Kings and Sirens (The Blood Falls Book 2)
Kings and Sirens: Chapter 30

Atsila

Gigi and Ryddyck’s animated conversation went on so long I finally went over. “What is it?”

Gigi glared at Ryddyck, who, for some reason, seemed reluctant to say something. Gigi let out a frustrated huff and turned to me. “It’s them.”

“Who?” I didn’t follow, but the way she said it got my attention. The hair on my arm stood up and my blood went cold.

“Them.” She nodded at Ryddyck, the male from another Plane of Existence. “Tell him.”

Ryddyck stared at the snow. At the footprint. “This is very bad. Very bad indeed.” Then he looked up, right into my eyes. It was unnerving in how direct and intense it was. Something not quite Samhain. But of course, Ryddyck was not, technically, Samhain. “I am here, in this space, because I was transformed. I can exist in your world. They cannot.”

I glanced back down at the unfamiliar print in the snow. Fuck. “You’re saying one of you—what you used to be—was able to exist here in our world?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I do not know. But I don’t think it lasted long. Otherwise there would be more prints. Many more.”

My mind began to grab onto scenarios that scared me. “Did—did they somehow take Leena?”

Ryddyck froze. “I…I am not sure. Just as they cannot exist here, she cannot exist there.”

But if they had somehow partnered with the salishan…

“Now is not the time to panic,” Gigi said. “Correlation does not imply causation.”

I growled low in the back of my throat. “Don’t speak scientist to me, female.”

I got an almost identical look of impatience from Gigi that I would expect from Leena. “It’s my love language, okay? I’m a scientist.”

“Humans are scientists,” I bit back without thinking.

Her disapproval of me deepened. “That’s idiotic. Science is a methodology for understanding how things work. That’s not human or samhain. That’s the universe.”

I growled again, knowing she was right. “Explain.”

She waved at the print. “This could be the salishan and these other beings working together. Or…it could be a coincidence. All we have to go on right now is that an event occurred with the salishan. We also know that we have a single print. Nothing ties them together. We have a correlation: two things existing together. But we don’t know the cause. What brought the being here? When? For how long? Was its purpose even the same? Perhaps, and I’m just spit-balling here, maybe the same psychic event that drew Rhiannon to the camp also caught the attention of many others, including the salishan and Ryddyck’s beings.”

That…was possible. But also not terribly helpful. “I will stop assuming the worst.”

“Good,” Gigi said, “because now we can work on a plan. Ryddyck and I will take the hypothesis that the psychic event was a spotlight that drew multiple beings’ attention. We’ll work that angle backwards and either prove or disprove it. You, on the other hand, will work the hypothesis that this was a coordinated and planned attack. Work it from that angle.”

It was…something at least. “Fine.”

I spent hours going over the scene of the crime with a fine-toothed comb. I plotted known salishan attacks and sightings. I plotted the rifts. I came to another correlation I did not like.

“The rifts are all located very near the salishan.”

Hex and Lyla looked down at the map I laid out on the table in front of them. She set up in the least destroyed tent and a dozen more Heida warriors were called in to help secure her location. No Queen or King had spent this much time north of the Line.

“Why do you think that is?” she asked.

It could be any number of possibilities, but my Queen didn’t want my rambling. She wanted my best guesses. “Either the rifts existed first and that’s where the salishan were transformed, or a separate event transformed them and these rifts have since opened up near the salishan so they can work together.” Since it was my job to track down the possibility the salishan and Ryddyck’s beings were working together, I was going for it.

“Does it matter which came first?”

I thought that over for a moment. “If the other beings are creating the rifts, or can create them at will, then yes. It means we need to be careful.” And this attack might be the first shot in a war we aren’t ready to fight. Here we’ve been thinking the salishan were a separate problem. Something to solve first before we turned our attention to the Dark Times to come.

Or maybe we were already in the early stages of the war.

Lyla swore a few times and pulled at the furs she wore to keep back the cold. “Theoretically our missing should be at one of these convergences then. Correct.”

I nodded once.

Her eyes cut to Hex. His hand naturally went to his sword. “At your command, my Queen.”

“Go. Find our missing.”

Gigi and Ryddyck didn’t think too highly of our plan, but it didn’t matter. We had the Queen’s command and that was that. They could continue their own investigation and see if it led anywhere different, but I felt in my bones that I was right. Leena was closer now. Soon she would be in my arms again.

Hex took one team. I took another. Each one had two psychics to guide us around the rifts. We searched each area as carefully but as thoroughly as possible.

“They were here. But not in several days. There’s too much snow covering their tracks,” Klah said when we met back at the rally point.

The salishan camp was much like Leena described. Makeshift tents of fur. Old fire pits. Clearly defined pathways. A mix of intelligence and makeshift survival. We moved on to the next convergence and found more of the same. Hex had similar luck.

“They’re either all dead somewhere, or they’ve moved on.”

One of the Gatlin psychics suddenly froze and cocked his head to the side. The other’s quickly followed suit. “It’s Rhiannon. We’ve got a mayday alert from the far north. Near the pole.”

It was the first positive news I’d heard all day. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins and stoked a fire inside my belly. I was ready to fight. Ready to kill. “Can you pinpoint the location?”

“No. But I can get us close.”

Wherever this Gatlin took us, it was cold as fuck. The landscape was barren and white. The wind howled, burning my eyes. It took everything I had to stay upright, let alone walk against the gale. I would have shifted forms immediately but since I didn’t know what we were walking into I kept my samhain form and sword close at hand while reaching out, hoping to feel Leena close by.

The wind took me off my feet as I pushed north, following an invisible line. The further I went the more I felt a buzz. An area where nothing existed. Not time, not space, not even the Plane. I grabbed the closest Gatlin.

“How close is the rift?”

He shook his head, shouting to be heard over the roar of wind. “I…I think it’s inside that blank spot. I can feel it, but not see it.”

I pushed forward, leaving the male behind since he couldn’t keep up with me. Leena was inside that blank area. I knew it. It had never felt anything like this before. The need to replace her now became my sole focus, my only reason for existing. I didn’t feel the cold or pain. No matter how many times I blew over, I got back up, feeling nothing but a drive to move faster. My body responded by replaceing raw energy to fuel my muscles. Sound became meaningless, my senses dialed in on one thing: Leena.

As I approached the phenomenon something caught my eye. Movement. I surged toward it, not caring if I was heading straight to my death. The closer I got, the more the moving shapes appeared to be samhain of some kind. If only the damned snow would stop falling. It was like trying to look through a dirty window. Some things appeared clearly, others not at all.

I shifted the last fifty yards to get there faster. The rift probably wasn’t there if they were. Whoever they were. I appeared just as Rhiannon and Kris pulled my Leena free from a salishan. We all watched in horror as Rever disappeared.

“No!” Leena screamed.

I threw Kris and Rhiannon backwards before they could make the foolish choice to chase after Rever, then scooped Leena up in my arms. “Are you hurt?”

“Atsila!”

It didn’t seem real. I felt her, saw her, smelled her. “Are you hurt?” I wanted to shake her to get the answers out of her faster, but I refrained.

“I’m fine. We need to save Rever!”

I kissed her once. Savoring how very real she felt. Then placed her back on the ground. “Hex is nearby. Go to him and bring me reinforcements. Now!” Then I shifted into my other form and entered the darkness.