"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
"Que diable se passe-t-il?" I said. A husky familiar laugh had me spinning around. "Kona? What are you doing here?""You know, I can actually understand your other language in here? How weird is that? And to answer you: what the hell is going on? I'm apparently here to heal you. This is what has happened every time I went to touch someone before I ascended. I would get sucked into their spirit landscape to heal them."She spun around like she was taking in the view. I'm not quite sure what she saw, but I saw my old Resting ground at the cemetery. Sebastian's wife's grave was the only one there. Marie Consuela Moreau, beloved wife, from now until eternity.Just like they always had, the words ripped at my insides. The old hurt a numb and perennial friend. Sebastian had never lied to me, had never led me astray. But he also had not returned my love. His heart had been given in full to his human wife. A statue of stone could not rival that, not even with the gift of the
I landed back in my body with a slight jolt. Nothing like trying to shove myself back into my body after a healing before I ascended. Saint, Ransom, and Kord were all there to catch me if I needed it. "That was unexpected," Kord said.I nodded. "I'm guessing since I actually ascended into a Prime, I could breach his walls."They all nodded. "Good. Let's get the rest of the group set up with the mental links. Then we need to question the last guy," Ransom said.I nodded. "Let's do it."**"You can speak up or keep your mouth shut. Either way, I'll be getting the knowledge one way or another," I said to Brownie Two. He sat there with his unemotional face. His dark eyes looked straight through me. I wondered if anyone was even home. "Does anyone know if someone is capable of building robots that look like humans?" I asked aloud. Taryk made a low noise. "Not anything like this that I've seen.""The field of technology isn't this far along yet, honey," Saint said.
"Then find her trail, Junior," I leaned down and snarled into Xander's tiger's face. "Don't yell at him, Saint. He can't help. She pushed him out of there, remember?" Xander said as he ran his hand through his tiger's fur."Do you feel that, mes amis?" Mason interrupted. He put a finger to his lips as if silence could help us feel something better.We all shut up. We had no other firm direction to follow. Mason's head tipped to the side. Shook his head. Squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "Join hands. Our Kona is calling," he shouted as he reached for the person nearest him. We all linked hands. I, for one, prayed. Like I've never prayed before. Eternity passed with no answer. No glimmer of hope. Hellion popped into the lobby, arms full of a bloodied and broken Kiema. "She's been attacked on the spirit plane. Give her your magic or she will die," he said right before he vanished again. Nononononononononono, it spun on a loop inside my head. Ransom had to p
I strode forward. I didn't know how I knew this guy, but as soon as I saw him, I recognized his face. Tall enough to make Mason seem short, he towered over me. "What are you doing here?" he asked me. "Why did you send out a call?""Okay, first up, I recognize your face, but that's about it. Why don't you tell me who you are and we'll go from there, m'kay?" I nodded, and kept nodding, until he joined me in the motion. With a grunt, he shook his head. "This is not funny, Kiema. You know exactly who you are. Why you're here. This was your mission. You chose it. What the hell is going on?" He looked over my shoulder. I turned to look with him. My family. The loves of my life and mates of my soul all stood there staring. I felt emotion crawl up my throat. Looking back at the giant, I said, "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. But I'll leave that for you to explain later. Can you tell me why I have a goddess rune?" I asked. Giant shook his head, looked at me l