Black Orchid (Svatura) Read online

Suddenly the massive form of a fierce black dragon swooped in from above.

  “I’m here. I’m here,” Ellie called as she hurtled past. Adelaide bobbled in the wake of wind caused by the beast’s rapid descent.

  “Call the others. We might need everyone’s help to get her out of it,” Ellie yelled as she kept going.

  “Got it,” Selene hollered back.

  If we can, Adelaide thought.

  Dragon metamorphs were rare. They only knew of a few in history, Ellie being one, who could control the shift and not let the monster take over. Adelaide hadn’t attempted it, but she could feel the brute inside her sometimes… when anger filled that empty space where her heart should be.

  The whites and browns of the snowy plains below them were coming up fast. Lila started fighting Ellie the moment she was in reach. After a few moments of grappling, the black dragon managed to take the golden one by the neck and tail. Great obsidian wings flared to land. But because Lila was still thrashing around in her grip, they hit hard. Dirt and ice flew up around them as they rolled to a stop.

  Adelaide and Selene were close behind. Both falcons shifted as they landed. Just as her feet touched the ground, Adelaide heard a terrible roar of fury. The golden dragon that was her sister gained its feet and reared up. A column of fire erupted from her maw.

  But just as quickly, Ellie pinned Lila to the ground. The fire died, almost as if it had been smothered by an invisible hand. Adelaide and Selene glanced at each other.

  “Can anyone hear her thoughts?” Ellie’s voice sounded in all their minds.

  Ominous silence greeted her question.

  “She’s not responding. She’s blocking us,” Selene called.

  “Then we have no choice,” Ellie said with grim determination. “I’ll try to force her out of it. If I can’t, Selene, you need to try to shut her down.”

  Adelaide was quiet. None of her gifts could help with this situation. Ellie, with her ability to control other people’s powers when she touched them, was their best bet.

  Nothing happened for several minutes.

  “Ellie?” Selene’s hesitant question whispered through their minds.

  She would be worried. Selene hated to use her ability to turn off other people’s powers. She’d once been forced to do terrible things with that gift.

  “Hold on,” came the strained reply.

  Suddenly, the misty quality that precipitated a shift surrounded Lila’s still form. Slowly she shrank down… talons, tail, and wings disappearing… to be replaced by the willowy girl they all knew. She collapsed to the ground, and Ellie morphed at the same time. As soon as they were done, Selene ran across the field. Adelaide followed a little more slowly.

  “What the hell were you thinking, Delia?” Ellie shouted. She knelt down beside Lila, who was cradling her injured arm.

  Adelaide tried to dredge up some whisper of concern or regret. But now that the danger had passed, she was back to feeling nothing.

  “I was thinking that the point of all this was to prepare for a life-or-death battle. We’re supposed to be practicing defensive and offensive maneuvers in the air,” Adelaide said, as she came to stand beside the group. “And where were you? Took you long enough to get to her up there. Did the knock in the head that Maddox gave you in the last fight addle your powers too?”

  Adelaide glanced down and encountered Lila’s outraged stare.

  “Are you kidding me with that crap? I know I turned off your emotions, but even logic has to tell you what you did was wrong and dangerous. You broke my arm. And I got so scared and so angry that I shifted into a bloody-frickin’ DRAGON!”

  Adelaide resisted the urge to cover her ears. It wouldn’t help anyway since Lila was shouting those thoughts directly into her brain.

  Adelaide crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. “You should be ready for anything,” she said aloud, not bothering with telepathy.

  “You could have killed me. What if Ellie hadn’t been here? Not only to save me from the fall, but from the dragon? What would you have done?”

  Adelaide shrugged. “The fall is a risk we take when we fly. And Selene would’ve turned your powers off completely if she’d had to. Maybe next time you’ll protect that weak side. I’ve been telling you for ages about that vulnerability.”

  “Hey now—” Selene put a hand on Adelaide’s arm.

  Lila’s jaw dropped. “You really can’t see that you’re in the wrong here, can you?”

  Adelaide paused to think about that statement rationally and then shrugged again. “I don’t see it that way. We’re at war with a monster. Maddox won’t hesitate to do worse than I did today. The point of our practicing together is to learn to protect ourselves. And I still think we need to explore all four of us using the dragons together against him.”

  “After what you just saw?” Lila voice cracked with incredulity.

  Selene cleared her throat and stepped in. “Let’s discuss this later. We’d better take Lila to Hugh to get that arm healed up.”

  Ellie nodded. “I’ve called Charlotte to come get us. She’ll be here any minute.”

  In less time than that, a woman suddenly appeared beside them. Charlotte was like an aunt to Lila and Adelaide, and a mother to Nate. Tall and slender with brown hair and eyes, she looked a lot younger than her almost six hundred years. Svatura aged much more slowly than humans and had a life span of close to two thousand years. Charlotte possessed the ability to teleport, which frequently came in quite handy.

  Selene, Lila, and Ellie all placed a hand on Charlotte’s arm, physically linking themselves to her to make the jump back to the Vyusher castle. But Adelaide stayed where she was.

  Four faces turned to her, each with varying expressions of confusion, concern, and anger. “You coming?” Ellie asked.

  Adelaide shook her head, retreating a few steps. “I’ll fly back and meet you there.” She turned and sprang into the air, morphing into her falcon as she did. She lazily gained altitude, taking her time, in no hurry to defend her actions yet again.

  Chapter 3

  “This can’t continue,” Lila muttered, shifting in agitation.

  “Sit still, Lilianna, or I can’t heal your arm properly,” Hugh Jenner admonished his daughter.

  Lila leaned back against the leather-covered arm of the couch in her parents’ sitting room. Hugh continued to work, a golden glow of light coming from his hands as they hovered over her arm.

  “Dad,” she said quietly. “I did this. I made her like this. And I have to fix it.”

  He blinked but didn’t look at her. “You’ve already tried to fix it.”

  Lila continued to fidget. “I tried to turn her emotions back on and heal them. But the damage was too great. Even with Ellie’s help, I can’t do enough. No….” She shook her head. “We need to try something else.”

  Hugh stopped what he was doing. He still woke to the memories – nightmares – of Adelaide’s screams from that night. For a moment he didn’t look at Lila, and then he raised his eyes, letting her see his concern. He registered his daughter’s shock at the deep sadness she saw in his expression. Hugh rarely let his emotions show. He was the strong one. Strong for his wife, Lucy. Strong for their own children. Strong for their friends, Charlotte and Dexter Pierce, and their adopted children. Now strong for the new family members in their lives.

  “What do you propose to do?” he asked softly.

  “I think I should restore her emotions. Turn them back on if I can but in a different way than what I’ve tried before. Ellie will help.”

  Hugh looked down and clenched his hands into fists. It’d seemed like ages since both of his daughters had been safe and whole.

  Today wasn’t the day that would change.

  “I don’t understand. You said you can’t. And without help her broken heart will destroy her.”

  “You’re right…. She’d feel the pain and suffering all over again if that’s all we do. But I think it wouldn’t be a problem if we wi
pe her memory of Nate at the same time.”

  “You think.” Hugh abruptly stood, his chair scraping across the wooden flooring with a loud screech. He walked over to a window and gazed out it sightlessly. His heart ached for his older daughter. Adelaide and Nate had once been te’sorthene. The bond was supposed to be a fated love, unbreakable, undeniable, and rare. They’d been astounded, but delighted, that Adelaide had found hers at such a young age. But then the impossible had happened, and that miracle had been torn from her.

  Hugh had heard that te’sorthene often lost their minds when their bonded other half died. Maddox himself was an example of that. Centuries before, Ellie’s grandfather had killed Maddox’s mate and both of their sons, and the man had gone completely mad.

  “Dad?” Lila broke into Hugh’s thoughts.

  He looked back at her with a frown. “How—”

  “Griffin.”

  Hugh wasn’t too surprised. It made sense that Ellie’s twin brother, a very powerful telepath in his own right, could possibly help in this way.

  Hugh furrowed his brow doubtfully. “His skill isn’t developed enough for that yet, is it?”

  “Ellie thinks she can help him do it.”

  “She thinks?”

  Lila bit her lip. “She’s never tried anything like this. None of us have. But things can’t continue as they are. A te’sorthene bond being lost while both are still living is completely unheard of. But removing Adelaide’s emotions as I did—” Lila choked off the words, overcome. She put a hand to her mouth as she fought for control.

  “Will Selene allow it?” he asked. “Between what happened to Griffin and the four of you getting each other’s powers, she’s had her people on lockdown. No using your abilities on someone else.”

  Hugh thought about Selene. She was reserved and had her own demons. Mostly centered on her brother Gideon, who, among other things, had made her permanently turn off their own parents' powers to force them out of the way.

  Despite her horrific past, the new Queen had become very special to Hugh. Hopefully, she’d become part of his family through marriage someday. She was engaged to Griffin, Ellie’s twin brother. And Ellie, of course, was wed to Alex, Hugh’s adopted son. But there were complications that needed fixing before Selene and Griffin could be united.

  “Selene knows about the idea. She’s not happy, but Adelaide is a danger to us and to the Vyusher. Selene will agree.”

  Hugh was silent. After a minute he walked back over to Lila, sat down, and started working on her arm again. Things were never easy these days. Nothing was black and white. He agreed with Lila that Adelaide couldn’t continue the way she was—an emotionless robot verging on sociopathic. But did they dare take the risk?

  “Do they think they can wipe just Nate from her memories?” he asked.

  “We’re going to try that first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll erase all memories back to just before she met him.”

  Hugh sucked in a breath. “That’s close to a hundred years.”

  “I know,” Lila said quietly.

  “Will she ever get those memories back?”

  “Ellie’s not sure.”

  Hugh nodded. He moved his hands over her, letting the light and warmth spread from his hands into her arm as he finished healing her. He nodded, and Lila sat up, swung her feet to the ground, and then twisted her arm around, rubbing at the spot where the bone had snapped.

  “Good as new,” she said with a quick, tight-lipped smile. Then she stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll tell Mom?”

  Hugh nodded.

  Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into him as she used to do when she was little. He pulled her close and hugged her back. Not all that long ago, Lila had been the one in distress, held prisoner by their enemy. Would they ever all just be safe and normal again?

  “Thank you for understanding,” she whispered.

  Before either of them could change their minds, Lila quickly headed out of the room.

  Hugh sank back down in his chair and sat there for some time, hands folded on his lap and eyes staring off into space. He just prayed that he’d made the right decision. He felt weighed down by the burden of his worries. These last years had aged him before his time. Grey now feathered the light brown hair at his temples. And for the first time in his life, Hugh felt old and brittle, despite being relatively young at close to six hundred sixty years old.

  “It was the right decision,” Lucy’s soft voice interrupted his thoughts.

  Hugh jerked his head up to see his wife standing in the doorway. “You heard?”

  She dipped her head.

  Hugh held out a hand for her, and she immediately crossed the room to be wrapped in his arms. He rested his chin on top of her hair. “Lila would never do anything to deliberately hurt Adelaide.”

  He felt Lucy nod.

  “And Nate?” she asked.

  “What about Nate?” Charlotte’s voice preceded her into the room. Her husband, Dexter, followed her in. The couple had been close friends of Lucy and Hugh’s for decades. But more than that, they’d been Nate’s adoptive parents since before they’d met the Jenners. Other than Adelaide, they’d felt the pain of Nate’s abandonment more sharply than anyone else.

  Hugh and Lucy glanced at each other. Charlotte had taken Nate’s loss particularly hard and had been constantly on the verge of tears since he’d left six months earlier. Dexter had become even more stone-faced, if that were possible.

  “Lila and the others are going try to help Adelaide by turning back on her emotions while removing all her memories of Nate.”

  Charlotte visibly paled. Her eyes welled with tears, which then spilled down her cheeks. Dexter wrapped his arms around his wife and murmured softly in her ear. He looked over at Lucy. “What were you saying about Nate?”

  Lucy spread her hands in appeal. “I worry that Adelaide’s forgetting Nate will push him even further away from us.”

  Dexter’s jaw hardened. “She said the line of their relationship snapped in half. That seems pretty final to me.”

  “But maybe it could be healed?”

  “And you think if she forgets him, that possibility goes away?” Charlotte gave a watery sniff.

  “I think it makes it harder to heal the relationship if she doesn’t remember it and he doesn’t acknowledge it,” Lucy replied.

  Charlotte covered her face with her hands, and her body shook in silent sobs. Dexter held her tightly, and glanced at Hugh and Lucy. “We don’t have Nate, but we do have Adelaide. We should do everything we can to help her. If we ever get Nate back… well, we’ll worry about that then.”

  Hugh stood and crossed the room to lay a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Then together, they all waited, deep in their grief but pulling what comfort they could from each other. They waited to discover the outcome of this latest hurdle.

  Chapter 4

  “Okay, Lila. We’re here,” Ellie said.

  Lila had called the others as soon as she’d left her father and asked them to meet her in the main courtyard. Ellie, Ramsey, Selene, and Alex appeared from the shadows, along with a massive golden-coated wolf.

  Lila walked over to crouch down in front of Griffin. Looking into his amber eyes, she sent him a thought.

  “How’s it going in there?”

  “Still a wolf, thanks,” came the dry reply.

  Telepathy was Griffin’s strongest ability, which had been extremely fortuitous while in his wolf-form, allowing him to communicate with the others. While the girls could all read minds and project their own thoughts, Griffin could also project anyone else’s thoughts. And, according to Ellie, he’d eventually be able to control other people’s thoughts as well.

  “Karin still insists that Griffin will figure it out eventually and morph back to human,” Selene joined the mental conversation.

  Lila nodded. She’d befriended Karin during her own captivity. Karin had also been one of Maddox’s prisoners. The wolf morpher had th
e additional and very unique ability to turn someone else into a wolf metamorph.

  “At least you’re not dead,” Lila reminded Griffin. Karin’s gift killed as often as it succeeded. About half the attempts resulted in the person’s body rejecting the genetic change she forced on it.

  “True. Then again, six months is still a helluva long time to walk around as a mutt,” Griffin grumbled. “But if it means that someday I can join the Vyusher and openly be with Selene, then it’s worth it.” He glanced up at Selene, who gave him a soft smile and ran her fingers through the fur along his back, earning her a rumbled sound of pleasure.

  “Remember that some of us can’t hear you,” Ramsey leaned down to remind Lila. Alex nodded in agreement. It often drove them a little nuts when they missed out on conversations because the telepaths forgot to project their thoughts.

  Lila gave him a little half-smile and then turned back to Griffin. “Can you do this?” she asked him, making sure everyone could hear her. She didn’t need to explain what she was asking him. They’d all discussed this possibility so often that they knew exactly what she was asking.

  “With Ellie’s help,” Griffin answered.

  With a deep breath she said, “Then we’d better get ready, because she’ll be here any minute. Let’s get a basic plan in place because I don’t think she’s going to just let us.”

  *****

  Adelaide cleared her mind, allowing it to go completely blank as she soared through the clear blue of the cloudless sky. She lazily looked over the still, white vistas below her.

  Xavier, a member of the Vyusher High Council, had the power to move their castle home anywhere in the world. After the last battle with Maddox, he’d moved it to the Ural Mountains in Russia.

  Adelaide felt a communion with this place, despite the constant sting of the cold. She almost preferred the feeling of solitude the silent mountains provided. There was a peace about the stark but pristine landscape that surrounded them here. And there was a comfort to be gained in knowing that throughout history, humans had never conquered this land. Napoleon had tried, and so had Hitler. All had been turned away, driven to defeat by the bleak Russian winter.