Chapter Two #2
“That’s what she said. I even asked her if she was certain about the names, because they had attacked you guys before, and May was saying that the Amadeus guy got away from Drake’s house in England—oh, hi, Drake. Uh ...”
“When did Tara the water elemental become Deus’s mate?” I asked with a quick glance at Drake. He had his phone out and was already typing in the wyverns’ text group.
May turned her head to the side, a smile lighting her face. I assumed that meant Gabriel had returned.
“That’s the reason May wanted me here. It was just last month.
Calypso said that Tara said they had a big party to celebrate their mateship, and she was so excited about this new start of her life, and then Calypso lost it on her.
She’s the head of the nereids, you know, kind of like how I ran the naiads two hundred years ago.
Anyway, Calypso asked if she was going to abandon her duties for a dragon, and Tara said yes, because Deus needed her help to take care of some mean dragons who were trying to push them around.
” Cyrene leaned forward. “That means the weyr. I told Calypso that her friend was all wrong, and it was the tribe dragons, the ... orrie ...”
“Ouroboros,” Ysolde murmured, now also tapping on her phone.
“That’s it. The outlaw guys who keep attacking you non-outlaws. Anyway, she said that Tara had left the sisterhood, and went off to help her new mate. I thought you all would want to know.”
Karma and Allie said nothing, but I knew they had to be wondering why they had been called on to join the discussion. I certainly was.
“Yes, we do,” Ysolde said, pursing her lips in thought. “Although to be honest, I’m not sure if the fact that Deus now has a mate helps or hinders us.”
“Hinders,” Drake said, rising and heading for the door with a look at me. His eyes, gorgeous as ever, were now filled with concern and a wariness that had started to feel familiar.
“Sadly, that’s my thought, as well,” May said, smiling again when Gabriel leaned in to say hello, but both of their smiles appeared strained.
“It’s so fun to see you all again,” Cyrene said as she rose, bending down so her face was close to the camera. “Let’s do one of the mate lunches next month, OK? I have to run now, because the sisterhood is having a bachelorette party tonight, and I’m in charge of getting the penises. Ciao!”
Gabriel left, as well, his phone pinging, no doubt with Drake’s text message.
“Are we clear to get to the real issue?” I asked when I watched the door behind May close.
She turned around to face the camera, her expression grim.
“You know me so well. Cyrene insisted on telling you guys about Tara, and I couldn’t think of a good reason to not let her do so, although I did push it as close to her needing to leave as I could.
The problem is that Kawaa is continuing to see issues with the dragon songline where it touches hers.
It’s gotten progressively worse the last month, and both she and Gabriel were at a loss as to what could be going on. ”
Allie squinted at the camera at the same time Karma, who had pulled her laptop over to a jumbo plastic container that appeared to contain a particularly gruesome crime scene, frowned at us.
I watched with fascination as she plucked, one at a time, imps from the plastic bin. Each had six arms, and was covered in smashed raspberries.
She gave each imp a wipe down before depositing them into a massive playpen.
“I’m sorry that’s happening, but assuming you’re going to ask if we’ve heard anything about the dragons, I haven’t.
Polters are a pretty isolated group, since a lot of them are sensitive about the extra arms until they drop off. ”
“You said Gabriel and Kawaa were at a loss as to what was happening,” Ysolde commented, while behind her, Baltic strode across the room, a child-sized helmet in hand, their wildly laughing son slung over his shoulder.
It was obviously time for Anduin’s riding lesson.
“Take it easy on Excalibur,” Ysolde called after them. “He just put on a play with Anduin. Sorry, please go ahead, May.”
“You’re right, Ysolde. This morning, Gabriel had a chat with Kawaa, and they agreed that what she felt tainting the dragon songline was tied to dark magic ... tied to Deus.”
Fear rippled through me. “You think he has Desi’s blood moon amulet?”
“No, thank the goddess, neither Gabriel nor Kawaa say they feel that. But there is dark power surrounding the part of the dragon songline that she says resonates with Deus.”
“But ... you knew that people were hunting for the blood moon,” Allie pointed out. “When we met Owain at Yrian and Becket’s place, he said everyone in the Otherworld was searching for it.”
“And they are,” May answered, grimacing for a second.
“Savian—he’s a friend of ours who is a thief taker, now married to a dragon—says that every week someone offers a newer, better reward for whoever finds the blood moon and hands it over.
He said the bounty on it surpassed even the price of a quintessence, and you know those are damn near priceless. ”
My stomach felt like it turned over. I stared at nothing for a few seconds, my heart sick at the trouble that we’d be in, both immortal and mortal worlds, should the blood moon fall into Deus’s hands.
Or worse yet, Desi’s.
“That’s why I wanted you to hear that Deus is reportedly mated—which makes him more powerful—and has called in some sort of reinforcements to find the blood moon.
I don’t know Becket or Berry well enough to judge how they’d take that information, and hoped you could advise on that, Allie.
And Karma, you’re here because you’re part of the core badass-mates subset, and more importantly, you and Adam are very resourceful. ”
Karma dropped the last of the imps into their playpen, placed a remote control in a clear plastic bag in with them, and zipped closed their lid.
“As it happens, Team Polter might be able to help. Adam has taken a leave of absence with his mortal job and is now wholly working for the Watch. He has a network of informants he calls nefarious-adjacent, and I’m sure he’d be happy to check in with them for word on the street about Deus and the blood moon.
And I can ask the head of the Akashic League if he knows anything about the dark power that Deus has tapped into.
Or rather, whoever or whatever he’s using that is disturbing your mother-in-law’s songline. ”
We chatted a few minutes before everyone agreed to keep in touch in a separate group chat so as not to worry the other mates before we knew what was up.
I sat alone on the couch for a bit, my thoughts alternately making me worried and furious. When Drake returned from where I assumed he’d notified the wyverns about Cyrene’s news, my stomach felt like it was twisted into an intricate protection ward.
“Do you think this is going to make Deus more unstable?” I asked him when he held out a hand for me, pulling me up against his body. I reveled in the feeling of his fire for a few minutes, allowing it to fill me before I returned it to him.
He hesitated for a couple of seconds. “I would be inclined to say it would be difficult for him to be any more unstable than he already is, but a memory of how it was when you finally accepted me as your mate leads me to believe otherwise.”
“I will let the pointed implication that I was the one dragging my feet in our relationship go, because I don’t get what you mean.
It’s not like you were concerned that the other wyverns might steal me away.
” I paused, made a face, then added, “OK, they did, but regardless of that fact, you weren’t jealous in the least, so if you’re implying that Deus is going to be hyper-protective of Tara the nereid, I just don’t see it. ”
“Kincsem,” he said in a low growl, pulling my hips against him in a blatant invitation. “Until the children were born, I was incandescent with jealousy every time another wyvern so much as looked at you.”
I stopped planning an immediate trip downstairs to the pool in the basement, where Drake and I had many, many lovely experiences, and slid a glance up at him. “You were? When? You never seemed to be anything but mildly annoyed with the other wyverns, even when Fiat forced me to be his mate.”
His eyes smoldered emerald fire at me. “I didn’t let you see it. I didn’t want you feeling you had done something wrong to attract attention from the others. I trusted you, but not them.”
“Aww,” I said, kissing his chin. “That’s so sweet that it makes me want to do wicked things to you in the pool.
But I don’t see the correlation to Deus.
You are in the weyr, where other wyverns hang out.
And all of you are mated. Why would Deus be more unhinged around the dragon septs just because he now has a mate?
It’s not like she can be used to hurt him . .. oh.”
Drake nodded, gave me a pinch and fondle on my behind, then consulted his phone when it pinged at him. “If she were to die, it would mean the end of Deus. No doubt he will be highly protective of her, and more likely to take offensive rather than defensive actions toward us.”
“You’re going to want to send the kids to the country, aren’t you?” I asked, wearily organizing a mental list of things we’d have to do in order to make the move from Paris to the French countryside.
“They will be safer there,” he said, looking surprisingly thoughtful.
“And they just got settled into the dragon school here,” I said, knowing he was right.
If there was even the slightest chance in Abaddon that Deus or his tribe would take advantage of busy Paris life to strike at our kids, then we’d ensure they were well out of his reach.
“I hope you’re warning the others with kids to put strict protection policies into place. ”
“I have just done so.” He gave me another steamy look, but sighed with obvious regret. “Much though I wish to fulfill all those pool-based fantasies you are even now thinking about, I will fly to the chateau to make sure it’s ready. I’ll return to take you and the children down later tonight.”
“I’ll start packing,” I said with a wry smile, warmed to the depths of my soul by Drake’s love for us all. As a rule, he disliked what he called disorder in his life, but time—and the chaos that followed our kids like shadows—had mellowed him.
“Which is a good thing,” I mused to no one as I headed upstairs to the kids’ rooms to start the packing, and to alert our nanny, Grace. “Because I have a feeling life is about to get a whole hell of a lot more crazy.”
I really hate it when I say things like that out loud. It just seems to tempt fate.