Dalton, Tymber - Fire and Ice [A Triple Trouble Prequel] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (24 page)

“Yes. Very. We’ll get even closer.”

The path gave way from dirt to rocky outcroppings as the woods thinned. They rounded one last turn and the path opened up to rocky coastline. They came to a stop atop an overlook where a steep, rocky path led down to a secluded beach.

“This is beautiful,” Lina said. “I’m used to the Gulf of Mexico, not this.” They were looking across a calm inlet. If Lina looked to the east, she could see where the mist almost totally obscured her view of the open Atlantic Ocean.

Lacey smiled. “We’re not done yet. Let’s go down to the water.”

Lina wasn’t sure that was a good idea considering how treacherous the path appeared, but Lacey started down the path with the sure-footedness of a mountain goat. Lina followed and found the going far easier than it looked from up top. When they finally reached the beach, Lacey led Lina over to a flat-topped rock where they both sat. Their perch afforded them a peaceful view of the inlet.

“This is where I do my best thinking,” Lacey said. “Since this part of the compound is deeded to me, no one but me comes here.” She grinned. “There are perks to the rank and age.”

Lina laughed. She bet Lacey was a pistol in her younger years, considering how fiery she appeared now. “I can see that.”

“When you consider what we do,” Lacey said, “it’s only fair.” Her face grew sad. “I don’t wish this job on anyone.”

“Yeah, I’m getting the idea this can be a real drag.”

“That’s one way of putting it, dear.” She stretched out, leaning back on her elbows. “There are a lot of hard times ahead. For all of us. I’ve been seeing it for a while. This is only the start, believe it or not. It’ll come to a serious head a few years from now. What we’re going through is only the initial skirmishes.”

“How do you see things? Do you dream them or what?”

She nodded. “Usually. Sometimes I have visions when I’m awake, but for the past few hundred years, it’s mostly been while I sleep.”

“Then how do you know what’s a vision and what’s a real dream?”

She let out a snort. “Oh, believe me. I know. There’s a clarity to them, and I completely remember them when I wake up. I rarely dream-dream, the normal kind. When I’m lucky, I can go weeks without any sleep disturbances. But like now, when they come, they’re hard and heavy. Every Seer is different. Some have waking visions only, some sleeping only, some both. Some can only see the future, some can see the future and past.”

Lina picked up a pebble and rolled it around in her hand. “I hit the lottery, I guess. I can see past and future, both asleep and awake. I finally figured out that stuff in the future looks blue. Stuff in the past looks normal.”

“Very good. You’re learning fast. You’ll need that. There are some who would love to have your power.”

“What did Bertholde do to me? Did she give me her powers or something?”

“No, dear. It doesn’t work like that. This life, you just happened to be lucky enough to be born a Seer. She saw your coming from nearly the day you were born. Bertholde had very strong Seer abilities, but she was also dragon-born. She couldn’t shift, but both her parents were shifters. If I’m not mistaken, what she did at your ceremony was take advantage of the circle of love and trust surrounding you to send a sort of psychic jump start to you. She reached out to you, when your powers were the highest and you were most receptive to it, and gave you a nudge, in a way. As clichéd as it sounds, there are few things more powerful than love. You were surrounded by it then.”

“Couldn’t she have just sat me down and talked to me about it?”

Lina sighed as she stared out over the water. “She didn’t know who she could trust. She ordered her brother to stay home because while she thought, based on her visions, that he would be safe, she wouldn’t take any chances. She felt she didn’t have any other choice.”

“You two were pretty good friends, huh?”

“Yes. For over five hundred years. Although when phones, and then the Internet came along, it made communicating very easy.” Lacey closed her eyes and tipped her head back as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and bathed them in a warm shaft of light. “Ahh. The simple pleasures, Lina. Treasure them. Especially now. If what you think you are about to go through is difficult, it pales in comparison to what happens in a few years.”

Lina was scared to ask this. “What do you see happening?”

“Nothing specific about you and your men,” she said without opening her eyes. “I just see the bigger picture in regards to that.” She smiled. “And the Lyall boys find their mate.”

Lina let out a snort. “Yeah. I saw that, too.”

“They’re good boys.” She opened her eyes and looked at Lina. “But I don’t have to tell you that, do I? Especially now that you’ve all adopted each other.” She playfully smiled. “You went from orphan to one of the pack.”

“Yeah, lucky me. I wish it’d been under better circumstances.”

Lacey sat up and shrugged. “We don’t get to choose our path, sometimes. Even though we fool ourselves into thinking we can. We have free will, of course. But unfortunately, sometimes our will is stymied by the facts of life. You could go run and hide under a rock for the rest of your life, but it would only make you miserable and fearful. And then the forces against you have still won, at that point. Along with taking countless innocent lives.”

“So why can’t I just sit down and wish for the answers to all this bullshit?” Lina asked. “All this power seems pretty darn worthless if I can’t control it.”

“You’re both a goddess and a Seer. But you are mortal-born. Unlike Baba Yaga and her kin, you don’t have your own powers. Your powers come from being part of the triad with your men. Your visions come from being your
flagyer
’s Seer. You cannot see what you do not know.”

“But what about the stuff about how the tablet was made?”

“You helped make the tablet. You were involved in that. You might not have personal knowledge about who in the cockatrice forces laid their eyes on the tablet at some point. You might not have been present when that happened. Perhaps you cannot see what you did not see. Does that make sense?”

“But Baba Yaga took me to when my parents died. She showed me that.”

Lacey shook her head. “You’d have to ask her if that was her doing, or using your own powers to take you back to watch the events. Like it or not, you’ll have to form some sort of tenuous truce with her.”

“I saw Kael’s family get killed. I wasn’t there for that.”

She shrugged. “Again, you need to ask Baba Yaga. Perhaps you have the power to travel back in time as a witness. Or it was a vision. I don’t know.”

“So what’s with the other powers? The goddess stuff?”

“I’m far from an expert in that area. Focus on what your men can do. That might give you a clue.”

“I can change into a dragon?”

Lacey laughed. “No, not quite. But fire, ice, you should be able to control those things. You can control how you communicate with others. You can transmute yourself from one place to another.”

Lina thought about that. “That means in Yellowstone, I could have blinked myself home and saved everyone a lot of trouble?”

“Doubtful. You had no idea you could do that. Plus your powers are still so new, it’s likely you couldn’t have done it even if you had known how. You only recently realized it was possible.”

Lina had so many questions. Too many. Her brain spun with them.

“I still don’t understand how I helped make the tablet.”

“What do you mean, child?”

“I saw the vision about the tablet when we were at home. It was in blue, meaning it hadn’t happened yet. Then I found the picture in the book. If the memory I have is correct, it was the me from the present that went back and told the me in the past how to create the tablet. How could I have created it if someone else didn’t do it? How could I possibly have done that?”

That actually made her brain hurt.

“I can’t answer that, child. Perhaps you had help you didn’t recognize.”

“But I…” Her voice trailed off as she realized what it meant. “Can you wait here just a minute?”

“Of course.”

Lina closed her eyes and opened them again in Baba Yaga’s kitchen. Lina took a second to feel pretty damned pleased with herself over that.

The maiden sat at her counter with a cup of coffee in her hand.

Lina stalked over to her. “You made the tablet, didn’t you?”

Baba Yaga’s eyebrows arched in a wide-eyed innocent stare. “Me, Goddess? I clearly remember Zaria and her men making the tablet.”

Lina shook her head. “It’s not possible. You did something. I couldn’t come back from the future to the past to make something I made from seeing it in the future if it wasn’t made yet! When I first saw the tablet in my vision, it all looked blue, so it had to be from the future!”

The maiden smiled. “You make no sense, Goddess.”

“Argh!” Lina threw up her hands in aggravation. “Explain exactly why I haven’t blasted you to kingdom come yet?”

“Because you like me. You also need me. Not to mention you couldn’t even if you tried.” Baba Yaga waved her hand. Lina found herself back at Lacey’s side.

“How long was I gone?” she asked the Seer.

Lacey smiled. “Merely a blink. Literally. How is Baba Yaga? I haven’t dealt with her in eons.”

“Aggravating.”

“Ah. Nice to see she hasn’t changed. You will grudgingly come to like her. She has her way of doing things, but she is ancient and has earned the right to be grouchy.” Lacey patted Lina on the thigh. “I know she can grate on you sometimes. Believe me, I’ve had my share of run-ins with her in the past. Just understand she, like you, has a job to do. She is bound by her own set of laws, just as you are. Her way of helping sometimes seems less than helpful. Just keep in mind she is on the side of humanity. Sometimes, even to her own detriment.”

“She and I will be butting heads a lot, I guess.”

“Probably.”

Lina shivered. “I don’t like this job,” she quietly said. “I didn’t ask for it.”

“None of us did, or would. That’s what makes us best suited for it. Anyone who would want this job, willingly, is someone who should not be in it.”

“I saw those assholes kill a family. Kael’s family.”

Lacey stared out over the water. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.” Lina briefly told her about it. “Even worse, I couldn’t do anything about it. Well, I tried. The only thing I managed to do was knock a goblet out of the third guy’s hand.”

Lacey looked shocked. “Really?”

“Yeah. Was that something to do with my goddess powers?”

“It must be, because I’ve known a lot of Seers, and none of them could ever do anything like that.”

“Great.” Lina thought for a moment. “So, have you seen anything that might be of use to me with this situation? Like did you see who killed Bertholde? Or any chance you know who the third guy might be?”

“No,” Lacey said sadly. “I’m sorry. I’m not going to be of any use to you there. I wish I could.”

“Do you know anything about the tablet?”

“Oh, yes. I helped hide it a few centuries ago.”

Lina hoped her jaw hadn’t gaped. “So you know where it is?”

Lacey laughed. “Heavens, no. It’s been moved several times since then. My guess is that Bertholde left you several clues as to its whereabouts, and that you’ll find it near her home. As she grew older, she kept it closer to her for safekeeping. Several of the keepers had been killed over the years.”