Subversion, page 6
Dahlia twisted her mouth and didn’t answer for a moment. “Second.”
“To start, the Ewoks would’ve been vicious little man eaters.” Magnus positioned the next camera.
“Not necessarily. It depends on which god is responsible for them,” I said. “They may be a tribe of body positive, sex loving nudists. They obviously understand clothing and choose not to wear pants.”
Fen raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe the god matters in this case, and I do believe they could be both.”
Magnus seemed to consider this. “I agree. How do we look?”
“Y’all are a bunch of perverts and sociopaths.” Dahlia studied her screen. “Three degrees left and a notch up. And that’s not the Death Star.”
“Says the woman helping install cameras to keep people out,” I said. “The tech is part of the equation. And if the Ewoks are the monsters you say, would the storm troopers really have survived long enough to install the shields on the moon?”
“Would the god in question have cared?” Dahlia didn’t look up from her screen. “Set on that camera.”
“Hold up,” Fen said. “Is the god writing the story or playing the emperor?”
Magnus grabbed her bag and hopped down, landing softly on her feet. “If a god is writing the story, of course they’re playing the emperor. Self-insertion of the most obvious kind.”
“Are the Ewoks involved in that as well?” I had to know.
“Sure.” Dahlia grinned. “One big orgy of man-eating furries and mutual masturbation.”
I shook my head, but I was smiling. Potential concerns about her losing control aside, I did like having her around. “I think we lost the plot”
“That implies we had one to start with.” Dahlia closed the cover on her tablet and stashed it in her bag. “You can bring the top shelf booze back now.”
I reached for the bottles mentally, the way someone would if they knew exactly where in their pantry the sugar was kept. Nothing was there.
It wasn’t that the bottles were missing from where I expected them to be, rather where I expected them to be was missing. I couldn’t sense anything outside the bar. Discomfort climbed through me. This was, I expected, like a person who could see their entire life waking up blind.
“Unless you wanted to dust first.” Fen’s tone was flat.
The sensation was disconcerting, but the fact that I’d experienced this before, when a pissed off, burned out dragon had us trapped in a series of caves, cranked my internal alarms to blaring. I looked at Dahlia, who was sifting through her bag.
She looked up, and her eyes grew wide. “Was he right? Do you want me to dust? Earn my keep?”
“No.” I frowned.
Could she be doing this?
“Do we need more cameras?” Magnus asked. “You wanted to wrap up before people started arriving, and that’s soon.”
No god of sex would ever admit he couldn’t get it up. I reached out mentally again.
The liquor was exactly where I expected it, with no magical void pinning me to one spot. I phased the bottles back onto their shelves. Was the whole thing a fluke?
Fen studied me with curiosity and concern.
I made a faint gesture, to indicate we’d talk about it later. If Dahlia did that, it must have been subconscious, and if she was projecting that kind of power now, she was more dangerous than I feared.
“We having a party?” Minato’s voice came from behind, catching me off-guard. How did I miss a single person approaching the club? Especially one with a mild magical aura.
Magnus vaulted the bar more smoothly than any Olympic gymnast. “Nah. We were going to raid the expensive booze, but we got caught.”
Minato wrinkled her nose. “Why? They would’ve given you some if you’d asked.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Magnus countered.
Minato looked disgusted. Was she buying this? “Glad you’re both here now.” She sounded very much like she didn’t mean it.
After Dahlia and Magnus hunted her, then decided not to, they still told her who she was and why she had a target on her back. They figured it was best she be warned, and I agreed.
Since, the three had been the kind of friendly that allowed a performance like the one Minato did with Dahlia the other day to spark with fun and chemistry.
“Anyway. Work calls.” Any disdain vanished from Minato’s voice, and she headed toward the back.
Or I’d imagined the tension the same way I imagined being unable to find the alcohol.
But both were very real, and I couldn’t shake the feeling Dahlia was the common link.
I had agreed to bring parts of this war between gods to our front door, but I wanted Fen as far removed from it as possible. Was that an option anymore? There was no telling what would or wouldn’t trigger the events in Dahlia’s dream, and with no knowledge of how a dragon’s visions worked, I could only do what my instinct told me to. Second-guessing wouldn’t serve anyone. “Would you excuse me for a moment? I need to make a call.”
ELEVEN
DAHLIA
One minute we were having fun, joking about Ewok sex, and then Frey was acting weird. Minato was acting weird. Uncomfortable sparks were dancing over my skin and reminding me that my skin and hand had shifted to dragon without my permission when my jealousy peeked through over Magnus’s powers.
I didn’t like this.
“Anyone know what that was?” I asked. “Any of it?”
Deep creases marred Fen’s forehead. “Something’s not right.”
“Hence the question.” Magnus joined me.
Fen’s frown deepened. “I’ll talk to Frey when he’s done. Keep an eye on her.”
On Minato? Forty-eight hours ago I would’ve asked why, but a little extra paranoia and questioning my reality seemed like a good idea about now. Never expected to want more paranoia than TOM had imbued me with, but here we were.
“Let’s take this someplace less public.” Fen jerked his head toward doors leading to back rooms.
The disquiet inside meant I wasn’t even in the mood to ask if he was propositioning us. “Yeah. Good call.”
Fen, Magnus, and I headed toward a small lounge tucked away from the bar. This corridor used to lead to an entire little town, but Frey had cut off the doorway between the two places to keep the people who lived there safe.
The room was filled with couches and beanbags, and meant for comfort and relaxation. I picked my favorite couch, but the calm I hoped for was far, far away.
I didn’t mind that Fen settled next to me, his arm and thigh resting against mine. He might be this close to keep an eye on me—there was no way the men had dropped their concern over my freak out last night—but I didn’t mind that either. His nearness and strength were comforting. Soothing.
“Cameras won’t be enough. I can’t watch the entrances and…” He sighed heavily.
And keep an eye on me at the same time. But I could get this under control, with a little practice and patience. I’d learned to use my body and mind as a weapon when I was barely a teenager. I could figure out how to stop myself from shifting into a different shape.
“Put me on stage. Then I’m in the main room when you are.” I understood Frey’s concerns, and if I thought about them too much, the fear would overwhelm me. But TOM already knew I was here. They must.
Every reason Fen had the other day for my performing was still valid. My dancing put me in charge of my own destiny and it would make TOM pause. Sure, we—they—were trained to deal with targets in public, but they had to be more careful about it these days. Their connections in law enforcement and other places had dwindled as their structure fell apart. And more gods were actively looking to interfere with TOM activities.
“We’ll go ahead with the performance plan, on one condition.” Frey’s comment from the doorway startled me.
I’d be bothered that he snuck up on me, but he was standing in front of us. I was more off my game than I wanted to admit. “What condition? What changed your mind?”
“You’re right. This is the best way to do things.”
I typically liked hearing you’re right, but this felt wrong. Frey had been reluctant from the start, and whatever happened in the bar couldn’t have changed that. I was supposed to believe he’d walked away for a few minutes and magically decided this was all a good idea? He’d spent lifetimes avoiding the war between gods, and now, it’ll be fine?
“What’s the one condition?” I asked again.
Frey clenched his jaw.
If I weren’t in a room of friends, I’d be wishing I had a gun on me. This wasn’t right.
The shadows behind Frey shifted and tension cranked through me. I felt the twitch at my shoulder blades and the itch in my fingers to grow.
Artura stepped into sight. “I’m here.”
“You’re earlier than I expected,” Frey said.
That fucker. How dare he? “I told you no.” I couldn’t keep the betrayal from my voice.
“I made a different decision.” Frey didn’t meet my accusing glare. “Hear her out. That’s my condition.”
“So much bullshit.” There was Magnus, echoing my thoughts as usual.
Artura whipped her head in Magnus’s direction, and her neutral expression shifted to a snarl. A threatening growl echoed through the room, aching in my ears.
“Defiler.” Artura lunged at Magnus. “How dare you?”
TWELVE
FENRIR
I was shifting and lunging between Artura and Magnus before my mind caught up.
Magnus was already in full armor. Though I knew from the fight we’d had with Skuld that a dragon could do a lot of damage to a Valkyrie.
“Enough.” Dahlia’s voice was half roar, half panic, and overlapped the way Frey’s command boomed through the room.
“You are a guest, as are they, and this is our home.” Power rolled off Frey in waves. “How dare you?”
Terrifying. Which was fucking sexy.
Artura pulled up short of attacking one of us, and whirled to face him. She still wore a human form, but her skin was all scales—white and pearlescent—and her fingers were long, gnarled claws. Her tail coiled, ready to strike.
“How dare you? You bring me here under pretenses of peace while she flaunted my defiled gifts? While she wears befouled portions of me? I am more powerful than all of you. Older than the two of you combined.” Artura’s presence seemed to fill the room, though she remained the same size. “I will not—”
“Excuse me.” Dahlia interrupted Artura. Would this be her once she learned control? “If you’re talking about the ring, I never meant offense. I picked it as a gift for her, and she’s more family than you’ll ever be. If you don’t like the enchant, remove it. It’s just a ring.”
How did Dahlia do that? Go from a mortal just trying to survive to fearless when Artura was around?
Artura focused on Dahlia, the dim lighting causing dark rainbows to race over her armored skin. “It’s not just a ring, and that’s not just an enchantment.”
The voice screaming fight, protect, kill in my head hadn’t quieted. Were we talking or removing a disrespectful guest from the premises?
The energy that rolled from Frey magnified my instincts. He hadn’t touched this type of power in centuries. “She obviously meant no offense.”
“Ignorance is no excuse.”
“Is it a reason to foul a home you were invited into?” Frey demanded.
This wouldn’t get us anywhere. I could attack, or I could say the one thing that may work, but would piss off Dahlia I didn’t even like the way the words tasted. “Your visions showed you working with Dahlia, or you wouldn’t have come here for her.” It took focus for me to say so much at once, and I may have reverted to the old tongue at a few points in the sentence.
Artura stepped up to me with a quiet roar. She was more than a head shorter, and my wolf was convinced I could snap her in half with my jaws. “You know nothing of my intentions, boy.” Her voice was in my head as much as aloud. “However, I will speak with Dahlia and I’d rather it be with her permission.”
“Then don’t attack my friends,” Dahlia said. Patches of onyx decorated her skin, looking more like spots than armor made of scales. “At least tell us why you’re pissed off.”
“This is the most valuable thing I own.” Magnus worked her fingers in a wave, showing off the full finger ring she wore around ring finger. “It doesn’t matter what it’s worth—nothing means more to me.”
“Of course not.” Artura stepped away from us, but didn’t return to a full human form. “The fae magic wouldn’t work under any other circumstance.”
I wasn’t ready to back down. “Explain yourself.” I let the growl enhance my demand.
Artura focused a glare on me. “The ring is made of one of my claws, which makes it receptive to certain magical energies. I sold it to Dahlia for a pittance because gifting it carries consequences, but I recognized she was one of ours and I liked her. Before you ask, I didn’t know who she would become. As for the enchant, it’s blood magic.”
“A meaningless human term.” Frey scoffed.
“A very real term when the entirety of a fae is used to imbue a magically receptive item. But the magic should have faded.” Artura spoke with disdain.
Horror splashed across Magnus’s face, and she removed the ring.
I understood. “Unless the item was gifted with genuine love”
“I’ve been wearing dead fae?” Magnus’s voice was suddenly tiny; a sharp contrast to the battle maiden she presented as.
“Whoever imbued that ring for you knows more, and is more dangerous than you realize,” Artura said.
Vidar. Magnus had told us he was the one who made it possible for the ring to hide her from detection and teleport her from place to place. He was one of the gods who sat on the TOM board of directors. More than a year ago, he’d taken a large number of fae captive, and not all of them had been rescued.
Death was one thing, but slaughter to steal magic, to enslave a portion of their being in inanimate objects? The notion made me ill.
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” Dahlia’s unstable transformation flickered in a dizzying display.
“Now you do.” Artura finally let any trace of dragon fade away, and was human again.
I was still ready to strike.
“You and I will speak.” Artura took Dahlia’s hand. “And then you and I will be done with each other.”
They vanished as I lunged. A blur raced past me, and I chased as Magnus stopped immediately in front of Frey, magical spear to his throat.
“You let her take Dahlia.” Magnus pressed the weapon in.
I understood the sentiment, but I also knew why Frey did what he did, and she wouldn’t hurt my mate. I grabbed her wrist and squeezed. “We’ll get her back.”
“I promise,” Frey added. “You may not believe this but I made the call for Dahlia’s sake. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“You just did,” Magnus said.
“No. Dahlia is safe.” I had no doubt. The knowledge didn’t stop the animal inside from snarling and snapping for a way to pursue her and get her back.
THIRTEEN
DAHLIA
The back lounge of NEON vanished and I found myself standing in the middle of a bookstore, a human-again Artura next to me.
I’d only been here once, but I vividly remembered her bookstore in Spain. Who would forget a place called The Dragon’s Hoarde that was filled with the glorious scent of old paper and magic? She’d better not ruin bookstores for me the way she had dragons.
And if I focused on my irritation and fascination, I could block out my mounting terror enough to hide it from the scary woman who tried to attack my best friend, then kidnapped me. Swallowing my fear to make a point—Hel would be so proud of me.
“I acted poorly back there; I apologize.” Artura’s contrite tone caught me off-guard. She gestured toward the end of the aisle we were in, and a doorway I hadn’t seen before. “Would you like some coffee?”
Where did the scary human-dragon hybrid go?
I wasn’t stupid, but I was having a hard time keeping up. Caffeine would either kickstart my brain or my paranoia, might as well find out which. “Sure.”
I followed her into a room just big enough for two overstuffed chairs, and a table between them. She waved her hand, and a tea set—coffee set?—appeared in the middle of the table.
“Can you summon coffee out of midair?” I apparently had no idea how amazing dragons were.
Artura gave me a funny look, and chuckled lightly. “No. I had this waiting upstairs, on the assumption I’d be hosting you as a guest.”
She poured dark liquid into each cup. “Cream and sugar. Do have a seat.” She gestured at two separate dishes and then the chair across from her.
I sweetened and lightened my coffee significantly—I may be a trained killer, but I wasn’t a psychopath—and perched on the edge of the chair. Why did the calm bother me so much? Oh, right, because this deceptively tiny woman looked ready to rip out Magnus’s throat less than ten minutes ago.
Artura sipped her coffee. Her black coffee. “You can relax.”
“I really can’t.”
She held out her hand to show Magnus’s ring resting on her palm. “I truly am sorry about my reaction. For centuries, certain gods have sought parts of us—claws, shed skin, hair, scales, you name it—to imbue in vile ways. It’s caused us a lot of pain, as well as whichever other beings they use in their enchants. I saw your friend, and I made assumptions.”
“Oh.” That sounded too reasonable. “I promise I didn’t know, and if Magnus says she didn’t, that’s true as well.”
A small ball of flame appeared in Artura’s hand, and when it burned out the ring was gone. “Yes, we can summon fire.”
“Do we breathe it?” Damn it, I didn’t want to get sucked into my fascination or admitting I had anything in common with her. I was also still furious at Frey.
