World Weaver (The Devany Miller Series Book 4) (9 page)

***

In the end, we decided to hit Arsinua’s house right before the tides rolled in. Zeph said, “When we hear the horns, we’ll have thirty minutes or less before we’re hit.”

It meant Kroshtuka could come with us, though we’d be cutting things close. I didn’t want to risk him getting caught and captured because he was a Wydling and said so.

“We’ll have the streets to ourselves when the horns sound. Everyone else will be holed up,” Mal said. “Getting hit by the tides isn’t pretty.”

“What happens?”

“You lose your magic for a couple days. Or you get overloaded with it. You might get stuck in an alternative form.” He nodded in Krosh’s direction. “You might die.”

“Die? Seriously?”

“It’s rare,” Zeph said, “but I’ve seen a couple tide-sick sailors drown themselves rather than live with the effects. It’s not pretty.” She had her gun disassembled and was carefully cleaning each component. I didn’t like the idea of a gun being used around my daughter, and hoped that everything would go so smoothly, that Zeph and Mal weren’t even called into play.

“All right. So how are we going to do this?” Nerves had me strung tight and I finally got up to pace with Krosh.

“She’s expecting you, so I say we give her you.”

“What?”

Mal leaned forward. “You are her worst-case scenario, it sounds like. So if you showed up on her front step, she would be focused on you. That would leave your daughter unwatched.”

“She has friends.”

“Who aren’t as invested in your daughter as she is, I’d imagine.”

“So I go in there, say, ‘Here I am,’ and then what?”

Zephyrinia spoke up. “We go in the back, take on whoever dwells within, and your man grabs your daughter. By the time the witch figures it out, we’ll be gone. You’ll just have to survive the encounter.”

“That won’t be a problem.” What I lacked in finesse, I made up for in brute force, as Arsinua was always happy to remind me. If worse came to worse, I could hook away.

“Where would we meet after?”

“That will be the tricky part. We could meet back here, but they’ll have the place boarded up against the tide. It won’t be locked, but they won’t be happy if we barge in with the tide on our heels.”

“Is it close enough?” Krosh asked. “Will there be time to get Bethany and get back here?”

“If Devany does a good enough job distracting her, I’d imagine our part will be quick enough. If there’s anyone with your daughter, their magic will start to fail as the tide rolls in. They’ll have to rely on their fists or weapons.”

“Weapons?” Could I call the whole thing off? Go by myself and beg Arsinua to do the right thing and return Bethy to me?

“If you don’t want to risk your daughter, I’m willing to go in first,” Mal said.

“No.” Zeph shook her head. “You aren’t going off the wagon for this. It took too long for you to regain control the last time.”

“Last time we didn’t have the cock.”

Uh. I wanted to ask, ‘What cock?’ but I bit down hard on the question.

“If the little girl’s life is at stake, or her welfare, I will use it as I see fit.”

Zeph got up from her seat and strode to the window.

“What kind of power do you have?” I asked, deciding I’d rather know and be thought of as rude, than go in blind. “I know you said you were an assassin. How exactly does that work?”

“It’s seduction,” Zeph said, not turning from the window. “He kills with love. With lust. And it’s so much a part of him, that it’s hard for him to control it when …” She took a breath. “Anyway. I would hate to see him use it when he’s been free of it so long.”

Holy shit.

“It would assure that anyone in that building would be compliant.” He held out a hand and an impossibly red rose appeared in his palm. Its petals ached to be touched. I had to grip my hands behind my back to keep from reaching for it. It was his magic. Strong magic. Insidious, sensual magic. I wanted to snatch the rose and squash the man to me. Instead, I dug my fingernails into my skin and recited, ‘Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do’ in my head. He said, “If I wanted to kill you, you would die willingly in my arms.” A muscle jumped in his jaw.

Wait. “Including my daughter?” When he nodded, I said, “Oh hell no. You keep it in your pants.”

Zeph snorted.

“Anyway, I don’t want you helping if you’re going to destroy yourself while you’re at it. Thank you, but no. I have enough guilt I’m carrying around, I don’t need that burden too. Rush in, knock them out, grab my daughter and go. That’s it.” I wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed. Maybe both. “How long do we wait?”

“Two days from now, at sundown, according to the forecasts.” Zeph turned from the window.

“Two days?” I’d been hoping for sooner.

“Keep the room. We’ll meet you then for dinner and to make any last minute adjustments to our plan.”

Mal rose and they walked out together. Zeph paused at the door. “We’ll do our best to get your daughter back. And I hope you’ll work as hard for us when the time comes.”

It wasn’t quite a threat, but the words rang in the room long after they were gone.

***

It was nice having the room as a place to work from, but I didn’t want to twiddle my thumbs in Bayladdy when there were other things to take care of. After talking things over with Krosh, I hooked him back to Odd Silver and picked up Liam. “You have to finish out the school year, kiddo. If I have to, I’ll bring you back to Odd Silver every night. There’s only three weeks until summer break, and then we’ll sit down to make some hard decisions.”

“About moving to Midia, right? That’s what you mean.” His eyes gleamed with excitement. I wasn’t as stoked. Okay, the idea of staying there with Kroshtuka and my kids sounded wonderful. But doubts swam around and through me like clown fish in coral.

Besides, what about Tom’s parents? Didn’t they deserve to be able to see their grandchildren?

Liam went to bed and I cleaned, unwilling to go upstairs and see Bethy’s bear sitting so forlornly on my pillow.

A shiver in the air made me look around. Tytan leaned against the counter. “I have your Formless Ones.”

I studied him. No hint of our previous conversation lurked in his expression. “Thank you.”

He held my gaze until I squirmed, but finally, finally sketched a mocking bow. “But of course.” He left and returned in an instant, two Formless Ones in tow. My conscience twanged off-key at using them but I pushed that squeamishness aside. I needed them. It was all good.

“How do we do this again?”

He picked up the hand of the Formless One and took mine as well. When I touched the blank, my lip curled. The skin was warm, the flesh firm, but there wasn’t any life in it. Then Ty’s power, tasting like cloves and honey, washed over me. The skin on the Formless One rippled, the bones underneath shifting. I stared at a copy of myself.

It was so weird.

“And since I haven’t named it and since Ravana isn’t around to give it bits of my soul, it won’t decide it’s me and try to take over my life, right?”

“Right. Though, you have to admit it was clever of dear old Mum.”

I glanced at him sharply. “Mum?”

He shrugged. “Where’s the boy?”

“Upstairs, asleep.”

“Excellent.” He was gone before I could move. Crap. I wanted to rush upstairs to keep an eye on him. Instead, I forced myself to scrub the burnt cheese on the side of my glass casserole dish.

It took him mere seconds and then he was back in the kitchen with me. “Why don’t you use your magic to clean? Why do the labor?” he asked, nudging my wet rag with an index finger.

I hadn’t thought of it, honestly. Magic wasn’t something people used on Earth. It wasn’t an everyday thing to be factored in like gravity was here. As if activated by the words, my clone picked up the rag and began scrubbing the counter for me. “Are you making it do that?”

“Yes. Let her do your work. Let her get up in the morning and go to the Caring Shelter. Let your son’s copy go to school while the real boy frolics in Odd Silver. And then, lets you and I take care of that pesky detective together.”

“What?” I tugged my hand away from his and put some distance between us. “Take care of the detective? Are you crazy?”

“Perhaps. And perhaps I am saving you the hassle of having to deal with him later. Because you will have to deal with him, especially now that you’ve taken him to the Slip. He won’t ever leave you alone.”

I shoved my fingers in my hair, wanting to scream in frustration, but aware I’d wake Liam if I did. “It was supposed to scare him.”

“I’m sure it did. But fear burns away and what will be left, Devany? What will be left once the man no longer wakes in the middle of the night with a scream on his lips?”

EIGHT

I was already damned. I mean, if there was something out there watching us, putting tally marks under good and evil, then he or she had already put the bulk of my marks under evil. Still, I didn’t want to get rid of Detective Warwick because he was doing his job. Not yet, anyway.

I didn’t need to say it. Tytan heard it in my head. “That’s my Devany.”

“Not yours,” I said, pushing his hand away. “I’ll leave the offer open, okay? And if there comes a time when he gets too pushy, I’ll let you know that I’m ready to go Bonnie and Clyde his ass.”

“Those human criminals ended up full of holes.”

I flapped my hand at him. “Whatever. Thank you for the Formless Ones and thank you for being willing to watch my back. That means a lot, you know.”

“Then give me a kiss and show it.”

I rolled my eyes. “No.”

He laughed and hopped up on the counter. My copy rolled her eyes too and I had to grin. Tytan asked, “Any word on Arsinua?”

“Yes, actually. Well, I think so. I connected with Bethy again. Saw a sign outside the window of wherever she’s being kept. I called Zech and he told me Arsinua has friends who live in Bayladdy Creek. Krosh and I found the place where she’s being held.”

“And why aren’t you there storming the castle?”

“Because there are wards up. I don’t want Bethy to get hurt,” I said when I saw him about to argue. “We’re going to go in as tide rolls in, use the magic as cover.” His expression was inscrutable, and I didn’t know if he thought the idea was great or shitty. “You know a lot about the place? About this magic high tide that fucks everything up?”

He shook his head. “Do you need my help?”

“I do, but Arsinua knows you and I’m sure she has taken every precaution against you or other Skriven.” It looked so impossible from here. “Krosh said the tide might force him to change. I don’t want him to get caught because he’s there with me.”

“So you want me to make sure the hyena man doesn’t make it there?”

“No! Geez, Ty. Way to completely misinterpret what I was going to say.” I glared at him. “No grabbing Kroshtuka. What I meant was you’ll be on standby. In case something goes wrong.”

“Backup.”

“Yes.”

“I would rather be the main attraction.”

My eyes roamed. It wasn’t my fault, I was sure of it. He was like chocolate cheesecake with cherries on top. Something I had a really hard time resisting. Unlike cheesecake, Tytan was a dangerous temptation to give in to. There were so many domestic violence victims I’d worked with who had gotten into relationships with men who promised the moon but gave out bruises and sorrow.

“I am not one of your human failures, Devany.”

“Wow. Don’t even pretend not to read my mind, why don’t you.”

He slid off the counter and walked toward me—stalked, really, like a lion hunting his prey. I backed up as he advanced, not afraid of him, damn my eyes, but afraid of what I might do if he smiled just so or touched me in a way that locked out my good sense.

His touch had locked out my good sense more times than I could count.

“Back fiend,” I said, half joking and then my clone was standing between us, her mouth drawn down into a frown. Did I look that old? Holy cow.

“Back off,” she said.

Tytan chuckled. Then he touched my clone’s cheek and her eyes fluttered shut like the young heroines in romance novels. “Perhaps you need a little convincing,” he said, eyes on me as he stepped close to her. My nostrils flared, but I didn’t move and willed myself to keep my trap shut. “Perhaps a little demonstration is in order.” His lips descended on hers, her mouth parting with an, “Oh” as he did. Mine parted too, before I caught myself and pinched them shut.

Her hands rose to clutch at his shoulders. Traitorous clone.

The moan of pleasure hit me low in the gut. His pleasure. Her pleasure. My pleasure. But it wasn’t me, I reminded myself. Just a Formless One. A blank on which to imprint a personality.

When her/my hips pressed into his, I clapped my hands twice. “All right. Knock it off.”