Demon's Cradle (Devany Miller Book 3) (36 page)

“Nex? You want to go back to Tytan’s manse?”

“If you would, please drop me off at Vasili’s hovel. We have struck up a friendship, of sorts.”

Color me surprised. “Sure.” Together we hooked to Vasili’s and saw Nex off, then Krosh and I hooked to my home, to the front hallway specifically. Krosh had hold of my hand, which steadied me.

“All will be well.”

“Right.” I tried to make myself believe it and was almost relieved when Cheeseweed came in, meowing. “Hey, kitty.” She wound around my ankles until I picked her up. “Cheeseweed,” I said to Krosh.

He scratched her under the chin and she purred, her eyes half shut in bliss.

“Come on, let’s find the kids. Or Dad. Weird how quiet it is.” I walked down the hall to the living room and saw dad on the sofa. “Dad?” He didn’t say a word and when I got closer, I saw that his head was bleeding. “Dad!” I knelt beside him, putting Cheeseweed on the floor, and felt for a pulse. It was there, nice and strong. “Dad? Wake up. Come on.” A horrible thought came to me. “Bethy! Liam!” I shoved myself off the floor. “Would you stay here with him? I have to—”

“Go.” Kroshtuka was already kneeling beside him so I darted through the house, searching for my children.

“Bethy! Liam!” Upstairs I ran and searched the kids’ rooms, feeling more panicked by the second. Where the hell were they? Without Dad awake, I had no idea and could feel the horror flush through my body, heating my cheeks, making my stomach burn. I ran down the stairs and then to the basement, looking for my brother or Arsinua.

Nobody.

Back to Dad and Kroshtuka. “Anything?”

Kroshtuka shook his head. “I wonder if he’s been tainted.”

“By the Rider? But it’s dead.” At the look on his face, I shook my head. “It’s dead. Jasper died, Krosh. I killed him. If I did that for no reason ...” Bile burned my throat. “Oh god.”

“Devany?”

“Dad. Thank heavens. What happened? Where are the kids?”

He blinked at me with a glazed expression. “Arsinua ...”

“Arsinua what?”

His big hand fumbled for mine and gripped me, hard. “She took Bethy.”

Kroshtuka tensed beside me. “There’s magic close by. Let me go see what it is.”

I nodded and watched him leave, unable to think about what my father had just said. Hell, I couldn’t not think about it. “She took Bethany?”

He grunted and tried pushing himself upright. I got my arm behind his shoulders and helped him sit up. He panted like he’d run a mile. “I’m afraid she caught me unaware.”

“She did this to you?”

He shook his head. “Bethy did.”

“What?” I’d shouted it and I clamped my teeth together. “Sorry,” I muttered. “What do you mean?”

“She and Arsinua had a lodestone. Our girl was practicing her magic. Something happened, some sort of slip. It near took my head off and busted the lamp.” Sure enough, the lamp that had been by the TV was on its side in pieces. “It was strange, Devany. Shouldn’t have happened, that much power. She’s got talent, sure, but not really any power. Especially not here. Then she did it again and blasted me on my ass. Knocked Arsinua on her keister too. Then she was up, shaking—Arsinua, I mean—and she said, ‘She needs training, proper training, before she hurts someone.’” He took my hands in his. “Don’t fault her for what she did. Just trying to help.”

“Dad, are you telling me Arsinua kidnapped my daughter and took her to Midia?”

He winced at my tone or maybe it was my word choice. “Kidnapping. That’s such a strong word.”

“That’s because it’s what she did. Arsinua is wanted in Midia by the Witch Council, the same people planning to kill you. And Arsinua just took your granddaughter right into the middle of all that crap.”

“When you put it that way—” He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “We’ll get her back.”

“Did Arsinua hurt you?”

He was silent.

“Dad?”

“She may have knocked me out with a sleep spell. She was just doing what she thought was right.”

“Why are you defending her? She took my daughter. I’m going to kill her.” I stood, unable to be still. “How could she? How dare she?” My dad opened his mouth and I said, “Don’t you dare say she meant well.”

His jaw snapped up.

“I wonder where Kroshtuka went?”

“Is that your fella? Well made young man.”

I eyed Dad. “Thanks.”

“Devany.”

Dad and I both looked over. Kroshtuka’s face was drawn.

“Oh god. What?”

“It’s your son. He’s alive,” he said, as if seeing the question on my face. “But the Rider has him.”

***

I ran to the backyard, cracking my shoulder on the French door as I thudded onto the deck. I jerked to a stop halfway down the stairs. Liam stood by one of my wild rose bushes, a smile on his face. He looked like my son, but that smile … Oh dear, that smile.

“Hi Mother.”

“I killed the host.”

“Sorry. Wrong again. How many people did you kill, Devany? People that weren’t guilty? How many people died because you stabbed first and asked questions later?” He chortled.

I couldn’t even touch him, not one finger. Because it was my son’s body. My son. “Liam, you can fight it. Fight it.”

“No he can’t. I’m here, stretching out. He’s a smart kid. Too bad he won’t get to use it.”

I lurched forward and grabbed his arm. He didn’t fight me. “Krosh!” I dragged him up the stairs, onto the deck, carefully—it was my kid’s body and I didn’t want to hurt him—and pulled him into the hall.

“The goddess?”

I nodded sharply.

The Rider thrashed Liam’s body in my hold. “What? No!”

Krosh stepped in and slung Liam over a broad shoulder and we hooked before the Rider could do more than start shrieking. The storm at Tempest Peaks raged but I didn’t stop to admire it this time. Krosh and I dashed down the path to the entrance to the goddess’s home. I hoped she wouldn’t mind, I hoped she wasn’t busy, I hoped she would be able to help him. Oh god. What if she couldn’t help him?

My arms got sliced up, as careless as I was going through the deadly path. I focused so hard on keeping Liam’s body safe that I neglected myself. Arms bleeding, I followed Krosh up the winding path, urging him silently on, urging him to go faster, faster, faster.

The Rider flailed about, causing Krosh to lose his balance several times, once staggering into one of the silent warriors standing guard. When we got to the top, the scene resolved into the goddess sitting with Ty, stroking his hair.

When she looked up at us, her eyes were glowing. “Back so soon? I am busy.”

“My son.” Tears escaped. “The Rider is in him. Can you?” I swallowed the bile that threatened to burn its way out of my throat. “Can you help him?”

She gestured and we walked forward. The Rider was quiet, and when Krosh set him down, he didn’t try to bolt. His eyes were on the goddess, who looked both beautiful and terrible. “So, here we are, face to face once more.”

“I am not the one you met so long ago,” the Rider snarled in my son’s voice. “That was my brother.”

“Ah. Weak thing, he was.” She snapped her finger. “Easy to kill.”

Liam lunged at her and her hand went around his slender throat.

My turn to lunge. “No!”

“Shh,” she said to me. To the Rider, she said, “Come out of there, right now.” And Liam collapsed at her feet.

“Liam!”

“Shh,” she said again. “He must be dreaming for me to draw out the pestilence. Let me work. Sit with my son while I sit with yours.”

I glanced at Krosh then dropped down beside Ty. He was crying again, or perhaps he’d never stopped. I put my hand on his shoulder and he twitched, but otherwise didn’t indicate he knew I was there. “How’re you doing? Is the reunion everything you thought it’d be?” I glanced at the goddess, saw that she leaned close to my son, whispering words so low I couldn’t hear them. Black smut was oozing out of his ear and I had to turn away. “I killed Ellison. And Jasper. I didn’t want to but I did. I did and it hurt so badly. I could have used you there. To give me shit. To make it okay.” I took another breath. Stole a peek at my kid and looked away. “Whatever it is you’re feeling, wherever you’re at, know that I care about you. I mean, you’re still an ass. And you have work to do. Personal work, you know, to become a nicer person. But. I consider you my friend and I don’t want you to curl up here and die.”

His eyes were on me.

“I’m not kissing you.”

He didn’t laugh but it danced in his eyes. He also didn’t speak but the lines of his face relaxed and something eased inside me, too.

“Arsinua stole my daughter.” The threat of tears clogged up my throat and I had to look away. His hand covered mine. “I’m going to need you, so don’t give up. Okay?”

“It hurts. Worse than with Jasper. This is—” he stopped. “It’s also better than Jasper.” His nostril’s flare. “You have his soul.”

“Half of it, yes. Krosh gave me half to save me. And he has half of mine.”

Ty grunted. “Wydling bastard.”

“You’re just jealous,” I said, not putting much into the tease. I peeked at my son again but it didn’t look like there was any progress. “I’m getting my daughter back.”

“Arsinua always was too much of a do gooder, wasn’t she? She obviously knows nothing about you, to have dared take your child.” His finger brushed my hand.

I looked down at our twined fingers and then at Krosh whose eyes met mine. No censure. No anger. What had I done to deserve him? “She’d better learn quickly. Because if she doesn’t give me back my daughter, I’m going to kill her.”

“I cannot pull out the Rider all at once,” the goddess said, cutting into my conversation with Ty.

Bile rose in my throat. “You did it for me.”

“I took out the potential in you. This is almost a fully hatched parasite. I need time.” She brushed Liam’s hair off his face, his too pale face. “He will stay with me, and I will draw the cursed thing out a bit at a time so as not to damage your son’s brain.”

“Damage his brain?” I think I swayed. Ty’s hand gripped mine tighter to keep me upright. “Is he going to be my son when you’re done?”

“Most likely, yes. If the parasite does not fight me too badly.”

I wanted to rage but I tamped it down, unwilling to explode in front of this woman. “Thank you.”

She inclined her head. “I told you I owed you and I always will. You brought me my son.”

I knelt beside Liam and kissed him, then pressed my mouth close to his ear, not knowing if he could hear me or not. “I’ll be back for you baby. Fight it. I love you.” I hugged him, my tears dampening the shoulder of his t-shirt. “Fight it, kiddo.”

I felt Ty’s eyes on me as Krosh and I left.

TWENTY-FOUR

“What is it you want to do?” Krosh asked as we stepped from the tunnel of obsidian shards.

“Get my daughter back.” I opened my Magic Eye and looked for her thread, seeing a slender red ribbon that shivered off into the distance and just … ended. What did it mean? “I’m going to try to hook to her.” I held onto my daughter’s image and we stepped through—into a large market. The thread disappeared into thin air, abruptly cut and I wanted to cry all over again. The crowd was large, pressing around Krosh and I, moving between vendors, chatting, reeking magic. “This is hopeless.”

“Where do you think Arsinua would have taken her?”

Would Arsinua be stupid enough to turn herself in to the Council again? “She might have taken her to the Anforsa.” If she did, I wasn’t sure how to get Bethy back. “If she hurts my daughter, I’ll kill her.”

He nodded as if that were a perfectly sane thing to say. “If she’s at the Council, she’ll be well protected.”

A slight comfort. “The Anforsa will be powered up, magic-wise, since I fixed the Omphalos.” I slipped into his arms, needing to be touched, needing to feel the part of me inside him. “What would happen if I destroyed it?”

“The witch’s power? Their society would fall. Wild magic would return to their lands. Perhaps the broken magic could be healed.”

“So it would be a good thing? For the Wydlings, anyway?”

“Yes. But it might spur the hunt of humans for power.”

I wondered if there was a way to destroy the hooks, to keep the two worlds separate. “The problem is I can’t get near it. My hooks fail when I get too close.”

“We could go to the Council and ask for your daughter’s return. She is part Wydling, after all. We have right to her as well.”

Hope seeped into me. “Would they abide by that? I really don’t see this lady being too accommodating.” Hell, Arsinua was on my side and she was often obnoxious about the Wydlings.

“Let’s visit the Dream Mother.”

“But she was talking doom and gloom and bindings. I’m not sure I want to face it.”

His chuckle warmed me. “You are a strong, powerful. You can face a tiny, old woman.”

I snorted. “I wouldn’t bet too hard against Lizzie.” Someone bumped into me and I cursed at them. Krosh guided us away from the press of the crowds, tucking us away in a small space between two carts. “It won’t take long, will it? I’m not sure I can give it very much attention for long, whatever it is. There’s a barbed wire-wrapped ball of worry in my stomach.”