Immortal Coil (25 page)

We lost that
ability
when we lost our physical forms.
The coteries are all we have now.

A hint of melancholy slid through her. She was without a coterie as well. Someone in her life had isolated her from friends and family and now she believed she faced a death sentence. It astounded him how brave she
was, not wanting
to renew her old connections so they wouldn’t have to watch her die.

Anaea
—
How he wished she hadn’t become so good at hiding her thoughts from him.

I don’t blame you for throwing your lot in with Regis, or for
..
.

Images of the
wasu
tahazu
flashed through her mind and bile burned the back of her throat.

He was such a fool. Just because she hadn’t lost her mind the moment she’d learned what he was didn’t mean she’d accept him. Besides, it wasn’t his original form that he needed her to accept, but the killer he’d made himself into to protect himself. Yes, he was a predator, but he’d encouraged that, embraced it, to become the Prince’s Assassin. And he’d forced her into his world and stained her hands. Mother of All, he really was a beast.

Let’s just finish this,
he growled.

She jumped and he yanked back his frustration. She didn’t deserve anything he’d brought her. Even the new life he’d given her had been at a hefty price to her psyche.

Sorry, I
—

It’s okay.
She stepped into the dim hall that ran left and right.
It’s been a stressful couple of days for me, too.

The hall ringed the chamber, archways opening into it at regular intervals.
Anaea
entered by the closest arch and strode to the altar in the center of the room. He could sense her desire to gawk at the massive statues and the carved ceiling, but she kept focused on the three naked corpses on the altar, maintaining the guise that she was him. He definitely didn’t deserve her.

“I see a new cloak will need to be commissioned,” the Handmaiden said, emerging from the shadows at the far entrance. She was a tall, middle-aged woman who had looked middle-aged for as long as Hunter had known her, having never been forced to abandon her original body and for some reason not bothered to change her appearance with magic. Under her jeweled and etched-silver hood were wisps of black and silver hair.

“Ah... yes.”
Anaea
inched the hood back to expand her field of vision.

The Handmaiden’s eyes narrowed. Hunter could only imagine what she was thinking. If anyone could see through the charade that only Hunter inhabited
Anaea’s
body it would be the Handmaiden. He prayed she wouldn’t notice, but it was probably better to pray that she just wouldn’t say anything. Hunter had always respected her and the rules. He could only hope for leniency for his first offense.

“I never thought of you as a gender hopper.”

Not this again.

Anaea
rolled her eyes. She was getting tired of this as well.

Hand over the medallion and let’s get this over with.

Agreed.
She pushed the hood off and slid the chain over her head.

“Business as usual, I see.” The Handmaiden took the offered medallion. “Just like your body, things are changing.”

What did that mean?

“And that means...?”
Anaea
asked.

The Handmaiden shrugged and turned to the first body, a medium-built,
thirty
-something male. “I don’t know, but I can sense it.”

If Hunter had brows, he’d furrow them. He’d grind his teeth, too. This was the most conversation he’d had with the Handmaiden in centuries.

“When the time comes you must look after your own.”

His own?
He was a dragon without a coterie, or at least one he had any affection for. He didn’t have anyone else.

As if she could hear his thoughts, she leveled her silver gaze on
Anaea
, making her shiver.

“Yes.
Definitely a new robe.
Narrower in the shoulders, but just as long.”
Blue flashed around her and she offered a weak smile.

What was that?
Anaea
asked.

I have no idea.

I think this might be a first.
Us not knowing the same thing.

Ha,
he said, filling her thoughts with as much sarcasm as he could muster.
It still isn’t safe for you to know what you do about me.

And yet, I feel so much better knowing why I’m supposed to be terrified.

You’re hardly terrified.
It was one of the things he’d forever be grateful for: her strength and courage to hold on in what had to be a bizarre situation.

I tried terror with
...
with something else. It didn’t get me very far.

The Handmaiden awakened the medallion with a glance and Hunter knew she was concentrating on bringing the spell to life. Heat rippled through
Anaea
.

Funny, now that the Handmaiden had it,
Anaea
shouldn’t sense the magic within it.

What’s she doing?

Cast
ing
the rebirth spell.

Oh that’s informative.

Hunter bit back an internal grin.
The rebirth spell is the only way we can get a fresh start. It wipes everything
from our
soul
but
what’s permanently imprinted on it, color and
gender
. You have no memories, all of your stuff
is given to your
doyen
, and you’re essentially a baby, the youngest member of your coterie.

That sucks.
Anaea
shivered.
Have you ever been reborn?

No, but more than half of our population has a
t
some point.
And some found the rebirth a blessing. Two thousand years’ worth of memories wasn’t necessarily a kindness.

How does it work?

Remember those words I put in your head when
Pearl
jumped us in the hotel room in
Elmsville
?

He felt
Anaea
struggle to hide a nod.

Those words activated the medallion. The Handmaiden made the medallion to capture souls in the event that punishments were needed or a soul could be saved if a vessel was damaged beyond healing. The medallion keeps the soul cohesive for a short period in your dimension,
and
a little long
er
in
the
Court
dimension
.

The Handmaiden pressed the medallion against the chest of the first corpse and whispered two words in Sumerian.

Anyone with enough earth magic can say the power words and activate the medallion
to absorb a soul into it
, but only a true sorcerer can cast the rebirth spell.
It takes a great deal of concentration to cast the spell
,
and then draw out a specific spirit and encourage it to take host in a body.

And the Handmaiden is the dragon
s
’ only true sorcerer?

Yes.

That seems dangerous. What if something happened to her?

I don’t think anyone would be stupid
enough
to try something. If she left, we’d have no way to recover souls
. We were rare before we became spirits
—

And being unable to
have children
, your numbers can only diminish.

And that was the sad truth about dragon-kind. They were a species facing extinction. It might be a slow extinction because of their indefinite life spans, but there was still nothing they could do about it. It was inevitable.

Energy surged from the Handmaiden’s hands, encompassing the medallion in blue flame. The same hues as
Anaea’s
fire, although that was merely coincidence. The Handmaiden’s magic always manifested as blue flame surrounding the medallion.

The heat within
Anaea
grew.

The Handmaiden whispered more words, coaxing the first spirit, Saber, out. Energy poured from her, blue and silver in a light show Hunter had never seen before. It had to be a result of
Anaea’s
connection to the earth magic. He just had no idea what it meant. And it had mesmerized
Anaea
. Hunter could feel her holding her breath, all her thoughts focused on the energy sizzling around the Handmaiden, as if there was nothing else in the room or even Hunter within her.

A shadow moved out of the corner of
Anaea’s
eye. Cold panic shot through Hunter. Something was wrong.

Look left.

Anaea
didn’t respond, her attention consumed by the Handmaiden’s magic.

Anaea
.
Mother of All.
If she could just move her head a fraction in any direction he could see beyond the medallion.

The Handmaiden jerked from the body, the medallion clenched in her hands, fire rippling over the surface. A metal wire appeared, wrapping around her throat.

Anaea
gasped, her trance shattered. A cloaked and hooded drake yanked the garrote tighter. It looked like
Homok
.
Which didn’t make any sense because he belonged to
Barna’s
Major Brown Coterie and not
Zenobia’s
or Nero’s coteries.

Get the medallion.

But
—

She’ll survive, but she’s a slow healer.
He could only hope they were just after the medallion and not out to kill the dragons’ only sorcerer.

Another drake,
Curdus
from the Minor Green, rushed at
Anaea
, slashing with his sword. She twisted out of the way, his blade skittering against the scale mail.

Get the medallion and run.

Hunter had no idea why the Handmaiden wasn’t casting something,
anything,
she just needed to think it. How the hell had the drakes gotten into the chamber?

The Handmaiden sagged to her knees, her face crimson. More drakes, wrapped in black cloaks with the hoods pulled low, stormed in. Hunter recognized less than half and their coterie allegiances were mixed. At least they were the last time he’d checked.

Anaea
lunged for the medallion. She wrapped her fingers around it, meeting the Handmaiden’s gaze. The sorcerer nodded and drew her hand back. Magic still raced across the surface of the medallion, crackling over
Anaea’s
flesh. But more was building around the Handmaiden. She was casting a spell.
A big spell.

Run
, Hunter said.

Anaea
scrambled to her feet.
Curdus
dove at her. She stumbled out of his reach and ran for the archway, her heart thudding in her chest. Hunter could barely hear himself think over the rushing in her ears. They had to move, get away.

A wall of energy slammed into her back, throwing her across the chamber. The magic engulfing the medallion shot through her. She rolled on her shoulder and staggered to her feet. Energy nipped her skin, poured through her veins, and ignited Hunter’s spirit. Flame surrounded him, burning through his soul. He retreated to his mental box but it followed. The magic was too strong. Agony burned through his remembered bone and sinew. He was falling, falling, plummeting to the ground and no spell, known or otherwise, could save him now.

Anaea
ran from the chamber, the assailants racing after her.
Sparks
danced over the medallion, around her hand, and dripped to the floor.

Someone yelled behind her. They were close and getting closer, she could sense it. She had to get out of there, but she had no idea where. Surely if she wasn’t safe in that sacred chamber, she wasn’t safe anywhere else at Court.

She scrambled around a corner, then another, zigzagging as soon as a new corridor presented itself. The heavy metal cloak slapped against her body. She hiked it higher around her knees, desperate not to trip.

Hunter
?

He didn’t answer.

Damn it, Hunter. What do I do?

Still nothing.

More voices echoed through the passages, but she couldn’t tell from which direction. It seemed they were all around her now. She needed Hunter. Why wasn’t he answering her?