Chapter Eight

The week flew by. The moment Orla got her phone, she started texting with Emery, and they chatted about everything from the moment they woke until she was forced to put her phone on the charger at the end of the day.

Orla and Emery had come up with a plan, and Hunter was going to hate it. The time was set, the night was set, and the plan was locked in. Orla didn’t know what Emery had against her father, but Emery had dibs.

Her brother and grandfather were all Orla’s, and she had just the thing.

She got dressed and smoothed her cocktail dress over her thighs. The heels and stockings were a little much, but Hunter wanted her to look a certain way, and she didn’t really care. Even the secretly convened warlock council had agreed to what was about to commence.

Hunter came in and asked, “Are you ready?”

“I am. It feels weird to know that I am getting ready to avoid myself, but I am better dressed now. Do you have my sweater?”

“Yesoff made sure it is ready.”

“Good. It was with me then, and I want it to be with me now.”

“I am with you now.”

“Yes, but there is something about this sweater. Ever since I first picked it up, I have a feeling that it’s important.”

He nodded, and as if summoned, Yesoff brought her the sweater. It was the night before Yule, so they had some time.

Orla was nervous but thought back on the week of normal exercise, regular meals, and quiet moments with Hunter while they looked through the local shelter advertisements for a puppy. Orla knew what she wanted, and when she saw it, she would know.

Hunter looked at her as she wrapped her arm with the sweater. “Just like the arena.”

“For a very similar purpose. This is going to hurt if I don’t do it right.”

“I will help. You just need to let me know what you want.”

“I want you at my back. That’s it. I have to do this, and I finally know how.”

“How?”

A voice brought their heads around, and Emery was standing there wearing denim and leather and a grin. “I am ready if you are, buddy.”

Orla grinned, and Hunter was surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, first, I had to drop off a dire wolf puppy with Yesoff so he can give it a bath and get the blood off it. It’s healed, but it was mauled pretty badly. It is going to enjoy living with someone who will cuddle and pamper it.”

Orla’s eyes went wide, and she sprinted down the steps to see Yesoff wrangling a huge puppy into a basin on the counter. She crooned and stroked the chin and fussed over it.

Yesoff finally said, “Do what you have to do and get back here. He’s going to need help.”

“We are going to need larger puppy supplies,” Hunter muttered.

Orla washed her hands and saw the blood on them. “This isn’t his, is it?”

“A little. He did a lot of damage with his milk teeth.” Emery sighed. “Rowen found him for me. He knew I was looking for a puppy for you.”

Orla chuckled. “So, how is that going?”

“Oh, you know. He is backpedalling, and I am staying steady.”

“You do realize that he was remaining faithful to you, even if you two hadn’t properly met yet.”

“Don’t come out on his side.”

“I am not, but I am just saying that if he was using his preoccupation with the vision of you to keep him from hitting on the current you, it is kind of sweet.”

Emery looked at her. “Shush and dry your hands. We have to deal with some ogres.”

Orla nodded and looked at the puppy. “Mommy will be with you later, Snowflake.”

Yesoff raised his brows. “Just like that. Wow. You are easy.”

Emery chuckled. “No, I am easy. I promised Rowen a date for the puppy. Yes, I am renting myself out for canines.”

Hunter snorted. “As fascinating and interesting a mental image as that is, we need to get going.”

Orla agreed, and they headed out to his car and piled in.

Emery sat in the back, and as they drove the twenty minutes, they discussed what was about to happen.

They had to get them out. Hunter was in charge of the troll, and the ladies would handle everything else.

He drove past the broken guardrail and up to the house. His tires didn’t skid on the ice, and he parked near the house.

They got out of the car and lined up. Emery made an energy ball and pitched it at the house. It struck; the house wavered and disappeared.

Orla grinned. “Well, that solved that problem.”

The ogres and their guard came toward them. Her father shouted, “What do you want? And how did you get out of the water?”

Orla smirked. “I can swim, dumbass.”

Her family jerked.

She continued, “Now, Father, my friend here has something to discuss with you. I would recommend you listen.”

Emery stepped forward. “You owe me a blood debt. You cost me my mother. So, if you will come here, I will kill you, and we will get this over with.”

The ogre got taller and uglier, expanding as Orla watched. “How do you want to die, little girl?”

Emery transformed, reached up and back, and pulled two long blades out of thin air, grinning. “Well, as you won’t be able to do it, I suggest I keep my personal interests to myself.”

Orla enacted her revenge wordlessly. She transformed her brother into a kitten, and her grandfather immediately pounced. He lifted the kitten, his jaw hinged wide and swallowed it whole.

Orla smiled grimly, counted to ten, and snapped her fingers. Her brother regained his body but was crushed and twisted as he blew his grandfather to pieces as he resumed his height and weight.

Emery faced off against Orla’s father with a grin, and she danced lightly, taking a piece of him off at a time until he was screaming and blubbering but unable to run. The last thing to go was his head.

Orla walked past the bouncing head as she walked to where her grandfather was shattered and splattered, and her brother was lying broken and struggling to his feet.

Orla walked up to him and muttered, “Get up.”

He looked at her and sneered. “You will pay for this.”

“I am not sure that you will live to see that.” She pulled her sword and got into a fighter’s crouch.

He looked at her and staggered, his left arm held behind him. “You stupid bitch! You are the ruin of this family. You doomed us all.”

“I am looking at the only bitch in the family. Bring it.” She held up her ugly sweater, and he roared, his eyes turning red and his stumpy fangs extended. “Thirty-five and still living with daddy. Loser.”

There was a huge roar, and he charged.

The troll at the arena trying to knock her over... the orc gnashing his teeth... the over a dozen more ferocious attacks that she had seen and survived. Orla embraced everything she had learned and dodged claws, stabbed, circled, and stabbed again. Blood made the floor slippery, but her boots gripped and let her complete what she came to do.

Finally, she had rendered his arms useless and stood facing him as his eyes rolled in panic. “Mr. Mittens says hello.”

She took his head off. Black blood spilled, and his head tumbled to one side.

The silence was complete until she heard her heavy breathing.

Emery was at her side and smiled. “You did good. Now, let’s finish things.”

Emery turned her around, and Orla was standing and facing herself in the velvet she had been wearing hours earlier. The stars above were watching.

Orla swallowed. “What do I do?”

“Well, I will tell you two a quick story. Your mom taught me to knit. We would sit while you were engaged in a dance or sport I couldn’t afford, and we would knit. One time, she was working on a red and green holiday sweater, and she was smiling the whole time. I asked her why, and she said she had put her heart and soul into the sweater. If it ever mattered, it mattered around the holidays, so this was the time. I helped her decorate it, and I felt the power in it. You have it on your arm.”

Emery asked softly, “Orlas, would one of you sacrifice your body to give your mother’s soul a place to go again?”

Orla looked up. “Absolutely.”

The other one said, “No. Take me. I can see that you have skills I don’t have yet, and I don’t want you to waste that effort.”

Orla extended her bloodied hand, and her other self took it. Their souls met and melded. She whispered, “Oh, wow.”

Emery caught the body and said, “The sweater?”

Orla unwrapped the knit from her arm, stroked it, and handed it over. She watched as her body was stretched out on the ground, and Emery moved quickly to cover the torso with the folded knit.

* * * *

Emery focused, pressed her hands to either side of Orla’s temples and breathed slowly, easing the soul from the fabric and into the body. She surrendered the piece of Yinmar she had carried since she first met Orla and put it into the body. Now, she needed to reshape the body to its original specs. Fortunately, transformation magic was her forte.

She hummed and focused, and when she burst into flame, the body lifted off the ground, and Emery knit body and soul together.

Fire and darkness mixed with starlight, and Yinmar settled down once again. Emery fixed her energy on her fist and started the heart. There was a count of three, and Yinmar gasped, heaving upward.

Orla stood, dripping with blood, and she started to cry. “Is she okay?”

Emery sat back and watched the woman settle into the body that was half hers anyway. “Yinmar, you are back. It has been a decade and a half since you walked the world. Your daughter is grown and about to have a partner of her own. Your husband and his family are dead.” Emery stroked the dark gold hair. “Orla is a little bloody.”

The woman opened and closed her mouth. Emery helped her sit up, and she stepped back and let Orla come in.

Yinmar whispered, “Baby girl? Golden princess? Is that you?”

“My hair got darker as I aged, but yeah, Mom. It’s me.”

Emery smiled and walked to open the door that wasn’t there. “Do the witnesses of the council confirm that it was a proper kill?”

Kelnen, Olmin, and Argo nodded. “We confirm it. What are you doing with the bodies?”

“Disposal. They will be gone in ten minutes.”

Kelnen walked up to her and ruffled her hair. “Well done, soul star.”

“Thank you. Hey, you guessed the star.” She smiled.

He chuckled. “It glows out of you. You are constantly trying to make others happy in every way you can.”

“Happy souls weigh on me less.” She shrugged.

“Well, you did well. Your sword skills are impressive.”

“Yinmar found me a tutor when I was fourteen. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, and that is when I had to pull my body back and keep it from turning into this. No one needed to know.” She pulled a hank of her black, red, and gold hair forward. “Still haven’t decided whether I am going to keep this now that I can wear it.”

“Rowen has been asking about you.”

“Lovely. I have to go destroy some blood and bodies. I hope your Yule tomorrow is fun and festive.”

“What are you doing for Yule?”

“The diner is open until seven, so fuzzy slippers by seven thirty and takeout delivered by seven forty-five.”

“Would you like to come to the Yule party? Winter is hosting it this year.”

“Orla is going to need time with her mother. I want to let that settle. Holiday movies and pizza is my destiny.”

She smiled, and the ogre bodies inside the house caught fire.

“When will the house be back?”

“When all traces of ogre blood are gone.” She turned, and Orla was helping Yinmar out of the house. Hunter was there and took over while Orla got the car door open. It looked like Orla was ready to enter a caregiver phase of her life.

She looked to Olmin. “Did you want any of the tomes for the dark archive? There is some nasty stuff in there.”

“Can you get it out?”

“Sure. Keep this stuff out of normal hands. It is soul-twistingly dark.” Emery focused, and a pile of books whizzed out of the corners of the house and settled in a pile in front of them. “I am going to put an energy condom on them, but the rest of the tomes are being set in one of their cars for safekeeping.”

Olmin stared. “Energy condom?”

“Yeah, they can’t be opened without my consent, but I have to be there. I can’t do it remotely. I don’t want anyone opening those books without the blood to open them.”

Kelnen frowned. “But you have the bloodline?”

“Of course. I just sliced my father in two. He raped my mother, she died in childbirth, and I am just here doing what all good ogre children do. I killed a weak parent.” She smirked. “Now I am burning his corpse so his ghost can’t haunt me, and I am taking down his father and son for good measure. I have just moved the house so it doesn’t get dirty.”

Emery smiled as Hunter drove away to get Orla into a shower and Yinmar into dry clothing.

Olmin and Kelnen explained they wanted the other grimoires for storage. Technically, they were all Orla’s.

Emery put her mark on everything, left them to it, and headed inside where she could turn up the heat to make sure there was nothing but ash left behind, and then, she summoned wind and water to scrub the house clean.

It was after midnight when she dragged herself toward the city, slogging along one step at a time. Opening a portal would have been handy, but she was nervous about portals when she was at full operating potential. Today, it would take her one hour and twenty minutes to walk home.

She got a call over the broken bridge and answered it. “Hey.”

Orla’s voice said, “ Emery, oh, my god. I forgot we were your ride. Are you home?”

“On the way. Had some stuff to do. The house is clear and ready for a sale if you want to get rid of it.”

“ Um, that can wait. I needed to ask you about something that I hadn’t thought of until just now. You wanted to kill my dad. Why? ”

“Because he got the summoning energy and didn’t want any of the magic users at the party. He went to his country club and found the young woman he had been lusting over and assaulted her but succeeded in starting a child. I was born three months early, and my mom died birthing me. Straight into the foster system and finally adopted years later. My mother’s family didn’t want me to be happy. I had taken their daughter, so they insisted it was fostering or nothing.”

“ How did you find that out? ”

“There was a court hearing when I insisted that they surrender all their rights so that my foster parents could adopt me. The nurse from the delivery room spoke about how my mother wanted me to have love in my life and how she wanted one of the names in her book to be mine. The notebook style was Emery, and here I am. How is the puppy?”

“ Snowball is doing fine. I was going to go with Snowflake, but he likes to head-butt, so Snowball is better. ”

Emery kept plodding along as Orla chattered about the new puppy when she asked the question, “ How big do you think he will get?”

Emery laughed. “Pretty fucking big. Two to three hundred pounds.”

“ Oh. That is big. Hunter doesn’t seem bothered. ”

“Good. Well, my battery is almost down. You get some rest. I hear that Hunter is hosting a Yule party.”

Orla chuckled. “ Oh, he is. The backyard is being filled with lights. There is a place to skate and a kind of sports field. Snowball is going to have so much fun.”

Emery nodded and focused on putting one foot in front of the other as she ended the call without a word.

She put her phone away and kept walking. A few minutes later, she saw someone keeping pace with her. “Why are you here?”

Rowen sighed. “Orla had Hunter call me when she tracked your phone. Why are you walking?”

“They headed back to Hunter’s, and they were my ride. I had stuff to do. I don’t do portals, so I have to hike.”

“I am parked around the corner. I can give you a ride.”

“No, thank you. If I sit down, I am out, and I only have fifty minutes of walking left. I am good. Go home.” She didn’t look at him.

“No. I don’t mind some extra exercise.”

She snorted and staggered slightly. He caught her with an arm around her waist and said, “You need rest.”

“I will have it. As soon as I get home.”

He sighed. “This isn’t necessary.”

“It is. It is the only thing I can think of to get me home safely.”

“This is stupid.” He tightened his grip and lifted her, swinging her into his arms.

She gasped. “Don’t. I am not used to being carried.”

“Few people are until they make an effort. You are lighter than I thought. Your height is deceptive.”

Fatigue was running through her now that she wasn’t moving. “I know. Curvy me weighs the same.”

“Good to know.”

“Why were you mean to me?”

He sighed. “I wasn’t mean. I was trying to create distance.”

“Why?”

“Because I knew you were my match and had to wait for you. I didn’t want to get serious with someone when I knew that it couldn’t last. When I saw your face as I closed my eyes, I felt warm and calm. When I see you at the diner, I feel excited and amused in equal measure. I want to spend more time with you, but a relationship would not have been fair to you.”

She mumbled, “Because I was competing against myself. That is so stupid.”

“It was, but it is over now. I would like to court you.”

She tried to ask a question, but a yawn caught her. She heard a car chirp and the door open. She was settled on a car seat and buckled in. He kept her inside the car as he carefully closed the door, walked around to the driver’s side, and buckled up himself.

“Where do you live, Emery?”

She mumbled, “On the street with the blue car at the corner. And the tree.”

“Okay. Executive decision. We are taking you home and getting that blood off.”

He started driving, and the car ride did what they always did when she was tired. She fell asleep.

* * * *

Orla sat on the couch with Snowball and Hunter. “So, I guess that’s it. They are gone.”

Hunter kept his arm around her in her comfy sweatsuit. “They are gone, and now, we can start clear.”

“Emery is my father’s daughter.”

Hunter paused.

The soft sound of Yinmar’s voice came around the corner. Orla’s mother walked in and smiled. “She has always been. I knew it when I saw her when she was small. I was volunteering at a group home, and I saw her. She saw me, and I recognized the desperation in her eyes. She asked me if I was a mom, and I said I was. She asked for a hug so that she would know what it felt like to be hugged by a mom. From that moment on, I kept track of her. To see the warrior she has become is amazing. She has come so far.”

Yinmar settled in an easy chair. “Of course, Orla has exceeded my dreams for her. She has her freedom, a puppy, and she retains the warm heart and obsession with learning that has always kept her safe. Now that her brother is out of the way, she can let her impulses lead her as far as she wants to go.”

Orla smiled. “Well, first, I am going to accept that promotion at work finally.”

Hunter chuckled.

“Then, I am going to start an archive. I want to keep reading and learning. And I am going to spend a lot more time with Emery.” Orla frowned. “I hope she made it home okay.”

“Rowen has her. She’s safe but extremely tired. She couldn’t remember her address, so she will wake up in his guestroom.” Hunter checked his phone. “She will wake up warm.”

Yinmar chuckled. “He tucked her into his bed.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, they are his balls. She can cook them faster than he can say sneeze.” She chuckled.

“Mom, did you know she was a star?”

“Yes, baby. I knew you were one as well, but I had to hide everything from your father. Well, my husband. Did you find your father after I passed?”

“I did. He’s a bit of a tool, and his family is annoying.”

“He was the best I could do at that party. Your father insisted that I participate so he could get a charm to try himself with someone else. No one knew he would attack that poor girl.” Yinmar scowled.

Orla asked, “Was he ever charged?”

“Yes, but he claimed to be drunk, and it was a crime of passion. He did six months and was released after that. I believe it was him going to Emery’s mother that sent her into early labour.”

Orla sighed and thought about her father when he was intent on something. “Yeah, that would have been terrifying. Wait, she didn’t have any magic?”

Her mother sighed. “She did not. She was pale and weak but loved Emery with everything she had. Part of that was due to her family’s hate of the baby. They had been trying to get her to abort, but she wouldn’t. Emery was loved for the first six months of life.”

Orla sighed. “And not a lot after.”

Yinmar smiled. “But enough about sad things. What time are the Yule festivities beginning?”

“At sundown. The log is ready and in position.”

Orla smiled and stroked her puppy’s ears. “I guess I should get to bed.”

Hunter kissed her temple. “You should. Snowball will have one more trip outside, and then, I will make sure he knows where your room is.”

Orla got out of the nest she had made, and Hunter got up to take Snowball outside.

“Night, Mom.”

“Night, golden princess.”

Orla smiled the whole way up the steps. There had been carnage, but she got some of her own back. Her mom had been there the whole time, wrapped up in her best friend and an ugly sweater.

Tonight was the longest night of the year, and it was the perfect time to start something new. Maybe she could find that book again. Hunter’s human-style body had its charms, and she was interested in seeing all of them.