Angie Fox - ADS 03 - A Tale of Two Demon Slayers

Diana nudged me. “The All-Species for the Prevention of Cruelty to Creatures.”

“Gotcha,” I said, but it was time to cut to the chase. “Can you help us retrieve the contents of Dimitri’s light box?” I asked. “You’re aware the magic he used to trace me has been stolen.”

She raised her chin. “I was told.” She glanced at Dimitri. “And, yes, I will see what I can do.”

“But will you really help?” Dyonne interjected.

“Yes,” Dimitri answered, “she will. Because Amara knows that if my magic falls into the wrong hands, it will hurt me too.” He leveled a warning glance that none of us missed.

Amara flushed. “While I can’t say I approve of your…choice of lifestyle, I am bound by the pact our families made to protect each other. And, besides,” she said, the guile lifting from her face, “I’d never let anything happen to you, Dimitri. You have to know that.”

Dimitri studied her and we all watched as something passed between them. “I know, Mara.”

A dull thud formed in the center of my back.

Mara? So now it was Mara?

She gave a small smile. “Then let me begin right away.” She lowered her fork. No wonder the woman was skinny. She hadn’t eaten more than two grapes.

“It will take a few minutes to prepare,” Amara said as she slid away from the table. “You finish your dinners.” She eased behind Dimitri, her hand barely grazing his shoulder. “I’ll meet you in the gardens in half an hour. And Lizzie,” she said, curling a perfectly manicured finger in my direction, “I need you to come with me.”

She led me out the back door of the house and onto a large patio covered by a redwood pergola. Yellow and white roses scented the air and tangled over the latticed timbers. Cotton panels billowed in the cooling evening breeze. In the distance, past the gardens, I could see vineyards stretching up the base of a large hill.

It was like stepping out onto a page of Better Homes & Gardens , the kind of spread that looked amazing, but still you wondered if anybody really lived like that.

Amara turned to me, lips pursed, and ruined the image. “Before we go any farther, I want to get one thing straight.”

I braced myself. “Shoot.”

“I’m not doing this for you.”

I studied her for a second, the crease in her forehead, the spit in her eye. “I figured that part out.” I didn’t need her affection, just her talent.

Too bad for Amara, she couldn’t come to Dimitri’s rescue without helping me too. It was clear from the way her face twisted how much she despised the situation. The wind blew her wavy black hair around her shoulders, yanking at a single silver feather she’d attached behind her ear with a beaded clip.

“Come on,” I said, noticing the shadows growing long over the garden. “It’s getting late.” I didn’t relish the idea of being outside in the dark with only the ice queen for company. The quicker we had our part done, the sooner the others could join us.

I made it down the steps and halfway to the garden before I realized she wasn’t following. I stopped and turned. “Amara?”

She stood at the top of the steps, the edges of her mouth turned up into a hard smile. “Dimitri and I were promised at birth.”

Oh geez Louise. “You might want to tell him that.”

“I understand he’s been sidetracked. It takes an amazing man to do what he did for his sisters.” Her voice grew husky with pride. “And to succeed! To break a centuries-old curse.”

If she started crying, I was going to shove that feather up her nose. I knew exactly what Dimitri had done. “I was there.”

She looked at me like I was some kind of puppy that had followed Dimitri home. “Now he’s with you because of some kind of displaced loyalty.” She braced her hand on a porch support, thick with climbing vines. “You don’t belong here, Lizzie. Look at this place,” she said, plucking a yellow rose petal and rubbing it with her fingers. “Th is is his home. My home. Dimitri and I are of the same people. Surely you can see that.”

Maybe, if I were as delusional as Amara.

“Oh come on,” I said. The wind blew my hair into my eyes. I pulled it away and tucked it behind my ears. “Aren’t there any other nice griffins for you to date?” I asked, taking two steps back toward the porch. “You’re cute. You come from a good…clan,” I said, revising the rah-rah speech I’d given my single friends over the years. “It’s time for you to move on.”

She practically snarled. “You may have helped him get those pain-in-the-ass sisters back”—she closed the distance between us, her chin quivering—“but now you’ve outlived your usefulness.”

“Pain in the ass?” Interesting. They didn’t look like bosom buddies in there, but I hadn’t realized the venom ran so deep. I wondered if Dyonne and Diana knew.

Amara towered a step above, looming like a spectre of Valentines past. “Dimitri doesn’t owe you his life, and I won’t have him giving up his pure-blood future on a whim.”

Ah, so she hadn’t sensed the change in him, that I’d given him part of my demon slayer essence to save his life. We still didn’t know all of the ramifications from that par ticular move.

She leaned closer, her eyes cold. I felt her breath on my cheek, like she expected me to back away. Little did she know, I was used to hanging out with biker witches named Ant Eater and Crazy Frieda.

I sighed. If we hadn’t needed Amara, I’d have told her where to go. But since we didn’t have time to be standing around debating…

“Can we just do what we came out here to do?”

She stared at me, her face smooth, beautiful and uncomfortably close. I blinked, waiting. “Every minute you stand here is another minute you get to spend with me.”

That did it. She lifted her chin. “Fine. Follow me.”

Peonies and night-blossoming jasmine lined the wide garden path. We passed small ponds with big, fat fish. Up to our right, I could see a life-size statue of a naked man, turned to display an amazing backside. His bronze muscles stretched tight as he opened his arms to the sky. On top of his head, a stained-glass crown of orange and red caught the setting sun.

“That’s Helios,” Amara said, as if she knew where my eyes had gone. “Ancient god of the sun.” She paused and bowed her head slightly, giving the statue more respect than she’d shown me, Diana and Dyonne combined. Helios was the namesake of Dimitri’s clan, not hers.

I gave the statue another look. “Nice butt.” Although my own Helios man had a better one.

“Helios married a minor water goddess,” Amara said, with a superior toss of her hair.

She had to get that in there.

I’d have admired her persis tence if it didn’t make me want to tip her into a nearby pond.

When is she leaving again?

Biting my lip, I fought back a whole string of Southern comebacks. I was raised better. Besides, I had bigger things to worry about—like the part of me that had gone missing.

I plucked a fat leaf off the next bush we passed. It snapped thick and sticky under my fingers as I shredded it. Of course, the sooner we could get on with the ceremony and hustle Amara out of here, the better.

“Are we almost there?” I asked, my sandals crunching on the rock path.

Amara hummed, clearly in her own little world.

After a few more minutes of walking, she said, “Dimitri’s late father gifted me with my own meditation area in the main gazebo,” Amara said. “In time, I’d like to have it expanded and perhaps even have it enclosed. It would make a wonderful three-season room.”

I ignored her. And for a second, I almost felt sorry for her. It would be horrible to plan your life around somebody who didn’t feel the same.