Chapter Twenty-Six

“Why are you propping her up like that?” Blue asked Diana in lieu of saying “hello” upon letting himself into Willa’s house. He blocked the foyer, waiting for Kenny and Lance behind him to take off their shoes. They didn’t need to create more housework for Willa.

Diana was standing beside Willa at the archway between the living room and kitchen, grasping her wrist, pulling her a bit to one side.

Willa’s skin was wan, eyes closed, head hanging.

Reflexes had him pressing his hand to her forehead. Her skin was hot and wet, and disturbingly supple.

“What the hell is wrong with her?” He nudged Diana’s hand away and pulled Willa closer. Her sweater was soaked with sweat.

“I tried to get her to take it off,” Diana said, obviously nothing the source of his concern. “She wouldn’t let me help.”

“Willa.” He tipped her chin up, and her head lolled to one side. A pitiful groan fell out of her mouth.

“Damn it, Diana! How long as she been like this?” he spat at his sister.

She gave him a cool look, full of deserved chastisement.

“Sorry.” He just didn’t know what to do or how to help, and that agitated the beast part of him. If his mate was broken, he wanted to fix her. Needed to, or else he wouldn’t be quite whole, either.

“Thank you,” Diana said. “And she’s been getting progressively worse since around two. I drove her home from the school, and she’s been going downhill since.”

Blue picked Willa up beneath the arms and was about to carry her to the sofa, but Diana grabbed his arm. “I’d keep her upright if I were you. That’s why I was standing her up here. She seems to be less green when she’s on her feet, but I don’t know how she’s feeling. She’s not communicative.”

“What do you mean? She’s not talking?”

“Blue!” Willa shouted at him. Her eyes, jaundice yellow, flicked open and a deep line creased her pretty brow.

“Yes?” he whispered after too long of a delay, because something wasn’t right. The energy coming off her wasn’t hers and didn’t seem to be typical staining due to her being his mate. The underlayment of it was Willa, but the taint over it nearly drowned it out. There was almost nothing left that was familiar.

“You’ll just . . . have to deal with it?” she said, curling her fingers into his shirt. “Just deal.”

“Okay, sweetheart. Anything you want. What am I dealing with?”

“Didn’t need to tell you. Doesn’t matter, does it?” Her eyes were wide and feral, head shaking fast.

He took it gently between his hands and held it still. “What doesn’t matter?”

“You’re stuck with me, and that’s that.” That time, her head, still between his hands, nodded in finality. “Stuck. Long, long time. Eons, even.”

“Oh yeah?” Blue cut his gaze to Diana and mouthed, “What’s she talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Diana said low. “Like I said, she hasn’t been making a whole lot of sense. I’m pretty sure she was speaking prophecy earlier, though. I couldn’t confirm because she couldn’t remember what she’d told me.”

“Prophecy?”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t have believed it unless I’d seen it. I’d always thought that shit was crazy in the Greek and Roman myths, but it’s not crazy. It’s terrifying.”

Shit.

He should have been there. He shouldn’t have abandoned his mate, even for a few hours, the morning after deciding that he’d have to keep her. Somehow, her issue was his fault. He’d broken her somehow. Maybe she was allergic to what he was and couldn’t deal.

“I really hope that’s not the case,” he said.

“Hope what’s not the case?” Diana asked.

“Didn’t mean to say that aloud.” He swiped his shirtsleeve across Willa’s forehead and let her put her weight against his chest.

She murmured something about immortal mates and about how that was that.

“It’s not your fault,” Diana said, “if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“So you know, then.” He scoffed, realizing who he was dealing with. “Of course you do. You’ve got Mom’s nose.”

“Years ago, I would have been really pissed about you comparing me to her, but I’m over it now.”

Willa fisted his shirt again and scowled up at him. “I don’t get another one.”

“Another what, sweetheart?”

She made a dismissive flick of her hand and reeled in his grip, but he kept her upright. “Whatever you are. Sorry not sorry.”

“I think she’s saying you’re her . . . ” Diana shrugged. “Whatever the demigod’s equivalent of a mate is. I guess she thought you’d take issue with that.”

He snorted. “Here I was thinking she’d be pissed at me for telling her I was in the same boat.”

Willa grabbed at his face, his hair, wild-eyed again. “Not boats. No. Not boats. Trucks. Take you all away. Why?” Her expression crumbled, projecting so much sadness that his brain seemed to short out for a few seconds. And like his heart stopped beating in that span.

“Take who away, Willa? Who? I’m not going anywhere, do you hear me?”

Her brow furrowed once more. “Who are you?”

“Blue, sweetheart. Barrett. Can you see me?”

Her gaze was unfocused, pupils different sizes. Amber irises spreading and retracting. “No.” Her voice was barely a whisper. Musing rather than frightened, and her scent confirmed as much, though slowly. Her body was a few beats behind her mind.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Kenny asked.

Just that quickly, Blue had forgotten that Kenny and Lance were there. Under no circumstances would he have wanted them to see Willa so disordered—she deserved her privacy—but he’d do anything to set her to rights again. More brains working together was better than one on its own.

“Call . . . ” Clutching Willa tight and propping the side of her head against his chest, he let out a frustrated breath. Call who?

Who would she accept having so keenly aware of her business? Not a Coyote, beyond the ones already in the room. Noelle would help her, but Noelle couldn’t speak. Perhaps the angels, but the angels weren’t likely to know much about the vagaries of shapeshifter-demigod relationships.

“Another demigod might,” Blue muttered. “Call Tito Perez,” Blue told Kenny. “Give him a brief rundown of the situation and see if he can come over. I think his number is on that contact list on the refrigerator.”

Kenny didn’t hesitate. He had his phone out and the dial pad ready to use before he got halfway to the appliance.

“Does she have any family?” Lance asked. “Anyone who’d know how to help her?”

“She doesn’t speak to anyone in her family. They’re not in contact.”

But that wasn’t quite true. Apollo had tried to get in contact. He’d left that coin for her, and had forced it back onto Blue. At that very moment, it was in Blue’s wallet. He hadn’t decided what to do with it. Destroy it? Give it away? Summon Apollo and fling the shit back into his face?

Apollo . . . 

Shifting a drowsing Willa to one arm, he wrestled his phone out of his pocket and opened a wiki app.

“What are you looking up?” Diana asked.

“Not saying that out loud.” He tapped the name into the search box with his thumb, held the screen up to his sister long enough for her to read and confusion to seize her features, and then hit the enter button.

He scrolled down, looking for the god’s list of attributes and domains.

God of the sun, role inherited from Hyperion. Blue knew that.

God of flocks and herds. Knew that, too, but not that Apollo was a bit of a shapeshifter himself and sometimes took a crow’s form when he needed to make a discreet escape.

He was the god of music, poetry, and medicine.

The next bullet point took Blue’s breath away.

God of prophecy.

“Shit. I should have known that.” That information wasn’t at all insignificant.

“What? What’s wrong?” Diana asked, looking over his shoulder at the phone.

“He acted like he didn’t know shit, but he must have.”

“You mean Ap—”

“Don’t say his name. If he knew this was going to happen, why did he do it?”

“Who are we talking about?” Lance asked.

“Her father?” Diana asked.

“Keep that to yourselves,” Blue said as Kenny strode back into the room. “It’s not something she wants advertised, and she doesn’t even know I know.”

“And that you met him, I take it,” Diana said.

Blue grimaced. “I guess I just hoped it would never come up again and that it wouldn’t matter.”

He was still fully committed to the belief that he’d done the right thing. He’d been trying to protect her from having to make unnecessary decisions. She didn’t need to stress when he could protect her from those things. After all, they were no skin off his teeth.

He looked to Kenny. “What did Tito say?”

“He’s at work. He said he’d send his—”

Before Blue could process the sudden shift of energy that changed the scent in the room, he was elbowed out of the way by a small brown woman whose strength belied her size.

“Mother,” Kenny finished.

“How long has she been like this?” Lola asked in her usual matter-of-fact tone.

Blue didn’t know how, but she got Willa walking, though Willa didn’t seem to be doing it of her own volition. More like her body was responding to the goddess’s tacit commands.

He hadn’t spent much time around the Cougar goddess. She had a reputation for ruthless practicality, and unlike Apollo, she actually frightened him. Damned if Blue could figure out why, but it may have had something to do with the fact that no one knew the extent of her capabilities. She wasn’t a god with a huge paper trail.

“Since early this afternoon,” Diana said, following solemnly. “I called Blue, but he was out and couldn’t get here immediately.”

“You should have called me sooner.”

Diana raised a brow. “I should have?”

“I work with her at the school.” Lola swiped her hand over her face, and the features changed subtly for a few seconds before reverting back to its original state. “She knows many of my forms.”

“So, you’re friends?” Blue asked.

“Women like me do not have friends.” There was no emotion in the statement. Blue couldn’t tell if she was sad about it or resigned. Or if she cared at all.

Or if that was normal.

Willa had practiced a similar sort of social isolation, but he didn’t think their reasons overlapped at all.

Lola sat with Willa on the sofa and clasped her hands.

“Can you tell what’s wrong with her?” Blue asked.

Willa was completely out of it. Eyes closed, lips speaking silent words.

Gods, let this be reversible, whatever it is.

He’d do anything to fix her.

“I can only guess. There are no certainties when diagnosing the children of other gods. Her energy frequency is higher now. Carrying more of what is hers and some of what is yours.”

If she had an opinion on that matter, she, fortunately, didn’t speak it. Or perhaps she thought it was none of her business, which would make him like her a whole hell of a lot.

“Where’d she pick up the extra that isn’t Blue’s?” Diana asked.

“I cannot speculate. I only know that it was not there before, and that now it is.”

“Can she adjust to it?” Blue squeezed onto the sofa beside Willa and tipped her a bit so she’d lean on him. She didn’t need him, but right then, he needed to be doing something. He needed to be needed.

Lola grimaced. “I do not know. I gave to my son magic I had held back from him, but I knew he was capable of carrying it. I had been grooming him for centuries. I suspect the circumstances here are different.”

“She was born with it. He took it.”

Lola canted her head. Her eyes narrowed on him. “So, he is returning it? Funneling it through you?”

“Me? What makes you think that?”

She indicated Willa who, in her stupor, was cuddling close and fidgeting one of his shirt buttons.

He hoped she knew who was holding her, or even that someone was there with her. People cared about her. He was going to make sure she never went another day without being reminded of that.

“I believe you were the missing conduit,” Lola said. “If I may speculate?”

“Please do, because I’m not having a hell of a lot of luck jumping to any conclusions on my own.”

“Often, magic that is stolen cannot be returned without proper penance.”

“And the bastard is using me as a loophole? Is that what you’re saying? He conveyed it through me so he wouldn’t have to apologize?”

“That is as good a guess as any.”

“Why would he even bother now, unless his goal was to punish her? I mean, look at her,” he demanded, though no one in the room really needed to be told that.

She was wilting under the force of whatever magic was inside her, and there wasn’t a person on earth who could have thought what was happening to her was a gift.

“Wait.” Blue squeezed his hand into his pocket and wrestled out his wallet. He rooted through the billfold with one hand, keeping his other arm firmly clenched around Willa.

He held the golden coin up to Lola. “He gave me this. It was supposed to be hers to summon him, but I didn’t tell her. I can call him here and make him take it back.”

“That is a choice,” Lola said.

“A good choice? A bad choice?”

“Simply a choice.”

“What would you do if you were me?”

“I find hypotheticals wearisome. Our circumstances are vastly different. It is difficult for me to speculate on what I would do had I been born mortal and without the magic I have.”

“Can you tell me at least if this is reversible? Can she be fixed?”

“What is given can always be taken away. That does not mean, however, that you can easily set everything to rights.”

“What are the risks?”

“Not my curse. Not my magic. I do not know.”

Blue breathed out a frustrated exhalation and held his hand out to her to shake. “I’m sorry if I’m snarly. You don’t deserve it. You’re only trying to help.”

Nodding curtly, Lola stood and smoothed her hands down her skirt. “If you require assistance later, you may phone me.”

“You’re just going to leave?” Lance asked.

Lola grunted and twined her fingers over her belly. “If you plan to summon that particular creature, I would prefer not to be here when you do. Meddling is a dangerous venture for beings of my ilk. I must limit my involvement.”

“Understood,” Blue said.

Lola vanished in a pop that left behind a waft of smoke and earthy spice.

Blue rolled the coin between his fingers, pondering.

“Do it,” Diana said. “What are you waiting for?”

“Not here. I don’t want him here.” Blue didn’t want to let go of Willa, either, but if he was going to summon Apollo, he was going to do it someplace Willa wasn’t.

“Just look after her.” He grazed his thumb across her parted lips and tried to push a little energy into her. He didn’t know if he still could. Didn’t know if his magic had any effect on her at all. But then some of the tension in her body melted and the rigidness in her spine gave way. She was limp in his arms. Sleeping, for the moment. Expression soft instead of strained. Breathing slower, quieter.

He let her down gently onto the sofa and pulled her feet up onto the cushions, covering her ankles with her long skirt.

“You stay here,” he said to Diana. “Kenny, you too. Call me immediately if she gets worse.”

“Where are you going?” Kenny asked.

In the foyer, Blue shoved his feet into his boots and got out of the way so Lance could do the same.

“Oldest place in town. Seems an appropriate setting.”