Obsidian Prince, page 19
But it wasn't her life that was endangered. It was his. In a matter of days, an assassin would come to end his life.
Talking about her parents at dinner brought up old feelings that she had all but forgotten. Himmler, the son of a seelie princess and a human, with the aid of the red wolves of Germany, had all but destroyed the spider seer race. Her first mother, her father, two of her brothers, their children, and so many of the friends of her youth. What few had known was that Himmler sought a sword. In the hands of a Sidhe, that sword could amplify Fae power to godlike levels.
Now, a killer came for Alexander, her beautiful prince whose heart beat faster when she touched him. The enemy believed Alexander had the sword. Fraegarthach would make him a god, and it would destroy him. Liliana would never let that sword anywhere near her prince.
Up until he defeated the Wolfhounds, Pete needed the sword to survive, but now, it was a liability. Fraegarthach needed to leave. As long as it was in Fayetteville, it threatened her prince's life and his deepest self.
But that was a fear for another day.
Something had fundamentally changed in Alexander’s future. She no longer saw him dying from a single gunshot to the head in his own kitchen as his most probable future. That possibility was gone. A far more certain vision now took it’s place. Alexander sat bound to a chair. He was being beaten in a place she didn’t recognize. It was somewhere with a high window with no glass. His path had changed, but it still led to his death. Now, instead of fighting someone she had a high probability of defeating, she would face a different opponent. She still could not see her opponent’s face, but she did see him killing her in some of her visions. She might not be able to beat this new murderer.
As she saw big fists and hairy human forearms crash into her prince’s face, she at least knew the gender of her new opponent. A man. A big man.
This killer didn’t just seek Alexander’s death, though. He thought her prince had the sword. The killer would hurt him to try to force him to tell where it was. The probability that she would win that fight was even less than when she fought Tray Bradley. This was a far more formidable enemy than the slender person who killed Alexander in his kitchen in her previous vision. Plus, her left arm would still be weak from the bad break. Her best chance lay in finding a way to stop him without fighting him directly.
The possibility of dying while fighting for Alexander’s life was not what kept her awake long into the night, though.
In all her visions now, whether she lived or died, whether she fought or stopped the killer another way, she always saw Alexander’s body bloody on the floor. Sergeant Giovanni put two fingers to his throat to check for his pulse, shook her head, and said, "He's dead."
She could no longer see a future where her prince survived.
Just a day ago, there had been a good probability that he would live. She must have done something that changed the possible futures. It must have happened today. She didn't know what she had done wrong. Something she’d done that day was a mistake.
Alexander would pay the price.
She blinked tears. There had to be something she missed. There must be a path where he could be saved.
"Hey," Alexander mumbled softly. "What's wrong? Did you see something?"
"It is something I do not see that worries me." Liliana held his big hand close against her chest, rubbing his fingers for comfort. His other arm was under her head. His bicep was her pillow.
"What don't you see?"
"You. I see myself fighting for you. Sometimes I win and survive, but I do not see you alive after that, even if I defeat your attacker."
"I don't like the idea of you fighting for me if you're not sure you can win.”
He always seemed to ignore the danger to himself. It was as if he didn't care, but he said he believed her. Maybe he was just so used to his life being in danger that it didn't perturb him.
"I decided to fight for you when you had only kissed me once."
"And now?" His thumb stroked between her breasts, over her heart.
"A dozen angry trolls could not stop me from fighting for you."
He chuckled and hugged her tighter against his body. "Be careful then." He placed a kiss on the top of her shoulder.
They were both silent for a time, but his breathing didn't steady and slow. Alexander lay awake now as well. "What can you tell me about it?" he asked after a while. Maybe he was not as unconcerned about his fate as he seemed.
"Something significant has changed. I no longer see a small, black-gloved hand, probably a woman, and a single fatal shot that catches you by surprise. Now, I see a man, a killer who believes you have Pete's sword. He will suppress your magic so you can't fight back, torture you for information, then kill you. I changed something. I made it worse, somehow."
"What's so special about Pete’s sword that everyone is after it?"
"It is Fraegarthach, the Answerer."
His body stiffened. He lifted up onto one elbow to look down at her, stealing away her nice bicep pillow. "Fraegarthach has been lost for two millennia."
She opened her second eyes so she could see him as well. "Not lost. Hidden for generations by a pack of Celtic wolves. Pete is the last of the pack. The others are all dead."
"No wonder Aurore wanted it so badly. Pete has the sword now, doesn't he?" His voice had that bored, flat tone that he used when he sought to hide his emotions.
"Do not seek the sword, my prince. I knew that you would desire its power, much as you desire immortality, but as you said, there is always a price. The price for Fraegarthach is far too high." Her view of his face through her second eyes was awash in colors that she had no name for, eerie and yet, still beautiful. She could see the crown of silver horns as a flickering aura. His face reflected oddly, as if it were much harder than human flesh.
His lips quirked and that dimple in his cheek appeared. "Apparently, the price for not having it is death."
"Some things are worse than death."
"I can't let Aurore get her hands on it, Little Spider. She's already tried to kill Pete for it more than once. I have to do something or eventually, she'll succeed."
He was trying to convince her to help him get the sword. He was a master manipulator, yet she was not fooled. His argument had a flaw. It depended on Pete's life being more important to Liliana than Alexander's own life. To her astonishment, that was no longer true. "The sword, itself, will protect Pete, as will I. That sword must never again be held by a royal Sidhe."
She shifted onto her back to face him with human eyes. "One rampaging Green man is a consequence of a Sidhe prince bonding to the land here. If you or your sister held Fraegarthach, every Fae in a hundred miles would awaken at once, mountain giants, elementals, dragons, the horrors of native stories we never heard, creatures that have been gone so long we no longer even have legends of them. The longer you held it, the wider that circle of Green power would become. Six people lost their lives from just one angry, confused Green man."
"It would give the wielder the power of a god," he said softly. His bland tone could not hide his desire for that power from her third eyes.
She touched his face, tracing the scars that marred his perfect skin. "The laws of physics would break down. Chaos would reign.” There were few things her prince desired as much as power. One was order, and oddly for a soldier, another was peace. “The moment one Fae laid claim to that power, every other Fae of royal blood, seelie or unseelie, would seek to take it. You would be the spark that ignited another great war.”
He grimaced in distaste, but his mind still searched for ways to make the sword his.
“My parents and older brothers are dead because a Fae sought that power. I suspect Pete's parents and maybe his entire pack was killed because of it.” She didn’t dare open her fourth eyes, not wanting to see the consequences of such a rash action. “How many would die, do you think? Would you, a young prince still cementing his power base, be one of them? Are you ready to do battle against every other Sidhe in the world?"
His jaw firmed with a kind of stubbornness that refused to back down even if all the world stood against him.
She stroked the hard muscle of his jaw with her thumb. "My help is yours for most things, but I will not help you destroy yourself and rip the world apart."
"Fraegarthach is a Fae sword of power. It wouldn't kill me." There was a hint of question in his voice.
"No, but it would deeply, fundamentally change you. All that you are now would be gone. A monster would live in your skin. I like you as you are, my prince of shadows and secrets."
He settled back with a sigh pulling her close against him. "Then I suppose it's a good thing you and Pete didn't let me get it."
Liliana kept silent. She knew the desire for the power of Fraegarthach had not left her prince. Alexander would seek the sword again. It was his nature to seek power.
I accept that.
She understood who and what he was. So far, his lust for power had been less strong than his desire to protect his people. He sent the wizard to get the sword from Pete thinking that would save the red wolf from being hunted constantly by his sister's assassins. He’d sought a path to the sword without bloodshed. He couldn't have known how William Eliot would twist his orders.
After a while, Alexander slept.
Liliana did not sleep until dawn lightened the windows. She searched every possible path of the future, fought to get past the images of torture and death to see another way. She couldn’t understand why her prince would die now when before, there had been a chance for her to save him.
What changed? What did she do wrong? More importantly, what could she do to fix it before it was too late?
Finally, exhaustion dragged her under its spell.
Chapter 17
Morning Revelations
Liliana woke to a knock on the door, confused at first because she wasn’t certain if it came from her front business door or her back home door. The muscular form of Alexander Bennett moved quietly around the room.
Liliana looked backward in time a bit with her fourth eyes so she could see more of him walking around naked, then shirtless. It was a sad thing to cover up that many beautiful muscles.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek where it barely stuck out above the covers. “I’ll get it. It’s Runningwolf. We’ve got a standing eight o’clock meeting here to go over the plan for the day.”
“On Saturday?”
“I called him back to duty when I first got up. He must have already been up to get here so fast.” Alexander knelt down beside the bed so they were face to face.
Reflexively, Liliana, shifted her first eyes’ gaze to his right shoulder as she always did when people tried to make eye contact, but found it wasn’t that strong a compulsion. She could look at his cheek or his lips. He had very nice lips that made her think of how they felt on her skin.
His big hand pushed her messy jumble of hair aside, baring one of her second eyes. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, his warm breath making her shiver. “Someone gave me some good advice about how to deal with the awakening forest and the angry Green man.”
Liliana smiled, warmth filling her from toes to hair.
Alexander kissed her on the neck before he left the room to answer the door.
With her fourth eyes, Liliana watched him go. His backside was as magnificent as his chest. She stretched lazily, warm and happy and drowsy, starting to doze back off as she watched him.
Alexander bent to pick up his shoes from the hallway as he walked. He dropped them neatly under the little bench by the front door in their usual place.
Lieutenant John Runningwolf saluted smartly when he opened the door. “Good morning, sir.”
Alexander returned the salute before inviting the young soldier in. “Coffee?”
John grinned. “Yes, sir, absolutely and always.” He doffed his cap and tucked it under a strap on his shoulder as he came in. “Sergeant Giovanni and that civilian Detective Jackson are fairly certain now that the Kodiak-kin was a copycat. He’s had no contact that we know of with any of the victims, other than those last two.”
Alexander walked into the kitchen while they talked. “The culprit’s a Green man who recently woke up. He’s probably not even from this century, so Jackson’s not going to find anything on him.”
In the kitchen, her prince went to pull open the refrigerator. There was a scrap of black satiny cloth and lace hanging on the handle.
Liliana giggled, awake now, so she got up out of bed. The interaction in the next room was far too interesting for her to sleep through it.
The colonel paused for only a moment. He removed the panties, tucked them in his pocket, and opened the refrigerator door as if nothing happened. “We’ll need to go to the Bones Creek forest, in the area where the killings took place.” His voice hadn’t changed.
John’s cheek made an odd sort of tick. He started to snicker, but Alexander stared at him in a way that made the smile vanish. He cleared his throat, “Um, sure, um, yes, sir.”
“I intend to use my bond with the land to wake up all the sleeping Fae in the area and lay down the law. Those people don’t know the rules, or the changes that time has made.” Alexander poured a glass of orange juice for himself. He punched buttons on the front of an express coffeemaker on his counter.
John held out a hand. “They don’t know the land has a ruler, now.”
“Exactly.” Alexander placed a mug of hot coffee in his outstretched hand.
The young soldier walked around the kitchen island to a barstool. He paused for a moment, staring at the living room.
Liliana wondered what he was looking at and looked herself. A blender was shattered all over the floor by the island. Liliana’s new black dress was half on the arm of the couch, half on the floor. Her bra hung from the corner of an end table.
“I’ll need you and Nudd there,” Alexander said, ignoring the direction of his Lieutenant’s gaze. “Brief Detective Jackson. I want her to know what’s going on. It’s an asset having someone in local law enforcement who knows what’s really happening. She can provide cover when necessary. The press already thinks we caught the killer. Best if we can keep it that way. I’ll take care of the Green man, myself, if she approves.”
Alexander bent down, picked his dress shirt up off the kitchen floor. He folded it in half neatly on the kitchen counter. “Inform Siobhan as well. This is an official court action, so we’ll need our Guardian.” Alexander paused for a moment. “And Pete. He’s off today, but he’ll come in if you tell him its related to the recent killings.”
John nodded, still staring at the mess of Alexander’s usually photo-ready living room. “Pete, okay. Sure. Um.”
Liliana giggled again as she searched through Alexander’s closet. She’d fallen asleep in her ballet slippers, but that was the only thing she was currently wearing.
John pushed some of the chunks of broken blender aside with his boot. He lifted a scrap of torn cloth off the barstool he was about to sit on. His face made some weird contortions as he struggled not to smile. Holding up the torn scrap that used to be Alexander’s t-shirt, he looked at his commanding officer with a poorly suppressed smirk and raised eyebrows. “Something you want to tell me, sir?”
Alexander looked at him, face blank and serious. “No, there isn’t.”
John shrugged and tossed the scrap of material behind him to land on the couch. He glanced at the dress and bra. “Was she anyone I know?”
“Would you like to spend the rest of your tour as a gate guard?”
John winced. “Fine, so we bring in Pete. I don’t see how you’re going to avoid letting him know what you are.”
Alexander nodded. “I’ve been advised that I should come clean with Pete about my nature.”
“Didn’t that Eliot guy tell you it was a super bad idea because of the whole Celtic wolf unseelie thing? Possibly, a battle to the death level of bad?”
“I’ve gotten new advice that I trust more than I trusted Eliot’s advice.”
Liliana bounced on her toes a little, her grin broad enough to crack her face in half as she chose something to wear. She didn’t think anything of Alexander’s in camo would be appropriate since she wasn’t a soldier, and they all looked like mud and algae anyway.
“You finally got together with Liliana,” John said with a knowing smirk.
Alexander narrowed his eyes. “Why do you say that?”
Liliana figured now was as good a time as any to come out since apparently John already knew she was there.
As he glanced toward her, his smile broadened. “Lucky guess.”
She walked in front of the kitchen island, behind John’s barstool. Along with her new black ballet slippers with the long ribbons that wrapped up to her knees, she wore one of Alexander’s white dress shirts that fell down to her knees to meet the ribbons.
Normally she would be uncomfortable wearing so little in front of two men, but in her current state of mind, she couldn’t be bothered to care.
“Good morning, John.” She carefully avoided the chunky bits of machinery and broken glass on the floor from the blender so she could sit down on the barstool next to him.
“So you really don’t care what the Colonel thinks of you, I see. Not at all.”
Liliana lifted one finger without looking at him in a gesture that had served her well for decades on this continent.
John lost his battle to hold in his laughter.
Ignoring him, Alexander asked her, “Would you like some tea?”
“But you don’t drink tea,” Liliana said, confused. “You had none the last time I visited you.”
Alexander opened the cupboard above and to the right of his sink. The entire bottom shelf was filled with little square tins of many kinds of loose-leaf teas, each with what looked like an ink stamp on the beige labels of a woman in a Victorian dress merged with a gear where her legs should be. Tea Punk Teas.
Liliana couldn’t decide which amazing flavor to choose. Some were familiar flavors like jasmine green and masala chai and something called Earl Grey De La Crème. Oh, that sounds delicious. Others were completely new.
