Page 289 of Dragon Slayer

The pond was nothing but a few inches of black sludge now. The plants had withered and crumpled and been left as tattered gray streamers spilling out of the planters. The fruit trees had been dead for decades, their bare limbs reaching for the ceiling like claws.

A dead, haunted place.

Small steps had been taken. The glass had been cleaned, so now it sparkled, and the gas torches, designed like old English lampposts, had been repaired, so the pathways were lighted. The old dead vegetation had been cleared out, wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of it trucked out to a dumpster. It had been stripped down to the bones, to a starting place for someone with a green thumb to work magic.

Annabel had brought a basil plant out here a few weeks ago, picked a spot with plenty of daytime sun and carefully patted it into place. Had watered it. But she didn’t have a knack for green things, not like her sister; that was how she knew she’d find Lily in the conservatory, and she wasn’t wrong.

Lily sat on the stone lip of a planting box, heels of her brown boots peeking from beneath the hem of her emerald skirt. She leaned forward, hair falling around her face, her expression one of intense concentration. She held both hands above Anna’s sad basil plant…and her fingertips seemed to glow. Slowly, slowly, visible to the naked eye, the plant’s leaves broadened and darkened; its stems lengthened. The basilgrew. When she finally sat back with a deep exhale, the sallow plant was thick and healthy. Thriving.

She lifted her head and sent a small, uneven smile toward Anna. “Hello, sister.”

Annabel folded her arms and braced her shoulder against one of the (rather creepy) angel statues that had been cleaned up. “Trust you to find the one growing thing here.”

Lily turned her smile on the plant and dusted invisible dirt from her palms. “It was doing fine. It just needed a little help.”

“Help I didn’t ask for.”

A sigh. She lifted her gaze again. “Anna–”

“Why are you here?”

“Why did you seek me out if you just want to argue?” Lily countered, but calmly.

Anna’s hackles went up – and she forcibly smoothed them back down. Lily had adopted her husband’s infuriating habit of riling up those around him. Lily had always been able to do it, but now it was effortless. The worst part, always, was her guileless tranquility.

“I don’t want to fight,” Anna said, her own calm coming with difficulty. “I’m trying to figure out – okay, Fulk and I are here because these assholes threatened us. Did they threaten you? Because I’m getting the really bad feeling that you and Liam let them grow your kids like lab monkeys willingly.”

Another sigh. Lily pulled her hands into her lap and looked up, her tone that of an adult explaining something complicated to a child. “I lost four children, Anna. The first time I didn’t know. But after that, I tried – but there was always some reason I needed to use my powers. I can’t carry my own babies, so I gave up on motherhood. There are other ways to find meaning in life, and I found them.

“Liam was in contact with the Institute early, in its first incarnation, before they went to Russia. He of course knew that you and Fulk were out there somewhere, hiding, but he told Dr. Ingraham that he didn’t know of any living wolves. To spare you.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“It was a kindness,” Lily insisted. “He let them go to Russia, let them make a new wolf. Nothing came of it. The Institute failed, reduced to a few boxes of singed files. We thought that was it, and for a little while, it was.”

“Fine. That still doesn’t explain the test tube babies.”

Lily smiled, wistful. “Liam always loved the idea of having a family – one of our own. Mages with whom we could share our gifts. A family that we wouldn’t…wouldn’t outlive.” She frowned; her gaze drew inward. “It was only a fantasy, but then – we met another mage.” Her tone shifted, and it set Annabel’s skin prickling. “He called himself the Roman. He nearly killed Liam.”

Shame he didn’t, Anna thought, but it was a hollow assertion. What could kill Liam? What could get close enough even foralmost?

Lily swallowed; her face was very pale, freckles stark across her nose. “When Dr. Talbot approached us about his program, we felt like it was important to participate. Not just for our sakes,” she rushed to say when Anna opened her mouth with a protest. “I know you think poorly of Liam, but he isn’t one of those world-destroyer types. We want what you and Fulk want: to live in peace, for the world to keep spinning.”

“Peace? Liam doesn’t believe in peace.”

“He does,” Lily said, stubborn now. She had her jaw set at that angle their mother used to get when she was about to whack someone with her fan. “There are rumblings, Anna, things you haven’t heard. There are some immortals who aren’t content to just live and let live. They think that the mortals have had control of things for long enough, and that immortals should take power. That the people with the most physical power should be front and center, respected. Feared. The mage who calls himself the Roman thinks that, obviously. The time for immortals minding their own business is over. We all have to choose a side, and we all have to fight.

“So Liam and I donated our DNA, yes. We helped them grow soldiers. We’re going to need those soldiers. And believe it or not, I do care about them. They’re my children.”

Anna’s heart pounded hard against her ribs. All this talk of stirring, of a war, of choosing sides. It sent her spinning back home, to smoke in the sky, and the boom of cannon fire. Back to the taste of ash, and the constant panic turning her legs to water. The burned-out ruin of Atlanta. She’d seen war, and she didn’t want to see it ever again.

But she managed to keep her voice steady when she said, “If you care about them, how come none of them have ever met you?”

Lily’s gaze dropped, russet lashes fanning down across pale cheeks. “I wish they had.”

“One of them’s dead, you know,” Anna said, just to be a little shit, because she was so sick of Lily’s calm, her self-assuredness, her unwavering faith in the man who she should have loathed.

Lily’s head lifted, eyes wide.

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