But what else was there? I paced the courtyard, wracking my brain. There was someone else who had power like Ish. But. . . he was less than reliable. He had, however, offered to help me out.
“I feel stupid,” I muttered to myself. I took a breath. “Merlin, this would be a perfect time for you to show back up and help, you know,” I said out loud. I perked my ears, listening for a response. “Merlin? You said I could call on you. So. . . I’m calling you, you fickle bastard.”
Nothing but the wind blowing across the winter desert. I crinkled up my nose and resumed my pacing. Not that I’d really expected him to show. He had said he’d wanted to help me get through the Witch’s Reign, nothing more. Damn it.
As I strode past Balder’s stall, he stuck his head out and butted his nose against my back.
Right against the flail.
A flail made by a Jinn, a flail that soaked up blood. A magical weapon if ever there was one. And Maggi had delivered it back to me on the day I needed it. I did not think that was a coincidence now.
I slowed my pacing, turned and looked at him. “My friend, you are surely not just a horse inside that head of yours, for you are far too smart.”
I would only get one shot at this, that much I knew. I slipped into Balder’s stall and tacked him up faster than I’d ever done before, apologizing all the way, but he never flinched. Ish would not expect me to try to run this soon after being told I had to stay. At least, that was what I was banking on. The cover of night would be the smart time to try this, so obviously, I was going right now.
I had Balder’s gear on in well under a minute, checked his girth, and then slid on his bridle.
“Where are you going?”
I cringed at the familiar voice. Fucking desert sand up my ass crack, this was not what I needed at all.
Chapter 3
Standing in Balder’s stall, I fought with the desire to swing around and punch Kiara in the face, but that was a no-no for a lot of reasons, least of all that I didn’t really blame her for what had happened. She’d been a pawn of Steve’s, and now she was likely checking on me for Ish. If I didn’t think fast, I had no doubt she would tattle on me. She could easily run to Ish now that I was all geared up and ready to get the fuck away from the Stockyards and whatever weirdness was taking hold of Ish.
I slowly turned to face her. “Nowhere. I’m going nowhere but a ride around the Stockyards so Balder can stretch his legs. We’ve been cooped up for days, if you recall.”
Her golden eyes fluttered closed to half-mast, making her look demure and even younger than her eighteen years. “I know you hate me.”
“Yup.” No point in denying that shit. I might not blame her, but she’d betrayed me as much as Steve had.
“And I know you hate Steve.”
“Well, to be fair, I hate him more than I hate you,” I said. “You’re just. . . young. And dumb to the ways of a fucking manipulator like him. You can’t see what he’s done to all of us.” I didn’t take my eyes from her. “So maybe I don’t hate you. I hate what you’ve become, what you let him turn you into.”
“I love him,” she said softly. “And he loves me. He’s not manipulating me.”
I glared at her. “Yeah, well I loved him at one point too. Hell, I loved you too. But he doesn’t love either of us. He wants a fucking harem of women so he can have a new body under him every night because he’s a manwhore.”
She cringed. “He told me that he loved me best. Out of all the women he’s been with.”
I rolled my eyes, somehow not surprised that she was aware and okay with the fact that Steve was still sleeping around on her. “Okay, great, fine, he loves you best. I’ll give you that. Why are we having this conversation again?”
She drew a big breath and it was only then that I saw she was dressed for travel and that Lacey, one of the other horses, was tied to a stall a few doors down. A speckled black and white paint horse that wouldn’t hide well on the wide plains, but in the snow, would be hard to spot. Too bad we were going through the plains.
“I want to go with you. Something is wrong with Ish and. . . I’m afraid for my baby, Zam. And I know you might not care for me, but surely you would help me keep a cub safe?” she asked softly.
My lips curled up with distaste, not so much for Kiara but for the words she spoke. Because there was a feel of truth to them I didn’t like. The same truth I’d been struggling with myself—that something was very wrong with our mentor. “Did Ish threaten you?”
Kiara’s heart-shaped face fell, her eyes filling with tears, making her look like the little girl I’d rescued so long ago. “She said that if Steve didn’t come back with the jewel, that. . . something bad would happen. That she’d seen it in a dream that I’d lose the baby, that I’d die, that our pride would die with me.”
A threat cloaked within a dream. I’d seen Ish pull that stunt once before, but it had been with an interloper who had been trying to worm his way into the Stockyards. A wolf shifter with no pack, and a disease we could smell on the wind.
But that was then, this was now. Seriously, what the fuck was going on with Ish? In all the years I’d known her, she’d never been cruel. I frowned, thinking about when it had all started. When had she stopped being the woman I looked to for comfort, the mother of my heart? The steps had been slow in this new direction, but there had been a leap toward the cruel. . . with the stone that we’d brought from the giants. Icy fingers clenched my heart. They were just gemstones we were bringing back, gemstones to magnify her strength, weren’t they? Suddenly the sapphire against the skin of my chest seemed to cool, reminding me that it held power too. A hell of a lot of power.
What if they were a power unto themselves? That would mean we weren’t just saving Ish’s life as she’d said we were, but we were giving her more power.
I tapped my finger against the stall door, thinking fast, trying to outmaneuver whatever was happening here. Because suddenly the problems I faced weren’t just my missing brother, Kiara being threatened, or the dragons’ gemstone falling into the hands of Ish. The problem was Ish herself was a powerful mage who I didn’t want to cross for more reasons than I could count.
That left us only one recourse. One I didn’t like all that much.
“Something is wrong with Ish, that much I’d agree to.” I nodded, keeping my thoughts to myself for the moment. “But I can’t slow down for you, Kiara. And I can’t take you with me.”
“As soon as we get to Steve, you won’t have to worry about me at all,” she said, her eyes full of hope. “And. . . I’m sorry I lied to Ish about what happened at the Ice Witch’s castle. I. . . just want Steve to see that I support him in every way. So that he would know how much he means to me.”
“Even if he’s a camel’s pizzle?” I arched an eyebrow.
Her lips wobbled. “Yes. He needs to know I stand with him. Even if he’s wrong, he’s our alpha and we need to support him.”
Goddess of the Desert, that was bloody fucking messed up. A leader should be held more accountable than anyone else, not given a free pass just because he got handed the job. A mate was the same in my mind. But I wasn’t about to give her relationship advice to improve her partnership with my ex-husband so that he would see her as more than just a warm body at night.
I sighed. “I don’t know if what I’m going to try will work. Did Ish tell you that you couldn’t leave the Stockyards too?”
She nodded. “I think she knew I wanted to go with Steve.”
Of course, she did. Kiara was no better at subterfuge than me in that regard. Which was how I’d caught her and Steve together.
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Fine, you will keep watch while I try to break the. . . whatever it is keeping us both in here.”
“You have magic?” Her eyes widened.
My hand went to the flail’s handle. “Not mine, the Jinn’s. But it should be strong enough to cut through the spell Ish has laid on the Stockyards.” That last bit was just speculation at this point. Ish had always avoided the Jinn, and I’d always thought it was because of us—the only lion shifters in the world were here.