I shook my head. "No. No. That's not possible." I shook my head again. "No. Not possible."Heppni smiled at me. Nodded. "But it is. I know that Prime children age similarly to human children when one parent is human, but their bodies stop aging at a certain point. And since you've collected more power along the way, I doubt you'll age ever again.""No, I remember my life from about five and up. That was twenty-three years ago." A thought niggled my mind. "Well, almost twenty-four. But nowhere near one hundred years ago.""You are of me, Kiema. When I was inside you, I felt my power. There is no other explanation," she said."I'd like an explanation on how you think she was either held in cryostasis for over seventy-five years or some other form of hibernation," Dr. Atlas said. His voice was hard, his bright green gaze even harder. "Her father was a brilliant doctor. And he was working with magick users back on Earth.""I'm not even Azican?" I said. I felt like throwing up
I was getting very frustrated. It was almost mid-morning and no one was yet up and around. How could these people be so lazy that they didn't start their days until the noon sun had already crested the sky?"Idiots infantile," I muttered again as I searched through the cool box that held the food. Or was supposed to hold the food. Taryk had told me last night before I went to my stone form that the fridge' was next to the conference room and to help myself. Except for a wash of cold air, there was nothing to be had. Unless he thought I ate coated metal and glass for meals. Except for the brief burst of magic from one of the Directs, the night had been peaceful. I had run the Direct off and nothing else had bothered my new domicile. I'd forgotten how exciting it was to keep watch. To know I guarded the inhabitants with nothing but my magic, my wits, and my cunning. And just my luck, these inhabitants were bâtards paresseux. While we were in Faery, they had seemed noble and h
I shook my head. The thought that that's all I'd been doing for the last three hours had hysterical laughter bubbling up from inside me. Warm arms curled around me and lifted me onto my tiptoes into a huddle of my mates.I've come too far to break now. I've come too far to break now. I repeated the phrase over and over and over in my mind. Pushing everything else out until I could see a way forward. A way through. I sucked in a breath, held it until I felt like my lungs would burst, and then slowly exhaled. "I'm so proud of you, honey. You're a warrior. You can do this," Saint said. "I've never met anyone stronger than you, angel. You amaze me daily. You got this. We're here to help," Ransom said as he kissed my hair. "Nobody better than my mouse," Kord said, a flush of color on his cheeks. "Mouse?" I asked as I looked up at him, one eyebrow raised, a smile pulling at my lips. He dipped his head. "Yeah. I'm an owl and owls eat mice. I'm also Kord, and I def
"While we're all ruminating on that lovely scene, we do still have a more immediate problem," Taryk said. "Rent boy," Lukas said. Taryk nodded. "Yeah, he's got no more power of his own. But that can mean he's even more hateful now. We'll need to watch our backs for a while.""Do we think he was the only one Hellion linked?" I asked. We all stood around in silence. Saint cleared his throat. "I guess we'll find out if one of them pops up at our door.""Let's get him out of here before everyone else starts showing up for the tribunal," Taryk said. "We don't need him sharing any plans with anyone who might still be around from IS."A whisper of magic floated over my skin. I tuned into the sensation, listened. "And that needs to be now. I think the Faeries are here."Everyone turned to look at me."What?" I rubbed my hands over my arms."How could you possibly know that, honey?" Saint asked.I shrugged. "Um, I'm walking around with enough power to be a nuclear bomb
"Again," I called. Kiema gritted her teeth and sent another magic arrow at the target on the opposite side of the gym. It slammed into the bare corner. I came up behind her. Grabbed one shoulder, pointed with my other hand. "You see that section? Right there in the middle? Bright red. Surrounded by yellow, blue and green? That. Those are the sections you need to hit. Not the white corners."She laughed as she elbowed me in the lower belly. "No way. And this whole time I thought it was the corners. They're the smallest sections, you know. Maybe my aim is just that good."I snorted. "I would believe that if you had hit any of the colored sections. Even once would do."She shrugged me off, took a deep breath, and settled herself into her battle stance once more. As she exhaled, she loosed three magical arrows. All three of them hit the bullseye. No hesitation, no whining. Just thpt, thpt, thpt. All three in the red.I was expecting the smirk on her face as she turned back to
I wiped at the tears that streamed down my face. Swimming, indeed. "Goddess Kiema, greetings from Faery," Queen Arasne said as she came to a smooth stop in front of me. She was dressed in battle gear from head to toe. Braids pulled her hair up and away from her face to have it fall in a long line down her back. Under the bright lights, I could see what looked like silver threaded through the strands. Interesting."Greetings, Queen Arasne. Welcome to Azica." I bowed to her. She returned the gesture. "If you could point us to our lodgings, we will begin training with you. Many of our younger recruits are quite anxious to begin." She rolled her eyes. "Youth...always rushing headlong into danger."I smiled. "I think that's a trait of most men as well."Arasne snorted softly. "Indeed. I put the call out to my people. We've had record breaking enrollment for recruits. Graysten is quite beside himself on how to train so many in so short a time.""Well, I'm the only one
"We don't have a lot of time. Where's Kord?" I asked as we sprinted up the stairs. The closer we'd gotten to home, the more my body reacted. I was hard as steel and primed to pound inside this woman we got to call ours. "I called him. He's in the lab's kitchen working on his powders and spells," Kiema said in between puffs of air against my back. "Shit. Tell him to hurry," I said as I pushed through the door on the fifth level. Home."He's on his way over. According to him, he's faster than a MagLev train. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds fa - ""Fast. Very fast," Kord said as he joined us. He threw Ransom's shirt on the floor. "Someone dropped that in the stairwell."I slid Kiema off my shoulder, her soft naked body giving way to the harder, firmer lines of my own. I closed my eyes so I could concentrate. "What's the emergency? And why're you two naked?" Kord asked."Kiema just changed into a dragon. A kind that doesn't let her fly, but a dragon, nonetheless
A distant bell rang somewhere in the building, stopping whatever it was I was going to say. I looked around the room. "What was that?"Saint's brow furrowed. "The building doorbell for lack of a better term. It goes off if the door doesn't open within a certain amount of time after being rung the first time." He looked down at his nakedness. Looked back up at me. One eyebrow raised. "Little help, please?"I smiled and dressed him with a thought. I gave Ransom a shirt as well since he'd sacrificed his own to cover my ass on the frantic run to the warehouse. We all left the fifth level and went to the elevator. Ransom pulled his phone from his pocket. After he tapped a couple buttons, he lifted the phone up and out from his body. "Hello. We're coming down. Who are you?" he asked. I shifted to look into the screen. A small group of men were waiting near the front business entrance door. The man in the front of the group jumped when Ransom's voice filtered out. He looked