Summon (28 page)

“A Seer?”

Stiff-necked, I nodded.

Tomas made a pained noise. I felt his gaze burning
the back of my head.

Sympathy for his hurt cooled the last of my fury
into a manageable dose of anger. I found it difficult not to turn and comfort
him. I knew he’d hoped me taking him and leaving Breandan signalled a secret
yearning.

There was yearning, a profound one, but it wasn’t
for Tomas.

I ached for the mate I’d left behind, but was
clear-headed enough to realise the separation saved our lives.

Musical whistling that sounded odd in the harsh
wilderness of the Wyld stopped. “I’m curious.” Damballah lifted his head. He
sat cross-legged under a pitiful-looking apple tree. “Why come here?”

My eyes cut to Cael. I pointed. “For him.”

“Why?” Damballah stretched the single worded
question, thick lips puckering, head tilting.

“He’s my brother. I worried he’d get himself
killed.” I paused. “I need him.”

Marinette hummed macabre notes. “As do I.”

“Oh,” Cael drawled, “to be unpopular again.” His
gaze pinged between us both. His tight smile lacked sincerity. “You flatter
me.”

Delighted, Marinette clapped. “Witty, isn’t he?”

Unlike the crazed loa, I didn’t find the situation
humorous. “Cael, I’d like you to leave with me.”

Marinette slapped her hands together. This time the
ear-splitting crack of sound was amplified by magics. Her beautiful face
contorted. “
So rude
.”

“It’s not rude to ask my brother to come home.”

“This is his home. A lovely one.”

I blinked at the puddle of blood and guts she
squirmed her toes in and looked pointedly at Cael. My expression folded,
sceptic. “You might reject your heritage, but your fairy nature must find this
place nasty.”

The flora strained towards me, but there was so
little energy left they bloomed for a moment then wilted in death.

“Why come here?” Cael asked, shifting edgily.
“Alone. Unprotected.”

“To take you where you belong.”

“I try to destroy the Wyld, and they let you offer
me a place among them?”

“Return with me and the Tribe will accept you.”

“Shame on you,” Marinette cooed.

My head swerved in her direction. “I’m not lying.”

“You’re not being entirely honest either.”

I focused on Cael. “I’m not promising it’ll be
painless. They’ll call you names, look down on you, but you gain their trust as
you have mine.”

Uncertain, he eyed me, eyes twitching randomly
along with his thoughts. “You
trust
me?”

“You’re blood. Of course I trust you.”

“After what I did to you?”

“You made a mistake.”

He stared. “Did,” he cleared his throat, “did my
Ana see this?”

Feeling a ray of hope break through the shadows
clouding the conversation, I nodded, tentative, but smiling. “A likely future.
It made her proud of you.”

Marinette scoffed. “Fate is unpredictable.”

“Clairvoyance is a canard,” Damballah added. He
rested his palms on his crossed ankles. “Glimpses a Seer catches are fickle.
The path is changed by the smallest of decisions.”

“Yeah,” I replied, still focused on Cael. I felt
afraid to look away. “How fate unfolds your journey will be scary and
unpredictable and seriously messed up at times, but if you make your choice
deep inside the end remains the same. Life is hard. Complicated. But some
things are easy.” I rubbed my sweaty palm on my thigh then offered it to him.
“Leaving behind your past and coming home to your family is an easy choice.”

Saying nothing Damballah inclined his head.

Marinette sniffed. “You talk as if you have a home
to bring him to. After what happened with Breandan-”

My gaze snapped to her, and I tensed. “
Don’t say his name
. You don’t get to say
his name.”

“So possessive of something that’s no longer
yours.”

“I don’t have to–”

A black owl hooted and landed on Marinette’s
shoulder.

Rotating its head to a seemingly uncomfortable
angle, it ruffled its feathers with a glossy wedged beak that jutted between
huge amber eyes set in a wide, flat face.

The black plumage with distinctive flecks of grey
edging its remiges was familiar, because I’d seen it before.

I flushed, embarrassed. “You’re spying on the
Wyld.”

“Of course.” She spun to Cael and took an
aggressive step, fingers rigid. “Which is why I know you’ll not be disliked but
reviled
. Shunned. Everything you are
and will ever try to be shall be rejected outright. Humiliation will become an
everlasting torment you must endure with a smile. The burning shame of your
indiscriminate birth will grow hotter as you bow and scrape to gain favour from
weak-blooded hypocrites, and still they will spurn you. One day you will look
back on what you were, could have been, see yourself for the wretch you have
become and hate yourself for it.” She lifted her chin. “I offer you freedom.
Pleasure. Acceptance. The chance to avenge your murdered father and put those
who dare spite you in their rightful place, grovelling at your feet.” She
opened her hand, and a vortex of black magics sparkled and roiled on her palm.
“I offer you
power.
Limitless
.
”

“And I offer love.” Heart sinking, I shrugged. “The
truth is from your perspective I have nothing.” I blinked back tears. “But it
doesn’t feel that way to me. I have Conall, and Baako, Ana, Alec.” My eyes
lifted and a tear slipped into the crook between my nose and cheek before
wetting my lips. “I have you.”

Cael’s eyes flickered, questioning. He appeared
concerned
. “Your life mate?”

Shoulders jerking, my face crumpled. “He didn’t
want me to come so he–” My voice was shrill and faint, so I stopped
explaining to gulp down air, my whole body juddering as I struggled to repress
my sorrow.

Reaching for me, Cael took a step then froze. His
manner was a mixture of confusion and anger. Jaw clenching, he crossed his arms
and wiped his face of emotion, but his golden eyes were fierce.

Still holding my wrist, Tomas shuffled closer and
rubbed my back with his other hand. He made soft, soothing noises that made me
want to curl into a ball and sob.

“See, Cael.” Marinette waved a dismissive hand
toward me. “She cries over a broken promise to love her forever. Emotions are
capricious things. Why entrust your future to something so fickle when my offer
of power is assured.”

“I’m upset because it’s my fault.” I glared at
Marinette. “Breandan had every right to protect his heart.” I straightened.
“And when I return to him I’ll apologise, and try to win him back.”

“What do you think, phantom?” Seemingly bored,
Marinette straddled a werewolf’s back. Placing her chin between the twin
triangles of it ears she languidly stroked its muzzle. “Do you think she should
pin her hopes and dreams on the male who renounced her? I don’t.”

Tomas stared at me as if he desired nothing more
than to agree. His thumb rubbed my wrist over my pulse. “No,” he whispered, “is
what I want to say. The truth? Her chosen mate will take her back. I wish it
was me she cried for.”

Marinette puffed. “How dismal.” She lifted a hand,
and everybody but me, Tomas, Damballah and Malice flinched. Cael retreated too
before remembering himself. That alone told me all I needed to know about the
godling. “If you’re not going to be the menace I thought your usefulness has
come to an end.”

“
Wait
.” Slipping
off Malice’s lap, Gwendolyn looked startled to have shouted. She withered under
the loa’s red glare and knelt in supplication, nervously licking her lips. “I
want him back.”

“Still?” Marinette asked, bemused. She turned a
considering eye on Tomas. It swept lavishly over his body. “Perhaps I misjudged
your worth.”

Kneeling, Malice pushed off from the bare-branched
tree he leaned against and stood. “Give him to her.”

“I’ve known you forever, Ti Malis. You’re a brother
to me, but even families destroy each other.”

“Threats already?” Smirking, Malice ambled up to
her. He took the time to swig from a bottle that appeared in a swirl of purple
smoke. Amber liquid dribbled unheeded down his chin to drip onto his chest.
“You know as well as I do we balance a scale.” They locked gazes. “You and I
can fight, but it would be for eternity.”

She thrust her face in his. “I would annihilate
you.”

“Then you bring about your end.” Damballah eased
between them, glowing, his bone staff in hand. Brows drawn, he took a crunching
bite of apple. “I have no wish to walk a single path.”

“Meaning he’d obliterate us to stay neutral.”
Malice grinned at her frustration then the smile died. “Give him to her. Now.”

Feigning disinterest, Marinette spun from both loa,
the ends of her hair slapping across Damballah’s chest. “Fine.”

Tomas tightened his grip on my wrist. “Rae–”

“S’okay. Go. I’m … good.” My emotions were running
high, and hopelessness over Cael threatened to have me bursting into tears,
again, but I was holding my own well enough. “Go on.”

He leaned to whisper in my ear. “I will return. I
need to see what Gwen has foreseen.” He frowned, troubled, but let me go to
rush to Gwendolyn and drag her from sight.

Marinette circled me, pacing round and around.
Brushing her fingers against my skin, she shivered. “Life pours from you. It
suffocates me.”

“I sense you too.”

“Feel good?”

“No.”

She giggled. “I like you.”

“Sorry, but the feeling is not mutual.” I gave up
trying to follow her with my eyes and instead frowned at Malice and Damballah
who shared a deep look then edged closer. “I’ve met creatures who’ve done bad
things, but you are altogether evil.”

“You define me as evil because I killed a few
witches? Borrowed a few shapeshifters? Raised the restless dead?” She rubbed
her lip, smiling wickedly. “You’ve killed.”

“To defend people I love.” I met her formidable
gaze. “I’m nothing like you. Neither is my brother. Let him go.”

“Ah, but I’m evil. Why would I do that?”

“His heart isn’t in this, and you need surrender
from your acolytes.”

“Indeed.” She studied me. “That’s why I’m stronger
than you.”

“I’m not here to fight.”

“Oh, I know.” She laughed, her eyes stony. “If you
were I would destroy you.”

“Why haven’t you?” Cael asked.

“It pleases me to corrupt pretty things.” Marinette
fingered my hair. “And of course my consort’s power is directly linked to
hers.”

I frowned sharply. “He’s not yours.”

“He’s not yours. He didn’t follow you did he?”

“No,” I whispered. Foggy, I shook my head. “He
wasn’t supposed to.”

“But you wanted him to.” Marinette continued her
measured pacing. “That’s what a besotted male would do. The reality of being
mates did not match the dream. Perhaps, it was too much for him to endure.”
Marinette clasped her hands together, her eyes wide and soft. “You must have
doubts.”

A gathering of dark energy charged the air.

My own pushed against it, and my shoulders drooped.
“Please stop whatever you’re doing. I just want Cael and to go home.”

“Life is a constant battle,” Damballah murmured,
taking my hand. He led me to his apple tree and lowered, tugging me with him.

Uneasy, I sat, starting when Malice knelt and took
my other hand. He patted it soothingly.

“Each time I think I win it gets harder,” I said
more to myself than them.

“It is endless,” Marinette mused, crouching,
staring into my eyes. “And being as you are it will become more difficult.” Her
gaze deepened. “You will even come to appreciate the eons you spend resting.”

“What are you doing?” Cael demanded.

“This way she lives,” Malice whispered.

Their power washed over me. Rather than resisting I
embraced it. I wasn’t afraid, but curious. It didn’t hurt. It felt like going
to sleep. I blinked, slow, so slow it seemed an age before my lashes lifted. My
heartbeat boomed in my ears, and the world dimmed. The air felt warmer, snug.
My breathing turned shallow and faint. The Loa forced me to rest. Breandan wasn’t
waiting for me. Cael didn’t want to come home, and with the knowledge I’d
return to the Wyld and face disappointment from the people I cared about, I
didn’t see the point in fighting it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Cael

The
screaming stopped.
Finally.
The
tension thrumming between my eyes eased, and my shoulders lowered from around
my ears.

Marinette kept the dying members of my Coven alive
for as long as possible. She wrung despair then ended their torment with
deceptively elegant hands.