Billy frowned, wounded.
“But, brother, I can’t say that you’re pushing too hard.” Gavin turned to Sara, who shook her head in disbelief. “And fresh off what you perceived to be a betrayal of Maggie and her family, you’re being over-protective. Reason lies somewhere between the two of you.”
With a stoic expression, Sara said. “Perhaps you’re right.”
Recognizing that the three of them were at their wits’ end, necessity kindled a spark of courage deep in my chest. “You know, it’s so typical of the three of you to carry on—Billy at one extreme, Sara at another, Gavin in the middle--feels almost like normal.” They all seemed to relax, and that sent a warm sensation of confidence through my veins. “I want you to stop arguing about me.”
Sara smiled at me, but scowled at Billy. He ground his teeth back at her in a manufactured smile. That will have to do for the moment.
“I’m ready to talk to the Elders—to inspire confidence,” I said, in a poor attempt to be funny. I tried to relax my shoulders and winced—there was a huge knot under my shoulder blade that was so sore it felt like I’d been hit with a baseball bat. I stretched my neck, trying not to be too obvious. Before I could ask, or even stop him, Gavin’s broad fingers gently kneaded the tender area. I sighed as he sent heat to the muscles and melted the pain away.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Sara asked.
Billy coughed and shook his head as he stared out the diamond pane window.
“Yes,” I said, trying to draw Sara’s attention away from him. They’d squabbled a little in the past, but I’d never seen as much tension between them.
“The question is whether the two of you are ready?” Gavin asked.
“I’m fine,” Sara said, ignoring Billy.
Billy turned from the window and smiled at me. “Of course—we will present a united front.”
“Shit,” I said, rolling my eyes, “she’s back.”
An apologetic expression filled Gavin’s face when he realized that Ozara was coming our way. I dropped the Air barrier and moved past Billy, jumping into a cushion of Air and settling into the garden. With Ozara’s consciousness hovering above my shoulder, I walked down the hill projecting confidence. The Elders felt me coming. Sara, Billy, and Gavin caught up as I glided through the lower bluff line and headed for Zeus and Wakinyan.
Sara, Billy, and Gavin met my glances with nods. Beyond us, it was bad. Zeus argued about strategy with Apollo and Hera. The muscles in Wakinyan’s jaws were taut, his smoldering glare shifting from one Fae to the next. I didn’t feel like discussing strategy, and to be honest, they probably didn't care to hear what I had to say. Fine. At the moment I didn’t have a plan, and with Ozara buzzing about, that was fine.
I stood, drawing everyone’s attention. “I was there when she died.”
Six small words, and the Weald went silent.
“She would want us to work together.”
“She is not here to convey that message,” Zeus said. “So, please, spare us the human platitudes. I realize words of comfort and encouragement are common for mortals in a situation like this, but I’m afraid most of us will find them annoying and of absolutely no value. Caorann, to be blunt, is no more. Nothing else needs to be said of her.”
I figured he was testing my emotional state, so I didn’t respond like I wanted—blowing him through the bluff. Instead I nodded. “I’ve already said my goodbyes. If you’re ready to move on, so am I.”
Dana slowly walked into the circle, glaring at me with blazing intensity. “By all means, move on,” she snapped.
I met her stare with one of my own. Her eyes were so intense, they threatened to pull me into a trance. Note to self—never enter a staring contest with a Sidhe. “We must move on—I mean no disrespect.”
“Of course not,” Dana seethed, baring her white teeth when she spoke.
Zeus smirked and shot Hera and Athena a knowing glance. Aphrodite frowned, big sad eyes turning to Dana.
“So,” I said, “What’s the plan?”
“Indeed,” Poseidon said, “What is the plan?”
Dana and Zeus exchanged uncomfortable looks. Neither of them was willing to look me in the eyes. Great.
“Tell her,” Poseidon said, savoring every ounce of discomfort they appeared to be feeling.
They didn’t have to tell me. I knew. The Coalition was in tatters, and the only thing holding it together was the potential of learning Aether. Both of them wanted it, and they must have assumed I wouldn’t refuse when they made the inevitable demand. Who was I to refuse? After all, they were immortal and wise, and I was a teenaged human. However, standing in front of me, both had apparently thought better of making a demand.
Hell, they weren’t even talking. Try as they might, Dana and Zeus could not hide their disdain for one another. I didn’t know what I was going to do if they ever reached a consensus—neither of them had bothered to ask my opinion, so I knew they would react poorly when I gave it to them. Fortunately for me, they were nowhere close to reaching an agreement.
“Spare me the drama. I know what you want,” I said. “The only question is, which one of you gets it? Right?”
Dana and Zeus began bickering. Poseidon, normally unwilling to engage in debate, threw himself into this one. Rather than serving as a voice of reason, his was just that of another belligerent verbal combatant. Ozara seemed to be soaking it up, and why not? The Coalition was the last force with any hope of stopping her, and it was on the brink of collapse.
Gavin watched me as I listened to the argument. “This is disintegrating before our very eyes.”
Ozara had enough and disappeared. I searched for her consciousness and only when I was convinced she was gone, I spun an Air barrier around the Gavin and me. “She’s gone—I think I know what I need to do.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Tingles ran down my spine and I felt slightly nauseated. “I need to tell them how it is.”
Gavin shifted his eyes from me to Zeus and Dana. “Tread carefully. If you let them know that you’re going to make a decision—that it’s not up to them—you might buy yourself some time. You might also push them over the edge and destroy the Coalition.”
“I can avoid that.”
“How?”
“Watch.”
Gavin winced. “Maggie?”
“I got this.”
“Maggie, what are you going to do?”
“What I should have done days ago,” I said, building up confidence.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It’ll be fine. Like I said, I got this.”
I cleared my throat and dropped my mental shield, letting them all read what I hoped would appear as conviction. They noticed. The telepathic arguing died down.
“Maggie, is something wrong?” Zeus asked.
I walked a few feet from him and methodically made eye contact with each elder—Olympian, Ohanzee, and Sidhe.
“Enough arguing—you’re making my head hurt,” I bellowed.
Wakinyan grinned, Zeus and Poseidon seemed amused, but Dana and a dozen other were visibly angered by my outburst.
“You can hear us?” Dana said telepathically.
I cast an Air barrier around the Elders and turned to Dana and smiled. “Every syllable.”
Wakinyan smirked. “That may be the worst kept secret in the Weald.”
Dana turned to Sara, who said, “I just learned, myself. I apologize, sister.” I suspected Sara knew for a while and was covering that up.
“Well, here’s a little tidbit I have kept to myself. Caorann told me weeks ago that the decision of who to share Aether with was mine and mine alone.”
Dana reacted as though I’d slapped her. “And?” she asked.
“I’m here to tell you that she was correct—and I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
A vein bulged across the top of Dana’s otherwise perfectly white forehead. “You intend to make this decision without any input f
rom us, and you expect us to wait around until you do?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” I asked.
She frowned.
“I don’t see where you have much of a choice. It’s not like you can force me to teach you.”
I couldn’t see him, but I knew Billy was cringing somewhere.
Wakinyan was visibly amused, staring intently at Dana with a smirk on his face. I looked away and ignored him. “You may not like it, but I alone am making the decision and until one of you can convince me that you want a better future for Fae and human alike…” I paused to let that sink in, “I’m keeping the secret of Aether to myself.”
“So you want us to wait here until you have an epiphany?” she asked.
“Something like that, but I hope it doesn’t take an epiphany. I’ll be looking for something more concrete than that.”
“And if we don’t agree?” she asked, her voice condescending. Aphrodite rolled her eyes and shook her head at me in a sign of support.
Well, if she wanted to play the smart-ass card, so could I. “If you don’t want to be considered, you’re free to leave.”
“And if none of us meet your approval?” Aphrodite asked, visibly amused at Dana’s red face.
“I hope that isn’t the case. But if it is, I’ll go it alone—and you’ll just have to pray I’m stronger than two Aetherfae. I will not be bullied, tricked, or cajoled into sharing the secret with any of you—we’re talking about the future of my species—we’re talking about my mother, my friends, and my brothers…”
Dana stared at me for several seconds before saying, “Fine. I will wait for your decision. If it is not too presumptuous to suggest, time is of the essence. What can we do?”
Time. You’re going to lecture me about time? I should blow you into the lake. I took a deep breath and spoke calmly. “I’m mortal. My species is dying from a Fae-created plague—I understand time better than any of you. I’ll make the decision soon enough. For the time being, you might want to keep that information to yourself. Ozara is killing the elders in her own clan to protect her power. Can you imagine what she’ll do if she finds out I intend to promote one of you to Aetherfae?”
They nodded.
“By the way…she isn’t here now, but she spent the afternoon listening to your conversations.”
They shared worried looks. “You didn’t see fit to warn us?” Aphrodite asked.
“No, I wanted her to see the chaos. I know Ozara. She’s more confident than ever and that is exactly how I want her right now. At some point, you’re all going to have to leave the Weald—convince her that I am the only one standing in her way.”
“Then what?” Wakinyan asked.
“Then I draw her here, and you will figure out a way to show up en masse, undetected—you know we have a Seoladán she knows nothing about. You come with a large enough group to keep her forces at bay. Humans call it Mutual Assured Destruction.”
“Brinkmanship?” Wakinyan asked.
I nodded. “Call it whatever you want. It ends, one way or another.”
“How do you know we’ll come back to help you?”
“Without me, you’ll all die. Sooner or later, she’ll hunt you down. I have always been your best chance. Now we need to go explain that to the Kobold, the Alfar, the Ancient Ones—all of them.”
“What is the timeframe?” Zeus asked.
“Yesterday, the Ohanzee and the Olympians slowed the spread of the virus—they bought us a few more days. But if we don’t act soon, all of this will be for nothing. I’ll make the decision on Aether in two days. In three, I’ll bring Ozara here.”
“She has avoided this place, how do you know you can get her here?” Poseidon asked.
With as much conviction as I could manage, I said, “You’re going to have to trust me. I know how to get her here. She won’t be able to avoid me.”
Dana studied me, a slight frown interrupting her otherwise stoic expression.
“Trust me. She will be here in three days,” I said, looking her squarely in the eyes.
“What are you not telling us?” she asked. After a brief pause, she drew in a slow breath, and whispered, “You have another ability?”
I smiled and nodded. “One she won’t be able to ignore—I can’t risk divulging what that is right now. You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Do you have any insight on what they are planning next?” Wakinyan asked.
I decided to gamble, and went with a gut instinct—it probably wasn’t my brightest move. “No. I’m going to pay them a visit and I thought I’d take a couple of you along with me.”
Billy’s mouth hung open and his eyes bugged out. Gavin turned a deep shade of red. “Along?”
“Yes,” I said turning to Gavin. “Ozara piggybacks on the thoughts of a child. How hard would it be for one of you to follow me into enemy territory?”
Gavin looked worried, Billy was completely pissed, and Sara closed her eyes so tightly I thought they’d pop, but everyone else seemed almost giddy.
Dana smiled. “Personally, I would love to.”
I was dumbfounded by the change in her attitude.
“So would I,” Poseidon said.
“Yes,” Wakinyan admitted. “Intriguing.”
The near universal attitude change confused me. “I don’t get it. Now you’re all happy?”
Wakinyan smiled like a schoolboy. “It’s an entirely new experience, Maggie. None of us has travelled while tethered to another’s mind…it’s like riding a rollercoaster for the first time.”
Great, I’m a human tilt-a-whirl.
THIRTY
DISTRACTION
Allowing the Fae to connect with me while I projected was a gamble, because they would experience everything I encountered and they’d have a clear window to my real thoughts. The offer was designed to do two things: to demonstrate that I trusted them and to show confidence. Billy probably wanted me to fake being sure of myself and keep the truth hidden behind an energy barrier, but none of them were likely to believe that. Instead, I decided that there was nothing more confident than a human who was willing to bare it all. As far as I knew, it might not work—Ozara did it by invading the mind of a child and compelling her. Something about my mind prevented Ozara from erasing my memories, so it was possible that same feature, or whatever it was, would lock them out.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Billy asked, eyes locked on me, ignoring the nasty stares he was getting from the Elders.
“No, I’m not. But I’m positive I want to try. Besides, I could use another set of eyes—I don’t know many of the Alliance Elders. I think it would help if we knew who we were up against. We’ve been speculating that Ozara has killed many of the oldest—this way we’ll know for sure.”
Sara finally broke her silence. “Perhaps now is a good time to establish some ground rules.”
It struck me as an odd request until I realized why she, Billy, and Gavin were so concerned. I’d needed to keep the secret to making Aether hidden at all times, or risk inadvertently creating another Aetherfae—or several. “If anyone goes digging for Aether—”
Dana’s blue eyes doubled in size. “I would never. You have my word,” she said breathlessly, almost offended by the suggestion.
Wakinyan’s brow furrowed when he considered the possibility, his eyes darting back and forth to the other elders who were equally skeptical of one another.
“This is about building trust, not ultimatums,” I said. “But if any of you digs where you don’t belong, you won’t have time to learn how to use it. I don’t want to threaten—”
“No, it’s perfectly understandable,” Dana said with a furtive glance at Zeus. “Maggie is trusting us with something incredibly personal and intimate.”
“I agree,” Zeus responded. “I cannot imagine that any of us would try to take advantage, but I feel a lot better knowing there are consequences. Although it is probably a moot point—if I have heard correctly, Maggie withstood Oza
ra’s strongest attempt.”
“Well, who goes first, captain?” Billy asked with a sarcastic tone.
“Lighten up. She’s consensus building,” Sara whispered. “That was your idea, wasn’t it?”
He didn’t respond, but the tension between them was palpable.
“Dana and Wakinyan first, then Zeus and Poseidon,” I said.
Billy gritted his teeth and nodded. Gavin stood with his feet apart, his arms crossed, and fixed his glare on Wakinyan and Dana. They were several times older and more powerful than him; and despite not needing his permission, they nodded to reassure him anyway.
“Do you want to do it here or retire to the cottage?” Dana asked in a soft tone.
“Here. Please. I don’t want Mom to know what we’re doing—it would freak her out.”
Dana nodded. “What shall we do?”
“I’m going to relax and try to project. I’ll communicate when I do. I’ll do what I can to let…well…to let you piggyback—I’m not sure what to call it.”
“We don’t have a word for it. Piggyback works for me,” Dana said, deliberately adopting a casual semi-Ozark affect. I found it amusing, but tried not to laugh.
I sat against the cool earth with my legs crossed, and concentrated on the light afternoon breeze. It carried the scent of cedar, which stirred a dozen memories of happier times in the Weald. So, like the other stimuli fighting for my attention, I ignored the smell and tried to relax. It was uncanny how quiet the Weald became when the Fae went still. Like sitting in the middle of wax statues, it was a little unnerving. I pushed my fingers into the thin layer of dark black soil and leaned back against a white oak. Peace, at last. Dropping the mental barrier, my mind gently floated into the canopy above the Elders.
“Dana, Wakinyan, I’m ready.”
The instant Dana connected, my tether recoiled and I abruptly snapped back into my body. I gasped and opened my eyes. Gavin reacted, physically stepping between Dana and me. I snatched the leg of his jeans. “No, it’s okay.”