Dalton, Tymber - Fire and Ice [A Triple Trouble Prequel] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (8 page)

She smiled. “You cannot tell people you remember past lives now, can you, little one?”

He glared at her.

She obviously didn’t care. “Now, now. Such a look you give me for one your age. And remember what your age should be. Just because you will have your memories doesn’t mean you shouldn’t embrace your current life.” She took his right hand, turned his palm face up, and traced the markings with her finger. “Live for now, Watcher. In every life. Enjoy your life. And trust that you will have more than your fair share of joy now and in the future.”

He nodded before turning to the creek again. He watched the girl lose her balance, her arms pinwheeling as she gave a little shriek and fell into the water with a splash.

Like a shot, he raced down to the edge, reaching out and grabbing her arm to safely pull her back to shore.

The little girl clung to him and sobbed as he held her, consoling her. “It’s okay, Zarina,” he soothed. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”

* * * *

Baba Yaga watched the two children huddled on the shore. She heard a man’s shout and several villagers ran up, praising the boy for saving the girl. Zarina was the village leader’s daughter, and the cherished little girl of a very large family of boys. When both children’s mothers soon joined the crowd, the girl’s mother embraced first the boy, then the boy’s mother.

Baba Yaga smiled. Sometimes, it would be Zachary born to privilege and wealth. Sometimes, it would be the Goddess.

She was a patient woman. These two had nearly completed her oath to her own deceased love. One day, they would finally carry out the last of the revenge. As she stood and brushed the dirt off her skirts, she watched the villagers carry the children back up the road to their houses to get them dried off.

She sighed. “Live well, my sweet Zachary.” Never again would she hold him in her arms. In some ways, it saddened her that he would never have memories of their time together, when he first came to her looking for a way to save his dragon kin from the cockatrice.

The least she could do was to give him as much joy and pleasure as she could now and in the future to make up for not being able to save his life.

She took some small comfort in that.

With the villagers gone, Baba Yaga disappeared and reappeared before a stone cairn. She dropped to her knees in her maiden form and placed her hands on the rocks that she’d laid herself. “Zachary,” she whispered. “I promised, and I shall make it so.”

As always, her tears fell, staining the rocks until she cried herself to sleep there by her deceased lover’s final resting place.

Chapter Eight

Almost now

Lina looked up as her mom called out to her from the front porch. “Where do you think you’re going, young lady?”

“There’s new people next door, Mommy!”

Her mom walked down to the curb to join her. Sure enough, a moving truck and strange car were parked next door. A frazzled-looking woman directed the movers, while a young boy about Lina’s age played around the front of the garage.

“Can we go meet them?” Lina asked.

Her mom indulgently smiled. “Sure. Why not?”

Lina raced ahead to meet the little boy. Something about him drew her. He looked special. She’d been looking for a special friend for as long as she could remember. She didn’t know why, and both Mrs. Jones, her teacher at kindergarten, and her parents scolded her for being choosy, but she couldn’t help it.

Something inside her always said she needed a special friend. One who would be with her for the rest of her life. That’s what the old lady’s voice always told her.

But she’d learned early not to mention that. It made her mom look frightened when she talked about the old woman’s voice.

The little boy looked up. He had brown eyes. She skidded to a stop in front of him with a happy smile on her face. “Hi! My name’s Lina. What’s yours?”

He smiled back. “Zack.”

“I’m five. How old are you?”

He dropped the car he’d been playing with. “I’m five, too. Can I be your special friend, Lina?”

She gasped, happy shock making her squeal with excitement. “Yes! Yes, you are my special friend!” She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly as she jumped up and down.

By the time their moms found them in Zack’s backyard ten minutes later, Lina knew for certain this was definitely her very special friend. She kicked and screamed and cried when her mom said they’d have to go back home. Fortunately, Zack’s mom welcomed Lina’s mother’s invitation for Zack to come over and play while the moving continued. Hearing that, Lina grabbed Zack’s hand. Together the kids ran to Lina’s house and upstairs to her room to play.

Zack’s mom, Martha, watched them go. “Thank you so much, Karen,” she said. “I’m sorry about the intrusion.”

“No, not a problem.” Karen shook her head. “Honestly? I’ve never seen Lina so excited to meet another kid. She’s usually really standoffish and doesn’t make friends very well. I think Zack will be good for her.”

“Zack is an old soul. I thought maybe it was because of his deadbeat dad up and leaving when he was born.” She leaned against the fence. “If he’s a bother, please, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

Karen waved her off. “It’s okay. My husband will be home in an hour. He’s great with kids. He’ll keep them busy all evening. Hey, listen. I have lasagna in the oven. More than enough. Why don’t you and Zack join us for dinner?”

“Really?”

“Really.” She smiled. “You and me can come back over here with a bottle of wine after dinner, and I’ll help you unpack while we escape all of them.”

Martha laughed and gave her a high five. “You’re on!”

* * * *

Lina and Zack played upstairs in Lina’s room. When she heard her mom call them down for dinner, Lina grabbed Zack’s hands. “Are you still going to be my special friend tomorrow?”

He smiled. “Of course. In every life.”

Lina’s mind felt a little fuzzy, but she said without thinking, “In every heart.”

Together, they both said, “Forever.”

She slung her arms around him. “I love you, Zack.”

“I love you, too, Lina.”

Somewhere, Lina was sure she heard the old woman chuckling. She noticed Zack looked up.

Lina gasped. “Did you hear her?” she whispered.

He smiled. “I hear her.”

Lina squealed. “You
are
my special friend forever!”

Together, they jumped up. Holding hands, they ran down the stairs to the kitchen.

Over the years, Lina eventually stopped hearing the old woman’s voice. By the time she was a teenager, she’d forgotten about her altogether, and barely had any memories of how she and Zack first met. It felt like Zack had been in her life forever.

But Zack still stayed her special friend.

Chapter Nine

Now

Stunned, Lina sat on Baba Yaga’s couch. It felt like she’d sat and listened to Baba Yaga spin her yarn for days. Yet she knew if she wanted to, she could open her physical eyes and find only a few seconds had passed in the van carrying her and her men home from Tampa International.

She stared at the faint, ancient scar etched into her left palm. She knew Zack bore an identical one in his right hand. How in all these years had she never questioned that? And despite all this knowledge, it still felt like she was missing something. Like there were a couple of huge, gaping holes she should be seeing in that tale, but wasn’t.

“In all lives?” Lina asked.

Baba Yaga nodded. “In all lives. Now the threads in your tapestry have merged again, from where they were scattered in the past. You are here, able to face down the threat. Your men will stand strongly beside you.” She smiled. “Even the wolf and his clan.”

Lina felt herself blush despite not really being there. “Brodey, you mean.”

“Yes. And others. Although they do not know it yet.”

Lina had a question she really wanted answered and hoped Baba Yaga would…or could. “When Brodey and I were overcome by the fire at Yellowstone, when I built the ice shell around us? I saw something. A vision or a dream, I don’t know what. I saw him and his brothers find their One. Was that true?”

Baba Yaga nodded. “If you saw it, it is true, or will be. Such are your gifts.”

She let out a deep, relieved sigh. “Then they will be happy?”

“That I cannot guarantee or promise for their future. But in that instance, yes, they will happily mate with their One.”

“Good. They deserve happiness.” There was more, so much more, that she wanted to ask. She now understood why Baba Yaga couldn’t tell her all she knew.

But perhaps…

“You don’t have a problem showing me things that have already happened.”

The other woman tipped her head in curiosity. “Some things, Goddess.”

In a quiet voice, Lina asked, “Can you show me how my parents died?”

Baba Yaga’s gaze narrowed. “I can. But are you sure it’s something you truly wish to see? Things such as that cannot be unseen.”

Lina picked at her cuticles. “I know Edgar killed them. I want to know exactly how. I want to see how someone who pretended to be my friend and care about me all those years could do something like that.”

“You want to fuel your rage.” Her lips curled in a knowing smile. “Do not lie to me. I have seen far too much in my life to be taken in by simple artifice.”

Lina met her gaze. “I want to make sure there’s no way in hell I will ever forget what those bastards are capable of. I want to make sure that I don’t misplace my mercy when the time comes.”

An amused grin crept across Baba Yaga’s face. “My dear, you are wiser than your years.”

They were suddenly standing beside a desolate rural road, just after dusk, but before full dark had settled in. A dense, purple light clung to the landscape. The air felt thick, soupy, still.

A typical August night in Florida, much like the night her parents died.

She turned, studying the area.

It was where her parents died. She knew the road, had struggled for years to take any possible route to avoid driving past the spot.

“How soon?” Lina asked her.

She nodded. “Very soon. We are just observers. We cannot interfere.”

“I understand.” The evening settled around them. “Why can’t I just figure everything out at once if I’m a goddess with all these powers?”

“You cannot harness what you don’t understand. And you are mortal-born. Goddess, yes. Powerful, yes. Omnipotent and omniscient? No. No one being, mortal or not, has all those powers. Only the Goddess of us all, and she’s not about to share her powers, I’m sure.”

“That sucks.”

“Yes, it does. Unfortunately, it is life.”

“So what was that vision I saw first before I came here? Those people on the moor. Who the fuck is Ysimel, anyway? That woman in my vision?”

Baba Yaga smiled. “Information for you to store away for later, Goddess.” Her expression hardened. “Forget nothing.”

They waited. A few minutes later, Lina spotted a large, beat-up, four-door land yacht of a sedan, a huge clunker that looked three feet from being ready for a crusher. It pulled up, turned in at a dirt crossroad, and turned around. It stopped a few yards short of the road, where it couldn’t be seen by any vehicle coming around the turn.