Chapter 17

17

You can’t comply your way out of tyranny.

~ Tenegarus Grittorik, lieutenant of the Righteous and Virtuous

On the way up to see the sentinel, Kaylina stopped in her room. She opened a drawer in her bedside table and withdrew the packet Sergeant Zhani had given her, then extracted one vial.

When they’d spoken, Kaylina had been certain she would never use the elixir on Vlerion, not after learning it could have dangerous side effects, but Zhani’s words just in case came to mind. She tucked the vial into her pocket before striding down the hallway toward the tower.

The sentinel’s power wrapped around her and pulled her along, a tendril drawing her physically closer, demanding she obey its summons.

Irritation swept through Kaylina. Even though she accepted that sending out another call, or whatever the plant wanted her to do, could be beneficial, she resented it presuming to pull her about. Since it was even more of a huge eavesdropping spy than she, it had probably seen her with Vlerion and had wanted to interrupt them. To protect her, maybe, but also because it didn’t approve of her being near one of the descendants of the original man the Daygarii had cursed.

“I’ll spend time with whomever I wish,” she said.

All along, the sentinel had been presumptuous, branding her without warning, forcing its communications on her, and killing others to protect her—or simply because it desired to. It cared nothing for humanity. It had admitted that. It was a Daygarii-created plant, through and through.

By the time Kaylina turned down the final narrow hallway, the irritation had turned to anger and more. Her hand warmed, that warmth flowing into her body and flushing her with a strange energy. A… magical energy?

As she approached the tower, vines dangling through the hole in the ceiling above the chair she’d left for climbing up, she noticed a faint green glow at the edges of her vision. Coming from the walls? The plant? No. She was emanating it.

That startled her, and some of her anger faded. With it, the glow also faded.

One of the vines rose up, the tip rotating toward her. It was like the head of a dog, interested in a rabbit it had spotted. But she refused to be the rabbit, or some obedient lackey. When the vine shifted toward her, probably wanting to touch her temple before she climbed up, she gripped it and kept it from advancing.

Energy buzzed up her arm. Her anger crept back into her, and she willed her power into the vine, silently ordering it to leave her alone. If she and the sentinel were to communicate, she would initiate it.

You are coming into your power. The sentinel sounded more amused than approving, though maybe there was some of both.

Yup. Can we get this over with quickly, please? I have a date.

You seek to mate with the cursed one.

Not exactly, unfortunately, but Kaylina had no intention of explaining their problem to a plant.

I invited him here so I could spend time with him before… Our world is about to get chaotic.

Compared to all that is in the universe, the machinations of men matter little.

Yeah, well, they’re going to matter to us once tomorrow’s newspaper is distributed.

A scornful scoff sounded in her mind, but the sentinel changed the topic. To reach out to he who is now aware of you, who heard your call, you will draw upon the power within me.

The vine twitched in her hand, trying to rise again to her temple. She continued to hold it away from her.

My father? Is that who you’re talking about? I don’t want to reach out to any random person with druid blood. Kaylina thought of the mountain men who’d shown up because of her call.

The sentinel answered by floating an image into her mind. The same handsome green-haired man with reddish bark-tinted skin that it had shown her before. Her father.

Or so she’d assumed. But had the sentinel ever confirmed that? She tried to remember.

I speak of he who planted the seed that created you, the sentinel said.

My father , she said.

Yes .

Glad for the confirmation, Kaylina nodded. The vine was still twitching, trying to initiate a stronger link.

She drew a bracing breath and lifted it to her head. Maybe it was silly, but she wanted control of the situation, of their communication. The sentinel couldn’t assume she was here to serve it.

She touched the vine to her temple.

The sentinel is here to serve the Daygarii, it said, responding to what she hadn’t spoken, and those with enough of their blood to command a reasonable amount of their power.

That’s me?

We shall see.

Another vine lowered through the hole and snaked toward her.

How much touching do we need to do? Kaylina lifted her free hand—she still held the first vine in her other.

For this, multiple points of contact will facilitate. For the first time, you will draw upon my power. I will serve you, infusing you with enough to reach out without the aid of an ashandar .

Kaylina frowned but gripped the second vine. Others drifted down, touching her arm, snaking around her leg, and one curved around her waist.

Her heart pounded, and she admitted fear, despite the relationship she’d established with the sentinel. She’d seen these same vines kill people. None of them wrapped around her neck, but she would be trapped if the plant didn’t let her go. She knew from experience that her knife wasn’t enough to cut away the vines.

You have the power to force my limbs away if you wish, the sentinel said. And soon you will have more power.

With those words, invigorating energy swept into her body, making her skin flush and her scalp tingle.

Envision he whom you wish to communicate with, and call out to him, the sentinel instructed.

Kaylina did so, doing her best to form the face of a man she’d never met in her mind. Then, feeling a little silly, she tried to project the word, Father , toward him, wherever in the world he was. If he even was in this world.

His name is Arsanti t’el Avadorstar, the sentinel said.

Maybe I’ll stick with calling him Father. Kaylina did file the name away, repeating it a few times so she could remember it. She imagined calling the name, as well as Father , out into the ether. No, across the North and South Dakmoor Seas, since one of the visions the plant had shared had been of him on a sailing ship.

Whether she effectively called to anyone or was able to send a message across a distance, Kaylina didn’t know, but her skin continued to tingle with power, the sentinel’s magic mingling with hers. So much energy coursed through her body that it was almost painful.

Yes, the sentinel said. You are not as disappointing as I believed when I first drew you here.

I’m so glad, Kaylina thought. But we came of our own accord.

Okay, they’d been tricked by that fake land agent, but…

The sentinel chuckled into her mind. You came because I wished it. Not only to me in the castle but to this human metropolis near one of the remaining Daygarii preserves. It was your fate.

I’m only here to make mead, she said, refusing to believe in fate. Even if such things existed for the heroes in stories, she wasn’t such a person. She was just… Kaylina. Lover of honey. Maker of mead.

Anrokk, daughter of Avadorstar, new protector of the future until the era of men passes and the Daygarii return.

Kaylina swallowed. Protector?

She remembered Frayvar’s translation of that plaque in the ruins, of how it had spoken of the Daygarii protecting the lands.

Curses don’t last forever, the sentinel said. You were birthed for a reason.

I figured the reason was that my father was into my mother.

The sentinel chuckled again. I imagine she did arouse him. Such is required for druids to procreate, as with many warm-blooded beings in this and other worlds.

What am I supposed to protect?

An image of the preserve came to mind, as if she were seeing it from above, the trees dark green and dense as they spread from either side of the river and stretched into the foothills of the mountains. An area that had been left alone over the centuries, though it was surrounded on three sides by farm and grazing lands.

When you say curses don’t last forever, do you speak of yourself? Or of Vlerion’s curse?

I can survive longer, especially now that you have nourished me. The vines shifted along her skin, almost caressing her.

You’re getting creepy again.

It is in your blood for plants and animals to be drawn to you. And men. It shared an image of Vlerion but also of Targon and several others who’d leered at her in recent memory. You shall have to grow accustomed to it.

Yeah… I probably won’t.

Vlerion was the only one she wanted drawn to her.

Because you are drawn to him, to his beast. The sentinel showed her another memory, of the beast pulling himself out of the pool at the bathhouse, of powerful muscles under short damp auburn fur.

I’m drawn to Vlerion, Kaylina thought firmly, even as the sentinel showed her kissing the beast.

She’d been doing that to save herself, to get close enough for her power to work, to calm him, to get him to change back into Vlerion.

He’s a good man, she added. I love him.

Tired of discussing this with a plant, Kaylina attempted to marshal her power again, sensing that they’d done what the sentinel wanted—what she wanted—and she didn’t need to let its grasping vines continue to touch her.

Energy still coursed through her body, and she found it surprisingly easy to push them away. Maybe the sentinel let her. Either way, green light flared around her, and the air sizzled with shed energy. It felt good to use it, to have an outlet, and she let her head fall back, imagining using this magic to help Vlerion, to attack his enemies. There would be consequences, but would it matter? They were unimportant humans, an infestation on the land.

The thought alarmed her, and she opened her eyes and stepped back. Had it come from her? Or from the sentinel? Either way, she found it disturbing.

The vines hung limp now, not moving, and the sentinel was quiet in its pot. Maybe it had worn itself out by lending her energy. Had she succeeded in sending a message to her father? Would anything come of it? She didn’t know.

The awareness that she wasn’t alone came to Kaylina. She turned to find Vlerion in the shadows scant feet away, watching her through slitted eyes.

Her heart pounded with fear or anticipation or… she didn’t know what. She felt like she’d been caught doing something wrong. Or maybe something forbidden.

But there was no condemnation in his gaze when he surveyed her from head to toe. “You are learning to use your power.”

“Apparently.” Kaylina tried to smile, but her mouth was dry, and she was oddly nervous. Why? This was Vlerion. Vlerion who’d promised to give her pleasure tonight… “Were you drawn by it?”

She meant it to be a joke, but he met her eyes with utter seriousness.

“I was.” He stepped closer. “I always am.”

He lifted a hand to her jaw, fingers light as they traced it. His touch sent a shiver through her, a longing for more. He brushed his fingers down the side of her throat, then followed the curve of her chest as he held her gaze.

Heat coiled between her legs, and she wanted to reach out, to touch him , but did she dare?

She couldn’t tell from his face if that potion had kicked in. She didn’t see the spark of danger in his blue eyes—yet—but they were intense. And he’d admitted being magically drawn. Could a mundane potion stop that?

Vlerion shifted closer, and she found herself backed against the wall. She trembled as he cupped her breast, thumb stroking her through the fabric of her shirt before drifting to her buttons.

“Vlerion,” she whispered. “Are you… Can you tell if…”

Kaylina glanced to the side, toward the dangling vines. Even if he was okay, this wasn’t the place for their interlude. It wasn’t private.

“You’ve subdued it,” he murmured, “with your power. Just as you can subdue me.” For a moment, something sparked in his eyes. Indignation?

He couldn’t have been too irked because he kept stroking her, shifting closer, inhaling her scent.

“I will thank you,” he said softly, meeting her gaze again as his fingers unfastened her buttons and stroked her bare skin. “For all you’ve done for me, for all you want to do. For dealing with that .” He tilted his head toward the sentinel as his fingers trailed lower, nails grazing the soft skin of her stomach. “To seek an answer for me.”

Vlerion pushed her shirt open to look at her. Her nipples tightened under his appreciative gaze, his loving touch, but she couldn’t help but worry that he hadn’t answered her question.

If the beast roused, it wouldn’t be safe here. The sentinel would come to life and attack. She was sure of it. And if it didn’t? Her brother was in his room, a potential victim. And she… she could be a potential victim too. As his mother had warned, the curse could kill.

She needed to shift away, to push him away, at least until she was certain it was safe. But her body betrayed her, as it always did, and she turned into his touch, not away from it. She inhaled his masculine scent, appreciating it—and him—just as he did her. By all the altered orchards, she wanted this, wanted him to give her the experience she’d craved since meeting him.

As his explorations continued, fingers stroking lower, she trembled again. The heat in her core intensified, her body readying itself for him. He couldn’t take her, not in the way of joining, but he used his fingers expertly, and she shifted and writhed as he stroked her, as he looked at her hungrily, as if he couldn’t tear his gaze from her body.

He bent his face to her breasts, nuzzling them, and she couldn’t keep from gripping his shoulders and arching toward him, wanting his mouth on her. A low growl rumbled in his chest as he complied, taking one nipple between his lips, sucking her gently.

She gasped, the arousal so intense that she jerked toward him before she could stop herself. She was vaguely aware of him unfastening her trousers as his tongue teased her, making her squirm and pant, breaths quickening.

“Vlerion,” she whispered, lifting her hands to his head, digging her fingers into his short hair. She needed more.

“Your enthusiasm,” he murmured, “is testing the potion.”

Despite the words—the warning ?—he didn’t stop. She didn’t want him to stop, but was he joking? His voice was husky, not calm or detached. Did she need to dig out that vial?

It was in the pocket in the trousers that were descending to the floor.

“Vlerion, should I…?” She didn’t know what. Stop thrashing about? That would be hard as long as he was sliding his mouth so erotically over her nipple as his hand drifted lower, fingers stroking her core, sliding into her throbbing warmth. Dear moon gods, she almost came at his first touch there.

“No,” Vlerion said against her skin, though he couldn’t have known what she’d meant. She hadn’t told him about the vial.

Nor did she want to use it. She didn’t want him to stop. She needed this so badly and caught herself rocking toward him, her body begging for everything he could give.

She gripped his head harder, her breaths coming fast as he touched her intimately, more expertly than she’d ever touched herself. Somehow, he knew her and what gave her pleasure, intense pleasure. It was as if the magic that drew them together gave him knowledge of all that she longed for, physically and emotionally. From recognition in the newspaper to his tongue sliding down her stomach to replace his fingers.

Panting, with her thoughts scattered, she thought of pushing off his shirt, of touching him so that he would also enjoy this, but she remembered the danger in that. His lust. The beast.

Or would the potion succeed in tamping that down? If it did, would it mean her touch wouldn’t affect him?

A twinge of disappointment ran through her, but the thought fled when his tongue slipped into her most intimate of spots. Throbbing desire and pleasure pulsed through her, and all she could think of was how incredible that felt.

She let out a garbled cry as Vlerion gripped her hips, pinning her against the wall as he lowered to his knees. He spread her legs, opening her to his touch. Maybe she should have felt vulnerable or shy, but eagerness made her give in to his movements, letting him look at her, letting him have all of her.

He growled. Maybe that should have alarmed her, hinting of the beast, but then he tasted her, stroking her with his tongue, and she couldn’t think of anything but her own desire. He teased and titillated, bringing her closer and closer to the edge.

Such exquisite need rocketed through her that she arched away from the wall, begging aloud as she pushed toward him. His strokes turned into a gentle nip, then sucking that brought such relief and ecstasy that she cried out again, fingers digging in as she gripped him, waves and waves of satisfaction making her entire body shake.

As those waves washed over her, it took her a moment to realize that Vlerion had paused. He looked up at her as he gripped her, as she trembled in the aftermath of the climax, her breasts bare, her nearly naked body bathed in sweat.

He breathed heavily, pure lust burning in his blue eyes, and fear ricochetted through her as she realized the potion hadn’t been enough. The beast was rising.