Part 10 (1/2)
I snorted. ”Come on.”
Her lips twitched. ”Maybe one or two.”
”And of course you told them off?”
Her eyes widened. ”One is Fiametta's son, so no, I have not told him off.”
Time for my eyes to widen. ”A true merge of two families? Oooh, the drama.”
”I never said I was even going to-”
”Please, you don't have to marry him to carry his child.” I lay back on the bed, instantly regretting my words. ”Bella, I'm sorry, I didn't mean . . .”
”Lark, don't. Requiem was a long time ago, and I was a fool. I thought I was strong enough to face him on my own.” She sighed and lay beside me. ”And as much of a monster as he was, he gave me the most amazing daughter.”
I wanted to reach over and take her hand, or hug her. But I couldn't make myself move. I wasn't sure I could ever be so forgiving of Requiem. Or the other monsters I'd faced.
”Go to sleep, Lark,” she said as though she were in charge.
I closed my eyes, knowing I should have been bothered by the fact that I did as she asked without question; old habits dying hard. Still, I fell asleep within seconds.
My mind, though, did not allow me any respite, as dreams haunted my rest. They battled for my attention, swinging from the war we'd fought against Orion and the demons, to the mother G.o.ddess laughing at me, to Blackbird trying to bed me as I lay tied down and unable to fight.
A violent s.h.i.+ver woke me at one point. The breeze coming in from the wide window cooled the sweat along my bare skin. I groped for a blanket and someone placed a thick duvet over me. Peta crept up in her snow leopard form, stretching out alongside my body, and sharing her warmth with me.
Bella dropped an arm around my waist. ”Just dreams, Lark. They are just dreams. Let them go.”
Again, I obeyed her, and relaxed once more.
The fear left, the pain of all I'd lost slipped away. I fell asleep again, this time safe in knowing, if nothing else, I had my sister with me.
More the fool was I for believing my life would come together so smoothly.
CHAPTER 10.
he banging on the door jerked me out of a dead sleep. I scrambled out of bed, my spear in my hand even as I reached for the power of the earth before my eyes were even fully open.
Spirit and Earth rumbled through me, dangerous in their current state of unpredictability.
”Easy, Lark. We are not surrounded by enemies,” Peta soothed.
I shook myself, and quickly let go of my connection to the earth but not my spear.
I strode to the door and opened it with a jerk. In front of me was a pet.i.te woman, in all white, one of the Undine slaves. Usually they were human, captured when they ventured too close to the Deep.
She lifted clear blue eyes to me. Elemental power swirled along the edges of her arms as she tapped into the water around us. Obviously not a human, but worse was what I saw in her intention. The lines all but spelled out what she was going to do. Something so simple, and so effective, that no one would realize what had happened to me.
The slave was going to fill my lungs with water so I died without a sound, drowned on dry land.
I grabbed her around the throat and lifted her straight up so her feet dangled. ”Not quick enough, a.s.sa.s.sin.”
Her eyes bulged, the color on her arms flared, and I clamped my mouth shut. I bore down until I felt her pulse slow under my fingers, frantic and then pausing between each beat. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and the lines of blue power faded from her arms. Only when I was sure she was out cold did I let go, letting her drop to the floor with a meaty thump.
”Lark, what is going on?” Bella ran across to me, her hair and skirts seriously rumpled, yet she still looked like a queen.
”Bella, stay here. I don't want you in the middle of this.”
She put a hand on my arm, slowing me. ”Lark, I am here to help you. What happened?”
My jaw ticked twice before I answered. ”She tried to kill me.”
Peta sniffed the a.s.sa.s.sin at my feet. ”Half-breed, I think, which explains the slave whites.”
My anger grew in leaps and bounds. ”Well, Bella, time to see if you can smooth this over, then. Time to be a diplomat before I kill someone.”
Bella let out a sigh, but followed me into the hall. She swept her hands over her skirts several times, knocking the worst of the wrinkles out, then swiftly pulled her hair into a loose braid. ”I wish you would give me time to properly clean up.”
”No time, you know that. If I have an a.s.sa.s.sin on me, for all we know . . .” I paused and changed what I was going to say at the last second, ”that which we seek has already been snagged by Blackbird.”
”You have to be wrong,” she murmured.
I hoped I was, but an a.s.sa.s.sin coming after me was no small thing. There was no way Finley would allow it.
Dragging the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin behind, I stalked toward the throne room.
”You know this isn't Finley's doing,” Peta said, her voice rather carefully neutral.
”Why do you say it like that? You think I'm going in there and accusing her of trying to kill me?”
”I hope not,” Bella said.
I stopped and stared at her. ”I may be a bad-a.s.s b.i.t.c.h, but I'm not crazy.”
Bella's lips twitched. ”You're hardly the b.i.t.c.h you think you are. Bad a.s.s, absolutely.”
Peta laughed, though it was under her breath.
At the throne room doors, I didn't pause, just pushed my way through. The woman I dragged behind me groaned as she came around.
I threw her forward. Her body rolled across the ground, flipping and flopping like a fish out of water until she stopped at the base of Finley's throne.
The queen of the Deep lifted a dark blue eyebrow. She'd grown up since I'd first met her, both in body and mind. Her blue hair had deepened in color to a near violet and was swept up in a twist that left the lines of her face bare, making her seem older than she really was.
But it was her eyes I watched closely. Her blue eyes held her secrets close and I couldn't read her, or what she thought about our sudden appearance. To be fair, she'd fooled me even when she'd been a child, so it shouldn't have surprised me that as an adult she was even better at keeping her face a mask of neutral emotions.