Flight (Children of the Sidhe) (2 page)

Nemglan appeared in front of him.

Nathan couldn’t speak. He could only thrash his wings, confused that he had wings to begin with. He still knew himself as a man, yet this bird form didn’t feel wrong. He opened his beak slightly in threat. He didn’t trust this man who claimed to be his father, even though the last few minutes told him Nemglan’s claim was probably accurate.

“Don’t worry. You’re through the portal. We lost him. The threat is over
, for now.” Nemglan spoke softly, obviously attempting to calm him. His shoulder was dripping blood in a lazy stream; it smelled shockingly appetizing to Nathan, his senses changed and new.

Nathan wasn’t sure what to think. He flapped some more and let out a “caw” that didn’t feel proper at all. When would he change back? Would he change back? He strutted, fretfu
lly, keeping an eye on Nemglan, who stood several paces away, clutching Nathan’s bag.

“I know what you need.
” Nemglan’s eyes glittered in the twilit forest. “You need to feel safe. Well, we’re a long way from home, but I do know one place we could go.”

Three

“Is that all you’re going to eat, Mikhail?” Tessa asked as her brother shoved aside his plate. He’d barely touched it.

“I ate not long ago. You worry too much about me. How about you? Are you okay after what happened with Bertran?”

Tessa felt her heart freeze over, her typical response when someone got too personal and she wasn’t prepared. Ice. Turn to ice. “Bertran is no longer any concern, is he? The witch took care of that.”

“It wasn’t Alise, exactly.”

“I know the facts, Mikhail. I know the goddess Morrigan
inhabited the witch’s body, much as she did in times of old, and I understand why Bertran died.” Tessa shrugged, trying for calm, or at least the outward appearance of calm. Bertran’s spell had taken her will – he’d commanded and controlled her actions for several days. She could only be thankful he hadn’t had the opportunity to use her skills, as he’d most likely planned. She was powerful, and controlled a library full of tomes on the magical arts. At his command, she could have been an efficient killing machine. “I can’t believe what he did to me, or that I was fool enough to let him do it.”

“You can’t blame yourself. Except maybe for being involved with a creep like him to begin with. Really, Tessa. You can do so much better.”

“We’ve seen where that sort of thought gets me, Mikhail.” Tessa glared. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Ian is married. You’d better get over it. Get over him.”

“I’m there, little brother. Don’t lecture me. I invited you for another reason entirely. How is the investigation going? Have they found the half-humans?”

Mikhail didn’t even ask about her sudden curiosity, and Tessa felt a twinge of guilt. Her brother was too trusting with her. His superiors at the
Sidhe Authority would not be pleased. “None of them have arrived yet, but each family has taken responsibility for reaching out to their own. That’s a step in the right direction. Abarta hasn’t been seen.”

“Tell Ian I’ll help any way I can. Let me know if I’m needed.” Tessa told him, sincere in her offer if not in her intentions. Let him think she offered to make nice with her childhood sweetheart. She hated to betray him, but hopefully he’d never know she’d been the one to pas
s Abarta information. She would save him the pain of having his secret revealed to their entire community. To allow it to come out would be a worse offense.

“I’ll tell him. Now I have to get back to work, Tessa. You’ll call me if you need me, right?”

She would never call him in need. He knew that. She was older, and had always been the rock. That was her role. Besides, she’d never been much for crying or sniveling. Good old-fashioned work to take her mind off her problems was much more her style.

Tessa got to it when her brother had left, cataloguing
recent arrivals for the library. She hadn’t gotten far when a chime sounded throughout her home, seconds before a knock on her door. The ward let her know when someone approached, and had proven useful time and again, most recently when scheming Abarta had called on her. Too bad it hadn’t given her enough time to avoid their little chat. He’d invited her for a walk in the chill of a new-fallen night, and she’d accepted, ignoring her misgivings. That’s how well her last visit had turned out.

Sighing, s
he rose from her work and answered the door. “Nemglan?” Her old friend stood on the doorstep. She hadn’t seen him in years, but they’d studied magic together and knew each other well.

“Hello, Tessa. I trust you’re well?”

Tessa smiled, and waved him in, only to realize he was dripping blood from a cut high on his shoulder. With an apologetic look, she did what came naturally. She burst apart, reforming in the shape of triple doves. She sang a bright series of notes and chirped, amused, when he dropped to the ground, in a deep sleep. She flew to her old friend and hovered, all three of her doves, above his wound. She cried healing tears into his wound and watched it close almost immediately – an ancient power passed down to her along with the triple dove shape.

Tessa
burst apart again and gathered her Sidhe form, fluidly casting the spell to clothe herself as she changed forms, a practice shifters quickly became adept at. She examined the wound she’d just healed. It wasn’t that bad, and hadn’t taken long to close. In fact, she might have overreacted a little. Maybe she shouldn’t have put him to sleep.

She finally noticed
the bird that hopped and strutted just outside her door. It jumped her threshold and squawked, an uncomfortable sound.

The noise brought Nemglan around, and he rose unsteadily to his feet, watching the hawk.

“Is it hurt?” Tessa reached for the hawk, looking for an injury, unmindful of the beak that could take a chunk from her finger. But despite Nemglan’s sharp intake of breath, the hawk didn’t bite Tessa. It hopped right onto her hand. She winced, and Nemglan went into action, grabbing a throw from a nearby reading chair and wrapping her other arm in it. The bird obliged, hopping to her protected limb, and puffing up the feathers on its neck. It closed its eyes serenely.

“Yes, you do feel safe here, don’t you?” Nemglan asked the creature. The hawk gave no reply.

“Is this a hawk I have here, or something else?” Tessa asked. Nemglan was Lord of the Skies, and took a hawk shape himself. Could it be...?

“My son. I’m sorry to intrude, but it felt necessary at the t
ime. I didn’t have time to explain any of this…” he gestured to the hawk, as if that clarified it, “…gently. He didn’t know of his parentage. His mother was human. You know of the threat facing the half-humans? The assassin has Nathan’s name. I could not let him find my son unprepared.”

“Of course not,” Tessa said slowly. That didn’t tell her how they’d landed on her doorstep.

“We came through the oakgate portal. You’re the nearest friend, and with Nathan in this condition…I don’t think he’s ever shifted before. He seems confused. When he calms down – most likely when he sleeps – he’ll return to his Sidhe form.”

“His human form, you mean?”

“Does this offend you? I didn’t realize you held your prejudices closer than your friends.” Nemglan shamed her without hesitation.

Tessa could understand. You did what you had to when it came to family. Again her thoughts touched on Mikhail’s secret. Maybe she should have just told her brother what Abarta knew, and how he was using the information.

Nemglan cleared his throat. “That was uncalled for. I’m sorry.”

“No, I was just thinking that I understand your situation. Will you stay here with your son?”

“Actually, I want to go help track down Abarta. Am I inconveniencing you?”

“I don’t know what to do with children.”

Nemglan regarded her carefully. “You misunderstand me. My son is grown.”

“His human blood must run strong if he hadn’t shifted until now,” Tessa pointed out, just to needle him.

He gritted his teeth and then forced a smile. “You may be right. I have no idea. We only met today. I guess you’ll have to see for yourself. So you’ll look after him for a few days?”

“
Why not? I’m just cataloguing books. I’ll see that he’s comfortable. Return when you can. I’m sure he’ll have questions, and I don’t have any answers for him.” Tessa hoped she wasn’t making a mistake. Now she had one of the half-humans her blackmailer was looking for right under her roof. The solution to her problem had just dropped in her lap – or onto her arm, as the case seemed to be. She didn’t think she could betray a friend, though, even to save her brother’s secret. Having too much information and being unable to use it was enough to turn Tessa’s mood sour.

“Thank you. I will return as soon as I can.” Nemglan
handed her a bag she guessed was his son’s and left quickly, sparing only a glance for the hawk. Maybe it was better that way. It obviously hadn’t been a smooth introduction.

Tessa sank to the floor, the hawk still perched on her arm. “What shall we do now, my feathered friend?”

The hawk looked at her, as if in reproach. Then it hopped to the floor and walked in the opposite direction, shunning her.

“That’s just as well. You make yourself comfortable. I’ll just be over here.”
Tessa returned to her work, but dire thoughts plagued her.

She’d tried so hard not to
focus on the subject of her brother’s secret…but her present company brought her mind back to it again and again. It seemed every sign today told her it was time to face facts. Her own family was just as affected by recent turmoil among the Sidhe as Nemglan’s.

Mikhail’s secret was a half-blood daughter of his own, a three-year-old girl whose mother was half-human and half-Fomorii. Tessa had seen the girl, and neither she nor her mother were monstrous. That was a blessing. Yet the blood was there, an ancient enemy embraced in the dearest way. Her brother shared a child with that race that had attempted to invade Underworld just a few months ago. If it came out, Tessa didn’t know what would happen to her brother’s career. Their family would be eternally stained by such a connection.

Tessa ground her teeth together in fury. How could Mikhail be so stupid? She sure hoped it had been worth it, because now the news of this child threatened everything they held dear, one way or another.

Her choices were grim. She could let it come out, the news of their mingled blood, or she could go along with Abarta. If she gave him the bird boy…

Tessa’s gaze found the hawk, now standing on one leg in the corner, his neck feathers still ruffled. As she watched, his form shifted; it was like watching the aura separate from the body, then snap back into place, with the body in a different form. She’d expected an adolescent, and was shocked to instead see a grown man.

The man
huddled on the floor, his hands pressed to his temples. His eyes were still closed in an attractive strong-jawed face. He had the characteristic high cheekbones that gave him a look of the Sidhe, but she would have taken him for a human if she hadn’t known his heritage, just a particularly nice-looking one. When his eyes snapped open, he retained the piercing element of the hawk in brown eyes flecked with amber.

He stared, unspeaking, and Tessa didn’t know what to do besides stare back.
Her peevish mood flashed to angry for a moment. She’d offered to help, and minutes later this ignorant half-human was dropped off for her to babysit. What was she supposed to do with him? Tessa was a solitary creature by nature, and this situation was likely to test her last nerve. She should just take him to Abarta, he was exactly what the blackmailer was after.

Except
that her lofty morals and soft heart seemed to be getting the best of her.

Four

When Nathan lifted his head to find a woman, beautiful beyond words, standing over him, he thought maybe he’d lost his wits. He’d been in the middle of an open field, watching the birds. He’d had a conversation with one –
he stifled the urge to laugh, chalking that up to nerves. Then he’d flown. Like a bird. As a bird. A hawk. His favorite. Now he was somewhere else, naked, in front of a beautiful woman. He should probably be embarrassed, but he couldn’t get himself to really feel anything. He was probably in shock.

He focused on the woman again. Her trim figu
re, clothed in a satiny red dress, stood tall, taller than most women. Her hair was platinum blonde, and just brushed her jaw. Her eyes stunned him, and that’s when he realized she wasn’t human. No human woman looked like this.

She blushed, and Nathan remembered he was naked. She waved a hand, and he was
clothed in a pale gray sweater and black pants, the fabric softer than anything he’d ever felt. He did a double take; sure his mind was playing tricks on him.

“Who are you?” h
e uttered, before he could stop himself. His curiosity had gotten away with him.

“I’m Tessa. A friend of your father’s.”

“My father,” Nathan growled, staring at the ground. His skin crawled and itched, and he wondered for a moment if he would change again. He couldn’t remember how it felt, but he was scared.