Another elongated patch of light wavered near the trunk, and a second traveler emerged, his broad shoulders draped in a cape.
Maritza Brodeur and Alabastair Nekrosine.
“Peasgood? Hyslop?” she said. “What are you two doing here?” The animated fabric followed Maritza as she minced across the uneven land to where the foursome clustered, circled by their luggage.
Bas opened his hand, fingertips down. Portal stones, that’s what they were dropping.
He pivoted in a circle, the bottom of his cape flaring, and stared into the woods. When the necromancer locked gazes with me, his face registered quizzical at first then understanding. He made a rough shape with his arms before pointing a finger straight at me. Even from afar, I could read what he was mouthing.
Bear.
I had begun to feel Bear’s presence as Jack and I settled in near the salal. The berries were a natural attractant to my ursine protector. Or maybe it was my fear, rising in anticipation of Meribah’s arrival. Bas stayed another few seconds, his distant presence oddly comforting, then joined Maritza. They stood side by side, blocking my view of the much shorter Hyslop, his brother, and their girlfriends.
Bas leaned to the side and spoke to Maritza. She turned on her heel, ran her gaze along the wooded border of the property where our band of Magicals had hidden themselves, and waved. She then hooked her free arm through Bas’s offered elbow, waved the fuzzy rectangle in my direction, and led Bas toward the underland.
A necromancer and a witch specializing in rituals of death were removing themselves from the immediate vicinity of the coming confrontation. That was…encouraging. And while Maritza and Bas looked like a couple out for a stroll, their appearance could not have been entirely accidental.
I returned to staring at the old tree, willing the distorted S of its trunk and the umbrella of its branches to send out a handful of Fae. The waiting was hard to manage, even as Maritza’s discarded blanket arrived at the edge of the bushes, hesitated, and fluttered up and over the salal before rustling the bushes behind me.
Bear’s massive presence draped across my back and sides. I shivered and stuck out my arm to pat the air. The blanket grew weighted, taking the shape of a large, furry creature as though a tailor was assembling a cloak on my body as I waited in their shop. I shrugged to accommodate the sensation.
As I did, the moment I had been wanting and dreading arrived with a loud pop. Except the traveler exiting the portal wasn’t Meribah.
It was Doug.
He stepped forward, blinking in the waning light, one hand on the back of Harper’s neck and one hand gripping Thatcher’s upper arm. Harper looked ill, Thatch was unreadable, and Doug was bruised.
“Calliope!” Doug roared my name from a battered throat. Every hair on my body rose, and my scalp prickled.
Harper’s knees gave out, bringing both him and Doug to their knees. Free of his father, Thatch darted behind Doug, wrapped his arms around his brother’s upper torso, and struggled to put distance between the two of them and their father.
I had to press both hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. I went to the ground, panting like the wolf at my side.
My fingers sought the soil, sending an urgent message into the forest, calling on every vine and thorny plant to be ready to heed my call for help should I issue one. As I rose to stand, Jack’s hindquarters trembled with anticipation, Bear straightened with me, and the three of us crashed through the bushes between where we’d hidden and the edge of the field.
“What the hell do you want?” I yelled. Sun-baked blades of dried grass poked at my feet, and I relished how every sensation kept me anchored.
“You left me. You betrayed our vows. You turned our sons against me, their own father.” Doug pounded his knuckles into his chest like he was driving a wedge into a log he wanted to split. The front of his shirt was marked with blood, and the buttons weren’t lined up.
“No.” If I yelled loud enough, I could draw his attention off the boys and redirect his anger. “You don’t get to accuse me when it was you controlling me.”
“We got those tattoos because that is what I was told to do. You were supposed to give us daughters, Calliope. Two girls who could carry the Flechette legacy, my legacy, forward. Two girls who could…who could…” Doug—by now oblivious to Harper and Thatcher—dropped forward, fisted his hands, and beat at the ground.
Thatch dragged Harper sideways, a single hard-won step at a time, putting distance between them and Doug.
I saw nothing physically attaching my ex to my sons. I tramped toward the boys, the big wolf at my side, and wrapped an arm around Harper’s waist. “Let me help you,” I said to Thatcher. “If we can get Harp to the burial mound, Kaz can get you both home through a different portal.”
If Kaz hadn’t found the other portal, he could hide my sons in the mound and make the door disappear. A low growl vibrated from the wolf. “Jack, stay here.” I patted his head. “Don’t let Doug follow us.”
“Calliope.”
I shot a glance over my shoulder. Doug had gotten his feet back under him and spun, arms flailing. Jack was following my request, creeping toward Doug, a low rumble in the beast’s throat.
“Hurry,” I hissed. “We’re almost there.”
“You cannot hide, Calliope. She will find you and she will kill you and she will take our sons.” Doug screamed and fell to his knees again. “And then she’ll kill me.”
Kaz had the door to the mound open and hurried toward us.
“Fucking drama queen,” Thatch muttered. “Not Kaz,” he added. “Dad.”
I nearly choked on a completely inappropriate and totally necessary laugh. Thatcher had a way with knowing exactly when and how to dissipate tension. I
