The third time Evalle came to from a hallucinogenic dream, she screamed, “Stop! It!”
The dream had started as sexy as the last two, but this one ended with Storm being yanked up on his feet and his head cut off in front of her. His blood had gushed all over her naked body and she couldn’t get to him.
She’d tried to stay awake, but loss of blood and the inability to heal had wiped out her endurance. She’d had three dreams in the same span of hours. The emotional toll was becoming worse than her physical injuries.
Still shackled to the wall, she called out in a weak, raspy voice, “Germanus.”
No one answered her.
She leaned back against the wall. She couldn’t have gotten to her feet even if she’d been free to do so. Her energy reserve was nonexistent.
When holding her head up became too much effort, she let it hang down. Her gaze landed on the dried blood that had seeped through from her chest wound, but it no longer oozed.
Who cared?
Wind rushed around the room.
She lifted her gaze to Germanus.
He said nothing for probably five minutes. “If you are ready to speak without shouting, we’ll continue our conversation.”
Too tired to argue, she just stared at him and let him figure out what that meant.
Lifting his hands to clasp them, he smiled. “Excellent. First rule is that I will not induce those images if you do not give me reason to do so. Next, you should know that I can also bring Storm here. I have not done so because I can see how this would take longer if your mate was around to encourage you to fight back even at the risk of losing his life. Also, you would probably make constant attempts at escape.”
She struggled not to throw up at the thought of Storm being in this hellhole with her.
“Just because I have not chosen to capture Storm yet, does not mean I don’t have the option,” Germanus went on. “I know all about your life and have access to everyone in it.”
She considered his words. Everyone back in Atlanta from Storm to Tzader, Quinn and Daegan would be hunting her. Storm would keep those in the building safe and the Beladors would protect the others.
What about Adrianna?
Had Germanus captured her, too?
Licking her dry lips, Evalle asked, “Who else is here with me?”
“No one. I need only you.”
She allowed herself a moment of relief at that, if he was telling the truth. Forcing words past her parched throat, she asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Ah, yes. We finally reach the point of cooperation.”
Really? He thought this was a voluntary situation?
Evidently so, because he carried on as if she’d agreed. “You will need to continue healing, but only to the point that you are able to shift and function.”
Good. Shifting would help her heal faster, but he had to be a fool to allow her the ability to fly away.
Unless he had some crazy-ass power to stop her.
“What exactly do you want from me?” she asked.
“Once you’re ready, you’ll need to be in gryphon form. I will explain more as you are prepared, but first you must heal further.”
Experiencing a moment of hope at the idea of healing, she suggested, “If you let me shift, I’ll heal faster and save you time.”
He actually seemed pleased at that idea, the fool. He said, “If that is what you wish to do.”
Before she could ask anything else, the shackles clicked open.
She slowly brought her arms forward, clenching her eyes shut to stem the tears threatening to pour. It hurt so much she could hardly breathe. When she finally wrapped her good arm across her chest, she moved one leg.
The crooked one wouldn’t bend.
Sighing loudly to emphasize his impatience, Germanous held out his hand.
She was not accepting it.
Then he lifted his hand. As he did that, her body rose from the floor until her legs dangled beneath her. The broken one flopped and a stab of pain ran up her leg.
She cursed.
Moving his free hand, he flicked it at one wall and a door appeared.
Had that been there all along but hidden from view? Maybe he hadn’t teleported in. Dragging her along kinetically, he stepped out of the room and walked down a long hall.
Where were his guards? Didn’t he have any?
It wasn’t until he’d ascended three sets of stairs to a much brighter area that Evalle saw any other life form.
But the light was the greater threat. “Germanus, no sunlight unless you want roasted gryphon.”
“You will not be harmed. It is twilight.”
Two gargoyles, ten feet tall and looking like there’d been a T-Rex somewhere in their background, stood next to an arched opening. They had the same Celtic dragon shape burned into their chests that she’d seen on the clothes Germanus wore.
Ouch.
Just as he’d said, light from post-sunset skies filled the opening. She’d be concerned that since she brought it up, Germanus would now threaten her with death by sunlight, but it seemed he already knew that about her.
He knew too much. Who was this man and what was he doing?
Medieval style weapons decorated the stone walls and vintage rugs covered the slate floors. Windows had no glass. Nothing about this place said twenty-first century.
Germanus lived in a castle.
Was she in Scotland or Germany?
Evalle couldn’t wrap her head around any of this.
As their boss approached, the gargoyles quietly studied what Germanus dragged along on an invisible leash.
She could only imagine how vulnerable she had to appear right now. For the time being, she had to button down her urge to snap at him if he was going to allow her to shift and heal.
Let her regain her strength and he’d face a beast unlike anything he could imagine.
Once that happened, she’d figure out what to do next.
Outside the building, lush green land stretched forever toward majestic, snow-capped mountains. She should have spent more time studying geography instead of reading about mythology and watching NASCAR.
No, she cherished her time with Feenix, who was a huge racing fan.
Her heart ached at thinking about Feenix.
He had to know something was up when she hadn’t returned by daylight. Storm would keep her baby safe, but he’d have a hard time explaining what was going on without upsetting the little gargoyle.
Germanus would deserve every bit of payback she could come up with once she was free.
The sun was nowhere to be found, but darkness did not seem to be falling. Just a greenish-golden hue to everything. The closer he took her to the edge of the roof, if this area of the castle was called a roof, the more she realized the structure had been built on the side of a mountain.
A thousand feet down, the stone face of the mountain fell away to a valley of grass that swayed in the slightest wind. Beyond that open space, trees filled a stretch that led to a lake in the distance.
A mix of yellow, blue, purple, white and red dotted the valley floor.
Flowers, leafed-out trees and green grass? Would everything be blooming now in northern Europe, or was this castle somewhere closer to the equator? She really had to work on her knowledge of other countries. In her country, the northern states had just suffered a late-spring snowstorm.
What place could she be that was so remote she didn’t even see roads?
She had no idea, but this was a perfect spot for someone like Germanus to hide what he was doing, and maybe even let preternatural beasts like those gargoyles fly without being seen. Who tended the castle? Where were people? Maybe he used his majik to prevent humans from coming too close, but ... that was more power than she could wrap her head around.
Looking out over the beautiful land, she felt the first trickle of true belief that she could escape.
Germanus paused near the edge, moving his hands to position her close to it. “You may shift and fly. Do not attempt to fly away. You will not be successful.”
Could he have warded an area this massive?
She didn’t care what he’d done. She got ready to call up her beast and turn into a gryphon.
Daegan had given her permission to do so when she’d battled alongside him in the human world. If the Tribunal found out that she’d shifted, she had no doubt in her mind that Daegan would back her up and claim she had a right to save herself.
It was nice to have a true ruler who would fight for his people.
Changing shape strained every muscle.
By the time she felt the full extent of her gryphon, she was exhausted. She probably should have healed a bit first before trying to change, but she had no idea if Germanus would allow her to shift again.
Her body would have to keep up.
Now was the time to find out what power she had available.
After the slowest shift in history, she stood, but kept weight off the broken rear leg, which was fairly useless. The crooked leg kept trying to heal ... but it would not mend straight. Lowering it to the ground to take some of her weight, she tested her pain level. Tolerable in this form, but she could only use that limb as a prop. If she had a patch over one eye, she could be a peg-legged gryphon pirate.
She dipped her large eagle-shaped head down to peer at the damaged leg to get a better view of just how crippled her gryphon would be.
When she turned her gryphon gaze to Germanus, he explained, “I could break the bones again to allow that limb to heal properly, but you will be able to move around in human form with one good leg, and it may prevent you from being foolish.”
Would he think chomping down on his head was foolish?
She gave serious thought to trying it, but he wouldn’t have allowed her to shift if there was any chance of her attacking him successfully. She couldn’t speak in this form except telepathically with another Belador, Brina or Daegan, but she could glare her disgust.
Undaunted by a gryphon giving him the evil eye, he said, “If you feel able to fly, you may fly for ... this long.” Another hourglass appeared above his open hand and flipped to start timing. “It is half of one human hour. Do not waste your time.”
Enough interacting with him.
She had to determine her next move.
Evalle’s gryphon hobbled to the edge and looked over the side where the land was way, way down. Could she fly for sure? She moved her wings out and up, then down, testing them. Some bones in one wing were still mending, but the major ones seemed able to function.
He was going to allow her to fly untethered?
She didn’t feel any majik wrapped around her neck or legs.
It was now or never. Dropping down on her three strong legs, she shoved up, flapping her wings, and leaped over the side.
Her huge gryphon body dropped like a rock in a pond.
She kept flapping harder until she felt her wings finally catch air. Halfway down, still beating like a crazy, overgrown bird, she lifted slowly and took aim at the clouds.
Air swept across her eagle head and heat left from the sun warmed her feathers. Her aches and pains had not vanished, but diminished beneath the exhilaration of flying.
For that one moment, she enjoyed peace.
Gliding back and forth, she banked and flew as if testing her strength, when in truth each move took her further from Germanus and his castle.
From a distance, the stones used to build it seemed to sparkle as if cut from unusual rock. The gargoyles had joined Germanus at the top of the castle, standing like two deadly guards.
With a return of even limited strength, her mind cleared to calculate her escape. Another man had delivered Evalle to Germanus. She still recalled the kidnapper saying, “He is definitely hunting it.”
That it had to be her, right?
Dismissing that as unimportant, she came up with one thing that mattered.
If Germanus had to send someone to kidnap her, then he had a weakness of some sort. Otherwise, why had he not gone for her himself?
He’d said she couldn’t escape.
What could stop her?
Time to find out.
Evalle continued to fly back and forth, continuing to gradually widen the distance from Germanus and his castle. On the next bank to her right, she looked back to see his tiny form still standing as if unconcerned.
She could taste freedom.
Arrogance had taken down the mighty more than once.
Being preternatural did not equal being intelligent. Germanus could be yet another example of how criminals were often idiots.
Straightening out her flight path, she made up her mind to find out just how much luck she had today. But what felt like longer than a half hour had passed and she had not gotten any closer to the mountains. The distance must be further than she’d estimated.
She had a serious problem. Her stamina was waning.
She couldn’t keep flapping at this pace much longer.
Would Germanus expect her to be too weak? Had that been his plan? To let her wear herself out, then recapture her?
She finally turned in a large circle and glided down to where she could land. Normally, she could set down gracefully, but she’d forgotten her damaged limb.
The jar from taking her gryphon weight streaked pain up her right rear leg.
Dropping to the ground to allow all her legs to rest, she searched in every direction beyond the castle.
How could this place be so remote? There had to be locations like this in the world, but traveling had never been an option for her beyond what she could do at night.
She had no idea what else the world offered beyond initially being trained in Alaska and being assigned to the southwest region of the country for a brief stint. Then she’d met Tzader and Quinn, who moved her to Atlanta. Best friends ever.
During her flight, she’d been so busy working her way out from the castle, she hadn’t searched for any other sign of life.
Now she noticed the quiet around her. Too quiet.
This was not the time to quit. That flight had drained her, but she had to go on.
Searching all around, she sensed no sign of a ward. Nothing majikal to prevent her escape. Germanus clearly thought to allow her enough freedom to tire herself out, then send his gargoyles after her.
She was ready to take on those gargoyles, who had no similarity to her sweet Feenix.
Sucking in huge breaths, she lifted up and felt every ache and pain from the battering her body had taken. Her poor body was exhausted. She could rest later.
With a couple of limping steps forward, she growled with determination then leaped into the air, flapping fast to gain altitude again.
Her wings were beginning to feel like rubber.
This time she went higher to locate a thermal where she could fly longer without expending so much energy. After becoming a gryphon, she’d studied all she could about birds and flight.
Up high and coasting, she mentally patted herself on the back for a good plan until she took stock of her position. Those mountains in the distance appeared just as far away as they had back at the castle.
It would be nice to ask someone for directions.
Wait a minute! She could use her telepathy to reach Beladors anywhere in the world, maybe even that powerhouse Trey. She called out telepathically, This is Evalle Kincaid of the American Beladors. If you hear me, please answer.
Nothing.
Her heart thumped with a rush of excitement. Some Belador had to hear her.
She kept calling out as she glided toward the mountains and started asking for anyone who could hear her to contact Trey McCree via telepathy or the phone number she included. Being the most powerful telepath Evalle knew of made Trey the best choice for contact. She had no idea where Quinn was, but knew he’d be hunting her, and she would hope that Tzader remained on Treoir for the obvious reasons.
A roaring sound broke into her thoughts.
She banked to the left to see behind her.
The sky was dark with flying beasts. Not just gargoyles. There had to be thirty winged creatures. All of them huge and heading for her.
Her stomach dropped. She turned and flapped like a mad gryphon trying to reach the mountains.
Screw it. She swept around to the right and saw miles of grass, trees and maybe a river, but the view in that direction seemed to be infinite. Swinging back the other way, she found the same. The mountains continued in both directions, too.
Deep calls and growls from the flying beasts closed in.
Her heart thumped with a flood of adrenaline.
She turned back for the nearest mountain and doubled down, flying harder.
A shadow fell over her from above.
She looked up to see the underbellies of both gargoyles. Those two were even more gargantuan in flight than standing inside the castle.
She did her best to fly like a fighter pilot, dipping and angling one way, then another.
One of the gargoyles did an impossible turn in midair and dove for her.
She rolled away, but he dragged a claw down her back. Fire raced through the new wounds. Something else hit her from the other side, sending her into a cartwheel spin.
Noise from the rest of the living squadron grew louder. She got smacked again, knocking her out of the roll and sending her spiraling down. Straining, she beat her wings mercilessly and pulled up just before hitting the ground.
But she had nothing left in the engine to fight the many flying beasts now circling her.
Setting her wings, she glided to the ground and made another rough landing. Her gryphon body slid on her chest this time, banging up her wings. Why hadn’t she healed more during this flight? Her back felt flayed open. When she finally stopped, she spit out a beak full of dirt and grass, then just stayed flat on the ground, breathing hard.
The thumps of other heavy landings surrounded her.
When she could manage it, she pushed her body up using her wings and had to sit on the ground with her crooked back leg sticking out to the side.
Just beyond the circle of beasts, she noticed a massive carcass. Possibly a wyvern, based on its shape, similar to dragon but with only two legs. The body appeared to be charred black on the inside while the remaining skin was nothing more than a layer of boils. Ew.
Both gargoyles landed as a perfectly trained pair, then one dropped a shoulder and Germanus slid off to the ground.
He walked over to her, shaking his head. “You can’t blame me for this. I told you not to try, but figured we had to get this out of the way.”
Despair seeped into Evalle’s mental fortress, doing its best to knock down defenses that already felt puny as a toothpick structure. She fought back, forcing herself not to give in even if she was defeated for the moment. He had no idea who he was dealing with now that she’d healed a bit.
Of course, her body didn’t feel too great at the moment.
“Shift to your human form, Evalle.”
She intended to defy him, but her body clearly didn’t care what she thought because it started shifting.
How could he make her do that?
Bones, skin and muscle went into action ... everything felt twisted, yanked and pulled through a grinder. As her human shape finished forming, blood ran down her back. She tried calling up her beast to heal it, but all she got was a weak trickle of energy.
Nothing made sense to her anymore.
The pale brown sack dress covered her again. Was that for her benefit? Why would he care?
She swayed in place, depleted of what renewed energy she’d enjoyed for a short time. What happened to having more power as an Alterant and gryphon?
She lifted her hands.
Germanus warned, “No. Use your kinetics against me without my permission and it will strike back at you twofold.”
Truth or not? She hadn’t intended to attack him out here where she was outnumbered, only to raise her hands in question, but she lowered them now.
Germanus stood there with his thumb and forefinger stroking his chin while he studied her. “That was not bad. Better than I had thought you’d do with the damage you had to repair. This may go more quickly than I’d hoped.”
“What do you want, Germanus?” She opened her arms, outward this time so he could not mistake her intention. “It had better be worth bringing down the Beladors and our dragon king on your head, not to mention my mate who will be worse to face than all of them together. Storm will find me. When he does, there will be no stopping him from killing you.”
She believed that and had to keep reminding herself or she’d go mad.
“You can’t leave me, Evalle.”
“Was doing a pretty good job of it until I got tired,” she quipped, just to tweak his nose.
“If you could teleport out, you would have already tried, but I was told that you do not possess that ability. That should clear up any ideas you have for escape or anyone unwanted showing up.”
Despair turned into a cold lump of fear in her stomach. “What are you talking about?”
“I should probably have told you this sooner, but I wanted you to get any rebellious urges out of your blood. You are in the realm of Scamall. You cannot leave. Daegan would be wise to avoid a place where the god who created this realm can destroy that dragon. Never forget that I am the powerful one here. Even if the dragon does come, it will not matter who he brings. If the dragon does not come, not even your Skinwalker mate can track you to this realm.”
All hope died with his words.
No one was ever coming for her.
Storm would have no way to find her without the emerald chakra stone, and even that would not work with them in two different realms.