little something extra.'

He laughed. 'Looks like you did at that.'

I nodded to the runt. 'You wouldn't want one, would you?'

He held up his hands. 'Not me. Might want to tell your boyfriend he needs to get the bitch fixed, though. Or maybe this will teach him.'

With a sigh, I replied, 'Maybe.'

After a few more questions, ending with me assuring him there was no one around Jack's property or his neighbor's house, he backed the car back out the way he'd come.

The bitch needed to be fixed.

He didn't know how true the statement was. And now, thanks to my conversation with Kale, I knew who the bitch was. . I just needed to find her.

After the sheriff left, I went to find Mel. She was standing on the other side of the garage talking on her cell phone. Probably looking for privacy. I walked up and stood a couple feet behind her.

Her shoulders tightened, but she didn't turn. She didn't alter her tone, volume, or what she was saying either.

'No more tattoos.'

Pause.

'I don't care.'

Longer pause.

'Get Peter.'

Short pause accented by Mel moving two short angry strides forward.

'Harmony-'

Her daughter must have hung up. Mel muttered a curse and stared at her phone. She started dialing.

I stepped around her, so we were facing. Her expression said to back off.

I didn't. 'Is she looking at a full sleeve?'

Mel flicked her eyes upward.

'Neck tattoo, or maybe some kind of mask?'

'This isn't funny.' She had lowered her phone, but I could tell by how she was holding it that she was one good breath away from blowing me off the continent so she could recall Harmony and restart their argument. Finally she sighed. 'You asked how I could trust Makis with her? Well, I don't-not one hundred percent. I'm new to this too. It's not easy letting go. And I know more than anyone the power tattoos can have. What I don't know is everything about how the sons use them.' She pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. 'She says it's purely decoration, on her ankle, but how do I know that?'

I tilted my head in a do whatever you like gesture. 'If you call her and say no again, she's just going to want it more.'

Mel's nostrils flared. I could see she didn't like my answer, but without replying, she shoved the phone into her pocket. . hard.

Her arms crossed over her chest, she asked, 'You just eavesdropping or did something happen?'

It was a little of both, but she knew that. I filled her in on both my conversation with Kale and the sheriff's visit.

'So you think Padia is the problem?'

'Or the hearth-keeper who brought it up first, but since Padia's the one who went after my mother and Andres, she's my guess.'

'Unless she's just a minion.'

I twisted my lips. I didn't like my theory being batted back at me. 'Do you think we should start somewhere else?'

Her eyes sparked. She was laughing at me. 'Would it matter?'

I ignored her question. 'Can you find her?'

Her mouth opened and snapped closed.

'Bubbe found Kale.'

This time when her eyes flashed, it wasn't with amusement. 'I'm not Bubbe.'

I waited. Mel knew I thought she underestimated herself. I'd always thought that, but in the years we were apart, before being reunited last fall, her talents had grown even more. I wouldn't have been surprised if she could out-priestess her legendary grandmother-not at all.

'I don't have the tools.'

'What do you need? Totems?' I pulled the stone lion that hung from a leather cord over my head. 'We should have, what? Four of them covered.' Mel, Lao, Bern, and myself-none of us shared a clan. 'We can get your mother to borrow the others from camp.'

Mel stared at the lion, then turned on her heel without taking it. 'Give me an hour.'

I spent the hour getting in some fighting practice with Bern and Jack. The son had never used a weapon with me. I'd stupidly thought he couldn't.

I was wrong.

He decided to teach me a game he'd watched as a child. He stood fifteen feet away armed with twelve knives. My job was to dodge them as he threw.

Without warning, he began to throw. . so quickly it seemed as if they were all thrown at once with no more than seconds between each.

I rolled. Three dug into the dirt where I'd been. I leapt to my feet, jumping in the same motion so my knees