walker saga 06 - dronish (3 page)

“Mother, please, don’t do this here.” I heard her urgent words as they fell into the pixie queen’s ear. “He can’t take me from you again; I’m no longer helpless. He’ll soon see that a reunion between us is a rocky and difficult road for him to walk.”

While she was talking down her pissed-off mother, I continued to watch Latinti. From the moment his blue-, gold- and black-flecked eyes had found Lucy, everything in his demeanor changed. Gone was the cocky arrogance and half-smartass expression. He lowered his face, but I still saw the sorrow and fear that stretched his features.

My head snapped to the side at the sound of a low growl. It was Colton.

He stepped closer to the faerie. “You watched Lucy from the window the other day. Your scent is different, but I recognize it … you’ve only masked the top layer.”

Shit. Well, if anyone would know it was the wolf-Walker; he had senses like no other.

Latinti nodded his head once. “Yes, it was me. I heard the pixies were free. I knew that … Lucy had returned.”

He hesitated over her name. Something told me that he had known her as something else. Maybe the name Malisna had called her, or maybe something different.

“Why are you really here?” Lucy finally faced the man who had stolen her and dumped her on Earth. She didn’t seem upset. Her doll-like features were relaxed, eyes calm.

He didn’t pretend not to understand her question. “I do want to meet you. And …” he hesitated just briefly, before his cool eyes shifted to Josian. “We are joining the war. This is a big one, we can feel it, and the land whispers with the prophecy words. Pixies are gathering and faerie will also stand with Walkers.”

Brace stared him down a little. “You’ve never involved yourself in Walker battles before.”

Latinti’s expression hardened, the benign smile falling from his lips. “This war is different. Should this one be lost, then it will end our existence as we know it. This is not silly Walker politics in which faerie have no interest. This is a battle to live.”

I lifted my chin to meet Brace’s gaze.

“The faerie is right,” I said with conviction, projecting my voice loud enough for all to hear. “I’ve been thinking for a while that we need to gather these different powers. Maybe we should … I don’t know, set up a war camp.”

Josian stepped to my side. Lallielle, as always, was right beside him.

“Already ahead of you, baby girl. At the last princeps’ meeting we decided to start gathering our clans. We planned to meet in the large field again. We were taking the first steps in setting up a war council.”

I’d been so busy lately I knew that I’d missed lots of what was going on with the Walker leaders.

Josian continued. “I’ll contact the others. We need to move the time-frame forward.” He waved a hand toward Malisna and Latinti. “We welcome the involvement of pixie, faerie, and any others who arrive on our doorstep. But be aware, this is a Walker battle. In the end you must heed our commands.”

“We’ll see,” Latinti said. “I’ve never denied that Walkers are the supreme power, but in your arrogance, you often miss things which might aid your plight. Don’t discount us yet.”

Malisna let out a long breath. “I will retrieve the rest of pixie, and the forest sprites and we will meet you at the war camp.” She kissed her daughter on the cheek, still fixing narrowed eyes on Latinti. “See you soon, daughter, I am honored to have been here today at the mating to your beloved.” She fluttered up and kissed Colton on the cheek too.

As she dropped down, Lucy reached across and hugged her mother, arms a little awkward over the wings.

Latinti watched these exchanges with fascination, before he chimed in. “We’ll also take our leave for this camp,” he said. “It’s probably best …” His eyes flicked to the right. “If you set up separate territories for all fey involved.”

Judging by the scowl from Malisna, the pixie and faerie camps should be on opposite sides.

“It will be done.” Josian didn’t smile. Instead he saluted the faerie prince.

Then just like that the different fey factions disappeared off into the air. Or wherever they went.

“Guess that’s the wedding over.” Lucy sighed. “We were lucky to have as much time as we did.”

She hugged Lallielle and then moved over to hug me also. “Colt and I can’t thank you enough. This was the best day ever.”

“Yes, we owe you for organizing such an amazing celebration.” Colton’s gruff tones spoke of more than his words.

I punched his arm. “Aw, you big old softie.”

He growled deeper. “Stop saying that. I’m tough. I’m a freaking Walker, a warrior and a wolf.”

Lucy and I snorted out our laughter.

“Sure, sure,” I said between splutters. “The three Ws of Colt.”

Colton turned to Brace. “Control your woman.”

Brace held up both hands. “Are you kidding? No one controls Red. She’s got it all over me. We’re just going to have to live with the fact that, with these two around, we’ll never again have out of control egos.”

My heart started galloping in my chest at the thought of the rest of my life with Brace. I was more than lucky to have him. He was my perfect other half, and the fact that he still didn’t have all of his memories of our brief life together rankled with me. We needed to get back to the lalunas soon, before I moved on to Dronish.

“I love you.” I leaned in close and let the soft words trickle toward him. I hadn’t said that since before the bond was broken.

His features froze. I had taken him by surprise: for him, that was the first time he’d heard those words from me. The sudden shimmery reflection of his eyes and the emotions on his face almost broke my heart. With a sort of rumbly growl he pulled me toward him. I went willingly. I had to bury my face in his chest to hide the tears that had formed in my eyes.

Everything of Brace washed over me: his scent, strength and energy. It was like being cocooned in my favorite blanket. For a brief moment I was safe and protected, like nothing could touch me.

Soft words added to my happy-place. “There should be a word stronger than love,” he whispered in my ear. “Something so unbreakable that nothing in any of the worlds or even gods above could tear it apart. If there was a word that defined this, then I would use it every day for you. But for now, I love you, Red.”

Oh. My. God. He was killing me, but in the best freaking way.

I had never doubted his feelings for me. Despite the fact he was relearning about our life, the emotions between us had never gone anywhere. His love for me … well, the lalunas had never had the power to sever that.

“And there’s that sappy romance we’ve been missing.” Lucy broke the moment, but I was okay with it. This wasn’t exactly the place for anything more.

Lallielle made a distressed noise. “I still can’t believe you allowed this, Josian.” She had not been happy about us keeping her in the dark about the broken melding bond. “You tampered with something so sacred … a blessing which has been lost to Walkers for many lifetimes.”

I reached across and took her hand. “I’m sorry, Mom, we thought it was the only way.” My next few breaths were ragged as I fought my emotions.

Josian didn’t say anything, but his face suddenly had that carved-from-stone look that Walkers pulled out when they were mega pissed off.

Fury distracted us. “While I totally get your reasoning, you should have let the half-Walkers know. We’re a team … you can trust us with anything.”

Cerberus came closer and licked up the side of my face. The hound had an innate sense of when I needed comforting.

I sucked in a few more labored breaths. The air filled my lungs, but I was still lightheaded. “I do trust you all. It wasn’t about lack of trust; it was … I don’t even know. Fear, thinking I had no other choice, thinking I was the one who had to shoulder the responsibility to save these worlds.” I hung my head. “I’m really sorry. It was stupid. Keeping secrets has done nothing but cause problems, even if I had the best of intentions. So, from now on, full disclosure. No more secrets.”

As I spoke, Josian’s gaze fell. My worries flooded back. I hoped that this meeting we were going to with the laluna would clue me as to what sort of problem Josian was having.

Ria’s arms went around me then, and I hugged her back tightly. I knew she had accepted my lack of disclosure of the melding bond. She could be so kind when she wanted to.

“Alright, so what do we do now?” the Regali queen asked, her demeanor calm.

It was never difficult to see the methodical intelligence that Ria used to rule her people on Regali.

“We go to this war camp.” This was from Delane, of course. Warrior-Walker.

The Angelica had her massive wings tucked in behind her. She spoke with confidence but her expression was filled with unease. Life on Nephilius was solely about training and battle. Lucy’s wedding was a big – uneasy – first for her.

“We must gather together, figure out the strengths of each group and plan our strategy. Not to mention that we half-Walker females need to tether our powers. We must strengthen ourselves and learn to work as a team.”

“I agree,” I said. “I’ve been thinking for a while that the half-Walker females need to spend more time together. When we’re close our energy bounces off each other. We have complementary powers, and they need time to blend.” I exhaled loudly, my breathing finally coming easier. “But equally as important is me finding the last two of our group. I’ll make sure I continually pop in and out.”

Talina laid her cool hand on my arm. “Finding the girls is really important, Abbs. While you’re gone the rest of us can still research and train. Then hopefully once you’re finished finding the last two, we’ll be ready to take the step as a complete power.”

Josian interrupted us. “Jedi contacted me last night; he has some information from the pixie library. He’ll meet us at the war camp. He has a few scrolls to go through.” He glanced at our faces. “No one will be sitting around waiting for Aribella to return. We all have to do our part.”

That was good. I couldn’t be everywhere at once. I had to trust that others could handle some aspects of this entire Seventine battle.

Lallielle started to move. “I’ll send off all the First Worlders, and then we can focus on this impending war.”

She scurried off to farewell those guests still lingering around the beach area. Brace and Colton left our group for a moment, stepping across to where Lasandra, Caty, Magenta, Petal and her dad were gathered in a group. I could see the men’s lips move as they updated the Walkers … eventually Magenta opened a doorway. Caty was the only one to turn back and give me a friendly wave as they all left via that doorway. Lasandra never glanced back.

Magenta’s white-blond hair disappeared, along with the scowl that was pretty much permanently on her face. She’d made it perfectly clear to Colton that he was mated into this Seventine mess, and it had nothing to do with her. Magenta wasn’t a fan of mine because she’d wanted Brace – or mostly to be the princeps’ mate. And Lucy she hated and detested on a cellular level – to her my pixie friend had stolen her twin brother’s love and loyalty away. If the bickering and snotty comments continued between those two, sooner or later it was going to come to blows.

After a few minutes of goodbyes it was just our core group left: the five half-Walkers and our mates, as well as Lucy, Colton, Josian, Lallielle and Quarn – who had made it in time for the ceremony. At the back of the group, sort of in a guard-like position, were our two sacred animal guides.

Since we finally had a spare moment, I took three steps and threw myself at my guardian. Quarn caught me easily, anticipating my hug.

“Ah, it’s been too long, miquerina,” he said.

I knew now those words meant
my little one
. It still made me smile when he said it.

“How’s the castle security going?” I asked as we pulled apart. I wished we had more time to catch up.

“Great, except for Lucas having his moody crown on lately,” Quarn said. “It’s been quite the strained environment.”

I glanced across at Ria, and noticed the subtle tightening of her features, especially the feathering around the delicate skin of her eyes. She had heard his words. It wasn’t a huge reach to guess the emperor’s recent asshat mood was because of the stunning Regali half-Walker. I didn’t believe these two could ignore their connection for too long. In the end these types of cosmic links, whether they were true mates or not, always came to a head. You had to deal with it, or it would force you to.

Lallielle crossed her arms, all businesslike. “So, to reiterate, everyone is off to the war camp in the same field the Walker gathering was held. Except for Abby, who has to go to Dronish and find the half-Walker.” She rested her soft gaze on me. “While you’re gone, we’ll be making plans and gathering information; if all the Seventine are released, we’ll be ready for them.”

Fury also crossed her arms. “Sounds about right, but I need to go back to Crais … well, Dune and I do. We have to check out this energy-gathering spot.”

They’d been in the middle of investigating something on Crais when I’d called her to attend Lucy’s wedding.

Ladre distracted us by stepping forward. In his right hand he held a device that pumped a fine mist of water toward his face. All Spurns – except Talina – needed to keep their hair moist or they could dehydrate and die. Ladre used the machine whenever he was away from the water.