Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 Page 9

  “Oh,” Brina said, then turned to Tzader. “As a Belador, you should know who I am, Brina of Treoir, warrior queen over the Beladors.” Cocking her chin indignantly, she added, “I have no plans to marry anyone, and when I do, it will be someone I love. Not a stranger.”

  She walked out of the room.

  He’d asked her to play along and keep Macha content, but hearing those words shredded his insides. The minute the power of that dragon scale ran out, Brina might mean everything she’d just said.

  Tzader ran a hand over his head and shook with the need to kill something. Not now. He had to calm down and ask Macha’s permission to hunt a cure for Brina. If he got that agreement out of her, he’d still be upholding his end of the deal with Ceartas.

  The minute that dragon scale had worked, Tzader’s mind was set. He was going after a dragon throne.

  “Nothing to say for yourself, Tzader?” Macha chided.

  His gaze bumped into Lanna’s, and she barely moved her head in a careful side-to-side motion, warning him. He couldn’t address her right now, not with the goddess on a tear. “Yes, I have something to say, Macha.”

  “This should be good.”

  “I’ve been busting my ass, with Lanna’s help, to figure out how to return Brina’s memories.” Macha opened her mouth but he kept talking without a break, to avoid her interrupting again.

  “But the truth is that Brina has made no headway. In fact, she’s getting worse.”

  “I knew it,” Macha said, biting out each word.

  “Then you should also know that there is more at stake than the two of us marrying. Brina being whole is our first priority.”

  Waving a hand, Macha made a pfft sound. “You had your chance to commit Brina to marriage, and you failed.”

  “You’re not listening to me. Brina is losing more of herself every day. You can toss me out of here—”

  “I fully plan on it.”

  “—but you can’t just pawn her off on another male.”

  “Don’t think to tell me what I can and cannot do, Tzader.”

  “Damn it, Macha!” he roared.

  Warning flared in her gaze. The building shook as if a volcano tried to erupt from beneath the foundation. “If not for the vow I gave your father that provided your immortality, I would remove your head from your shoulders. Challenge me again and I will do so regardless, and your father would support me if he still lived.”

  He wasn’t through with Macha. “Kill me, and you’ll still lose any hope of an heir.”

  “You may have been the man Brina loved once, but she’s forgetting you. She’ll move on. A man of honor would allow her to do so.”

  He locked his jaws so tightly his teeth should be crumbling. He should just gain Macha’s consent to pursue a solution to Brina’s problem and get going on it, but Ceartas had gotten through to Tzader and now Tzader had to know, “What’d you do? Compel Brina to be at peace with no memories and to not worry about anything?”

  Lanna’s eyes widened.

  He shouted, “You did, didn’t you, Macha?”

  “I answer to no one, and I allow no one to raise his voice to me twice. Don’t push me, Tzader.”

  “Oh, I see. You think that guard Brina pretended to be interested in before I breached the ward is going to just step in again? Even if you compel Brina to fall in love with Allyn—” Tzader had to catch his breath at the real possibility that Macha would do that. “Brina won’t know even him in another three days. She’ll turn into a body with no mind.”

  That got Macha’s attention, but did nothing to remove the firm look on her face. “I’m tired of your games, Tzader, and of repeating myself. You wanted a chance. You got it and you’re done. Move on.”

  Now what could he say? Tzader considered how far out on a limb he’d already crawled, and had nothing to go back to if this didn’t work. “I think I may know how to help her.”

  “Give it up, Tzader. Allow her to live her life.”

  “Give up on Brina? On us? No. Never.”

  Macha’s eyes narrowed. “This is the problem with you, especially in recent years. Being Macha’s husband would require you to defer to me just as Brina does, but you constantly fight me at every turn. Treoir history has been dictated by necessity to retain the power, not by foolish emotions. Your actions prove you think only about your own emotional needs. I, on the other hand, have to consider everyone and especially continuing the Treoir dynasty.”

  What the hell? Tzader could hear Ceartas saying ‘I told you so’. He went for the last gamble he had. “What if Brina is already pregnant with my child? We made love in the dream world.”

  “She’s not,” Macha said, dismissing the possibility with no consideration at all.

  He believed in his heart that Brina did carry his baby. “Allow her nine months to be sure she’s not pregnant.”

  Lanna’s eyes couldn’t get any wider. She looked close to exploding with the need to say something.

  Macha waved away the request. “We can’t keep waiting. I’d know if she was pregnant and she would, too. Has she told you she is?”

  “No.”

  “Then she isn’t.”

  “Why won’t you allow her to wait even four months?” She’d be showing plenty by then.

  “I’ll leave Brina and Allyn to work out their future.”

  What? Tzader saw red. If Macha was blocking Brina from even realizing she was pregnant—and Tzader believed she was—then the goddess would absolutely compel Brina to believe she carried another man’s child, and she’d also compel someone pliable like Allyn to raise it with Brina.

  Tzader shouted, “What are you going to do? Compel Allyn to rape Brina when she turns into a vegetable?”

  That was as close as anyone had ever come to verbally slapping Macha that Tzader knew of, and he’d known her a long time.

  “Get out of my sight,” she warned in a low voice that rocked the walls. “You are banished from Treoir. Never return.”

  “I’m not leaving until I talk to you about—”

  Macha whipped her arms out wide and roared an unearthly sound.

  Tzader’s world turned into a mash of colors spinning so fast his head felt separated from his body. Had Macha made good on her threat and pulled his head off after all?

  He landed hard on cold concrete, rolling twice before he stopped flat on his back. Why hadn’t Macha just beaten him with a two-by-four? Couldn’t hurt any worse.

  “Tzader?”

  Pushing up to his elbows, he found Lanna sitting on a bench. Dark had descended on Atlanta and it appeared they had been dumped in front of the Carter Presidential Center. At least Lanna was sitting, so maybe she hadn’t been body slammed, but the young woman wore only jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. She wasn’t dressed for the middle of a winter night in Atlanta.

  If he had to guess based on the minimal traffic moving along Freedom Parkway, it had to be somewhere between ten and midnight.

  And cold, which explained the snow flurries. Tzader asked, “Are you okay, Lanna?”

  “Yes. Macha gave me smooth teleport.”

  Thankfully, the bitch goddess had not taken her ire out on Quinn’s teenage cousin. “Sorry to have put you in the middle of that mess.”

  Unperturbed, Lanna said, “We must get back to Brina.”

  “That’s not happening any time soon.”

  “You would abandon her?”

  “Hell no!” He didn’t mean to sound so surly when Lanna was just as worried about Brina as he was. “I don’t mean to keep snapping at you. I appreciate all you’ve done to help Brina and me. I just need a minute to catch my breath after flying Air Macha.”

  Lanna smiled. “I must find out how to teleport that far.”

  Heaven help them all if Lanna ever figured out just what she could do. “That would be handy right now, since I’m going to need to teleport again soon.”

  “You have plan to save Brina?”

  “Working on it.”

  “I wil
l help. Cousin will help, too.”

  That sounded encouraging and comforting, but Tzader couldn’t involve Lanna, Quinn, or anyone else he cared about. Still, he could try to confirm one thing.

  He asked her, “Do you know why Brina has been sleeping so much?”

  “Yes, but when I try to tell you the words disappear from my mind. You know why. I heard you tell Macha.”

  “Brina is pregnant.”

  “Yes. Brina will be even more upset when her body changes and she does not know why. Macha keeps her from knowing.”

  Tzader hadn’t really needed the confirmation. Brina’s pregnancy didn’t change his goal anyway, but now he had a child at risk, and that upped the ante.

  He was going into Tŵr Medb to free a dragon. If he pulled that off and the dragon made good on curing Brina, Tzader hoped to live long enough to see life fill Brina’s eyes again.

  Who am I kidding?

  He had no way to teleport, and no idea how to break a curse of any kind, much less one cast by an immortal.

  Chapter 8

  With a quick check on the doggy-critter perched on the passenger seat of Storm’s truck, Evalle stayed at the speed limit while she worked her way to Rowan’s home in Midtown.

  All she needed was to be stopped by human law enforcement and have to explain a witch’s familiar capable of taking off a hand.

  Storm’s truck was warmer than her GSXR motorcycle in the winter, but she missed riding her baby.

  In spite of snow flurries, Atlanta never lacked for traffic even late at night.

  The good news? No wrecks to turn the highways into parking lots. Evalle reached Rowan’s Midtown neighborhood by midnight.

  Please tell me Rowan is a night owl.

  Evalle slowed to navigate the historic neighborhood full of homes with wide porches and double-hung windows. With all the remodeling going on at the building where she and Storm intended to live, Evalle had been getting an education on things such as how the two movable parts of those windows were called sashes.

  Who knew?

  Storm was having custom windows installed in their future home, which had once been a commercial building, just so she could open them on cool nights. After living underground for pretty much her entire life, the idea of owning just one window thrilled her.

  She drove under a canopy of leafless limbs on big oak trees hovering over the road. The last time she’d driven Storm’s truck to a house he’d owned in this area, he’d been trapped in another realm with an army of demons.

  Let’s not relive that memory.

  She parked at the curb in front of Rowan’s Victorian-style home. It fit in with so many others built a century ago, but this one had always felt different.

  Rowan lived in the big old house with her younger sister, Sasha, and brother-in-law, Trey McCree, who was also a Belador warrior.

  According to Trey, one of Rowan and Sasha’s ancestors had built the house.

  She checked her phone. Still no text reply from Rowan.

  What to do now?

  If Evalle called telepathically to Trey, he’d hear her and let Rowan know she was here. He was the most powerful Belador telepath she’d ever met, but she hated to disturb him. Between his and Sasha’s new baby girl and Trey’s Belador duties, the guy’s hair had a perpetual bedhead look from exhaustion. Not from any sense of style.

  Snuffling sounds came from the other seat, where her passenger had curled into a ball and closed its eyes.

  Her dangerous sidekick needed a power nap, huh?

  Might as well knock on Rowan’s door and hope she didn’t piss off anyone by waking the baby. She climbed out of the truck and had made it halfway down the dark path to the wide porch when a glow bloomed in a hanging oil lamp.

  Must be nice to be a badass witch.

  The leaded-glass front door opened and Rowan stepped out in a furry white house robe that stopped just above matching boot slippers. “Good evening, Evalle.”

  “Hi, Rowan. Did I wake you?”

  “Not really. I was just napping so I could take a turn getting up with the baby, but I sensed someone here.”

  “I sent a text first.”

  “My phone is off to keep from waking the baby. She’s been colicky.”

  “Sorry to hear that.” But Evalle was glad to know Rowan hadn’t been ignoring her message.

  It wasn’t enough that Rowan was the definition of drop-dead gorgeous, but the good-morning fairies had gifted her so she didn’t even look sleep rumpled.

  Evalle took in her outfit and asked, “Are you warm enough?”

  “Oh, yes. I’m good. I’d invite you in, but the baby just got to sleep and she’s showing early signs of her powers.”

  “Really? Is she, uh, more witch or Belador?”

  “Hard to say yet.” Rowan lifted a shoulder. “But she knows if a non-family member comes inside. Sasha will kill both of us if we wake that child.”

  “Ten-four.”

  “I’m surprised to see you here without Storm,” Rowan said, taking a step down so that she could sit on the edge of her porch.

  “Storm’s home, getting our new place ready.” And, for once, Evalle would be going home early due to the men opting to deal with Sen. She walked over and leaned against one of the waist-high stone walls bordering each side of the steps. “VIPER sent me and two others to hunt down a demon, but it turned out not to be one.”

  “Thought those were all caught.”

  “Reports of sightings still pop up, just not as often now. Evidently the Medb left a few extras just to give VIPER agents something to do.” Evalle could accuse the Medb of being at fault only when talking to someone she trusted. She didn’t need a new round of arguments between the Medb coven and the Beladors right now. Not with the Tribunal set to finally make a major decision affecting the Alterant-gryphons.

  Currently, there were only seven others of her kind that were known, but this decision would also affect anyone else who woke up one day to find out they were of the same bloodline.

  Evalle had been on her best behavior during every Medb encounter for weeks. She hadn’t killed any. That counted for good manners, right? The other seven gryphons were hidden away on Treoir Island where they couldn’t antagonize VIPER, the Medb, or a Tribunal member.

  That put major responsibility on Evalle’s shoulders to cause no trouble or give anyone a reason to derail the Tribunal vote on recognizing the gryphons as an independent race.

  Her group had lived long enough with someone else pulling the strings on their lives.

  Evalle might carry the blood of both Beladors and Medb, but her loyalty sat squarely with the Beladors.

  Rowan shoved a handful of silky black hair over her shoulder. “The Tribunal and VIPER are fools for bringing the Medb into the coalition, and this world.”

  “Tell me about it, and I’m stuck as the liaison for the gryphons,” Evalle groused. She hadn’t originally planned to stay long, but since Rowan appeared to be wide awake and chatty, it was nice to talk to someone she could trust.

  “Trey told me Tzader went to Macha about keeping you out of the middle of the Belador and Medb conflicts, but clearly that didn’t happen.”

  “He did, but she didn’t. I can’t really blame Macha this time.”

  Rowan’s eyebrows lifted. Her gypsy-shaped eyes questioned that comment.

  Evalle chuckled. “Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not defending her for any other actions, but the goddess wasn’t present when Loki pulled his usual crap during a Tribunal meeting and twisted things around until I couldn’t possibly say no.”

  “Ah. Got it,” Rowan said.

  “The Tribunal expects me to find a resolution for the tug of war between the Beladors and Medb over the gryphons.”

  “How’d that get dumped in your lap?”

  Running her hands over her hair, Evalle grumbled, “Not by my choice. It started back when the Medb captured Alterants and made us fight each other. Those battles forced us to evolve into gryphons who co
uld die and immediately regenerate back to life again.”

  Rowan sat up at that. “Really?”

  “Yeah. None of us knew about that ability before then, and the regeneration only works three times.” Evalle had suffered through all three. “Every time we die, we become stronger as gryphons when we return. Flaevynn compelled us to attack Treoir and sent their priestess, Kizira, to lead us. She died during the battle. Once that happened, she no longer had control of the gryphons, so the most powerful one in the pack became the leader. His name was Boomer. He was a huge SOB and went after Brina, so I had to fight him when he busted into Treoir Castle.” She shrugged. “I won and became the gryphon leader by default.”

  Kill the biggest, baddest one on the team and, bam, you get to be in charge.

  She hadn’t wanted that position, but for now she had to deal with the responsibility.

  Rowan leaned back. “Wow. Macha is so lucky to have you and the others. Why isn’t she pushing her weight around in this mess with the Medb? She hasn’t even shown her face in this world since the Medb started sending warlocks and witches into Atlanta, has she?”

  “No. She won’t leave Treoir, not with Brina still having problems with her memory. The closest I ever came to seeing Macha show real concern was when she thought Brina had vanished forever.”

  “But you and Storm brought Brina and Lanna back. Doesn’t that matter to Macha?”

  “You’re asking the wrong person, Rowan. I’m lucky Macha didn’t leave me locked up beneath VIPER headquarters last year. I didn’t care for the deal she made, but she did get me out. All I know is that I have to perform my duties. If she wants to stay on Treoir, I’m the last person in a position to share my opinion. And I don’t want anything to happen to Brina.”

  Rowan leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand in a thoughtful pose. “I can understand Macha’s concerns, given that the entire Belador power base is dependent upon Brina being alive and on the island, but not stuck in that castle. Poor woman is a prisoner. Tzader is there. He’s immortal, so why can’t he watch after Brina?”

  Evalle froze. How did Rowan know that?

  Rowan chuckled. “Trey has told me nothing, but rumors did fly after Tzader died breaking through the ward on Treoir Castle ... and you brought him back to life. Now I understand how that happened.”