Another gate opened and Karine was shoved in. She nearly fell but managed to stagger and recover. She looked around her, covered her mouth with the hand holding the shield, and then her gaze found Grigor. She gave an inarticulate cry and hurried across the floor of the arena toward Grigor. She didn’t seem to notice the fallen demons until one caught her ankle and tripped her.
Karine went down with a little choked cry. That cry galvanized the two royal brothers into action, both running toward Karine. Andros was closer and reached her first, his sword swinging in a giant arc. Lada followed him, shaking her head. Imploring him to stop.
The crowd erupted in a roar ofapproval.
PART THREE
CHAPTER
9
Dragonseeker. Afanasiv had skipped right over that information almost without acknowledging it. Vasilisa paced back and forth in the small confines of the cabin. He retained all the information he thought important in order to bring her brothers and their women out of the underworld. What he hadn’t done was pay attention to the fact that he was Dragonseeker. That blood ran in his veins. Why hadn’t they just taken his blood while they had him down in that disgusting, vile place? She should have asked that question.
If Lilith managed to get Dragonseeker blood, what could she do with it? Was it valuable to her? Or was only the physical person valuable to her? With so many Dragonseekers in one place, there had to be a reason. Something had drawn them all there at the same time. Vasilisa didn’t believe in coincidence, certainly not to that extent.
She was aware of the stories that came out of the Carpathian Mountains. How Xavier had murdered Mihai and took his lifemate, Rhiannon, prisoner. Rhiannon was Dragonseeker. She had given birth to three children, Soren, Tatijana and Branislava. Xavier then murdered Rhiannon and kept his children as his blood slaves. Heimprisoned Tatijana and Branislava behind an ice wall in the form of dragons. Soren took a mage as a wife and had children, Razvan and Natalya.
Vasilisa stopped at the window to stare out at the snow coming down. She’d never had a problem being alone, yet she had a feeling of impending doom. The cabin seemed far too small, and she could barely breathe all of a sudden. Her lungs fought for air, and the room was too hot. She tapped on the windowsill, a small drumming beat that matched her accelerating heart.
Staring out the window, she caught glimpses of wolves as they came out of the surrounding forest. They were healthy animals, big and in their prime. They had silvery coats that made them difficult to see in the snow, but she had excellent eyesight and could see through the snow flurries, spotting them easily. They slunk across the small clearing, coming straight at the shepherd’s cabin as if drawn by the light she had in the window.
She had a kinship with the wolves and dominion over them. She didn’t fear them and would have thought it unusual if they threatened her in any manner. The moment they caught her scent, they would pay tribute and back off.
Dragonseeker.What would Lilith need with a Dragonseeker? Could it really be so simple as wanting one of them to turn so the legend could be refuted? Vasilisa shook her head. That didn’t add up. Not with the trouble Lilith was going to. She’d lost a few of her demons and nearly lost one of her mages. By all accounts she wasn’t happy.
Vasilisa found it a little disorienting to be in two places at one time, but most of her remained firmly behind in the cabin, guarding Afanasiv’s physical body. He lay as if dead, and several times she went to him and fussed over him, pushing back his unruly hair with the pads of her fingers. She tried to absorb him through her hands. She couldn’t believe how connected she was to him just because they shared the intimacy of each other’s mind.
The wolves surrounded the cabin and one leapt up, giant paws onthe window, peering in with amber eyes. She stared him down. She was alpha whether they liked it or not. The wolf held her gaze for a moment and then dropped down into the snow-packed earth once more. He sat back on his haunches and lifted his nose into the air. He began to howl. The other wolves followed suit in a tribute to their queen.
At once, a short distance away, came answering howls. Even farther away, she heard more wolves take up the song. Then, from an even greater distance, more wolves joined the chorus. She envisioned Ivory and Razvan’s wolves joining in. She’d heard Skyler and Dimitri had their own pack traveling exclusively with them, a gift from Ivory and Razvan. If that were so, it was quite a gift and a huge responsibility.
The singing died away, and the wolves began to fade into the snow, intent on hunting. She watched them go with a feeling of sadness. For a moment she had been comforted. She had felt isolated for years, never recognizing how lonely she’d been until she was with Afanasiv. He’d been in her mind, filling all those places she hadn’t realized were lonely.
Dragonseeker.Her brain returned to the puzzle. The wheel of fortune card had come up. First had been the chariot, then the hanged man and then the wheel of fortune. She had pressed forward, forgetting she was deep in the midst of enemies. She needed to regroup and think things through.
What did the wheel of fortune mean? First, the wheel continued to turn. That gave one hope. No matter if she was in her darkest hour, the wheel reminded her that it would keep spinning. Time never stood still. The worst luck turned positive after a short interval. The best luck would also be gone just as quickly. One could always count on the wheel turning season after season.
She continued to stare out the window, a part of her staying with Afanasiv, alarmed at the condition of Karine but grateful Grigor wasn’t nearly as hurt as she expected him to be. She tapped her fingerson the windowsill, finding a rhythmic beat. The snow was letting up again, and now it fell in small flurries to the tune of her fingers. She’d covered Afanasiv’s body with a blanket to keep him warm. The cabin still felt overheated to her in spite of the outside temperature.
Her lifemate’s spirit traveled away from Grigor around a corner and stopped abruptly when he discovered Lada. Her fingers stopped moving as she observed Lada’s appalling condition. Where was Andros? Why wasn’t he in the cell across from Lada’s as Grigor had been across from Karine?
Movement beneath the trees caught her eye. It was stealthy, as if the creature, a lone wolf perhaps, didn’t want to be seen. Immediately, she turned her full attention to the spot where she was certain there had been a beast lurking and watching the cabin. She automatically blurred her image and added a thin layer of covering to the window, a dull gray to blend in with the snow and fog that was building along the ground. If the creature wanted to see her, it would have to come close in order to peer through one of the windows.
She waited quietly, turning inward, once again paying close attention to Afanasiv and what he was doing. She knew just the short conversation about his hidden memories had opened up a floodgate of recollections for him. He remembered how to maneuver through the labyrinth that was the underworld down below.
He was watching a Carpathian woman scold a couple of demons. The woman was clearly accepted in the underworld. This, then, was Gaia—the woman who had been traded as a child by Xavier for a bucketful of parasites. Lilith had wanted the girl to help her control the beast locked behind the gates. It looked as if she still retained her natural goodness. How that could be when she was raised in such a terrible place, Vasilisa couldn’t understand.
Vasilisa monitored Afanasiv, knowing that traveling in the underworld would affect him adversely. He wasn’t aware of it because he shed his emotions and went forth as a Carpathian hunter might—orhe embraced the demon in him. His one fear was that the demon growing inside him would take him over the longer he was in the underworld. The terrible scars he bore called to the battle lust inside him, to a berserker’s rage. She had insisted on going with him, just a small part of her spirit, because she feared he would need her to guide him back.
Something brushed against the cabin wall. It sounded like the slide of fur, and then someone tried the door. The sound seemed overly loud in the silence of the night. Vasilisa backed up three steps, taking her almost dead center into the cabin, where she could more easily monitor all the windows and the door.
Silence followed the testing of the doorknob, and then there was a loud knock. “Open up. It’s freezing out here.”
Vasilisa recognized the voice of Odessa Balakin, one of the owners of the inn. Vasilisa kept her eyes closed so that she couldn’t see the older woman as the innkeeper moved around the cabin, peering in the windows and pounding on them, becoming more agitated as she did so.
“Vasi, is that you in there? Open up, dear. I have to restock the cabin on my way back to the inn. I’ve been making the rounds, and this is the last stop.”
It was true the innkeepers did stock the shepherds’ cabins. It made sense to do so in a familiar route, leaving this particular cabin for last. It was the closest to their home, and they would finish and go directly to their home after they were done.