As Grieve helped me out of the tub and wrapped me in a thick towel, he slipped a box in my hand. “I have another gift for you, love.”
“More? The bath and cupcakes were wonderful.” I paused to look at the box. It was plain but held shut by a sparkling blue ribbon. “What is it?”
“Chatter hid it for me, and while you were out at the Veil House, he surprised me. When we escaped from Myst he managed to smuggle it out. Please, open it.”
I pulled on the ribbon and lifted the lid. There, on a velvet cushion, sat a necklace. A butterfly. Like my butterfly, only this one was sapphire and emerald and garnet—real stones, on a silver chain, gleaming lustrous in the candlelight.
“My butterfly—this is a copy of the butterfly necklace I had when I was little.” I looked up at him. “I still have it. You found it for me, and I’ve kept it hidden in Favonis since I bought the car. Safely tucked out of sight, where it can’t get lost.”
“That one was for your childhood, from your aunt. This is for your life as a woman. As my woman.” He gently lifted the necklace off of the pillow and draped it around my neck. “I still remember how much you loved that necklace.”
“How did you know I’d come back this time?” I gazed up at him, my eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“Lainule promised me that you would. And in my heart, I knew we couldn’t be forever separated. I felt you decide—through the wolf tattoo on your stomach.” He fastened the clasp around my neck and the pendant fell between my breasts. I tucked it under my shirt.
“Hey in there! We need to plan! Hurry it up!” A pounding on the door startled us.
“Coming.” I quickly dressed, then stopped Grieve before he opened the door. “I want you to know something. I love the necklace and love what it represents. But most of all, I love the gift you handed me in the Golden Wood. You gave me your heart—and that means more than anything ever will. I’ll never stomp on it, I’ll never abuse it.” I held the necklace close to my breasts, feeling it warm my soul.
“I can take almost any torture. But I can’t take the thought of life without you.” He kissed me lightly on the forehead, then touched the necklace beneath my shirt. “Wear this charm, and I’ll always be near you.”
Someone knocked on the door again.
Grieve gave me a wry smile. “I suppose we should get out there, but before we do, do you want the last cupcake?”
I stared at the snack cake. “Leave it. A charm that our future will be filled with cupcakes and fluff and the lightness of summer.”
As the last of the candles died down, leaving us in darkness, I opened the door. Clean, ready to plunge back into the battle, we returned to the main room.
Lannan was still there but about ready to leave to do whatever it was he intended to do. He watched every move we made as we reentered the room but said nothing and vanished around the corner.
Grieve glared after him, whispering, “I hate that he can make your body respond to him.”
“But my heart doesn’t. Bodies are…physical. I can’t help my reaction—he’s a vampire and I’ve drunk his blood. But my love for you is never tainted by his touch.”
“I hate that he can make you enjoy his attentions. I know that you can’t stand him and I would do anything to put an end to his attentions. But there’s nothing I can do to stop it except to kill him and you won’t allow me.”
“You can’t. Not yet. We need him, as much as I hate to admit it.” Lannan was a necessary evil at this point, and we all knew it—especially Lannan. Which meant he could be as cocky as he wanted and get away with it.
“As you wish. But if he hurts you, I will stake him, brutally and with as much pain as I can bring to bear. You belong to me. And no one can sever our bond.” Grieve pulled away, shoving his hands in his pockets. He began to pace. “I feel cooped up, trapped here. But if I go out, Myst will hunt me down.”
Luna, who had been standing back, watching but saying nothing, stepped forward. “You know that my sister is one of the Akazzani. Maybe she can help us? I told you, they have a lot of ancient texts. The Rise of the Indigo Court can’t be the only treatise written on the Vampiric Fae. There has to be more information hidden away in the vaults of the Society. Maybe…maybe there’s something about reversing the process, if you aren’t born into the Indigo Court?”
We turned to her. She was a pretty woman, shorter even than I was, and plump, with long dark hair gathered back in a sleek ponytail. Her eyes were the color of her hair, ringed with silver sparkles. Luna was a bard, one of the yummanii—human, but her magical powers were stronger than the average person, and her voice was like a melody scaling a mountain, crystal clear and ringing one moment, throaty and rich the next. Kaylin had been instantly drawn to her—I could see it in his demeanor, but I had no clue whether she felt the same way. Or if she even sensed his interest.
“Do you think there’s a possibility of finding something to change Grieve back?” It had not occurred to me that we might be able to reverse the process.
She shrugged. “I haven’t a clue, to be honest. But we can find out.”
“How would we go about doing that? I thought the Akazzani is supposed to be a closed society.” The thought of diving into those books, of perhaps gleaning far more than a cure for Grieve, lured me in. And what if we could find other vulnerabilities that we could exploit against the Indigo Court?
“Zoey is loyal to me. I know her oaths bind her, but if I tell her what’s at stake…” Luna pulled out her cell phone. “I should call her.”
“They allow cell phones in their midst?” Kaylin cocked his head, giving her an odd look. “Last I heard, secret societies at least tried to stay…well…secret.”
Luna snickered and blinked a flirty look at him. I didn’t even think she realized she was doing it. “This is the twenty-first century, not the 1900s. They not only allow cell phones, but they sanction occasional visits home, as long as the society member observes the rules. Zoey could sneak out the books and return them when we’re done. Books are to be used—information should flow rather than be locked up away from the world. Though Zoey’s the only member of my family I’d trust with the information about where we are and why.”
She paused, waiting for me to give her the go-ahead. I looked around. Kaylin nodded. Peyton and Rhiannon added their approval. My father remained silent. Lannan was out of the room.
Grieve slowly inclined his head. “I’m willing to chance it if she can find anything. I have to shake these bonds. I’m tired of feeling like my hands are tied.”
Majority ruled.
I turned back to Luna. “Go for it. Call her after we finish our meeting.” She nodded, sliding her phone into her pocket. I glanced around. “I guess we’d better haul Lannan’s ass back in here. We need everybody present because I want all the input that I can get. I have an idea, too.”
Lannan reluctantly joined us, looking bored. He stared at me, ignoring Grieve’s dirty glances. My father just shook his head and rubbed his brow. He gave me a look as if to say, You caused it, you fix it.
As we sat around the table, I looked at each one in turn. We all had our strengths, we all had our weaknesses. I wasn’t going to lie: The fact that Lainule was no longer on our team stung. The same with Anadey and Leo. They weren’t exactly enemies, but they had all betrayed us, in one way or another. So much had gone wrong, so fast.
“I think I know a way we can regain Lainule’s help. It’s dangerous, but in my opinion, it’s the only thing we can do. We need Summer’s help, and I don’t want to be the one dividing my father from the Queen of Rivers and Rushes.” I looked up at him. That little piece of guilt wasn’t going to go away.
“You are not the dividing line, my daughter. Lainule has her own mind and we’ve argued over many things throughout the years. This is simply one more squabble.” His eyes lit up. “The Queen of Summer has a temper as volatile as fire pouring from the sun. She embodies the flame. It is her nature.”
“Yeah, but I don’t like being on the wrong end of her torch. And we need her. We need her to give up on Geoffrey.”
Luna cocked her head to the side. “Why is she so desperate that she would be part of his plans?”
“Cicely knows why.” Wrath gave me a warning look.
I nodded. “If Myst finds Alissanya—Lainule’s heartstone—she can destroy the Queen of Rivers and Rushes. And with Myst controlling the woodland, she will find it. It’s only a matter of time. Lainule is a desperate woman, Summer Queen or not. She was hoping that Geoffrey would help her destroy Myst before that plays out.”
“What do you need from us?”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I want your opinion on this. I think, if we can recover Lainule’s heartstone, she will help us. She’s afraid now—if Myst finds it, she will die. If we find it, she will regain her strength.”
“You have no idea of the ramifications of what you’re proposing.” Wrath stared at me, slowly standing. “And you should not talk of this in public.” He grimaced. I’d never seen him look so irritated.
I glanced around. “What public? We’re about as far from public as we can get in this town.”
“You know what I mean—you speak in front of yummanii, magic-born, and worst of all—vampire.” He leaned forward and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me, his expression was stern and terrible and piercing like the eyes of an owl. But all he did was take my chin in hand. “Daughter, even now, you trust too easily.”
I bit my lip. I hated making him upset. But we had to start trusting somewhere, and as bad as we’d been burned already, we only had our little ragtag group we’d managed to pull together.
“I know it’s dangerous, but we haven’t got a choice. Either Lainule fades and dies through lack of her heartstone, or we recover it and she lives. She can’t go after it. Her people can’t go after it. Your people.”
“What exactly is a heartstone?” Luna asked, glancing from Wrath to me.
I plunged ahead. My father was right to be wary, but we were running out of time. “It’s a part of Lainule’s essence, from her heart, encapsulated in a gem, deep within the Golden Wood. If Myst finds it, she can immediately destroy Lainule. The Queen of Rivers and Rushes is too far away from it and she’s fading. Unless we find it and take it to her, Lainule will die.”
Lannan let out a sharp bark. “You cannot let Summer die.”
Wrath turned to him. “What do you care, Altos?”
“If Lainule dies, then Myst has no checks. Geoffrey’s not going to be able to stop her, as much as he’d like to think he can. She will flow through, set up the long winter, destroy my people, and all others with us. I do not wish for that any more than you do, Owl King.” Lannan leaned forward. “I will help you, and I will keep your secret because it is for the good of my people to do so.”
Grieve reached for my hand and I gave it to him. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it gently, then lightly nipped the skin. “You are my chosen for a reason. But how do you plan to find where she’s hiding the gem?”
Chatter and I glanced at each other. I cleared my throat. “When Chatter and I journeyed to the Bat People, to help wake Kaylin’s demon, we went through a secret passageway. I’m pretty sure we were close. Instinct tells me Lainule may have hidden it down there. It looked like it hadn’t been used for a long, long time and…I sensed something in the area.”
Grieve nodded. “You could be right. The heartstones are sacrosanct, but we live in desperate times. I say we do it. Lainule was always aloof, but she was never a fool, and for her to link herself to Geoffrey in his mad scheme does not bode as normal for our Lady of Summer.”
Chatter cleared his throat. “I agree. We know where the passage is, we know how to get there. We must go in and search there carefully. If we journey by creeping through the forest, they shouldn’t see us and we’ll have the time to hunt for the gem.”
I turned to Wrath. “We have no choice. If we want Lainule on our side again, we have to bring her the strength to stand with us. Until then, she’s in Geoffrey’s pocket. And suppose he decides that since I won’t let him turn me, that he might try with Summer? Can you imagine what might happen if he turned Lainule? Surely she wouldn’t be as bestial as Myst, but there’s no guarantee she’d be sane.”
My father blanched. “I had not thought of that. Surely Geoffrey isn’t mad enough to try.” He paused, then sucked in a deep breath. “He is, isn’t he? He’s just crazed enough to attempt it.”
“I think he might be.” I bit my lip. I didn’t want to hurt my father or scare him but the thought had crossed my mind more than once and I was learning to pay attention to my instinct.
“Very well. We go in search of my Lady’s heartstone. I just hope Myst doesn’t catch us.” Wrath deflated, dropping to the chair next to me. “But then Myst is coming and will take us all unless we do whatever we can to stop her.”
Outside, the wind howled around the factory and I had the uneasy feeling we were being watched. The Shadow Hunters were on the prowl, and their Queen was driving the snows behind them.
Chapter 3
But we couldn’t go after the heartstone that night. It was too late and too dangerous. We’d need to go during the day, when it was less risky. And there were other things we had to attend to first. I sprawled on the makeshift sofa, closing my eyes, wanting nothing more than a long, warm, comfortable night’s sleep.