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scue and recovery, but I wanted to drink in another few seconds of the amazing creature in Jill’s arms.
“She is pretty special, isn’t she?” Jill glowed with adoration and pride, bent her head to nuzzle her daughter. “Look at her. She’s awesome.”
“She’s beautiful,” I agreed with a smile. If Jill had indeed seen the winged thing on my back earlier she wasn’t letting herself think it might have been her newborn. I stroked the tiny fingers, hardly able to believe they’d been claws only a few minutes earlier.
A change in air pressure hit me an instant before a palpable and familiar aura washed over me. Jill jerked in shock even as I whirled to see Zack and Szerain standing a few feet away. Eyes wary and stance tense, Szerain remained in the guise of Ryan and wielded his essence blade in front of him like a shield. Zack swayed and caught himself on Szerain’s shoulder. I wanted to be relieved and elated at their arrival, but a base instinct kept my guard up.
“Oh my god, Zack!” Jill cried out then gave him a watery smile and pulled the silk back from the bean’s face. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Oh god, I can’t believe you’re here.”
Zack closed on Jill, his movements deliberate as if he required the utmost concentration simply to keep his cells from flying apart. He crouched, unsmiling. A warning sounded in the back of my head.
“I’ve come for Ashava,” Zack said as he reached for the baby.
Jill drew back and clutched her daughter closer to her chest. “Ashava?” she echoed with the tiniest shiver in her voice. “Don’t I get a say in naming her?” It was more than the name that had her on guard. I’d always known Jill to have good instincts, and it was clear she felt a weird vibe. I settled my weight, poised to intervene if needed, for however much good that would do. Szerain darted his eyes around as if expecting the bogeyman to leap out at any instant. His breath hissed in and out, short and sharp, and the hand that held the blade Vsuhl trembled.
“What’s going on, Zack?” I demanded.
Zack shuddered. “Give her to me now,” he gritted out, hands still extended, though he didn’t try to forcibly take her—yet.
“No!” Aghast, Jill turned her body to shield the bean from him. “You’re not taking my baby from me!”
“Zakaar!” Alarm threaded Szerain’s voice, and sweat beaded his face. “Xharbek is near!”
Xharbek, Szerain’s long lost ptarl—who had commandeered my nexus to hunt Szerain and create the dream link to Rhyzkahl. I shoved myself between Jill and Zack then let out a hiss of pain as the twelfth sigil flared with searing heat across my lower back. In the same instant, a naked baby appeared in Zack’s arms.
Jill let out an anguished scream, stared in horror at the empty cloth in her arms and then at Zack with her baby. “No! Give her back!”
She teleported to daddy, I realized in shock and dismay. Ashava shifted in a heartbeat to the pearlescent dragon-demon form and clung to Zack’s neck. Szerain gripped Zack’s arm and dragged him to his feet. Jill scrambled up with my help, though I had a sick feeling we’d already lost this battle.
“Give me back my baby!” she screamed, agonized as Zack stepped back. She didn’t care about wings or claws or luminous eyes. That was her daughter. “Zack, no, please. Don’t take her away!”
Szerain caught Zack’s arm and moved in close. Zack met Jill’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“Take me with you!” She reached out, pleading.
And then Zack and Szerain and Ashava vanished.
Jill let out a terrible cry of rage and grief. “You asshole!” she shrieked into the empty air then collapsed against me, shaking. I wrapped her in a hug while I fought to make sense of it all.
I’d barely closed my arms around her when Carl materialized where Zack had stood seconds earlier. Carl. I gaped in shock as Szerain’s words jangled through my head. Xharbek is near.
Before I had a chance to react, he seized Jill by the upper arms and pulled her from my grasp. “Where did they take her?” he asked, inches from her face, each word clear, precise and powerful.
“I don’t know!” She tried to squirm from his grasp with zero success.
“Hey, get off her!” I shoved at him but I might as well have tried to budge a mountain. “Don’t you dare hurt her!” Carl is Xharbek! There was nothing laid back and calm about him now.
“Let me go!” Jill’s voice shook. She didn’t know all the details about Xharbek, but she’d grasped that this was not good ol’ Carl, even beyond the whole teleporting trick. Carl’s gaze flicked to me for an instant, reading everything from Jill and me and probably everyone else in the vicinity.
He released Jill and disappeared.
I grabbed her as she staggered. “Oh, shit,” I breathed, gulping. “Oh, shit shit shit shit.” Carl is Xharbek. He’d been a part of our lives. Hidden. A lie. Like Zack was before I discovered he was Zakaar. Nobody is truly who they appear to be.
And Xharbek wanted Jill’s baby. That had to be why Zack and Szerain took her away. To protect Ashava? Or was Xharbek the good guy in this scenario? My gut told me no, but that didn’t mean a damn thing. Nothing was black or white anymore.
Jill breathed raggedly, eyes wide, swallowed and went quiet. Then my dear friend—the one who was strong and fierce and rolled with the punches like no one’s business, who was teleported from her home, gave bizarre birth to a demon-baby, survived a major disaster, had her baby stolen by the baby daddy, and then was shaken like a ragdoll by the mild-mannered morgue tech—leaned on my shoulder and burst into tears.
I hugged her close and let her sob, even as I tried to think of a place I could stash her where she’d be safe. Everything was a godawful mess, but I couldn’t just leave her, not in her condition.
