Linda Robertson - Arcane Circle

Only Menessos and I knew that my becoming EV had been Xerxadrea’s idea and she had intended that severing to be temporary. She knew my role as EV had many purposes, and that Menessos’s “benefit” was the least of them. She’d assured me of this as she lay dying, having taken a bolt of fairy fire to save me.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, ladies?”

Vilna-Daluca dismounted her broom and advanced, steps soft and certain. She stopped before me, expression blank. Her long hair was loose, straight, smooth, and so white against her black robes. I was searching for a clue, scrutinizing the set of her mouth, the hazel of her—

She slapped me. Ruya screeched.

Before the bird could resettle its feathers, Maxine had her gun to Vilna’s temple. She cocked it for emphasis.

I recovered. “Max, put it away.”

“But—”

Without shifting my focus from Vilna, I said, “Either you do as your Erus Veneficus commands, or you suffer the consequences.”

I hadn’t pulled rank to threaten Maxine before. She obeyed.

Citing my rank, however, didn’t please the Elder before me. Blame hardened Vilna’s features. She whispered hotly, “We protected you!”

She was referring to the witches having aided me during the battle. “And I am grateful for that.”

“Grateful?” Her lips barely moved as she snarled the word at me.

Jeanine glided close. In a voice meant to lure jumpers away from high ledges, she said, “Our actions were still in the best interests of the council.”

Vilna-Daluca shrugged her off brusquely. Silent teardrops slid down her cheeks. She cleared her throat. “What came before is what Xerxadrea wanted. Out of respect for her, I leave it.” Her words cut like a keen-edged blade. “I leave your wards and even the elementals, as you are evidently accomplishing their house and, I assume, their care. But I am telling you now, before these witnesses: henceforth, we are enemies. Do not call on us. Do not expect our favor. What we had is gone.”

Xerxadrea was right. Vilna hadn’t asked me what happened, so it was clear she had her mind made up—without the facts. I considered defending my actions, but she needed someone to vent her grief upon more than I needed to be vindicated. Maybe in time …

I bowed my head slightly. “Blessed Be, Vilna.”

She mounted her broom and took to the air. The rest of the lucusi followed.

Knowing Beverley wouldn’t recognize the Audi if I let one of the sentinels drive me to the bus stop, I hurried inside to get the keys to the Avalon. Nana was leaning against the counter in the kitchen, arms crossed, slippered foot tapping again. With a jerk of her head she indicated the yard beyond the kitchen windows and demanded, “What was all that about?” Her tone was clipped, as if trying to decide whether to sound angry or sad.

So much for her good mood I tried to preserve.

I shook my head, searching for words. Upon coming home after the beach battle I’d promised to tell her and Beverley everything that had happened. In the telling I’d admitted we buried Aquula at the Botanical Gardens, but I had left out the fairy attack that followed. If I’d revealed Xerxadrea’s sacrifice, I would have broken down. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Nana to know, just that I wanted to wait until the sting of that loss wasn’t as sharp before I spoke of it.

Nana continued. “The news just announced the body found in the Botanical Gardens Friday night was the Eldrenne Xerxadrea. I knew they’d said the gardens had been broken into and that a body had been found, but I guess it was in my mind that they had found the body of the fairy or something.”

My chin dropped almost to my chest.

“Did their visit have something to do with that?”

I nodded.

“She struck you… .” Nana’s crossed arms fell limp at her sides. “There’s more to the story than you told me.”

I bit my lip and nodded again.

She snorted. “Makes an old woman wonder what else you’re keeping secret.” She shuffled out.

The hurt in her voice was like another slap in the face. Not only had I not told her about Xerxadrea, now I’d not bothered to mention Eris had showed up after ignoring us both for damn near twenty years. I’d just won myself an all-expenses-paid guilt trip.

There wasn’t time to fix it right now, so I grabbed the keys and left. The day had started with such promise, and then gone steadily downhill. Now it’s officially an all-out disaster.

Zhan elected to ride with me to fetch Beverley from the bus stop. My having wrongly snapped at her earlier left me feeling too guilty to refuse.

“How did you come to have those creatures?”

I had expected Zhan to make some inquiries, and was glad her curiosity was focused on the animals and not my mother. “Their forefathers were stolen from this world millennia ago by the fairies. We kind of inadvertently stole them back.” The explanation was radically over-simplified, but true.

“We?”

“Many people played a part.”

“Menessos?”

“Yes. He was a part of it.”

“He knew?” The blame in her tone wasn’t ambiguous. “He knew these creatures were real?”

Oh hell. I couldn’t be honest with her. No one was supposed to know he was the original vampire, and that he was there when the fairies entered our world. Though he was unaware the fey were taking these elementals from our world at the time, he did know of it later.

Will today’s disasters never end? “We only found out yesterday morning when the fey showed up with the elementals,” I lied.

Nana had put something into the oven while Zhan and I were gone, and now it smelled wonderful. I sat at the computer working on my column and, to counteract all the terrible things that had happened today, I was imagining this was just a normal evening for a normal family at home.

My make-believe was more convincing because Nana had gone upstairs to quilt while dinner baked, and the kiddo was doing homework at the dinette. The phone had rung a few times—Nana answered the cordless upstairs—but other than that, everything was quiet. Peaceful. Normal.

Then Nana trudged down the stairs and began fixing something to go with the scrumptious-smelling dish in the oven. She must have decided we should have a side of Raucous with Earsplitting Sauce—because she was being anything but quiet.

At the dinette, Beverley twisted around to watch Nana clanging pans. That caught my attention; it didn’t surprise me that Nana would be this angry with me, but to show her anger to Beverley was unexpected.

Two could play the not-talking-but-not-silent game.

Pushing away from my desk, I stretched, rose, and left the computer. Johnny’s stage pants were done in the wash and I decided to be helpful.

Once the dryer was jingling and thudding with the studded and chain-adorned clothing, I joined the kiddo. Even with a cantankerous old woman battering my cookware and some knight’s battle armor apparently rattling in my dryer, I kept telling myself we were just an ordinary family … until the Beholders began filing out of the field and boarding the bus parked out front.

Ordinary families don’t have the Regional Vampire Lord’s servants building barns in their backyard.

The thuglike men from Heldridge were as dirty as Menessos’s men, but they were moving much more stiffly. Some were inspecting their hands and I recalled Mountain saying they’d have blisters.

There was no evidence of animosity among them; it seemed from their behavior that some had made friends with Menessos’s men. That was encouraging. I needed something to go right today.