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"Listen, dudes--we have no time for your posturing. We have a crisis on hand, and if you two want to play king of the dreyerie, it wil just have to fucking wait. Got it?" She rested her hands on her hips, glaring at Smoky.
His lip twitched, even as his gaze flickered over our heads to stare at Shade. A moment later, he let out a long sigh and backed off.
"My wife requests we give it a rest. What say you, Master of Shadows?"
Shade glanced at Camil e, then at me. "Is her sister just as demanding?"
"In other ways, I'm sure. At least my wife doesn't turn into a tabby cat and play with my toes at night, as I've heard Delilah is wont to do." Smoky gave me a snarky grin, then abruptly sat down again, pul ing Camil e onto his lap.
Shade nodded to him, taking a seat and motioning for me to sit near him. "Have you told them, my dear?"
"Yeah, I thought it best not to leave you for a last-minute surprise." I laughed. "Of course I told them."
"Already she starts," Shade said. He turned to Iris. "Milady, did you suffer any damage traveling through the astral?"
Roz held out a chair for Iris, and she settled herself into it. "No, I'm fine. And thank you again for saving my life."
"How about you tel us what went down?" I gave her the once-over. She didn't look hurt. Shook up? Yes. But Iris was a lot tougher than she looked.
She picked up her wand, making sure it was al right, fingering the crystal reverently. "I was tending Maggie in the kitchen, when I heard a noise out front.
I had a real y bad feeling, so I ran Maggie to her playpen in Menol y's lair and then came back to see what was going on. I went outside and saw the Tregarts. I raced back into the house to get my wand and cal you when I heard them coming through the front door, so I dropped out of my bedroom window--and let me tel you, that's a long drop for someone like me--and raced into the woods."
She sucked in deep breath, wincing. "I thought I was a goner. One of those beasts saw me. He fol owed me into the woods, and I got myself off the trail.
He fol owed me and was using his fiery breath, but I hit him a good one with frost shards from my wand, and it stopped him. I started to run again but tripped and lost hold of my wand. By that point, he was coming at me again, and I left the wand and ran through the woods. I could hear him as I backtracked, trying to reach the path so I could move faster."
I could see it--Iris, racing through the undergrowth, trying to scramble over the tree trunks that were nearly as tal as she was, with a fire-breathing demon on her tail. The thought made me shiver. We'd lost friends. We could lose her, too.
"I'm so sorry--we should never have left you alone." Rage flooded over me. "Stacia can't have another one of our friends. She kil ed Henry, and it stops there. I promise, we'l make sure we leave you with a guard from now on. And we'l reinforce the house against the demons." A snarl rose up, and I wanted nothing more than to shift back into panther form and go rip up the nearest enemy--which happened to be Kim.
Shade reached over and placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked into his eyes and lost myself in the molten chocolate. His touch was like warm sugar on a cool autumn night.
Taking a deep breath, I shook off the desire to destroy and exhaled in a long, slow stream. "What happened after that?"
Iris bit her lip, drawing blood. "I made it to the path, and as I raced out of the wood, I ran smack into Shade here. I knew who he was immediately--you described him very wel ." She flushed, giving him a shy smile. "And he whisked me up and over to the realm of shadow. Anyway, Master Shade here, he saved my butt, and I wil forever be grateful to him."
"My pleasure, Mistress Ar'jant d'tel." At her sharp look, he smiled gently. "Make no mistake, I see the cloak you wore--and you stil wear in your aura. You cannot wield such power and expect to hide it from Dragonfolk, nor deny you own it. Can she, Master Smoky?"
Smoky let out a harrumph and cleared his throat. "I refrained from bringing it up because I believe it involves some painful memories, but yes. There is truth in what you say. I lived in the Northlands. You are steeped in the energy of the ice and snow, Iris, and anybody who's lived in the high ranges can sense it."
Just then, Vanzir came in, fol owed by Menol y. We al stopped, waiting.
"I know where Stacia is hiding." He motioned toward Menol y, who tossed a steno pad on the table. "We can get her, if we go now. We can take her down, because she won't be expecting this. She has no clue Kim's been outted. There's not a single cord connecting the two psychical y. I also know her weakness--Kim observed it, though Stacia seems to have no clue that anybody else knows."
"Why . . . why did my foster daughter do this?" Carter started to stand, then fel back in his chair, his voice cracking.
This was tearing him up. I could see it, and it made me want to go over and wrap my arms around him and whisper that everything would be okay.
Which it wouldn't, but the desire was stil there.
"Kim wants to be powerful. She hates her human half, and she hates her mother for abandoning her. Stacia's a strong role model, if you like uberbitches. Kim wanted to explore her demon heritage, and you never gave her permission for that. You raised her to be human. She despises what she perceives as her vulnerabilities." Menol y was reading off the steno pad. She looked up and shrugged. "I just took down what Vanzir told me."
Carter hung his head. "I was trying to raise her to be civilized. I would have eventual y taken her to meet her grandfather and asked that he help her."
"Does she know who you are?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No . . . I had not yet told her. I didn't want . . . I didn't want her to grow up thinking she could have everything she wanted just by asking merely because she's the foster daughter of a half-Titan. I couldn't give her back her speech, but there are so many things I would have given her over time."
