Children of Poseidon: Rann (12 page)

Maya had put the coffee and pastries on the low table between the sofas by the time they rejoined her. Jewel curled up in the corner of one sofa, in jeans and a t-shirt that followed her curves. Her feet were bare, and the nails on her toes were painted a delicate pink. Rann’s eyes lingered on her, and she acknowledged his presence with a small smile.

Maya poured the coffee and handed the mugs round. “Sit down. Help yourselves.” She gestured at the pastries.

Rann sat next to Jewel again, while Annis told Jewel and Maya what Connor had said about the seawitch.

“So she can be fixed, you think?” Jewel looked hopefully at Connor who’d taken a seat next to Maya.

“I didn’t say that.” He took a mouthful of almond croissant and swallowed it before continuing. “She’s still there, probably trapped behind the spells. You need to find someone who understands both seawitches and death magic.”

“Lila suggested Damnam might be able to help,” Rann said.

“Damnam?” Maya looked up from her coffee.

Connor placed his croissant back on his plate and bared his teeth. “Damnam? I’d like a private chat with him.”

Annis nudged him.

“He’s thought to have created the seawitches.” At least that’s what Damnam had said, and Rann believed him. “So he might know something about her.”

“Could he have done this to her?” Annis asked.

“No!” Maya sounded shocked, and Rann remembered she’d spent time with Damnam as his prisoner. She probably didn’t like to dwell on what might have happened to her.

“I think he’d be capable.” Rann tried to remember what he knew about his youngest half-brother. They weren’t exactly a close family. “But I don’t think he’d have done it. He was always pretty protective of his witches. He never actually hurt you or Lila, did he?” He looked to Maya.

“No.” She shook her head. “He was all sound and fury. Empty threats. He lost his temper and hit Lila, but he was embarrassed about it.”

“I can’t imagine he’d have let her go either,” Rann said. “The seawitch, I mean. Certainly not in that state.”

They all thought about the catatonic witch for a brief, silent moment.

“We could ask him?” Maya sounded as though she thought it would be a good idea.

“Are you all right with that?” Rann asked her. “It wouldn’t upset you to see him again?”

She rolled her eyes, a teenage habit she’d never grown out of. “He doesn’t scare me.”

“I’ll get in touch with him then.” Annis appeared to be the voice and the frontman of the partnership, while Connor obviously played the part of the strong silent type.

Rann studied him as he sipped his coffee peacefully. An air of danger and wildness surrounded him; the air almost sang with it. “No. It would be better if I did it. Do you have a number for him?”

“A business number.” Annis picked up her phone. ”We’ve kept track of him. He’s still operating as Damon Meneos, in the Channel Islands.”

Rann took the number, but when he called, an extremely polite female answered the phone.

Mr. Meneos was out of the country at the moment. She asked if she could take a message.

Rann left his name and a request that his brother call him.

The woman paused. “I’ll pass your message on.” Her courtesy was tinged with surprise.

“We’ll have to see if he gets back to us.” He placed the phone on the arm of the sofa. “What can you do in the meantime?”

Annis glanced at her partner who nodded slightly. “We’ll put feelers out into the underground magic community. See if anyone has heard of a resurgence in death magic. That was what you said trailed round her, wasn’t it? Before you put the nullsilver on.”

“That’s what my mother said.”

“That’s what I smelled.” Connor confirmed.

“Okay.” Annis picked up her coffee cup. “Did you want to wait until Lila and Lykos arrive before discussing the other thing?”

“I think Jewel should tell you what Kara said,” Rann told her. “Yesterday. Then you can see why we’re worried. I mentioned it to Lykos this morning, so we can fill Lila in later.”

“You told Lila?” Jewel’s hand clutched at his arm. “Over the phone? You told her about—”

“No.” Her nails dug into his bare skin, and he took her hand in his. “I told Lykos. I left it to him to tell Lila.”

Jewel took a deep breath and looked at her audience. Connor watched her carefully, like the predator he was. Annis had taken out a notebook and a pen, which she rotated between her fingers, and Maya stared into space. Rann put his hand on Jewel’s ankle in a gesture he probably meant to be reassuring but just distracted her.

Where should I start? And how could Rann have told Lykos? He shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t his business.
She jerked her ankle away.

“My mother never told me who my father was. Not until yesterday and then she sounded a bit hysterical.” She started the story slowly, hoping the words would become easier as she told it. They didn’t, but she finally reached the end. “I don’t know if she told me the truth or not, but she certainly sounded convincing.”

“So you want us to find out the facts of the matter?” Annis asked.

“Was she telling the truth? Was Fergal my father?” Jewel said. “That’s the first thing. The second thing is, we’d like to know what happened to him afterwards.” She glanced at Maya who kept uncharacteristically quiet. “Kara was a little . . .” The jangle of the doorbell interrupted her.

Maya jumped up and went to answer it. The sound of excited voices, a woman’s light tone and a deeper masculine one, came from the hallway. A moment later Maya came back into the sitting room, her arm linked with her older sister’s. Lykos followed them, nodding to the assembled group. He’d met them all during the people-trafficking affair. Annis and Connor stood up to greet him, but Jewel huddled into her corner of the sofa, worried what Lila would think of her now she knew what her mother had done.

Lila pulled free from Maya and headed for her. She pushed Rann out of the way and squeezed between them to hug Jewel. “So you’re my sister? Welcome to the family.”

Jewel examined her closely. She seemed to mean it. She looked at Rann for help, but he just shrugged. “If my mother was telling the truth.”

“Kara? I don’t know.” Lila chewed the edge of her thumbnail. “I always thought she was unnatural. Pity she didn’t tell you she wasn’t your mother either.” She glanced at Lykos. “She was always a cold sort of woman.” She straightened again, moving to kiss Annis on the cheek.

Jewel glanced at Lykos.

“Hello.” His stern mouth twitched in a smile. “How are you liking London? Does it feel like home?”

“It’s miserable.” She liked Lykos. He’d visited the island several times while she’d been there, sometimes with Lila, occasionally by himself.

“Why don’t you bring Lila up to date?” Rann said. “I’ll make some more coffee.” He disappeared into the kitchen.

Jewel wished she could follow him, rather than having to tell her story over again.

Lila stared at her hands during the tale. Afterwards she shook her head and chewed on the nail of her index finger.

“What do you think, Lila?” Maya slapped her hand away from her mouth.

“It’s possible. I wouldn’t have believed it, but it’s a bit far-fetched for Kara to have made it up.”

“Could you tell us how your father came to disappear?” Annis asked. “I know it’s probably painful, but it might help us find out what happened.”

“I was only eleven.” Lila shrugged. “So most of it’s hearsay.”

“Tell us anyway.”

“You know that sometimes powerful mages, and witches as well, can be overwhelmed by their magic?” Lila waited until her audience had agreed. “That’s what everyone thought happened to my father. My mother said he was behaving strangely, his memory went, and he started wandering.”

“Wandering?” Annis frowned.

“It’s one of the common signs of magical insanity.” Lila raised her eyebrows at Annis, who must have known that. “My mother recognised it, of course. The symptoms were absolutely typical. She was distraught. She was a healer and was as powerless as everyone else.” Lila closed her eyes, hiding the pain that had flared in them. “It was awful. My father changed, and my mother worried. Of course I was too young to really understand what was going on.”

Jewel’s guilt level climbed.

“It was a very bad time.”

“Nothing suggested that something unnatural was at work?” Annis waved her hands about vaguely.

“My mother kept saying there had never been any insanity in my father’s bloodline.”

“Are these problems genetic?” Lykos interrupted.

Lila glanced at him. “Not always.”

“There is a link, though.” Maya joined in the conversation.

“When exactly did he disappear?” Annis asked.

“About three months before Maya was born.” Lila nibbled on her thumbnail. “He’d vanished for a few days here and there before that, but the last time he didn’t come back.” She shook her head regretfully. “I can’t remember the exact date.”

Jewel had never known a father, and she supposed the same was true for Maya, but Lila had had one for the first eleven years of her life. She must be missing a real person.

“We can start looking.” Annis sucked the end of her pen. “There are things we can do. If the three of you will give us blood samples, it will help. You, Maya, and Jewel. Blood recognises blood.” She glanced at Lila, who nodded. “And someone other than Kara probably knew what was going on. She wouldn’t have done it completely alone.”

“She might have murdered him.” Maya’s contribution caused Lila to wince.

Jewel glared at her friend.

“Sorry,” Maya added. “But Kara? I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Rann came out of the kitchen with coffee for Lila and Lykos. His dark eyes met Jewel’s for a brief moment. He sank onto the floor next to the sofa, leaned back against it, and rested his arm against her leg. Her body lit up immediately, and she hoped no one else noticed. She wanted to bury her hands in his hair but managed to control the urge.

“I still think the best thing to do would be to ask Kara directly. Now Lila’s here, she can come, too.” Maya looked to her sister for approval. “You’d be able to tell if she was lying, wouldn’t you?” Lila was an empath.

Lila shook her head. “I don’t know. Kara knows what I am. She’d be on guard. I’m probably not good enough.” She sounded rueful.

“But you’d come anyway?” One of Maya’s least endearing traits, in Jewel’s opinion, was her persistence.

“I wouldn’t let you go alone. And I want answers, too.” Lila’s petite frame practically vibrated with impatience.

Maya smirked. “So it’s you, me, and Jewel.”

“No.” Jewel thought too many people would be a mistake. “We should do this separately. I’ll go tomorrow and give Kara the ultimatum from the coven. We’ve got to at least try to get her to send Alberic away. Then you can go and see her after that. What do you think?”

Everyone spoke at once.

Rann twisted round until he knelt on the floor facing her. “You’re not going by yourself.”

Jewel heaved a sigh.

“Ultimatum? What ultimatum?” Lila sounded confused.

“I’m not waiting.” Maya erupted.

Jewel gritted her teeth and told Lila about the demand from the coven, while trying to ignore the other two.

She then moved to Maya. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go this afternoon. I’ll be calm. I’ll make my demands. I’ll state the coven’s position. Then I’ll leave. I won’t mention my father at all. And tomorrow you can go and interrogate her.”

Maya grumbled a little, but eventually, with some persuasion from her sister, she gave in.

Jewel finally met Rann’s gaze. She had felt him watching her throughout the conversation.

Bronze fire danced in his eyes, and his body almost vibrated with tension.

“I’m not going to confront her. I’m just going to pass on the coven’s message.”

“Have you never heard the phrase ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’?” Rann pushed himself to his feet, looming over her. He rolled the sleeves of his sweatshirt up to the elbows, folded his arms, and scowled.

She stared at his muscular forearms. He had nice arms.

Unfortunately, his voice interrupted her admiration. “It’s common usage. Because it’s a common happening.”

“It’s best if I go alone for this.” Jewel jerked her attention back to the conversation. “Maya and Lila would just complicate things. We need to talk about Fergal separately. That’s a whole new can of worms.” She met his eyes and refused to look away. She didn’t want him to think he could dominate her. She’d seen him do it to other people, and she knew what he was up to.

“I’m not a threat. She’s always viewed me as weak. If Maya goes, things’ll escalate before we’re ready. She’ll see Maya as competition.” She glanced at Maya who rolled her eyes up to the ceiling.

“I’m saying nothing. Yet.” Her mouth set in determination.

“What about Lila?” Rann asked.

“Then she’ll know that her secret isn’t secret anymore. She’ll have time to plan her response.” Jewel realised she talked about her mother as though she was a long-feared enemy. She rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes. Kara had always been her enemy.

“Then I’ll come.” Rann wasn’t giving up.

“All right.”

“I insist.” Rann obviously wasn’t listening to her.

“I said, ‘all right.’” Jewel met his eyes. “I’m not a fool. I’d like you to be there, and you’re a neutral in this war.” She grimaced as she said the words. With the mention of war, she was afraid they’d think her mad.

“Thank you.” Rann’s aggressive looming toned down a little, and he raised an eyebrow. “And I’m not a neutral. Not at all.”

“I want you to be a silent observer, though.” Jewel felt she’d better make that plain. She didn’t want Kara thinking she’d brought a stranger into coven business, although why she gave a damn about what her mother thought, she couldn’t imagine.

“Like a bodyguard?” Rann sounded amused.

“Exactly like.”

“Actually, I think he should go as your lover.”

Jewel’s gaze swung to Maya who lifted one shoulder.

“She’ll believe that. You always had some lovesick youth hanging round. When you were a teenager, I mean.”

“I did not.” Her voice rose indignantly.

“Did so.”