Harvest of the Gods (19 page)

“
I'm sorry,” I blinked at him. “Our... our
what
moment?”

“
Your Cum Yayas,” Roarke frowned. “You know, you celebrate and sing Cum Yaya, Cum Yaya? I don't know who this Yaya person is but I'd like to meet her. She sounds like a lot of fun.”

Kirill was choking on laughter, a hand partially covering his spasming face, and we all stared hard at him until he finally got himself under control. He looked around at us all with glittering eyes.

“He means kumbaya,” Kirill laughed again, “your kumbaya moment.”

“
Roarke,” I groaned, “maybe you should run everything by me before you use all the new sayings you learn from the Intare.”

“
These were the wrong words again?” Roarke didn't look as upset as he usually did when he got something wrong, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this one was done on purpose to lighten the mood. It would be totally like the cat-sidhe to turn around a joke played on him.

“
You sneaky kitty,” I accused and he shrugged. “Okay, do you need help taking Aoife home?”

“
No, Queen Vervain,” Roarke got serious. “I think it's best you stay out of this one. It could start a war if done improperly.”

“
But she came willingly,” I frowned. “Will you be okay to
handle this? Maybe you should stop by the Fire Kingdom and take some red caps with you.”

“
I'll be fine,” Roarke shrugged. “In Faerie we don't shoot the messenger and I'm a Prince of Cats, they won't hold this against me. We can't help but get into trouble. It's in our natures.”

“
Okay,” I gave him a hug goodbye. “But be careful and please come back when you're done, so we know you're okay.”

“
Okay, Mom,” he rolled his eyes. “I'm not one of your lions, you know. I'm over two-thousand years old. I think I can take care of myself.”

“
Yeah but you're technically the youngest sidhe there is,” I smirked at him, “so you're still the baby.”

“
Maybe I'm not as old as some,” he gave me a meaningful look and I remembered that Arach was over fifteen-thousand years old, “but I can hold my own.”

“
No wonder he's so damn annoying,” Trevor grumbled and I hit him on the shoulder. “What?”

“
If I have annoyed,” Roarke gave my men an elegant bow, “I can leave feeling satisfied. For I live to annoy, when I'm not clawing something up, that is.”

“
That was you?” I started to growl as I focused my glare back on him. “You were the one who clawed up the upholstery in the sitting room?”

“
Uh, gotta go,” he ran out the door before I could get him in hand.

“
Damn cat,” I growled.

Chapter Thirty-Four

We were all in the common room, watching TV while we waited for Fenrir to arrive, when a shooting pain filled my chest and I fell off of the couch, onto my knees. I gasped through it, Trevor's hands on my shoulders while he knelt before me and shouted something into my face that I couldn't make out. I was too focused on the tie that had just been severed from my lioness magic.

“Ethan,” I gasped as I stumbled to my feet, pushing Trevor away. “Ethan's dead,” I began to run, not caring if the others followed me or not, straight to the tracing wall.

“
Vervain!” Trevor shouted but I just kept running.

My lion was dead and nothing was going to stop me from getting to him. I barely paused to ask the Aether to take me to Ethan, I just ran straight into the wall and luckily, it opened for me and took me where I wanted to go.

I came out onto a patch of grass surrounded by a few trees. It was dark but the moon illuminated the scene clearly. We were in some kind of small park or maybe it was someone's garden. Just a little patch of land surrounded by soaring buildings on all sides. There were three of my lions in the center of it all, cringing together on their knees in front of Ethan's corpse. Before them was Andrasta, standing amidst a thick black mist, her hands raised like an avenging angel. The mist swirled around her and tendrils had already flowed out to encircle my Intare.

I screamed with rage and ran forward, right through a tentacle of Darkness, though it didn't seem to have an affect on me. I settled between my men and Andrasta, baring my teeth and claws at the goddess as I was overtaken by simple animal rage. She looked shocked for about a second but then she recovered and sent more of the Darkness straight toward me.

It seemed
to pulse happily, having found more nourishing fare, and gathered more weight into itself before slinking forward to fortify the tendrils already surrounding us. The dark thickened and I saw things in it that had not been formed naturally. Things with too many teeth and greedy eyes focused on me. Impossible things which I assumed to be the manifestation of fear.

I had a moment's panic, remembering that I had no defense against this magic, but love knows no limits and I would have done anything to protect my lions. Even if it meant being consumed by the Darkness. It was my duty to protect them and I had already failed Ethan. I wouldn't fail these three.

The lions behind me had crept closer and I felt their hands reach out and grasp my legs. I don't know if they had thought to give me comfort and support, or if they just needed to connect with their heart, but I felt my lioness magic surge up to touch them and the bond we shared reassured me, it gave me strength.

Then it flared in a wash of heat through my body and I suddenly felt the connection to all of my lions come alive, felt their awareness of me and what was happening. I felt the pound of their feet as they rushed to trace to us but I quickly forbade them from coming to our aid, they would only end up becoming more casualties.

They fell back with angry frustration and I heard their roars echoing in my mind. Then I felt them band together and down the connection came their strength and love. They poured it into me with everything they had, trying to stand with us, even though they were not physically there. They had found a loophole around my order and I loved them for it even as I shook my head over their rebellious cunning.

I took a deep breath, feeling stronger, calmer, and held my hands up to the Darkness as if I could stop it with my will alone. I was drunk with power from the Intare and possibly a bit foolish but I always said that the fool can accomplish anything because he doesn't know that he can't. So I stood there like a fool and refused to acknowledge the fact that the Darkness was unstoppable.

It barely even paused, just continued to flow forward and then over us, but it couldn't seem to reach us. It hovered around us in the air, a dome of darkness, and I could feel its frustration pushing in against me like a living thing. I heard the Intare gasp and when I glanced over my shoulder I saw them staring at me with wide eyes. That was when I noticed the glow.

Light was pouring out of my skin like I was a firefly's butt. Slightly blue and very bright, it felt clean, like it was sacred. It lit the entire pod of black that we stood in and I saw myself reflected in the eyes of my lions. I looked unearthly, an alien being come down to make contact, even the strands of my hair were glowing. I stared at my arms, still held up in defense, and realized what was defeating the Darkness.

“Nephthys,” I whispered, knowing it was her blessing coming to my aid. “Move back with me,” I said down to the cowering lions and they nodded, getting to their feet. “We're going to have one shot at this so when I say run, you run and trace away as soon as possible. Got it?” I looked down and saw them all nod, eyes wide and focused on me intently. I took one more step back, enough that we broke through the dome containing us, and I shouted, “Run!”

They ran and I held the Darkness back so they had enough time to trace away. When they were gone, I breathed a sigh of relief but the panic quickly returned when Trevor, Kirill, Odin, Finn, and the rest of his irritating Irish family, showed up in their place.

“Fuck,” I snarled, turning back to Andrasta, knowing Nephthys' blessing wouldn't hold off the Darkness forever.

I heard my lovers and friends behind me, screaming for me, and knew I had to act fast. The Darkness would move on soon and focus its attention on them. They may not be fey, may not have the magic it truly craved, but neither had my lions and the dark had no problem going after them.

Then I remembered a comment Nephthys had made about the Darkness, that only love could cure loneliness. Would it work? Could my love magic actually win against this?

I called desperately to Love and felt the butterflies rise immediately to my call. A tingling, rushing happiness flowed through the lioness magic that already filled me, and it gave me more confidence. Love was the greatest magic of all and it knew no fear. The butterflies poured from me and as they did, I saw the glowing aura around me brighten and expand. It pushed at the Darkness and then suddenly it exploded into the black mist, illuminating the depths of it with brilliant, sparkling butterflies of light.

I backed away, right out of the fog, and saw Andrasta gaping at me, her hand half raised as if she didn't know what to do. In front of her was a rolling mass of black but it was pulling back, cringing really, from the onslaught of Love. The butterflies formed a solid wall in front of it and as they advanced, the Darkness screeched and drew itself up like a tidal wave preparing to pound into the shore.

I knew then that it wouldn't hold. Love may be stronger than loneliness but this loneliness was different. This was something darker than human fears, older than man's despair, and it wouldn't be pushed around by Love for long. So I used the progress it had made to run forward to Ethan's body.

“Trace!” I shouted to the others as I grabbed Ethan's hand. “Back to the Palace, now!”

The butterflies zipped back into me as we all traced away, the Darkness snapping at our heels.

Chapter Thirty-Five

As soon as we got back, Kirill took Ethan's body gently from my arms so I could go find my Darkness-tainted lions. They were huddled in a corner of the common room, the other Intare gathered around them in a half circle, looking completely lost as to what to do.

I walked forward and as I did I felt their magic flow back into them, returning now that it knew I was safe. The Intare gave me their attention immediately, forming an aisle for me to walk through that led to the three wounded men. When I came within touching distance, they all reached forward, gentle fingers stroked along my skin and heads bowed in deference. I trailed my hands out to the sides, quickly touching them as well, letting my lioness reassure herself that the rest of her lions were okay. I finally came to the three, clinging to each other still, and I knelt down before them.

“Christopher. Timothy. David,” I said each of their names slowly, demanding their attention. “I'm your Tima and I can help you. Can you trust me enough to come with me?”

They stared at me with wide eyes for a moment before finally nodding with jerky movements. I smiled gently and stood, then reached my hands out to them. They reached back for me, hands shooting forward with desperation. I pulled them to their feet and hugged them all close, ending up a little smothered in the middle of the three big men.

I sent calming energy down the cords that connected us and I felt them shudder around me and take some heaving breaths. They were alive and it was a freaking miracle that I was still alive as well. No, not a miracle, a blessing. I was going to give Nephthys a big hug when I saw her. Which may be pretty damn soon because our next stop was going to be Duat.

“
Alright,” I pulled away and started leading them out of the room. “We need to go see Anubis, he'll help you.”

“
Vervain,” Trevor stepped in front of me. “Can you just stop for just a second?”

“
No, I need to get them to the fountain,” I tried to walk around him but he grabbed my arm.

The Intare started to growl and Trevor bared his teeth, snarling at them. The viciousness in his face startled me a bit. I knew my lions were on edge and very in tune with me at the moment but I couldn't understand what had set Trevor off. Regardless, he was my alpha and he had every right to assert himself. So I held up my hands, not wanting to add my roar to the mix and scare my already fragile lions.

“Enough! I love you all but you should know better than to come between Trevor and me. Stand down.”

“
Vervain,” Trevor started again, a little calmed by my show of loyalty. “I just need a moment to be sure you're okay.”

“
I'm fine, I promise.”

“
But I saw the Darkness swallow you.”

“
Nephthys gave me a blessing when we were in Duat,” I explained in a rush. “It protected me, and then I used my love magic to fortify it. I drove the dark back but I think it would have eventually won. That's why I told you to trace.”

“
Okay,” he whispered and blinked a couple of times. “Now what are we doing?”

“
We're taking the guys to Anubis so he can cleanse them like he did for Torr and me.”

“
Oh okay.”

“
Okay?” I widened my eyes at him. “We're cool? No more werewolf attitude?” He just laughed a little and shook his head. “So you wanna get out of our way then?”

“
No. I'm going with you,” he declared and led the way back to the tracing wall. “I'll be damned if I let you out of my sight again tonight.”