I stormed out and started to head upstairs to find Nick. I was getting my cat and getting out. I didn't need to remake my territory. They could have the grasslands; I'd make me a better paradise.
“Oh no, you don't,” Odin snarled as a blast of magic knocked me off my ass.
I flew forward and skidded across the foyer on my stomach.
“How dare you?” I whispered in horror as I stood. I turned to face him. “How. Dare. You?!” I blasted Odin with starlight, and he tumbled back into the other men; the other men who had been gathering to attack me. They tumbled like bowling pins. “I try to end this peacefully and you attack me? You fucking traitors!”
“Vervain!” Azrael cried. “Please, fight this, Carus. We love you. No one is betraying you. Don't go, baby.”
“Come with me, Az.” I held a hopeful hand out to him. “It'll be just you and me.”
“Vervain, don't leave us.” Azrael eased forward. “We can figure this out. We can fight this poison.”
“It's not poison!” I held out my arms and Nick appeared in them. But he started to panic as I headed to the tracing room. He clawed at me and hissed until I let him go. My gray tabby, my first baby, went streaking up the stairs away from me as if I were a stranger. It was the last straw; the last jab that finally managed to drive pain into my heart. “You too, Nick?” I whispered as a tear trickled down my cheek.
Heartbroken and feeling utterly alone, I turned and walked into the tracing room.
“Don't let her leave!”Odin shouted from the floor.
My lovers rushed toward me, but the Star knew what to do. A gleaming barrier lifted between us, and I looked one last time on the men I'd loved. The men who had betrayed me at last.
They always do, Star whispered in my head.
“You got that right,” I muttered as I swiped at my eyes and traced away.
Chapter Nine
“Where are we?” I murmured as I took a long look around.
The Star had directed my trace, bringing me out onto hard-packed soil. An arid desert surrounded me, the heat getting more intense by the second. And that was just fine by me. I'm a dragon; I like it hot. I held my arms out and basked in the warmth. A brutal sun hung near the horizon, starkly illuminating a barren landscape. Although it seemed to be a desert, I could smell saltwater on the breeze. Judging by the position of the sun, we were in nearly the same time zone as the one I'd just left, and Pride Palace's time zone corresponded to central Africa. So, I suspected that we were somewhere nearby.
Bahrain, Star announced.
“Bahrain?” I nearly shrieked. “Are you kidding me? You brought me to the Middle East? Am I about to be shot at or swathed in a hajib? Or short at for not wearing a hajib?”
First of all, no one's here; I brought you to the middle of the desert. Second, it's a hijab, not a hajib. A hajib is a court official. Third, Bahrain is relatively peaceful and women do not get shot for not wearing a hijab. Finally, I thought this would be a good place to start your campaign for world domination, Star listed smugly. This is where Tiamat began her war and it also happens to be where the Garden of Eden was originally located.
“The Garden of Eden? Here?” I looked at the ground beneath my feet skeptically.
Not exactly here, where you are standing, but here on this island.
“Bahrain is an island?”
Do you know anything not pertaining directly to yourself?
“You know what? I get enough attitude from Faerie when she blathers inside my head. I do not need shit from you too.”
I'm just teasing, Star huffed. Now, look at this place as a conqueror, not a woman. It's easily defensible, has an army in place, and it has a palace.
“Where's this palace?” I peered around me at scrub and dirt.
Nearby. We'll get to that later. I thought you might like to take a look around before you make a decision.
“Sure. Great.” I looked around pointedly at the cracked earth and hunched bushes. “I don't like it.”
This isn't all of it, she chided. I couldn't just pop you into existence in the middle of Manama.
“Mahna mahna? Like the song?”
Manama. Don't act as if you didn't hear me.
“It was funny.” I grinned.
No, it wasn't.
“Whatever. I got that damn song in my head now along with a bunch of muppets. Hey, is that a limo?” I squinted into the distance where a dust cloud approached with a black limousine slicing through the center of it.
That would be your ride, Star said smugly. Your driver will take you to your hotel. I've booked the Royal Penthouse at Fraser Suites for you. You'll be right in the middle of Manama, allowing you to experience the city to its fullest.
“You sound like a tour guide.” I grimaced and closed my eyes as the limo stopped right beside me, wafting dust into my face.
A driver in a black suit jumped out. “Ms. Lavine?” He asked as if there might be another woman waiting in the middle of the desert for a limo to pick her up.
“That's me.” I stepped forward as I dusted myself off, and he hurried to open the door for me. “Thank you.”
“There are refreshments for you in the fridge.” The driver bowed me inside.
“There's a fridge in here?”
I slid across the leather seat, shivering a bit in the blast of a/c that hit me. I automatically turned up my internal temperature a few notches to combat the chill. I found the mini-fridge just as we started to move but the ride was so smooth that it barely jostled me. I was able to pour
