Chapter 26 #2
“Auntie Cora said Uncle Ian would want to visit us.” Lyra grinned. “Why can’t I meet him?”
“He doesn’t know about you. I don’t like him.” Her gaze slid to Efrem, who scowled.
Lyra asked, “Do you not want Ian to visit?”
“You know how I tell you to use what’s in here when it comes to figuring out which people to trust?” She rested a finger on Lyra’s chest.
Lyra nodded.
“I get very bad feelings about Ian in here.” Evie tapped her chest. “There are some people who are not safe for us. Ian would be on the top of the dangerous-to-us list.”
“He’s trying to sneak his way in, then. That’s not nice. Shane is bringing Auntie Maddie today. She said I could play with Baku. So, if Ian comes here, I’ll have Baku eat him.”
“Excellent idea.” She grinned. Madeline’s demon familiar, Baku, seemed to adore Lyra.
“What about the man from last night? Is he less dangerous than Ian?” She did a few twirls while staring at her skirt. “I think he knows you.”
“He isn’t dangerous to me. He might be a problem for you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can. We trained you well.”
“I also have friends who’d be glad to help, you know. I had new friends to tea yesterday.”
She massaged her head and gave Lyra a placating smile. Her daughter had an active imagination and liked to invite imaginary deities to tea. “Who came to tea yesterday?”
“God and the Devil.”
“That sounds like a dangerous combo, bringing the opposing Christian deities together.”
“They needed to talk on neutral ground. I think they don’t really hate each other.” She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Lu was pissed because he lost something. I didn’t understand what. Their argument was boring.” Which meant she didn’t listen.
“Who’s Lu?”
“Lucifer. I made them stop arguing and drink tea because I didn’t invite them over to be mean to each other. Instead, we talked about fairies.”
“You’re on nickname basis with the Devil, who you forced to have a serious discussion about fairies?” Last week Lyra had said she had tea with a Buddhist god she’d read about in a book Roman gave her.
“They both knew a lot more about fairies than you’d think. They kept saying don’t believe anything they say.”
“What kind of tea did you serve these two enemies?”
“I made an apple spice blend. They both complimented it. I think I’m getting better at the brewing.” She rotated to grin at Efrem, who’d worked with her on the art of brewing tea properly.
“Who do you plan to invite next week?”
She shrugged. “Might ask Gelos over again. He’s funny.”
“The Roman god of humor? Of course he’d be funny.” She met Efrem’s gaze.
Efrem shook his head, just as baffled by Lyra’s stories about gods coming for tea.
“Why don’t you go help with the arrangements in the courtyard for the party tonight? I need to chat with Efrem for a moment.”
Lyra bounded away.
“God and the Devil?” She chuckled and shook her head.
“At least she’s happy with her tea parties. I’m not entirely sure they’re imaginary, though.”
“Come on.” She waved a dismissive hand. “God and the Devil? In one room?”
“It’s ludicrous. Agreed. What’s Ian up to?” Efrem drummed his fingers on the table. “What worries me is how he disappeared off the face of the planet decades ago. I used every detection method possible and couldn’t find him until he showed up fifty-eight days ago.”
“I’m not sure he’s the same Ian we remember. He showed no interest in us after Willem died. Why now?”
He swiveled to fully face her. “Do you think this has to do with Dom?”
“It might. Ian seemed interested in taking over the family, which makes no sense. He never wanted to be mated to anyone or have a family. He liked sleeping around and doing whatever he wanted with no ties.”
“What did Dom do to all of us?”
“He cast a forget spell. Before he did it, he told me he had to in order to keep us safe from the Mage Conclave.”
“Why?”
“There’s a prophecy about a child of his doing something terrible. They would apparently do anything to keep him from having any sort of attachment to a woman that might lead to a child, including kill any female he talked to more than once. They had him monitored the entire time I’ve known him.”
“A child like Lyra?” He cast her a pointed look.
She nibbled on her lower lip. “He doesn’t know about her. I wonder how that is since I bet he’s been watching over us since the spell was cast. I think Cora did something to keep her invisible to him.”
“Smart lady. Do you think Dom would hurt her?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. I can’t imagine he would, unless he’s changed.”
“Are you willing to bet Lyra’s life on that hunch?”
“Of course not. I’ll see where his mind is.”
“With you entering the decline…my research says the longest surviving mated lycan who truly mated and loved her partner soul-deep survived six years and three days beyond his death. That can only mean—”
She swallowed. Breaths only came shallowly as she whispered, “I bonded with Dom and didn’t realize it.” I knew it. Didn’t want to recognize it, though. “I forgot him and didn’t know about the bond.”
“If we calculate backward, that would put you at almost exactly six years since you reassured the bond. The only way to reverse the decline is to bond with him again. Only, it’d have to be a true bilateral acceptance of the bond. Not just you.”
Her core clenched at the mere thought of even touching Dom again. Her logical mind pushed sexual desire aside in favor of protecting her children.
He crossed his arms. “If you don’t get him to mate you properly and allow yourself to accept him as it is meant to be, how much time do you think you have?”
She sighed and tried to calculate in her head. Each day, her level of fatigue increased. “Maybe a few weeks or a month? Who knows.”
“Go to him. Please, do what you need to. Buy us time to figure out this mess.” He stacked breakfast dishes as if trying to distract himself. “I don’t like that he deserted you. He doesn’t deserve you for doing that.”
“I doubt he every truly left us. I’ve sensed him lurking in the periphery of our lives for a while. Watching. Protecting.”
“We all need you alive, especially if there are mages coming after us. We need you strong. Even if you reassure a bond, there’s no guarantee it’ll reverse the decline.”
“Let’s remove my health from our calculations.”
He hit the table, which knocked over his stack of dishes. “Damn it, Evie. Your health is critical. Without you, this family falls apart.”
“Don’t be dramatic. I’m old. Death is inescapable.
This is complicated. Dom doesn’t know about Lyra.
I don’t know what to do. If he might hurt her…
I’d never allow that. He would know that.
” She could barely move air through her lungs and dropped her head.
“I don’t know if he’d choose me over his stupid code of morals.
That means I either choose myself and bond with him—but lose Lyra —or I die, but before I do, I figure out some way to save her. ”
Efrem clucked. He already knew her choice. Of course she’d choose Lyra. “There has to be a way to save both of you. Maybe if Dom loves you, he’d overlook—”
“If he loved me, why would he have scrubbed our minds of him for six years? He would have trusted us to be able to handle ourselves.”
“Solid point. But he’s not exactly one to take anyone else’s opinion into consideration. Maybe he thought it was the only way to protect you. I can respect that.”
Evie crossed her legs. “He’s too powerful for us to simply hide Lyra from him forever. I think we have Cora to thank for keeping her safe until now.”
“What if you killed him?”
For an instant, she considered the thought of Dom’s death. Something inside her cracked. “It’d kill me. If he dies, I couldn’t survive. Could I hurt him?” The thought of all possible means of killing him cycled through her head. Her shoulders slumped, and she shook her head. “I couldn’t do it.”
“What if I did it?”
“No. I’d fight you to protect him.”
“Then that’s not an option.” Efrem squeezed her forearm.
Outside the window, the light of dawn crested above the edge of the horizon, bathing the world in pink hues over the ocean. I need to trust him. “I don’t think he’s the primary threat to Lyra. I think it’s the other mages. Do you know how to kill a higher level mage? We need to learn.”
“I’ll find out.” He leaned away from her. “Lyra is right. He’s the missing piece.”
She met his gaze. “He’s family and he’s in trouble. I can sense it.”
“What should we do?”
“We take care of one threat at a time. To us and to him.”
“This sounds dangerous.” Efrem’s lips split into a gleeful grin. “Are you ready for this?”
“I’m ready to show him exactly what it means to be a part of this family. He’s going to have to prove he’s worthy of it.”
“This is going to suck for him, isn’t it?” He snickered.
“He deserves every moment of tough love he’s about to get.”