this, Cicely. We aren’t done by a long shot.” And then, adjusting his bloody clothing, he turned and walked around the corner.
“Thank you.” I looked up at the Fae guard who was staring at me with what looked like pity. “Thank you. I… I…”
“Go now. Your friends await, Mistress of the Owls. Go and be safe.”
His niceness eating a hole in my heart, I smiled faintly and grabbed his hand, pressing it to my cheek. “You too. He will seek any way he can to punish you for helping me. And Lannan…as much as he can help, he can hurt.”
“Remember, I came through the routing of the Summer barrow. I have fought darker demons than Altos, and I am still alive. Go now.” And with that, he turned, and I walked into the boardroom. Everyone was milling around, and a servant had brought food, hot coffee, and a first-aid kit.
Rex was lying on the table, Peyton by his side, holding his hand. The chunk the Shadow Hunter had bitten out of his leg was long gone, and there would be a nasty scar, but hopefully it would heal without getting infected. A member of the Consortium was examining the wound and whispering healing charms over it while dousing it with antiseptic and preparing a bandage.
I looked over at Lannan. He caught my gaze and those dark eyes of his drew me in. Shivering, I turned away to see who all had been hurt.
We all were covered with bruises and scratches, and I had a nasty bite in my shoulder, but my enemy hadn’t managed to rip flesh out of me. As I stripped off my shirt, sitting there in my bra, waiting for the healer to attend me, somebody pressed a cup of coffee in my hand, along with a couple of cookies. My mouth felt dry and fuzzy, and I wanted to go rinse it, but before I could, weariness hit me like a sledgehammer and I hung my head, staring at my feet.
We were managing to stay alive, and we’d taken out a sizable number of Myst’s guards-but at a great cost. We’d lost almost as many of our own. I looked up, staring at the others with a bleak heart. It was time to pick up the pieces and decide our next move.
“What next? What the fuck do we do next?”
“We go down to the station and I make my announcement. We have to do it tonight or we’ll never get another chance. Not after this fiasco.” Lannan’s voice was clear, showing none of the antagonism he’d aimed at me only a few minutes ago. I was beginning to think he was bipolar.
I let out a long sigh. “And then?” But I knew what came after that. We would sleep, and tomorrow we would perform the ritual on Grieve. And maybe, with a little luck, the tide would turn and something would go our way for once.
Lainule moved to my side. She rested her hand on my good shoulder and leaned down to whisper in my ear. “You must see that Grieve maintains control. I can only hope this ritual works. Much depends on it.”
Startled, I turned. “You know what we’re planning?”
She nodded. “Wrath told me. Cicely, so much more depends on you and Grieve than you realize. And on Chatter and Rhiannon, too. The four of you must stay alive, no matter the cost. Before, there were other options, but now…those are gone. You four are the hope for the future. Remember that. Be safe. Do what you need to in order to stay alive.
Chapter 17
We had to clean up before we could head to the radio station, and so I took my third shower of the day. Grieve came in with me, for which I was both grateful and nervous. I didn’t tell him about Lannan’s kiss. We were under enough pressure as it was, and if he knew Lannan had been groping me again, well, that would just put the nail in the coffin. Or the stake in the vampire.
“Where did they put the cats? I can’t stand to think of them in danger from Lannan’s people.” Cats didn’t like vampires. They had good reason.
Grieve smiled softly as he washed my hair. “Worry not about the furry creatures. Luna has been given a large suite and they’re all in there with her, safe and sound. I have to admit, for all of his folly, Altos seems to like Luna- he treats her with a respect that surprises me. I saw it while you were out of the room today.”
“She has a way of inspiring that in both man and beast.” I paused, my hands on the knobs of the shower. “I was worried she might be too easily hurt, too vulnerable, but I have the feeling she has a lot more power than I gave her credit for. It’s a quiet energy but runs strong in her.”
As I turned off the water and we dried off, I wanted nothing more than to take another nap. I was bone-weary, more tired than I’d ever been. The battle had been draining, even with allies, and the adrenaline that had been coursing through my body was now just as quickly departing.
I leaned against the wall, trying to focus. “I need more coffee or something.”
Grieve pulled me over to the bed.
As much as I loved him, as turned on as I’d been a half hour before, now I couldn’t muster up enough oomph to even
“No, my love. That’s not what I had in mind.” He sat me down and took my hands. “I taught you many things when you were little. Now I will teach you again. You are half-Cambyra Fae. You have the blood of a king in your veins. You will have some of the powers of the Fae, but you have to learn how to call upon them, to activate them.”
I waited, letting him hold my hands, drifting on his words. I was so sleepy, I just wanted to sail out to sea, to glide on the winds, to let the currents take me where they desired.
“Close your eyes. Listen to my voice. Follow me down, into the energy, into the slipstream.”
I followed his instructions, slipping into a light trance, letting his voice lead me into a somnolent state. The energy swirled around us, light whisperings on the slipstream, and I listened as they fluttered past, the light pattering of butterfly wings on the current.
Grieve’s voice echoed past. “Now enter the slipstream and follow me inward. Follow the trail I leave.”
And so I dove into the slipstream, and there it was, the trail of lights that signaled his energy, the trail of bread crumbs leading me onward. I spiraled and looped, the wind racing through my hair, through my thoughts, clearing the cobwebs out, refreshing me. We were running, racing through the slipstream, letting it carry us along, and for one moment, everything felt perfect.
“Now jump…follow me. Keep your eyes closed.”
I jumped. And the scent around me was of autumn and bonfires, and I felt it lure me in because it was Grieve’s energy. He was no longer the sweet freshly mown grass of summer, but the sound of crisp autumn leaves beneath my feet, and the scent of rain on cedars, and his lips tasted like sweet pumpkin and cinnamon sticks. I embraced his change, sank into it, realizing he was no longer of the Summer Court, but neither did Winter fully claim him. He was balanced between the two realms, walking a thin line.
And then his voice swirled around me like a flurry of leaves. “Cicely. Look deep inside. Find the part of yourself that connects to the owl. Find the Uwilahsidhe within you.”
I sank deeper, following the path inward. The slipstream seemed very far away now as I lowered myself into my core, as I let his voice lead me into myself. Past the jaded exterior, past the fear, past the weariness, past the loss, deep into my center where I felt a warm glow. And there…there waited my owl. There waited my father’s blood.
“Draw on that strength. Draw on that reserve. You have so much power there for the using. Feel your spirit rise, lifted on owl wings. Do not shift in body, but draw on your owl to carry you aloft, to free you from the weariness, to buoy you up. Can you do this?”
I inhaled deeply and connected with my owl. And then a rush of energy raced through me-of renewal, the rush of wind in my hair, of wind beneath my wings, the exaltation of being aloft, and yet I did not transform.
“Can you feel it?” His voice slid over the words, sultry and seductive.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Claim it. Coax it out. Let it be your source right now.”
And so I claimed the Cambyra side of me, and my doubts slid away, my worry that I might not be worthy of the
