The Dragon’s Daughter and the Winter Mage by Jeffe Kennedy

~ 2 ~

Wim acted faster than Gen would’ve credited the lighthearted young prince, immediately calling for the guards before turning on Rhy. “It shouldn’t be possible for someone to be abducted from this castle. It’s a fortress. How did it happen?”

Gen looked helplessly to Rhy and Lena. They really needed Astar for this. Almost certainly the intelligence from the alter-realm was at work here. And that was an element of their extraordinary quest that Astar had carefully omitted from his explanations to the royals of Erie. Lena put a hand on Rhy’s arm, calming him as only she really could, even now. “Just tell us what you saw, Rhy.”

He focused on her, steadying. “I went to our room—the one Jak and I share—and the door was open. They weren’t inside. No sign of either of them.”

Wim relaxed, signaling to the inrushing guards to stand down. “Well, it may be no great mystery, then. They probably went elsewhere and forgot to close the door. Or a servant went in and left the door open.” His smile faded as he took in their tense expressions. “What am I missing?”

“It smelled wrong,” Rhy growled at him. “And their trail led to the room, then vanished.”

“Their… trail?” Wim asked faintly.

“Rhy would’ve checked that in his wolf form,” Lena replied crisply, smoothly concealing the fact that, like many shapeshifters of the oldest blood, Rhy could use wolf senses in human form, too. “We need Astar and Zeph, likely the king and queen, too. Would you take us to where they’re meeting?”

“They won’t like being interrupted,” Wim replied dubiously. “Especially if this is a false alarm.”

“It isn’t,” Gen told him firmly before Rhy could throttle the young prince. “Rhy knows what he’s talking about—and time could be of the essence.”

“Come with me, then.” Wim strode off, and they fell in behind him, the guards forming a phalanx behind.

“Can you identify if the portal is still open?” Rhy asked Lena.

“I can try.” She didn’t sound confident. “But I don’t know where Jak’s room is.”

“I’ll take you,” Rhy said, then looked at Gen. “Bring the others. We may need Zeph.”

Because Zeph’s gríobhth form could withstand travel to the alter-realm better than the rest of them. “If the rift is still there, don’t go through,” she urged them.

“No worries about that,” Lena replied grimly, the haunted shadows of her previous visit to the alter-realm stark in her drawn expression.

They peeled off, a few guards trailing after them. Gen caught up to Wim, who looked after Rhy and Lena with a frown. “They’re going directly to the room to check for more clues,” Gen explained.

“Leaving us to brave the lions. Wonderful,” Wim replied unhappily.

“I’ll take responsibility,” Gen said, then wondered at herself. But no—Astar would want her to interrupt him, even if this did prove to be a false alarm. In fact, she’d happily accept any embarrassment or chastisement if they were wrong and Jak and Stella were off practicing somewhere. The alternative was far worse. They could be stuck in some alter-realm none of rest of them could get to. Or they could’ve emerged in midair in some other world, falling to their deaths. A sick feeling settled in her stomach, fear making a cold sweat drip down her spine.

Please, goddesses, look after them.

“It’s no falsealarm,” Astar declared, pacing the room, his grizzly bear First Form heavy in his ponderous movements, the low growl of rage emanating from his human chest. “Stella isn’t in this world. She’s gone.”

“Why didn’t you feel her disappear?” Zeph asked, her hands knotted together as she anxiously watched Astar’s pacing.

He shook his head, angry with himself. “I’ve been giving her privacy, like she asked me to. And since she’s been with Jak, I…” He deflated. “I didn’t want to know, and now I’ve failed her.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Zeph snapped, going to him and punching his meaty arm. “Of course you stayed out of Nilly’s sex life. That’s not a failure.”

“I don’t think I understand much of what’s going on here,” King Cavan said to his queen, both of them perplexed.

“Twins,” Gen explained, since clearly no one else was going to. Lena was trying to find the portal, Rhy hovering over her as if ready to yank her back should she misstep. “Astar and Stella have always had a deep bond. They’re aware of each other almost telepathically. And Astar knows that Stella is no longer in our same… reality.”

Queen Nix sucked in a breath, fixing Gen with an expression of dawning horror, while the king frowned still. “Explain,” he demanded.

Wonderful. She was not supposed to be the diplomat here, but Astar was currently arguing with Zeph, probably about going after Jak and Stella. “Your Highnesses, remember how you explained that the Isles of Remus sometimes shift from one plane of existence to another? Queen Nix, you said that your homeland of the Isles are sometimes in this world, and you can travel back and forth freely. Other times you can’t.”

Queen Nix was still watching her with an odd expression. “As we had that conversation over breakfast not hours ago, I believe I do recall.”

Gen plunged on doggedly. “On this quest, we’ve, ah, occasionally encountered a similar phenomenon, where various members of our party have been transported to what we’re calling alter-realms.”

She had their undivided attention, which wasn’t comfortable at all. “That’s why you weren’t surprised by Nix’s tales,” the king noted. “And yet you didn’t confide in us.”

“That was my decision and my fault, King Cavan,” Astar said, joining the conversation to Gen’s great relief, and dragging along a flashing-eyed Zeph with an implacable grip on her hand. She glared daggers at him, which he ignored. “I was hoping this was information you wouldn’t need to know.”

Cavan set his jaw. “If my kingdom is going to be vanishing piecemeal into some alter-realm, then by Glorianna, I should think it’s something I need to know.”

“Cavan,” Queen Nix said in quiet warning.

“What? This is our kingdom, Nix. Do you think Her Majesty would condone this young whelp deciding unilaterally that—”

“Cavan.” The queen’s voice whipped out like a lash, cutting off the king’s tirade. “It was none of our business until now. Isn’t that correct, Crown Prince Astar? You had no reason to believe these portals would trouble you here.”

Astar nodded, then shook his head grimly. “I hoped they wouldn’t. Stella had expressed the concern, however, that the intelligence causing these portals—that perhaps creates and controls these alter-realms—was deliberately stalking her.”

“Why Stella?” Queen Nix asked, not questioning the statement, but as if keenly interested in the specifics.

“She’s a sorceress?” Astar ventured.

“So is Salena,” Rhy inserted.

“I’m not anywhere near Stella in skill or native ability,” Lena protested. “She’s studied with Queen Andromeda her entire life, and I just move weather around.”

“You have amazing powers,” Rhy insisted. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

“What, like you do?” she snapped. “You’re sure one to be giving advice to—”

“Enough!” Astar’s roar, more than a little bear, drowned out their argument and had them both staring in shock. Zeph rolled her eyes, and Gen nodded back at her.

“I apologize, Your Highness,” Lena said meekly, dropping her gaze. “That isn’t helping. But I also can’t sense a rift here, and I can’t open one on my own.”

“Then how do we get to them?” Astar demanded. “I want solutions, people. Start thinking.” He emphasized the word with an extra growl for Rhy.

“We could go back to Midway Inn,” Gen suggested, squaring her shoulders when they all glared at her in varying degrees of astonishment and anger. “It’s the last place we’re certain of there being rifts. Numerous ones.”

“Gen is right,” Lena said, nodding slowly. “Failing that, we could go back to Lake Sullivan where we found the first rift.”

“Or we can go forward, to the Isles of Remus,” Zeph put in. “From what Queen Nix has told us, we’ll find similar rifts there.”

“We don’t know that it’s the same phenomenon there,” Lena argued.

“We don’t know that it isn’t,” Rhy pointed out.

“The one in the Isles has been going on much longer,” Lena countered.

“How many alter-realms, portals, and rifts can there be?” Rhy demanded.

“An infinite number, you numbskull!”

“Children,” Astar growled.

“I’m just saying,” Rhy protested, “that if we go to the Isles, we’d at least still be pursuing the quest.”

“Rhy is correct there,” Astar said slowly, nodding, Rhy looking surprised, then pleased. “Considering the timeline that Queen Andromeda foresaw, we don’t have time to backtrack. That’s the only reason we’re even considering sailing to the Isles in winter. We have to get there soon, find King Isyn, and avert the major rift she saw would open, or it will indeed engulf our world.”

Gen shivered at that stark image. It had been bad enough when Andi had described the catastrophe in vague prophetic terms. Now that they’d experienced the nightmarish alter-realms and the monsters they spawned, the prospect was truly chilling.

“And how are we supposed to get there?” Lena was arguing. “Jak was supposed to sail us.”

Rhy threw up his hands. “There are other sailors in the world.”

“We’re talking about Jak and Stella,” Lena nearly shrieked. “I know you’re heartless, but even you can’t be that cold.”

“If I’m so cold, why did you kiss me so passionately on top of Castle Ordnung on the longest night?” he demanded.

“Temporary insanity,” she ground out.

“Why didn’t any of you tell me they’re lovers?” Wim murmured in Gen’s ear, and she sighed.

“They’re not. Well, they were, but it came apart.”

“Sure looks like they’d like to come together again.” He snickered, then paled at Gen’s expression. “I am so sorry. Such an inappropriate joke. I don’t know what possessed me to say that to you. Please accept my apologies, Gen.”

She could hardly fault him. The sexual tension between Rhy and Lena tended to roll out so thickly it was difficult to remain unaffected. Also, as Jak had pointed out several times, something about the alter-realm intelligence seemed to make the shapeshifters more impulsive, less rational. More animal, for want of a better word. She studied Wim’s lake-blue eyes. Not Tala blue, but… “Are you sure you’re not a shapeshifter?”

“I wish, but I think I’d know by now if I was. I am, however, very much my mother’s son.” He tipped his head toward Queen Nix. “If you know what I mean.”

“I don’t.”

With a rueful smile, he shrugged. “Fair, because no one really does. I can see things no one else can. I do have an affinity for animals, like my mother does. My brother, Isyn, though, he’s the one who can—”

Intertwined male and female screams ripped open the air, and two bodies fell from the ceiling, crashing in a heap just inside the doorway. The breath caught in Gen’s throat at the sight and smell of blood covering Jak and Stella. They lay unmoving, wrapped around each other.

“Nilly,” Astar gasped, falling to his knees.

“Are they… dead?” Lena asked in a cold, still voice.

“No,” Rhy, Zeph, and Gen answered as one.

“Heartbeats are strong,” Rhy added for Lena, who lacked their sharper shapeshifter senses.

“I’m sending for our healers,” King Cavan said. “How else can we help?”

Zeph had fallen to her knees also, helping Astar examine the battered pair—not easy, as the two were tightly entwined and unresponsive—and Rhy was talking in a low voice to Lena, offering comfort by the look of it. So, once again, it fell to Gen to say something. “Healers would be wonderful, Your Highnesses—thank you.” She tried to think. When Jak had nearly frozen to death, Gen had known what to do. Her father’s family had land near Castle Ordnung, mostly fields for farming, but it also bordered the wildlands in the foothills of the mountains. Frostbite and deadly chill were regular perils of wintertime, and she knew a lot about treating those. Who knew what Jak and Stella had just gone through?

“Hot broth and fresh water would be welcome,” she said. “Lots of blankets.” Just in case. “Otherwise… can we just let you know as we figure this out?”

“Of course, Gen,” Queen Nix said, taking Gen’s hands and squeezing them. “And you don’t need us hovering. Just send word. Wim, would you stay with them, see that they get what they need?”

“Absolutely,” Wim replied, giving Gen a reassuring nod. “Whatever I can do.”

“Fuck!” a man swore, adding a few more filthy sailor’s curses, and Gen’s heart relaxed to hear Jak being his usual self. King Cavan raised a brow, and Queen Nix paled.

“I think that’s our cue to go,” the king said, escorting his wife around the heap of bodies almost blocking the doorway.

“Is that anatomically possible?” she asked him as they left the room.

Gen winced, thankfully not hearing the king’s reply, and Wim caught her eye, tilting his head. “Well…is it anatomically possible?” he asked mischievously.

“How should I know?” she snapped, beyond embarrassed. “Ask Jak.”

Wim grinned. “I think I’m going to have to.”

“Gen, we could use a hand here,” Zeph called, and Gen hastened over. “I don’t think she’s hurt, not physically.”

“There’s a lot of blood on her,” Gen replied dubiously. Stella’s rusty-black hair spilled over both of them, hiding her face.

“I think it’s all Jak’s,” Zeph confided in a worried tone. “We need to stop his bleeding, but they won’t let go of each other.”

“Won’t ever let go,” Jak muttered, barely conscious. “I promised her I’d come for her.”

“You did, Jak.” Astar, on his other side, used a cloth tied around Jak’s head to wipe blood out of his eyes—ineffectively, as the cloth was saturated already, a motley of fresh and old blood. “You can let go now.”

“Never,” Jak ground out, holding tighter. “You won’t keep us apart, Willy. I won’t let you. I’ll kill you first.”

Astar closed his eyes briefly in pain, and Zeph nudged his shoulder. “He doesn’t mean it. He’s out of his head.”

“I shouldn’t have tried to—”

“Time enough for guilt later,” Zeph interrupted him. “Jak, sweetheart, we need to treat you. Nilly is right here, but you need to let her go.”

“No!” Jak’s hold on Stella tightened. “I love her and he can’t have her. I promised.”

Gen’s heart squeezed at the romance of it all, even as Zeph muttered about Jak being a thickheaded idiot. The difference between Gen and her cousin, right there. “Too bad Stella is the only one with the trick of knocking people out,” Gen said. “That would be the fastest and easiest route.”

Astar cocked his head. “There are other ways. Rhy, buddy, come here and help.”

“A chance to knock our friend senseless? Don’t mind if I do.” Despite his glib words, Rhy’s face was serious and concerned as he crouched beside Jak. Lena came to Gen’s other side, and they all looked at each other, nodding in mutual understanding. Rhy and Astar seized Jak, and even Jak’s wiry athleticism was no match for their combined shapeshifter strength. Once they had Jak in an unbreakable grip, Zeph, Lena, and Gen eased Stella gently away from him.

Jak fought wildly, screaming for Stella, but Astar and Rhy pinned him to the floor. The girls rolled Stella onto her back, careful not to touch her skin more than necessary, so they wouldn’t tax her sensitive empathic magic too much. Gen brushed the hair out of Stella’s face, which was pale and wan, violet shadows under her eyes, but her breathing was steady. Lena and Zeph ran light fingers over Stella, examining her for injuries.

“I think she’s unhurt,” Zeph told Astar, after confirming nods from Lena and Gen.

“She’s probably sleeping off whatever sorcery she did to get them out of there,” Lena added, her usually lushly curved lips pressed into a flat line. Lena was haunted by her own trials in the alter-realm and, though physically healthy, suffered from the psychological wounds still. Stella had been working to heal her mentally and emotionally, too, but so much had been happening…

Jak was still thrashing, hurling threats, and cursing with vicious enthusiasm.

“We need to tie him down or something,” Astar said.

“A good punch would knock him out,” Rhy suggested.

“No,” Gen countered crisply, before she realized she was going to. Rhy gave her a look of blank surprise at her vehemence. “Jak doesn’t need a concussion on top of everything else.”

“The healers are here,” Wim announced. Gen had forgotten he was there. A triad of serene-looking people of indeterminate gender glided forward. One knelt at Jak’s head and laid a slender hand on his forehead. Jak’s dark eyes rolled up so the whites showed, and he sagged, unconscious.

The healer smiled. “If you would put him on the bed,” they said, low and musical. Rhy and Astar carried Jak to the bed, Gen dashing ahead to pull down the covers.

Then Astar gathered up Stella, cradling her slight form in his big, bearish arms. “I can carry Nilly to the room she’s sharing with you.” Castle Marcellum wasn’t big enough for them all to have their own rooms. As official betrotheds, Astar and Zeph had a room to share. Jak and Rhy had shared another. Gen didn’t know where Rhy had slept after giving Jak and Stella the room for their new liaison. Probably outside somewhere in wolf form, where the cold wouldn’t bother him too much. Gen, Lena, and Stella had shared, too, though Stella hadn’t actually slept there.

“No,” Gen said impulsively, and Zeph nodded in immediate agreement. “Put Stella in bed with Jak. It’s big enough that she won’t be in the way, and they’ll both be easier for knowing the other is there.”

Astar nodded reluctantly, still not quite able to get over putting his beloved twin in bed with a man, but he carried her over, laying her down gently. The healers had already stripped Jak of his bloodied and ragged clothing, and were sponging him clean while chanting in a low, warm buzz that was oddly comforting and stimulating at once.

“Moranu,” Zeph breathed beside her, “what did Jak do to his hands?”

Gen looked, then hastily averted her gaze from Jak’s leanly muscled gymnast’s body, her cheeks heating. Maybe it was because she’d done such a piss-poor job of losing her virginity, but she couldn’t act like the sight didn’t affect her. She focused on his hands, the fingers bloodied stubs, the nails mostly missing. “Hopefully he’ll be able to tell us,” she murmured, stepping back.

Wim set a warm hand on the small of her back, and she glanced at him. “The broth and blankets are here.” He smiled, searching her face. “Is there anything else I can do for you? Anything at all.”

“Thank you, no.” He was sweet. And… possibly flirting with her? “Actually, you could take Astar and Zeph to meet with the king and queen again. There’s nothing they can do here. Lena and I can keep an eye on Stella.”

Lena nodded, and Zeph sighed. “It’s probably for the best,” she said ruefully. “They had a lot to cover, and talking politics will at least distract Astar.”

Wim glanced at Rhy leaning against a wall, brooding gaze on Jak’s still form. “Shall I find an occupation for Rhy? Keep him busy?”

“That would be wonderful,” Gen replied in a grateful gush.

Wim nodded and smiled, then picked up her hand to kiss it. “I’m sure your friends will be fine, but I’ll check back with you. Otherwise… will I see you at dinner?”

“Maybe so,” Gen temporized. Formal dinner seemed impossibly far away—and meaningless in the grand scheme. But she supposed they all needed to keep busy and fed. “Probably so,” she corrected, adding a smile, in case he was flirting with her. If she wanted to erase Horrible Henk’s lingering taint on her body, she’d have to try again with someone else. And Wim was nice.

He squeezed her hand. “I hope so.” Releasing her hand, he strode away. “Your Highness Crown Prince Astar, if I may…”

“Quick,” Zeph hissed, seizing Gen’s arm and pulling her farther away from the others, “before I get dragged back to endless meetings, when did that happen?”

“When did what happen?” She probably wouldn’t be able to get Zeph’s claws out of her that easily, but it was worth a try.

Lena had followed closely, face alight with interest. “In the library, I think,” she told Zeph. “I was reading a book and—”

“Of course you were,” Zeph cut in, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

“And the charming Prince Wilhelm started his flirty flirting with Gen here.”

“Excellent,” Zeph cackled, the gleeful gríobhth in her voice. “You should take him to bed. Maybe tonight.”

“That is not going to happen,” Gen protested, despite her own thoughts in that direction. “Wim is in the market for a princess to marry, and I’m not royalty.”

Zeph growled in frustration, and even Lena gave Gen a pitying look. “Would you please stop looking for true love and happily forever after in every person you meet?” Zeph demanded. “I thought we covered this.”

“I tried that, and I was not happy with the results,” Gen replied, sounding prim to her own ears. Better than revealing just how much that incident still haunted her.

“Because Henk was an ass,” Lena assured her.

“Henk was an ass,” Zeph agreed. “But you need to get back on that horse.”

“Back on that ass?” Lena mused.

“A different horse,” Zeph insisted. “You know I’m right. It’s terrible that your first experience had to be so…”

“Lackluster?” Lena suggested.

“Disappointing,” Zeph corrected.

“Painful, awkward, and just plain humiliating,” Gen said, more strongly than she’d meant to.

Her friends both winced, gazing on her with sympathy.

“Zephyr,” Astar said, coming over, “there’s nothing I can do here, so I should go meet with the king and queen.”

“That’s an excellent plan,” Zeph told him, as if it hadn’t been her idea to begin with.

He smiled at her with affection, taking her hand and interlacing her fingers with his. “Do you want to stay here or…?”

“My place is with you,” she replied firmly, then plastered on a brilliant, patently false smile. “Besides, I love meetings! They’re like spending endless hours hunting small tasteless prey you never wanted to eat anyway.”

Astar laughed. “Is it any wonder I love you so much?”

“None at all,” she replied. “The wonder is you took so long to figure it out.”

“True.” His summer-sky-blue gaze went to the bed where the healers chanted and Stella lay sleeping.

“They’re in good hands,” Zeph told him.

“I know.” Keeping her hand in his, Astar turned them to join Rhy in following Wim, who waved farewell, adding a special smile just for Gen.