"Reah, breah-mul, don't do this to us. I beg you."
"I'm not your breath. Only your breath is your breath," I muttered.
"I will ask you again tomorrow. I promise." Lendill stalked out of the kitchen. Did he think to wear me down? Tory thought the same thing. Had tried to put his hands and his lips on the claiming marks on my neck. I'd walked away from him. Every time. Sighing, I pulled the cake pan over and poured the batter in.
* * *
"Reah, the cake is exceptional," Drake said. I'd still not gotten to travel to Falchan, I remembered as I studied him. He and his brother Drew sat together at the long table during dinner. The staff was serving my cake as dessert, as I'd intended. A trip to Falchan might never happen now. Not if things went as I planned. Later, inside my bedroom, Farzi and Nenzi wore worried expressions as I tossed clothing into a small traveling bag. I hefted a knife into my bag—I'd used it as a backup. It wasn't the black-bladed one Glinda had given me—Teeg still had that one. This was standard ASD issue. It would have to do. A small, sealed box filled with non-identifying credit chips was tossed into the bag next. Farzi and Nenzi already had their bags packed. I offered to send them to Campiaa but they'd refused, telling me instead that they'd inform everyone else of my plans if I didn't take them with me. Therefore, they were coming with me. I was zipping the small bag closed when Kifirin appeared in my bedroom.
"Get out," I snapped at him. He'd brought me to this. Taken Gavril away and made him a monster. Told him to form the Campiaan Alliance and Teeg had done his best for this one; all else be damned. Right then, I didn't care that he was the god. If he wanted to reduce me to cinders with a look, then he was welcome to do so. I was weary of the constant emotional pain of losing the baby. Tired of the others thinking that everything would be just fine and I could have another baby somewhere down the road. Right then, I didn't think I wanted any of them.
"I have something to say first," Kifirin said, his voice echoing through the room.
"Then say it and get out." I jerked my bag off the bed. I was ready to go. Farzi and Nenzi stared at Kifirin—he had stars in his eyes.
"I owe you," Kifirin said. "Tell me what you want and if it is within my power, it shall be given to you."
"I don't want anything from you," I almost shouted, remembering at the last that Lissa's palace was packed with vampires, who could hear an eyelash drop from one end to the other.
"When I granted Gavril's request, I failed to consider your part in this. You were forced into it, having made no request of your own. And it led to disaster, as should not have been. I did not see this. You were promised to me long ago, by the one who formed the darkness in me. I was once light, like the others. I accepted the darkness to create the balance."
"How nice for you," I muttered. I had no idea why he was telling me this. He'd said before that I'd been foretold but it hadn't meant anything to me.
"A daughter of your heart will come, he told me," Kifirin went on, ignoring my rudeness. "A demoness, clad in gold. The High Demons will be reborn through her. Your daughter was to be the first," Kifirin sounded sad, and that couldn't be. He'd coldheartedly ripped Chash away from me, replacing him with Teeg. Things would never be the same. Tory hadn't been prepared for fatherhood, either. I knew that now. It made me weep for my child.
"When I grant a request and it interferes beyond expectations with the life of another who made no request," Kifirin repeated, "I must make amends or offer compensation of some kind."
"You can't undo this," I said. "I don't want anything from you. Good-bye, Kifirin." I was ready to skip away.
"You are the daughter of my heart," Kifirin said. His beautiful face looked as if it were filled with pain. That had to be a lie.
"And I'm supposed to call you father? I don't have a father."
"I could give you gifts for this alone," he ignored what I was saying to him.
"No, thank you," I said as firmly as I could.
"I will choose if you will not."
"Don't bother."
"It is already done." Kifirin disappeared in front of me.
"Come on," I said to Farzi and Nenzi. They gripped their bags tightly, worry on both faces as I skipped us to Tulgalan.
* * *
"Reah, no. We not knowing how to wake you or change you back," Farzi was fretting as I dropped the basket of food next to the tent I'd erected for us. I was going to heal the core, asking the two reptanoids to care for me afterward until I gained my strength back. Then, we'd find the other worlds Nidris was likely tapping indiscriminately as he fled from the ASD. My ultimate goal, however, was to find Nidris myself. Hand him his death in retribution for my child.
"Farzi, here is a communicator—it has Lendill's and Tory's numbers programmed. If there is a problem or if you decide you don't want to stay, then call them. Just know that I won't be going with you. I mean to finish this, one way or the other. I want to kill Nidris before this is over."
"But he almost kill you before," Nenzi was nearly hopping in frustration.
"I didn't know he was out there before," I said. "Now I do. I'll be watching for him." I spread out the sleeping bag I'd purchased after putting up the tent—it was big enough for all of us. Barely.
"When you do this?" Farzi wanted to argue with me but wisely decided to back off for the moment.
"We'll do it tonight—when the stars are out. If you can't wake me, then pull me into the tent and let me sleep. I'll wake tomorrow."
* * *
"I know she's gone, Dee." Dormas brought the communication from Lendill. "You taught me to manipulate people. I practically sent her after the bastard myself—I certainly pointed her in that direction." Teeg sighed. "What if this kills her, Dee? I told her—when she was vulnerable—that Nidris could destroy everything. She was thinking about going after him the moment those words left my mouth."
"Child, why did you do it, then?" Dormas had been Dee to Gavril almost as long as Dormas had called him Teeg—a nickname Dormas had given one of his human sons long ago, before he became vampire. Gavril had reminded him so much of his own child that it wasn't difficult to see him as one of his vampire children as well. Dormas had few turns to his credit over his long life and of all of them, Gavril was the most dear, though he'd come to Dormas already vampire.
Born that way, Kifirin had said. If the god hadn't said it himself, Dormas would never have believed. Then, when Gavril had offered his blood to Dormas, telling him it would enable him to walk in daylight and eat normal food, Dormas had been skeptical. Teeg's words had proven true, however, and now Dormas—nicknamed Dee by the son of his heart, walked in daylight and ate whatever he pleased.