Page 35 of A Blade of Lies and Spirits

The Wolves had found me.

The air hissed with Walker’s counter-strike, an obsidian bolt that impacted the enemy in the chest. The man shriveled, black and withered, aging to dust before my eyes. I pursed my lips in a silent whistle.

Chance slammed a second shield in place, this one opaque, close around us, preventing the lasers from blinding us. It cost him, three shields in less than fifteen minutes was a lot of power expended. His gaze turned to Walker as his expression shifted to speculation.

I turned to Walker. “Can you teleport them out?”

Dmitri clung to Elise’s good arm. Kara’s arms wrapped around both. Robert stood above the trio, hunched protectively. Fury surged like lava in the back of my throat.

Knowing he was needed did not make me like him.

Walker shook his head. “Two. Three, maybe, but I won’t abandon the rest of you. Without relief, Chance’s shields will go down under the concentrated fire out there.”

Chance snarled at him, words blurred as he focused on maintaining the ward. His short hair floated in the magical and electric charge in the still air. Dmitri’s power signature was all over the place, even though he’d pulled it back in. Easy to track, if we even tried to run.

I turned to Walker. “The Wolves will take him after they kill us and use him as a weapon until he dies. They’ll consider him a tip on top of the fee they get for killing me. I want him safe. He needs Elise and Robert. Can you push it and get them out?”

Lightning blasted through Chance’s ward, shattering an ornamental tree ten feet away. Splinters and larger pieces flew in a circle. Only a few made contact on my face where cuts stung and bled.

The air stilled, the scent of sea and warm grass overcoming smoke and ozone. I swallowed as fear and anticipation drew twin lines through my chest into my belly. I remembered that scent. It chased me in nightmares and erotic dreams.

Dmitri’s father.

How could he be here? I hadn’t heard his voice since that night. Heart pounding, I raised my head. I kept the movement controlled and painfully slow, to fight the shakes that tried to grip my muscles.

Suddenly, Dmitri’s father stood in the garden. Wild, pale hair framed a face that blended masculinity, and beauty in equal measure. Naked, his body made me remember that night, although it was nothing compared to my time with Walker, because it was only our bodies, not our souls involved. His presence shone as beautifully and terrible as the storm above us.

His eyes, dark as the clouds above, caught mine. Full of promises that I was no longer interested in repeating, even though I felt unexpected needs brewing inside of me that didn’t feel like they belonged to me. My breath caught in my throat, even through the fear. Elves wielded mind magic effortlessly, their attraction enough to overcome good sense in those who beheld them.

Why was he here now? Why not when Dmitri trembled on the verge? I didn’t make the mistake of assuming his reasons were human, though they could run in parallel lines.

As a being who was powerful, beautiful and destructive as a wildfire or the lightning; I feared him and I desired him, and most of all I wanted to hide Dmitri from his eyes. Losing my son to him would be worse than death, it would, in fact, cause my death.

I would not let Dmitri go without a fight.

“Exalted,” he said, his voice the music I remembered in dreams. My heart leaped, and I locked my knees. I wanted to run to him so badly; I fought to remain where I stood. I shivered in the brisk breeze, my soaked t-shirt no barrier against the chill.

Dmitri broke loose of Elise’s hold and ran to me, his teeth bared. He stood in front of me, facing his father, and shouted, “No!”

His fists clenched. Tiny as he was, he managed to combine terrible and absurd as he glared at the elf. One of the people who danced on the winds, abode in the hearts of volcanoes. The free folk.

Chance, at the edge of my vision, also took a step forward. His eyes went from the elf to me to Dmitri as the blood drained from his face. It was strange for me to see the moment everything fell into place and he realized what happened that day. Strange to watch as he comprehended exactly what had been waiting on that hilltop when I went to get the stone. WHat had kept me from making our rendezvous.

I tucked the memory of his expression away. I’d long cherished imagining him realizing this moment. The reality didn’t quite meet my expectation, but at least now he knew.

I put my hands on Dmitri’s shoulders. He glanced back at me, hissing. His eyes, black from lid to lid, flickered back to brown when I turned him to fully face me, breaking his line of sight to the elf.

“So fine, so bright. You’ve done well, noblewoman. The first in centuries to bear our hopes and dreams again. Why would you deny him his heritage?”

I knelt, hugging Dmitri to me, keeping his face buried in my chest.

“Because he’s mine.” I bared my teeth at the elf, in the same spirit he smiled in. The effort of holding all the lust and aggression at bay made my hands shake on Dmitri’s back as I stared at his father.

Being born from a forbidden crossover, both my parents were Stormdusts too, I knew exactly the heritage I wanted Dmitri to have. The human, bound by flesh, not shedding a body for the freedom of the skies. Grief welled up to join the other emotions, from where the door lay within me, and I tightened my grip on my son.

He laughed. “Well said. But you could still choose to come with him, couldn’t you?”

The parts of me locked behind the door inside my mind battered against it in answer to his lure. I had no words, standing on a tightrope secured by memory and gentler emotions. I looked away from him.

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