Keepers of the Flame (63 page)

“You
contracted a fatal disease and nearly died yourself,” Marian said.

“Gonna
run out of fingers soon,” Alexa teased half-heartedly. Bri suspected Alexa’s
mind was still on the battlefield where Thealia had died. Great. This little
Girls’ Night In The Park session was depressing them all.

“Most
of all…” Marian squeezed into the space between Bri and Alexa and wriggled her
bottom to scoot Alexa aside, then put an arm around them, kissed Bri on the
cheek. “You left your twin sister and your family in another world.”

Bri
sniffed hard, but tears dribbled down her cheeks anyway.

“That
had to be the hardest blow. A new man and new friends aren’t going to replace
those bonds soon,” Marian ended.

“That
all makes sense to my head, but not inside.” Bri swallowed tears.

Calli
said, “You aren’t a bad person for leaving them. Elizabeth made her choice, you
made yours. They were both right.”

“My
parents and Elizabeth could all have come through.” Bri set her chin. “I know
it. My Mom and my Dad had heard those chimes and chants. Mom had a craving for
potatoes.”

Amazed
silence. Marian recovered first. “We believe you. A couple who could raise
two
daughters to travel through the Dimensional Corridor could do the same.”

Hugging
Bri tighter, Calli said, “They aren’t bad people for making that choice. They
didn’t abandon you. You didn’t abandon them. You all had different choices and,
well, destinies.”

“Oh,
man,” Bri said and sniveled, gave up trying to control her tears and let them
come. “I’ve done an awful lot of crying lately.”

“You
had reason,” Alexa said, and shoved a grubby handkerchief in Bri’s hand. “All
those stress issues. Not to mention the idea of invading an evil Dark and
trying to kill it. Probably weighed a little on your mind. Nibbled at you. Can
tell you it does me.”

“Me,
too,” Calli said.

“Me,
too,” Marian said. “Which reminds me, where is our newest Exotique? She was with
us. We don’t want to leave her alone as much as we did Bri.” She looked at Bri
straightly. “We left you in Castleton, worked more with Elizabeth—that was
our
mistake, not telling you how much we valued you. Just for being you.”

“Elizabeth
needed you more,” Bri said, wiping her face and blowing her nose. “And you’ve
tried making up for that lately, haven’t you?”

“Ayes.
I think it’s imperative for us to—”

“Don’t
say ‘assimilate’,” Bri warned.

Alexa
gave a crack of laughter.

Marian
smiled. “Integrate Raine into our group. Or at least befriend her.”

“I
think she left people, too,” Bri said, “Or was torn from them.”

“I
did,” Raine said, stepping from the shadow of a tree. She stood awkwardly.

They
all stood, Bri held out her hand, “Come sit with us.”

“What
are you doing here by yourself?” Calli demanded.

“Koz
came with me.” Raine looked over her shoulder. “He disappeared as soon as he
saw you all hugging.”

“Just
like a guy,” Alexa said.

Bri
swallowed. “Speaking of guys.” Even with these women, and logically thinking of
the conversation, the anxiety in the back of her mind had only dimmed, not
disappeared. Her breath came shallow. “Sevair is planning that damn
coeur de
chain
Bonding Ceremony Ritual Whatever. I know he is.”

No
one spoke, denied it.

“I
guess I should say that we think once you’ve bonded with him, you’ll settle
down,” Calli said.

“Settle
down.” Bri hopped up and paced a quick circle.

“When
you have his blood in you, it will steady you,” Calli said.

“Oh.
My. God.” Her own blood drained out of her head and her vision dimmed.

“Definitely
a panic attack,” Marian said putting an arm around Bri. Calli was up, too. They
plunked Bri back down on the bench. She put her head between her knees.

Feeling
like a fool, Bri struggled against it, strove to hear her own Song, and that of
the Universe. Failed.

Maybe
it was the upside-down business that blocked the Songs, so she drew in a breath
and uncurled her spine vertebrae by vertebrae. Yoga. That helped, too.

“No
one is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to,” Calli said. She
reached out a hand for Raine, pulled her down on the bench, too. Good thing it
was a long one, but Bri figured Alexa or Marian had noticed that when they’d
found her here.

Staring
at Raine, Calli repeated, “No one is going to make you do anything you don’t
want to, either.”

Now
it was Raine sniffing. Calli gave her a handkerchief. Raine blew her nose,
nodded. “These last few days have been good. I’ve read all your Lorebooks.” She
glanced at Bri. “Except yours.”

“Isn’t
done yet,” Bri muttered.

“Of
course not. You haven’t learned your lesson,” Marian said.

Bri
gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to hear any more, but of course Marian
didn’t stop.

“You
have to know in your heart that this is where you belong. That you can trust Sevair
and us and even Amee.”

Alexa
took out her baton and flipped it. What people had been left in the park faded
away. When she looked at Bri, her eyes were deadly serious. “You have to accept
that however long your life, being here was worth it.”

“You
aren’t trapped here. You
chose
here,” Calli said.

“We
aren’t going to fail,” Alexa said.

She
didn’t say they’d survive, Bri noticed.

Raine
slid to the end of the bench, “Maybe I should—”

Marian’s
long arm grabbed her. “You’re with us.”

Raine
subsided. “Glad this is Bri’s discussion.”

“We’ll
get to you,” the redhead said.

Bri
was breathing deeply. “Okay. I understand with my head and not my heart. Yeah,
I’m used to moving on when things get sticky. But everything has happened
really fast.”

There
was a sudden shadow, the sound of wings, and Nuare glided in front of them. The
roc didn’t spare a glance for the other women.
I can take you anywhere on
Amee.

“But
it’s still here.”

Here
is where you chose to be. Why? FEEL the why. That’s what you must do. Not think.
Feel all the time the why. LISTEN to the why.

“Good
advice,” Marian murmured. “We can help by example.”

They
all linked hands and certainty infused Bri.

Alexa,
Marian said
mentally.

Alexa
thought of Bastien. She was nervous since she hadn’t bloodbonded with him, and
was planning to. But the man held her heart. They’d fought together, saved each
other’s lives. Bri experienced Alexa’s aching love for the Marshalls, her team,
and her deep determination never to fail them. Her love for her new sisters. Her
knowledge that she’d made a place for herself in this world.

Those
feelings were layered by Marian: her questing mind, boundless curiosity. Her
love for her man and her animal companion and her brother and her new true
friends, fascinatingly different.

Calli’s
Song rang with complete devotion to her husband, children, volarans. New
family, new world. Her emotional memory of the bloodbonding and how she’d found
the loves of her life was filled with joy.

How
their emotions helped! Bri
heard
Sevair’s Song. The beat of his heart
and his hammer as he worked in the tower on the final touches to the bathing
room. After a long hard day of his own. His melody and his love for her came
and buoyed her. He would never fail her, not like the rock star, not like
Cassidy had failed Elizabeth. Never.

The
Songs of the women near her. Like and unlike her. Once of Earth and now here.
Always friends. Not going anywhere.

Bri
felt other tugs, blinked her eyes open to clear dampness. Across the park, on
the street, she saw people. People she’d healed. One or two raised their hands,
and she understood some of them walked the same path that she did in the
evenings, enjoying being close to her. They accepted her and valued her like no
others in her life. Her gift was acknowledged and prized.

Suddenly
she wanted to go home, to her tower. Sevair had finished the wonderful lower
bathing room—a room she hadn’t seen since her first day there—and was actually
running the bath, scenting it, waiting for her. As he’d waited since the Snap.

“Thank
you,” she choked. She dropped their hands and the Song of the Exotiques faded,
but still lilted in her ears and mind and heart. With a brief hug for each of
them, and Nuare, she hurried home.

Sevair
carried Bri all the way down the stairs to the spring in the bottom of the
tower and proudly showed her the last carving on the fancy keystones. The place
was no longer dank and gray. The air vents from the top of the tower funneled a
sweet-scented breeze into the room. The barrel vaults had been scoured to a soft
golden, the cheerful stone figures and faces restored by the man who dropped
her into the pool and laughed, then followed her in.

They
made love there, and then he carried her back
up
to the bed and they
made love again.

“Tomorrow,”
he said as he pressed his body against hers. “The ritual is tomorrow.”

Her
insides jolted, then she
listened
to his heady Song and her own, winding
around his, melding together, as their bodies moved together.

S
evair’s side of
the bed was cold when the pounding on the door woke Bri. The minute she opened
her eyes she remembered everything. The ambush by the Exotiques, Sevair and the
lovely bath. Lovemaking.

Bloodbonding
ritual today. She wanted to crawl back under the covers.

She
would not.

No
doubt Raine was here to take her to the ceremony. Bri grabbed a robe, pulling
it on as she ran downstairs. Raine was playing with the doorharp, sending her
thumbnail up and down and up and down…

Bri
flung open the door. “Hang on a minute.” She spotted Nuare sitting in the
middle of the cul de sac, ready to swoop down on her and take her to the
ritual. Elizabeth’s—Raine’s volaran was there, too, ignoring the big bird.

“I’ll
be right down.” Bri started up the stairs.

“I’m
eager to see the house,” Raine said.

Bri
threw her a sour look. “I know you’ve come to take me to the
coeur de chain
bloodbonding ritual. I’m ready.” Despite what felt like a flock of rocs flying
around in her nervous stomach. Just as well they wouldn’t have breakfast.

Raine
smiled and looked beautiful. “Good. Everyone’s looking forward to the wedding.”

Hesitating,
Bri said, “You, too? Feeling better?”

“Ayes.”

“You’re
not alone,” Bri said, reminding herself, too. She was not alone in this; Sevair
would be with her. All her new friends would celebrate with her.

She
concentrated on keeping her ears and mind open, listening to Songs. Sevair’s
was strong, steady, solid. As usual. Not even one tiny nervous note. Completely
unflappable.

As
soon as Bri and Nuare, Raine and Blossom, landed in Temple Ward of the Castle,
Bri was whisked away for a quick bath infused with “special herbs.” Herbs that
contained Power. Herbs that were good for preventing infection as well as the
circulation of blood, Bri saw, though no one mentioned that.

The
Exotiques surrounded her and kept her spirits up and her nerves only slightly
jittery as they helped her dress in a wonderful shimmering sleeveless gown of
pale gray shot with silver. Sevair’s colors. Bri wondered if he would be
wearing medica red.

Then
they were walking from the Castle keep to the temple and Bri was squeezing the
juice out of the stems of the bouquet she carried. She was on her way to her
wedding—more than wedding, because when she died, he did. Or vice versa.
Pairbonding. Whatever. Her family wasn’t here. No parents to give her away, Dad
to walk down the aisle, twin as maid of honor. How had she thought she didn’t
want that? Too bad.

She
listened to the whys she was here—Sevair’s Song, those of everyone around her,
all wishing her well.

Hearing
them, and her heart thump, she understood something more about herself. In her
heart of hearts she’d believed partnership wasn’t achievable. That the man she
married would try to force her into the mold of his own expectations of what
she should be. Just like everyone else.

Though
her parents had a loving relationship, she’d always thought her parents were
the rare, lucky ones. Her own relationships, and Elizabeth’s, had never been so
loving. She yearned for commitment and permanence.

Sevair
could give her that, would give her that. As she would give it to him.

The
minute Bri walked into the great Temple, her anxiety was soothed by the
saturation of Power. She saw the knives and they gleamed wickedly but no panic
grabbed her by the throat. She let her inner child out, gave the simple
creature full rein, felt delight and wonder. The little one liked the sensation
of magic infusing her, enjoyed the colors of the stained-glass windows
patterned on the gray stone floor.