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Startled, I turned. “You know what we’re planning?”
She nodded. “Wrath told me. Cicely, so much more depends on you and Grieve than you realize. And on Chatter and Rhiannon, too. The four of you must stay alive, no matter the cost. Before, there were other options, but now…those are gone. You four are the hope for the future. Remember that. Be safe. Do what you need to in order to stay alive. Anything you need to.” With that pointed bit of advice, she moved away again, leaving me to wonder how much worse things could get.
Chapter 17
We had to clean up before we could head to the radio station, and so I took my third shower of the day. Grieve came in with me, for which I was both grateful and nervous. I didn’t tell him about Lannan’s kiss. We were under enough pressure as it was, and if he knew Lannan had been groping me again, well, that would just put the nail in the coffin. Or the stake in the vampire.
“Where did they put the cats? I can’t stand to think of them in danger from Lannan’s people.” Cats didn’t like vampires. They had good reason.
Grieve smiled softly as he washed my hair. “Worry not about the furry creatures. Luna has been given a large suite and they’re all in there with her, safe and sound. I have to admit, for all of his folly, Altos seems to like Luna—he treats her with a respect that surprises me. I saw it while you were out of the room today.”
“She has a way of inspiring that in both man and beast.” I paused, my hands on the knobs of the shower. “I was worried she might be too easily hurt, too vulnerable, but I have the feeling she has a lot more power than I gave her credit for. It’s a quiet energy but runs strong in her.”
As I turned off the water and we dried off, I wanted nothing more than to take another nap. I was bone-weary, more tired than I’d ever been. The battle had been draining, even with allies, and the adrenaline that had been coursing through my body was now just as quickly departing.
I leaned against the wall, trying to focus. “I need more coffee or something.”
Grieve pulled me over to the bed.
As much as I loved him, as turned on as I’d been a half hour before, now I couldn’t muster up enough oomph to even think about sex. “I’m sorry, I just don’t have the energy—”
“No, my love. That’s not what I had in mind.” He sat me down and took my hands. “I taught you many things when you were little. Now I will teach you again. You are half–Cambyra Fae. You have the blood of a king in your veins. You will have some of the powers of the Fae, but you have to learn how to call upon them, to activate them.”
I waited, letting him hold my hands, drifting on his words. I was so sleepy, I just wanted to sail out to sea, to glide on the winds, to let the currents take me where they desired.
“Close your eyes. Listen to my voice. Follow me down, into the energy, into the slipstream.”
I followed his instructions, slipping into a light trance, letting his voice lead me into a somnolent state. The energy swirled around us, light whisperings on the slipstream, and I listened as they fluttered past, the light pattering of butterfly wings on the current.
Grieve’s voice echoed past. “Now enter the slipstream and follow me inward. Follow the trail I leave.”
And so I dove into the slipstream, and there it was, the trail of lights that signaled his energy, the trail of bread crumbs leading me onward. I spiraled and looped, the wind racing through my hair, through my thoughts, clearing the cobwebs out, refreshing me. We were running, racing through the slipstream, letting it carry us along, and for one moment, everything felt perfect.
“Now jump…follow me. Keep your eyes closed.”
I jumped. And the scent around me was of autumn and bonfires, and I felt it lure me in because it was Grieve’s energy. He was no longer the sweet freshly mown grass of summer, but the sound of crisp autumn leaves beneath my feet, and the scent of rain on cedars, and his lips tasted like sweet pumpkin and cinnamon sticks. I embraced his change, sank into it, realizing he was no longer of the Summer Court, but neither did Winter fully claim him. He was balanced between the two realms, walking a thin line.
And then his voice swirled around me like a flurry of leaves. “Cicely. Look deep inside. Find the part of yourself that connects to the owl. Find the Uwilahsidhe within you.”
I sank deeper, following the path inward. The slipstream seemed very far away now as I lowered myself into my core, as I let his voice lead me into myself. Past the jaded exterior, past the fear, past the weariness, past the loss, deep into my center where I felt a warm glow. And there…there waited my owl. There waited my father’s blood.
“Draw on that strength. Draw on that reserve. You have so much power there for the using. Feel your spirit rise, lifted on owl wings. Do not shift in body, but draw on your owl to carry you aloft, to free you from the weariness, to buoy you up. Can you do this?”
I inhaled deeply and connected with my owl. And then a rush of energy raced through me—of renewal, the rush of wind in my hair, of wind beneath my wings, the exaltation of being aloft, and yet I did not transform.
“Can you feel it?” His voice slid over the words, sultry and seductive.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Claim it. Coax it out. Let it be your source right now.”
And so I claimed the Cambyra side of me, and my doubts slid away, my worry that I might not be worthy of the blood. And as it did, I began to rise, back into the slipstream.
“Come back now. Return to here, to now, reenergized, refreshed, aware of your inner power, and your connection to that power.”
As his words drifted away, I slowly rose through the slipstream and out, and opened my eyes. The weariness was still there but much diminished, and my body didn’t ache nearly as much as it had. Best, my mind felt clear, replenished, and I realized that I could think again.
“Thank you.” I took Grieve’s hand and pressed it to my lips. “I love you so much.”
