The raven crouched, bringing her deadly beak within inches of my face. “They are sisters. You were lucky to survive Maggi, I believe, and you gained her respect for the allegiance you showed to your pride. She holds loyalty as a quality above all others.”
I swallowed once and then gave the raven my secret. “I didn’t give Ish the sapphire.”
I didn’t think birds could smile; I was wrong. The corners of her beak turned up and her black eyes glittered with humor. “Then I believe Maggi was right in returning the flail to you. Be strong, little cat. You’re going to need every ounce of your inner power before this is done.”
A shout came from across the courtyard. The raven pushed off the roof and launched into the air. I stumbled back with the downdraft of her thickly feathered wings, going to one knee to stop my backward slide.
More shouts.
I had to move fast. I shot forward and scooped up the flail. It warmed instantly against my hand, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear it . . . purred against my skin.
“Knock that shit off. You aren’t happy to see me. You’re a fucking weapon,” I snapped, irritated and upset with what had just happened. The purring sensation stopped, but the warmth didn’t. I grimaced, wanting nothing more than to throw my hands over my head and rail to the sky.
What the hell? The Ice Witch was now my, hell, I didn’t even know what to call her. Mentor? Patron? Cheerleader?
“Fuck me,” I grumbled as I strode back to Balder’s stall. The shouting behind me was still heavy in the air, but it was just the other residents of the Stockyards—a mixture of humans and lesser supes. They would run and tell Ish what they saw, and I’d tell her I’d made the raven go away. But I was a shitty damn liar so this could go south rapidly.
I climbed back into my room and laid the flail on the bed. Yes, the weapon was powerful, but the truth was, I couldn’t use it unless I was willing to die.
I shivered, thinking of the drain on my body when I’d slammed it against the White Wolf. Yes, I’d survived his claws and teeth, but the flail had laid me out as it drained my life in payment for its help. Or some shit like that.
I’d barely been able to save myself and couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to do it again. I just stared at it. “Seriously, what the hell am I to do with you?”
A knock came on the door and Darcy poked her head in. “Am I interrupting something?”
With long blond hair, bright gold eyes, and a smile that normally lit up a room, she was the epitome of a Bright Lion. Unlike my dark hair and green eyes that could not have made me stand out more. Today, though, her sunny disposition was missing, and that made me nervous.
I snorted. “No, just talking to myself again.”
Her face was sober and my joke didn’t so much as lift her lips into a half smile. “Steve wants to leave today. I think Ish will allow you and me to go as well. I’m assuming you do want to go.”
“Does he?” I had to fight to keep the sarcasm from dripping off even those two words. None of this current situation was Darcy’s fault. Well, maybe a little of it was—in my mind, anyway. She could have stood up for me against Steve at any point.
We could have taken him down together, but when I’d suggested it, she looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“That’s not how things are done in a pride; you know that,” she’d said.
“Well, maybe things need to change then” had been my reply, and she’d turned her back on me and walked away, stiff-legged and angry.
More and more, I doubted our friendship, and that cut deeply. I’d risked everything to save her from the Ice Witch. But after having Lila at my side for just a week, the little dragon had shown me there were better friendships out there, even if they weren’t between the same species. I just didn’t want to let Darcy go. She was my kind—a lion shifter. We had been friends since we were children . . . but things had changed somewhere along the journey to this moment, and I had been ignoring that truth for a long time.
Darcy sighed and stepped into my room, shutting the door behind her. “Listen. We must let him lead. We don’t have a choice here, and you know it, so don’t even think about asking me to jump him again. Ish put him in charge of recovering the Dragon’s gemstone. I trust Ish, and she wouldn’t do this if he wasn’t the best choice.”
Oh, that fucking stung. Steve was not the best choice, not by a long shot. I held those thoughts back. “And what about Bryce? Did she say anything about him? Did she say we could send someone to look for him?” I felt like I was living in a fucking loop I couldn’t escape. Only a month before, Steve had been sent into the Ice Witch’s Reign to recover the sapphire for Ish while Darcy was being held captive by the same power.
Ish claimed Darcy was lost, and not worth trying to bring home even though Steve was going to the very castle where she was being held. Ish said all our efforts should be for the jewel and the jewel alone.
Which just meant I’d gone after Darcy with only a supposed human at my side for help. Thoughts of Maks—said supposed human—stirred up a ragged set of emotions I didn’t have the energy to deal with on top of the worry for Bryce, so I pushed them aside.
“Bryce, what about Bryce?” I asked once more seeing as she didn’t answer the first time. “He’s out there, on his own, and he is going to need help. You know that. He loves you, Darcy. Does that mean nothing?”
Because here we were again. In the balance was a loved one and a jewel held by those who were physically and magically stronger than us. What was more important to Ish? I didn’t really have to ask, but I wanted her to say that Bryce was worth saving. I needed Ish to show me that she still cared, at least a little. Or . . . hell, I didn’t even know the answer to that.
Darcy lowered her eyes, and with that, my heart dropped. “She . . . she said he is lost to us. Those were her exact words. He made his choice to leave when he is not physically strong enough to take care of himself.”
And there it was again: Ish had made her stance clear.
The jewel she desired was more important than Bryce.
I realized that Ish had solidified that stance by making us wait three days before we were even allowed to start out. She’d kept us pinned down to make a point.
Steve might be the new alpha, but Ish was truly running the show. And she wouldn’t have any of us defying her—or more clearly, she wouldn’t have me defying her to go after Bryce when she wanted my energy to go into bringing the jewel to her.
I would have snuck off on my own, but Ish knew me too well and put a lockdown on the Stockyards.
I don’t know what the spell was, but it was a bitch, and I was still hurting from it.
Yes, I’d tried to sneak me and Balder out on the second night we’d been back.
I rubbed the palms of my hands, the burns from the magical, and fucking invisible, fence line still healing. Whatever spell she’d laid, it had sunk in deeply, and it seemed to only affect me, as I’d seen servants and others from the Stockyards going in and out, no problem.
“Will you at least talk to Ish before we go?” Darcy asked softly. “She—”
I held up both hands, stopping her. “She doesn’t give a shit about Bryce any more than she gave a shit about you. And I’m not going to let him die out there any more than I let you go without a fight. That’s not how a pride works. You know that. We stand together, we fall together.”
Something churned in my guts, and while deep in me I knew what it was, I didn’t want to give voice to it. Not yet. Truth had a way of forcing itself to the surface whether we wanted or not, and this particular truth was hard for me to let out. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to stop it. But soon wasn’t now, so for the moment, I’d stuff it down. Like everything else that made me uncomfortable and introspective. I snorted to myself. I didn’t have issues at all. Nope, not a one.
Darcy sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Well, let’s get ready. Knowing Steve, he’ll try to catch us off guard to make us look stupid in front of Ish.”
I gave her a nod, frustrated that she could see him for what he was and still back him. But she was deep in the throes of being part of a pride . . . and I was not. Goddess, I was not.