Devotion

'I couldn't help it. You struck something in me, princess, and I had to do what I could to help.' He shrugged. 'It's been a ripper of a trip, actually. This place is a lot like Oz, but … different. An all right change. Especially these gators. They're nothing like the crocs at home.'

'Glad you've been enjoying your vacay,' Owen said, 'but let's get back to this witch and girl.'

'Sure, mate,' Jax said, and he told us about how he'd been here for a couple of months, learning his way around the Everglades and searching for what his were-bird friend had told him about–the girl and the witch. He hadn't found them until his friend arrived and led him to their hideout, then he had her fly to the nearest Amadis Were to deliver a message to us. The visit from Trevor's wolves surprised him when they came to check him out and make sure the message was real. He didn't like them much, but he was friendly enough to build their trust in him.

'Well … where are they?' I demanded when he finished his story. My patience ran thin. After months of searching, we were So. Close. The girl hid somewhere in the vicinity. The girl who could be our daughter.

Jax led us through the woods, swamps and brush, Tristan and I behind him, and Owen and Julia covering our backs. Although our summer had seen less rainfall than normal, much of the ground was mushy under our feet. We waded through water and reeds, squelched and squished through mucky marshes, avoiding the sharp edges of waist-high saw grass, and crossed broad areas of solid ground with forests of cypress, pine and palm trees. Birds floated lazily overhead when we were out in the open, their shadows often making me duck after yesterday's attack. The noises of the subtropical wild–birds' squawks, the plop of something dropping into the water, whispers of waving grass–filled me with both awe and anxiety. After all, those movements were made by wild animals, including panthers, snakes and alligators.

I tried to suppress the excitement I felt by staying alert and focusing on my surroundings, but the butterflies in my stomach wouldn't go away. I'd been thinking of this day for months, visualizing what this girl would look like–a lot like Mom, Rina and me, I assumed. Imagining how it would feel to be certain I had a daughter, a daughter I hadn't been able to raise myself, a daughter who might know nothing about us. And envisioning the consequences–how it would release the pressure off Tristan and me to produce a daughter, how the council would settle down and the Amadis unity could be restored, how everyone's trust in us and each other could be regained so we could do what we're meant to do: fight the Daemoni, not each other. Of course, there was still a traitor trying to take things over, but this girl seemed to be tied to her in some way, and when everything came out, surely we'd be able to identify the traitor, too.

Speaking of traitors, I wondered what Julia thought right now, knowing secrets were about to be exposed. She knew Rina kept a secret about the next daughter, and this was probably it. Was this why she didn't trust Tristan and me? Because she knew we'd discover Rina's secret before Rina wanted us to? Or did she expect to find us somehow betraying the Amadis with this trip? Was that why she really came, to prove herself right? Did she really think we'd take her along with us to have a powwow with the Daemoni? Or …

Shit! Why hadn't we thought of this sooner? She could have been setting us up! Perhaps this was all her doing. Now that I thought about it, it was rather convenient that she showed up just as we received the information we'd been seeking all this time. Only one way to find out.

I felt out for her mind signature but before I latched onto her thoughts, three extra signatures floating around distracted me from Julia. Three more than our expedition accounted for, and two were relatively close by. And very different than I expected. The childlike one was vivid, like Dorian's, but not quite the same. It had a rougher and darker edge to it. The other one felt more human than anything, but that wasn't quite right. Something … different … layered it, a suppressed undertone. Tristan had expected a witch, and Jax had confirmed it, but this signature didn't feel like a mage's. Perhaps the witch worked with a Norman who helped care for the child. Perhaps that third signature belonged to the witch, but now I couldn't find it. The third one had disappeared from my range.

I tried to focus in on the second signature, the strange one, to find the thoughts that followed it, but there was nothing there. No thoughts at all. Completely blank. Perhaps she was a witch after all and was somehow able to block me. Did she know we were coming? Did she know about my telepathy? Or perhaps she was extremely cautious, which made sense considering she'd purposefully been hiding for all these years.

The trees began to thin, and beyond the edge of this wooded area was a clearing with a small pond and a little shack jutting out of its center. Jax held his hand up, and we all stopped short and fell silent.

'Nona, someone's here,' a young child's voice said.

'It's okay, Lilith,' said a scratchier voice, one that sounded as though it belonged to someone elderly. The second mind signature with the blank thoughts must have belonged to her. 'They are friends.'

At this, we took several steps closer and emerged into the clearing, seeing the faces of the voices for the first time. Oh! My breath caught, and my hand flew to my mouth. Partly to keep my heart from flying out because it had jumped into my throat.

They crouched on the other side of the pond, and now they both stood. The elderly woman's dull gray hair sprouted everywhere in a wild nest, seeming to have a life of its own as she lifted her head up to us. Her light gray eyes looked our way, but I had no idea if she actually saw us through their milky lenses. She hunched over in a stoop, her hand resting on the child's shoulder.

The child. The child took my breath away.

'Tristan,' I whispered, grabbing his arm. We both stood frozen in complete shock.

This girl, this Lilith, looked nothing like I'd expected, how I'd envisioned her for the last several months. I looked so much like Mom, who appeared to be Rina's twin. Tristan had once mentioned my features–brown eyes, dark auburn hair and light olive skin–gave me away as an Amadis daughter. I assumed our genes dominated in our daughters, giving us all a similar, distinct appearance. But this girl …

She stood a couple inches shorter than Dorian, but since he was taller than average, I guessed them to be the same age. And her hair was a darker blond than his, but otherwise … she was a spitting image of my son.

'Friends and ...,' the old woman paused for a moment, '…some are even closer. Family.'

Holy shit! Can it be? Is she for real? I waited for something in my heart to pull toward her, some kind of mother-daughter connection we surely had to have. I'd been looking forward to this moment for so long, but the emotions I'd expected didn't surge through me. I felt nothing but a shocked numbness. She apparently felt nothing for me either, because her eyes skimmed over me and dismissed me. But when she looked at Tristan, they stopped, and something flickered in them. Recognition? But how?

'Family?' Lilith echoed. 'Family like … like my brother?'

The woman never had a chance to answer. The last few minutes had passed as if in slow motion as we took in the scene, Nona and Lilith, and their conversation. Now someone pushed the fast-forward button, and everything sped in a blur.

The third mind signature appeared back in my range–a very familiar one. One I hadn't felt since we'd been on the Amadis Island. In the Council Hall, waiting for the coronation ceremony to begin. When Julia had threatened Rina.

'Alexis and Tristan,' she thought. The other voice, the other person no one else had sensed then, and no one seemed to now. 'Finally, they found her. And now it is time …'

At exactly the same moment, Julia's face twitched in my peripheral vision, and then she was suddenly on the other side of the pond, gripping the old woman in a chokehold.

'Explain this,' Julia demanded. 'Explain this girl!'

The woman choked and gasped for breath. Lilith's eyes grew wide at the threat to her caregiver, and her sweet face, so much like my Dorian's, immediately changed. Her hazel eyes narrowed to slits. She bared sharp, pointy teeth. Her features twisted into those of a monster. Then she flew our way in a blur. She hit Jax first, and he dropped like a stone. Then she whizzed by Owen, and he, too, fell to the ground.

'Owen,' I cried out, springing toward his still body.

But the girl already zoomed at me now, a noise like a siren escaping her throat.

'No, Lilith,' Nona yelled. 'Stop!'

Lilith halted in mid-motion. But not out of obedience. Tristan's hand was up, palm facing her, paralyzing her with his power.

I dropped to Owen's side and took his limp hand into mine.

'Why?' I cried, heartbreak ripping through my throat and causing my voice to crack.