To Hell and Back by L.B. Gilbert

Chapter Thirty

Rhys watched the blood drain from Valeria’s face. “That’s not possible. My mother is dead. Or she’s supposed to be.”

Face carefully impassive, he nodded. She hadn’t said so aloud, but whenever Valeria had spoken of her parent, it had been in the past tense. It hadn’t been that great a leap to assume the woman had passed on to her reward.

“There is a high probability that it’s a ruse,” he replied. “But I don’t want you to worry. I’m having the woman watched. The settlement is hundreds of miles away. Whoever she is, she can’t get to you here. I promise.”

His reassurance fell on deaf ears. Valeria remained pale.

“Did you bury her?” he asked.

“No, I didn’t see her die,” she admitted. “But I know she’s dead because she failed to meet me. Not once, but three times. We had to separate—things kept going to hell so fast when we were together, but we always made plans in advance on where to go when things were quiet and safe.”

“And?” he prodded softly.

Valeria shrugged almost casually, but her voice was desolate. “We had set up three rendezvous in advance. She didn’t come. She never came.”

“I see,” he said. “How long has it been?”

A pucker appeared between her brows. “At least two years. That’s too long. If my mother were alive, she would have contacted me before this.”

Giving in to his instinct, he beckoned her closer. Something in him calmed as she came into his arms, resting her head against his chest.

“You are safe here,” he repeated, savoring the silkiness of her hair against his chin. “But I need you to be strong. I have a photograph. Jerik took it with his camera phone. You need to look at it.”

Straightening her shoulders, she nodded.

Rhys fished the lightweight device from his pocket. Handling it carefully—he tended to break them easily—he pulled up the photograph from the text message his man had sent.

It pictured a woman dressed in a patched-up down parka paying for dinner at Louise’s dinner, the most popular eatery in the settlement.

Rhys had already studied the image, searching for a resemblance to Valeria, and found none.

The woman was middle-aged, with dry orange hair pulled into a messy bun with dark roots. Her features were sharply attractive, but there was nothing in the underlying structure that spoke of a specific region or nationality. And she did not resemble Salvador Delavordo or any of the other members of the clan that his people had managed to find photos of.

But even if he saw nothing of Valeria in the woman, he could see his precious guest’s reaction.

There was recognition and a shock so brutal she needed support even sitting down. He gathered her to him, wrapping a protective arm around her.

“It might not be her.”

He didn’t have to tell Valeria that there were many ways to fake someone’s appearance. The Fae’s ability of glamour could be a damaging and pernicious trick. It didn’t fool most shifters, the Draconai included because their keen sense of smell could see past the lie told to the eyes.

But for beings without a similarly sharp sense, glamour could be a damaging threat.

“Do you have anything of hers, something that would carry her scent after all this time?”

Her brow puckered. “No.”

That had been his guess. Valeria traveled too lightly to have such a convenient possession in hand. Like the nomads of old, she carried only that which was the most useful. It was a spartan and severe way of life, especially to one who liked to hoard his possessions.

“I want to see her.”

“This can be easily arranged,” he said, trusting that Valeria would know if the woman were truly her mother after a short meeting. “We can take you to her. Once we establish who she is, we will re-evaluate, possibly extend an invitation for a stay here. Does that sound reasonable?”

Eyes glinting, she nodded. “It does. Thank you.”

* * *

Rhys watchedher smooth her hands over the wool coat she’d chosen for the tenth time today.

Any minute, her mother was going to walk out of the back of the Rise and Shine Motel to grab breakfast from the convenience store.

Rhys’ men had been watching her for a few days, and they had familiarized themselves with her routine. After eating, she would walk around town, talking to people. To a select few, she would flash Valeria’s picture, explaining that her daughter might be nearby and asking if they had seen her.

“There is no need to be nervous,” Rhys assured Valeria. “Even if this woman is an imposter, we would not allow her to harm you.”

That was why he’d come, leaving clan territory for the first time in years.

He was in what he called his ‘incognito form,’ wearing ‘human’ clothing to blend in. For him, that meant jeans and a t-shirt. Somewhere high above the cloud layer, Jerik and Naveen were flying.

“One dragon is worth over a hundred highly trained soldiers,” he’d told Valeria before they left. After seeing them train, Valeria believed him.

There was one surprising addition to their small recon group. Rhys had asked Thomas to join them. The shifter was in bear form, waiting beyond the tree line just a little behind them.

“I know. I’m more worried it is her,” she confessed after a minute. The idea that her mother was here searching for her simultaneously made her heart ache and her stomach churn.

He turned to eye her sharply. “Why?”

She hung her head. “Ravenna has a way of sowing bits of chaos into everyday life.”

It wasn’t that Valeria didn’t love her mother, but it was a prickly, difficult kind of love. She’s still your mother, she reminded herself.

Maybe. But if this woman wasn’t Ravenna, then they were going to have a fight on their hands.

“I can hear her stirring,” Rhys murmured suddenly. “It shouldn’t be long now.”

“Right.” She wiped her hands on her coat again.

It took a few more minutes before Ravenna appeared. She stepped out, glaring at the cloud cover as if it had personally offended her.

That was when Valeria knew. It was Ravenna. No one could imitate that expression.

Hailing her, she ran out to meet her mother, Rhys just a few steps behind.

* * *

Even Valeria had triedto talk him out of inviting Ravenna back to the community.

“Things have a way of going wrong when my mother is around,” Valeria had haltingly explained after the woman had accepted their invitation to stay at his home. “She doesn’t have what I would call a well-defined moral compass. At best I would call it…flexible.”

“Believe me, I know that.” He’d gotten that message after Ravenna had explained what had kept her away.

“Some people were after me. I was in hiding for a long time,” the older witch had said while they sat at a picnic table just behind the hotel.

“It was a misunderstanding, of course. I did the job they paid me for. It wasn’t my fault they couldn’t use the spells properly and someone died,” she added defensively.

Ravenna had looked at Valeria then, her expression contrite. “That was why I had to miss our first two meetings. I chose to miss the third. I knew I was being watched and this group was vicious, more than any I’d ever met.”

She’d stopped to cup Valeria’s cheek. “ I didn’t want to bring down that kind of heat on you. I couldn’t risk you that way. After that, I wandered, but I knew my baby was alive and well in the world. That kept me going.”

As for how she’d found Valeria now, Ravenna had only laughed. “You are blood of my blood. Finding you was never the problem.”

Rhys knew that answer had hurt Valeria, but she’d hidden it well.

That was around the time he’d called Thomas forward in bear form, the beast’s posture and obvious intelligence marking him as a shifter.

He wanted Ravenna to think they were all bears. Valeria hadn’t even asked why, but had nodded in agreement when he made the suggestion.

Now Ravenna was in his home. Her room was down the hall from Valeria, where he could keep an eye on her.

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to have brought her here,” Valeria told him later after her mother had gone to sleep. His precious guest was second-guessing the wisdom of allowing her to stay with them.

“You have a lot of valuable things in this house,” she said, red-faced with shame. “Items worth money have a way of disappearing when my mom is around.”

“Come here,” Rhys said, pulling her close. It took a long moment, but Valeria melted against him. “Whatever else she is, Ravenna is your mother. As long as you are here, she can’t be kept away.”

He would have to learn to deal with the mercenary female sooner or later. Better to get it over with now, so Valeria wouldn’t be tempted to go off with the woman out of a misguided sense of duty or, worse, to try to protect them.

“But—”

“No buts. The fact is I would give every ounce of gold in my lair below if it meant keeping you,” he blurted out.

It was no less than the truth.

Pressing her lips together, Valeria blushed. “Don’t let my mother hear you say that,” she muttered. “It’s not a good idea to tempt fate when she is around.”

He pressed her to him a little tighter. “Stop worrying. Now that she’s decided to resurface, we have to learn to deal with her. I’d rather it be sooner than later. Besides, this house is Aggie’s domain. Nothing can go missing without her knowledge. And brownies are not bribable in the traditional sense.”

Even if this Ravenna were a quick enough study to figure out which of Aggie’s buttons to push, he was confident she would fail. His brownie had lived without a home of her own for so long, he knew she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it.

Nodding, Valeria’s jaw clenched as if biting back a yawn. The emotional day had taken its toll.

“You should go to bed,” he said, his voice soft as he rubbed a hand down her back. “After retiring so early, I’m sure your mother will be up at the crack of dawn. You can show her around.”

He fished his cell phone out of his pocket, pulling up Jerik’s number. Now that they had confirmation of her identity, he wanted Ravenna’s whereabouts traced. They needed to know she’d been doing these three missing years, and he didn’t trust the witch to be honest.

Valeria murmured good night and was about to leave for her room when she changed her mind, coming to press a chaste kiss to his lips.

Heat rushed through every cell in his body, but Rhys was careful not to take more than she’d offered. This was a kiss of gratitude, not welcome. But if he were patient, there would be more.

“Thank you for inviting her,” she said when she stepped away, her lips red as a rose.

“Anything for you. Your mother is always welcome here.”

“Even if it means Aggie has to count the silverware?” she asked. “Also, don’t let her into your office if you want her to keep thinking you’re a bear. All those dragon statues are a dead giveaway.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, his voice husky. He put his arms behind his back so he wouldn’t grab hold to keep her from leaving.

Once she was gone, he unclenched the fist he’d made when she kissed him. The dust that used to be his cell phone slipped through his fingers to the carpet.

“Aggie,” he called, gazing at the mess in dismay.

“I’m on it,” the brownie called back.