Authors: Lisa Blackwood
The black–clad guards positioned themselves in a semicircle directly in front of the viewing window, then froze in place. Silence, thick and heavy, pressed all around Gregory. He strained his ears. At first he heard nothing, and then a soft scuffing sound teased his senses.
A ripple went through the line of soldiers as they raised their spears and thumped the staves of dark wood against breastplates. Again, Gregory heard the sound. Louder now. Boot heels striking stone.
A man of middle height stopped a few paces in front of the viewing mirror, his black armor polished until it glistened like wet shadows. At his side, a small graceful woman waited with her head bowed. A delicate chain peeked out from the flowing sleeve of her gown. The silver links glittered in the dim light but abruptly vanished into gloom a few paces behind the woman, like they had been severed with an axe.
Something about the shadows caught Gregory’s eye, diverting his attention from the leader to the small woman. It hit him then, a shock so profound he recoiled back a step. Lillian moved behind him and smoothed a hand across his shoulder in a subtle caress.
“Easy my gargoyle,” she said, pitching her words to carry, like she intended for the new arrivals to hear. “When you rescued me, you were not the only gargoyle within the Black Kingdom. They needed to practice capturing and holding one of your kind before they attempted to capture you, my pet.”
At the mention of another gargoyle, the small woman with the manacled wrist gave the chain a tug. The shadows parted and a gargoyle materialized on the opposite side of the viewing mirror. He sidled up next to the woman and licked at her hands, before bowing his head low. Then he lay down at her feet. Like a loyal dog.
Gregory’s stomach heaved. He looked over his shoulder at Lillian.
“Is this to be my future?”
“Not if I can help it, my love.”
Lillian’s voice filled his head.
“Play along with me if you do not want to become their slave for real. As long as they think I’m winning you over to their side, they will not go to the trouble of coming here. And since they will have the way back to the Magic Realm guarded, we are trapped here with nowhere to go. They’ll assume I’ll bring you home to them once I’ve had my fun. Gregory, please play along no matter what I do. I promise not to shame you in front of the others. You have my word.”
Lillian’s thoughts were as shocking as her hands sliding under the obstacle of his wings and around his sides in a gliding caress. Her fingers traced along the ridge of his tensed muscles.
“You’re playing a dangerous game,”
he cautioned.
“I like danger,”
Lillian said, her breath disturbing his mane and tickling his neck.
Her tone, so like the Sorceress of old, warmed him. Then her hands shifted lower, her thumbs hooking under the top edge of his loincloth. And
that
wasn’t anything like his old Mistress.
“Greetings, Commander Gryton,” Lillian said while she draped herself along Gregory’s back.
“Sorceress.” The man in the black armor raised his visor, and nodded in her direction though he didn’t take his eyes off Gregory for long. “Our Lady will be pleased you’ve decided to return home.”
The face looking out of the shadows of the helmet was human enough. Though, that meant little. A number of creatures could pass for human at a distance. Considering this one’s location, Gregory doubted he had any human blood. A rumble of threat built in his chest and when the armor–clad man took a step forward, Gregory released a glass–shaking growl.
Lillian laughed, then with surprising speed she stepped around him and pushed him back until he collided with the edge of the bed.
“Easy, Gregory. They’re no threat to me.” Lillian turned her attention back to Gryton. “My gargoyle has always been protective, but now he’s added handsome males to the list of things he doesn’t like me near.”
“So he’s fully matured and already yours?” Gryton questioned, doubt clear in his raised eyebrow.
“He was too young when I called him the first time, but after he was injured and rested in stone, I continued to work on his conditioning.”
“Good, you’ll have no problem bringing him home now.”
“He’ll follow me anywhere. However, I’m not coming home yet.”
“Do not make me retrieve you.”
“You won’t have to. But why do you think I called him early and fled with him to this Realm?”
Gryton sighed. “Because you were a rebellious young fool. I blame your mother for allowing you too much freedom.”
Gregory studied the woman. So this was Lillian’s mother. He glanced between the woman and the chained gargoyle, wondering.
“Perhaps you have cause to think me rebellious. I’m not coming home until Gregory is completely mine. Once he is, I’ll return and serve the Lady of Battles as she wishes. But Gregory is mine, and he’ll take orders from no one but me. I don’t share.”
“That is the talk of a traitor.”
“No, this agreement is between the Lady and I. If she has a problem with how I choose to serve, let her judge me.”
Gryton tapped a finger along one armor–clad thigh. “Why did you contact us, if not to say you were returning home?”
“Two things. Have you checked your armory lately? You’ll find you’re missing a demon blade—and no, I didn’t steal one as I ran. But if there is more than one missing, I’d like to know how many, since a vampire tried to kill my gargoyle with one, and in this magicless realm, he came closer to death than I wish ever to see again.”
Gryton swore and gestured to the two closest guards. They sprinted off the way they’d came. He looked back a Lillian with a scowl on his face. “You’re not doing a good job of convincing me why I should leave you and your gargoyle there.”
“Are you actually saying the Lady’s domain is safer?”
He grunted. “No, but I prefer my assets where I can protect them. Until you and the gargoyle merge powers, you are both vulnerable. The Lady of Battles will be angry if you’re foolish enough to get killed. She doesn’t like having to start over. And I don’t like having to deal with an angry goddess. It’s not good for one’s immortality.”
“I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself and my gargoyle. The Lady made certain of that. Now, back to my requests …”
“Fine, what’s your other request?”
“I’d like my mother and father to come here. It wouldn’t hurt to have another gargoyle around to deal with the vampires while I finish taming mine. And no doubt, my mother has advice to help tame a gargoyle.”
“I thought you said he was already yours?” Gryton paused and narrowed his eyes at Gregory before returning his attention to Lillian. “You don’t sound so confident now.”
To anyone watching, Gregory hoped he looked appropriately tamed by Lillian’s power, his body language docile—the willing victim. While lying wasn’t one of his strongest talents, he’d certainly been honing that skill a great deal of late.
“Oh, he is mine. I just wanted to know some of my mother’s secrets.” Lillian trailed her fingers down Gregory’s chest in a slow leisurely descent. At the caress of her fingertips against his sensitive skin, his pulse picked up until it thundered in his ears, and he no longer had to fake the “willing victim” part.
“Fine, I don’t need to know more about dryad mating habits. I’ll send your parents to you within a moon’s cycle, then I want you back within the season. You
will
report your progress once every fortnight.”
“As you wish.” Lillian bowed her head in the stranger’s direction. “I will expect mother’s arrival soon. But until then, I have other plans.” She pushed Gregory back on the bed, and he felt her touch his magic, and before he knew what was happening he was shapeshifting into his human form.
Gregory allowed Lillian to press him into the bed. She trapped him with her slight weight more surely than a rockslide. Her lips caressed his and he closed his eyes, concentrating on boring things—like mending harnesses and polishing swords—while standing in ice–cold water. Lillian chuckled and nipped at his lips.
Nice try. Let me know how that works for you.
She broke off the kiss and looked over her shoulder at the enemy. “Goodbye Gryton.”
A moment later the magic feeding the viewing mirror dwindled to a trickle. The images of the other world quivered and shattered into a hundred grains of light and misted away into nothing.
“I’m not sure if Gryton bought my little deception. He may send my mother sooner than expected,” Lillian said, then nibbled at her lower lip in a way Gregory found interesting.
Gregory struggled into a sitting position, trying not to dwell on how soft and warm she was, or how much he liked her weight pressing against him. Instead he snatched at the first question which came to mind “Why did you ask for your parents?”
She let him up, then sat on the edge of the bed. “I had to do something to pacify Gryton’s suspicions. He wouldn’t expect me to ask for help if I had something to hide. Besides, I want to rescue my father. He’s been a prisoner all my life. Even as a child, I wanted to help him.”
“And your mother? What of her?”
“My mother was born and raised in the Black Kingdom. That life is all she knows. From what I remember, she isn’t evil, but she does serve the Lady of Battles.”
“Then she is evil.” He drew a deep breath. At least in his human form, without her dryad scent affecting him like a drug, he could almost think clearly.
“You don’t know everything about the politics of the Black Kingdom. Those who serve the Lady of Battles do so because they see her as a lesser evil.”
He schooled his features into a neutral expression. He wanted to hear her words, without his reactions influencing them.
“Not everyone within the Black Kingdom is evil. At least not compared to the demons which have been allowed to spread unchecked since the Twins went to war.”
He tilted his head to one side and remained silent.
Lillian crossed her arms. “These are not the lies the Lady of Battles tried to feed me. Many of her army started out serving the Divine Ones, but made mistakes along the way until they couldn’t face the Light. When the Light shunned them, they sought a life elsewhere. And the Lady of Battles will give shelter to any who will serve her in her fight against her brother.”
“Your words sound reasonable. I’ll agree with some of what you say, but it doesn’t mean they can be saved.”
“I’m not the Lady’s tool,” she said in a voice tinted with anger, then it softened, “At least not yet.”
“I know.”
“And I’m not defending Gryton or his kind. I just wanted you to understand some of them didn’t have a choice. This wasn’t a life they chose. They were forced into it by circumstance. Some still honor their ancient duty and guard the Veil between the Realms, preventing more demons from escaping into the other realms. We may be able to use that to our advantage one day.”
“Very well. I will keep that in mind,” he mumbled, his mind already focused on the next problem. He did some quick math. Time was faster here than in the Magic Realm, but even then, without an exact arrival time, he might have less than two weeks to prepare before Lillian’s mother came, trailed by her pet gargoyle. “Do you think your mother can be reasoned with?”
“My mother loved both me and my father in her own strange way. And my father was more prisoner than willing subject to the Lady of Battles. That was when I was a child. I don’t know what has changed while I was here.”
His stomach churned. No matter that it should have been impossible to change a gargoyle’s allegiance, it had been done. And if it could happen to one gargoyle, Gregory wasn’t arrogant enough to believe it couldn’t be done again.
With Lillian sitting on her bed, watching him through her lashes, he didn’t doubt he could be swayed from the Light if he didn’t guard against it. It would be all too easy. He thought he knew how the gargoyle’s protective nature might have been used against him. A dryad surrounded by enemies would be something vulnerable in need of protection. Lillian’s father had probably thought her mother was a fellow prisoner.
Gregory would do anything to protect Lillian. He wasn’t certain he’d have fared any better than that other gargoyle.
A warm hand cupped his cheek. Lillian tilted his head until she was looking into his eyes. “I’ll not let what happened to my father happen to you. Our love isn’t a weapon for the Lady of Battles to use against you. I will not allow it.” She came to her knees and placed her hands on his shoulders. “That’s why you need to put your spell back on my mind. By blocking my memories, you inadvertently halted the Lady’s handiwork.”
“I don’t understand.” There was so much he didn’t know, and he didn’t like feeling helpless.
“Everything you’ve speculated about is true. The darkness growing in me is a demon soul. I can feel its foreign magic where the Lady of Battles grafted it onto my spirit. You were right when you thought of it as my bestial side. She created me to grow and transform into something greater than a dryad. Whatever I become, I fear I’ll be far more dangerous to you. Like a seed, this poor tortured soul needs me to call on my magic to grow. She feeds on my emotions, my deep love for you. And on my ancient knowledge, growing stronger until one day she will consume me—or twist me into something so different I’ll wish I didn’t remember anything.” Lillian paused, her expression no longer serene. Tears glistened at the corner of her eyes. “Your wards upon my memories blocked the demon’s memories, too. And the lack of magic in this realm inhibited its growth. Until the last few days, the demon soul slept, but now she remembers her purpose. I’m running out of time. I don’t know what to do to save us, but I can’t let her harm you.”
Gregory couldn’t watch her struggle and gathered her to his chest. He tucked her head against his shoulder and rocked her gently. “I’ll find this dark seed and dig it out.”
The tension leaked out of her smaller frame and she relaxed against him. “You can’t. The Lady of Battles expects something like that. If you try, the demon soul will trigger a spell woven of the blackest magic, killing us both, as well as anyone with the misfortune to be too close. But it will not stop there. It will deliver both our souls to the Lady, and she will begin again. You must find another way to disable the demon soul. Wrap it in so many layers of magic it can never escape while I live. If that fails, you must take me to the Lord of the Underworld; he will prevent my spirit from being recaptured by his sister. I think my soul would die if I harmed or enslaved you. Promise me you’ll surrender me to death’s mercy if you can’t help me. I don’t want to become the Lady of Battles’ creature, not if it means betraying the love between us.”