Stitched

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Coming Soon

  Authors Note

  About the Author

  Also by Shannon Mayer

  Acknowledgments

  For my littlest bug and all the love you’ve brought into my life.

  For Terry and all the love he gives me.

  Chapter 1

  The wind coursed around us, over Blaz’s wings and then swirling through my hair. Another day, perhaps the cold would have chilled me deep into my bones. But not that day.

  Not with having said goodbye to Liam. Not with having to leave him behind in the fire, burning so that we might live.

  We. I clutched my middle, still processing that I was pregnant.

  Zane, Milly’s child, snuggled into his blankets and I held him tightly. His green eyes were wide as they took in the clouds blistering past us. He wore the fire opal, which kept his tiny body warm against that cold, and holding him, I caught the tail end of that heat. I touched his forehead, running my finger down the bridge of his nose, his skin so very soft. His green eyes blinked closed and then slowly opened. I did it again, twice more and his eyes stayed closed. At least he was safe now; Orion wouldn’t find him. Wouldn’t be able to possess him.

  I lay my right hand on my mid-section once more while I cradled Zane with my left arm. How could it be that I was so oblivious to my own body over the last few months? Looking back, I could see the signs. The excess fatigue, the strange nausea now and again, the way my heart was so damn tender.

  Blaz’s voice was gentle as he spoke directly to me, leaving the others with us out of the conversation. How could you know when you were so busy fighting for your life, for the lives of your friends? I didn’t hear her speak until Liam told you. Rylee, you had other things far more pressing.

  I blinked back tears—ah, fuck it. No one could see them anyway. Erik was in front of me, his broad back taking the brunt of the cold air, and then Coyote was behind me. Being a Guardian like Liam had been, his body ran hot, and between the two men, and Zane with his fire opal, I was not that uncomfortable.

  But . . . her? I focused my thoughts on Blaz. Are you sure I’m having a girl?

  He tipped his head back and to the side so I could see his eye. Yes. She was staying quiet at the request of her father so as to not give you another thing to worry about.

  A sob rippled up in my chest and I buried my head against my uncle’s back. Erik reached back and patted my leg. “It will be okay, no matter how bad it is now. If we aren’t done, if we aren’t in the ground it isn’t over, and we will find a way to make it okay.”

  We flew away from England, away from my friends and allies, to a place only Coyote knew. A place that, according to Liam, was cut out from the world and would allow me the time to give birth. To have our child without worrying about a demon attempting to posses her or Zane.

  Tian Shan, Blaz said. Don’t say it out loud, but that is the place we go. A place of safety that even a Tracker couldn’t find.

  I let his words slide through me, my mind latching onto what he was saying. “Like the castle, with Peter’s wolf pack.”

  The dragon tipped his head, far enough that I could see him again. Yes. A pocket cut out of the world, cut out of even the veil in order to be a place of safety. On that note, we need to stop and pick up someone. Someone who promised to help.

  I didn’t realize how long we’d been flying with my grief and thoughts consuming me. Now that I looked, we were over a rather familiar section of land. Still, there was nothing but snow, trees and mountains, but I recognized the wide open field we were coming up to.

  “Not the clearing.” I whispered, knowing Blaz would hear me no matter how quiet I was. He didn’t slow, but instead flew past the open field which allowed me to breathe again. The clearing, where Liam had made love to me in the snow, where we’d started our last real adventure together. If I’d known then that I would lose him, I would have fought to stay there, hidden in the forest. To hide in the wilderness of Russia and let the world go to hell in a poorly woven hand basket.

  Screw the world, I wanted my love back.

  My arms trembled as I held little Zane, and I had to force myself to breathe, to gain some semblance of control over myself.

  That’s why he didn’t tell you.

  “I don’t fucking well care the reasons why, he’s still dead!” I screamed into the wind. Behind me, Coyote jumped, but Erik didn’t move a muscle. Zane’s eyes opened and he started to cry. I bent my head over him, rocking him gently, guilt and grief warring with one another. Coyote handed me a bottle. I put it against the fire opal to heat it and then popped it into the still screaming baby’s mouth.

  No one corrected me for yelling and waking Zane, nor did they tell me to shut the fuck up. Of course, Erik had known Liam’s plan. As had Coyote.

  And Doran, he’d known too, the bastard. The only question I had was, who had killed Liam?

  Who had wielded the copper knife that’d sliced through all that made Liam a Guardian and allowed his blood to flow, sealing shut the veil? And what would I do to them? He’d asked them to do it, whoever it was, that much was truth.

  Right now though, that was the least of my worries, much as I hated to admit it, even to myself.

  A groan slipped out of me and I leaned forward again, pressing my face against Erik’s back. I wasn’t alone, but maybe I wanted to be. To grieve without everyone’s eyes on me, to see their pity and sorrow leaking from them like water through a sieve.

  The ground rushed up and I braced for the impact, but Blaz landed lightly, hopping once to ease the landing.

  In front of us, a snow-covered field led up to what had been a run down castle the last time I’d been there. Which wasn’t that long ago. But now, the castle fairly glistened in the weak winter sun. Figures dashed about on the turrets, and from the moat near the gate, a triangular head lifted from the water. The water dragon’s scales caught the light and flashed blue and silver, not all that different from Blaz’s coloring really.

  I tightened my arms around Zane, who let out a content sigh, burped, and went back to sleep. “Who are we picking up?”

  “Catya.”

  He said her name and she was running across the field, her parents behind her, yelling. Somehow those little legs outran her parents with ease, even when her father shifted into his wolf form.

  “No, we can’t take another child!” I did my best to keep my voice low.

  “Not your choice, niece,” Erik said, his voice soft. “We all make choices and even though she is young, her soul is older than all of ours combined. Catya will make her own decisions.”

  The little girl scrambled up Blaz’s leg, her mother and father, Peter, skidding to a stop.

  “Do not take her, please!”

  Around us the air shifted, and I tensed. “This is going to get weird.”

  One of Catya’s abilities was to project images into another person’s mind, showing them what she wanted them to see and hear. A little like Blaz could, but with far more force and detail.

  The scene in front of me changed to one where Catya was older, maybe in her teens, and she stood guard over the sleeping forms of two children.

  A dark haired little boy.

  And a copper haired little girl. Their hands were tangled together and all around them the world spun and twisted. But Catya stood firm. Guarding them.

  I blinked and the image faded. Catya was beside me. I told your mate I would gu
ard his little girl. I come now to do that.

  Her mother let out a sob, but she bowed her head. “Come back to us, one day, please.”

  Catya smiled. Goodbye, Mama. I will be back.

  Peter let out a howl, his grizzled wolf form shuddering with what I could only assume was grief. How would I feel if my child left me?

  A thought struck me hard, as if someone had thrown a rock and smashed me in my stupid head.

  I was leaving my little girl in order to stop Orion. Leave her behind, in the care of others. Maybe to say goodbye and never see her again, and like me, she would have no one. A spasm went through me, tightening every muscle in my body in one horrible twist. I fought to breathe around the pain lancing through me—not a physical pain—my heart unhinging, knocking down every last barrier I had up.

  Someone was sobbing, and I distantly recognized that I had finally snapped. There had been too many losses, too many pains for me to deal any longer with any sort of rationality. Arms circled me, holding me against a strong chest that I knew was my uncle’s. Blaz launched into the air and I felt him inside my head, trying to get me to allow him to help me. I blocked him, something I’d never been able to do before, forcing his thoughts out of mine.

  Nothing could help me. How much would I be asked to give up, to sacrifice to stop Orion? How much could the world expect from me and think I would still be able to function?

  Tears dripped off my chin, splotching onto Zane’s blanket. He slept through my breakdown, his chest rising and falling slowly. Catya reached around me to touch him, and while I could apparently keep Blaz out of my head, I couldn’t keep her out.

  Will be okay. Trust in love. Liam knew this. Love is best. Let grief go.

  The words of an innocent, to believe that love conquered all. “That’s bullshit, kid. You might as well learn it now, that everything you love is either taken from you or killed. That’s life, fucked up as it might be.” My words were slurred with pain, like I’d drunk a thousand bottles of grief only to find at the bottom there was no end.

  Catya’s fingers tightened on my arm, and her golden eyes, so like Liam’s that I could barely breathe past seeing her, forced me to listen to her. You will see. Pain and love, they are married. But without pain, love would not be powerful like it is.

  That made no fucking sense. I didn’t try to stop the tears, cradled in my uncle’s arms like a child, holding Zane close. I drifted in and out of sleep, my dreams bunched together in my head, fire and blood, pain and love, the past, present, and possible future all clamoring for my attention.

  Hours past, I fed Zane several times until I began to worry we would run out of formula. That was the whole of what I could handle, feeding and loving that little boy. Milly’s boy. “Ah, fuck,” I whispered, a new wave of pain crashing over me. I’d thought I’d seen her die, splayed out on the floor of Orion’s castle. But now I knew the truth; Orion had staunched her blood and kept her alive. To use her again. To make her a tool for him. “Milly.” Her name, whispered from my lips, was torn away, stolen by the icy wind.

  I don’t know how long it took, but we went from flying high over mountains and through clouds, to landing in a courtyard. My eyes were fuzzy with fatigue and everything looked strange. Like I was staring at a place from a painting, the walls done in a faint orange, the footing below us interlocked tiles, each one painted with a creature. A dragon. A werewolf. A griffin. A goblin. There was a tile for every supernatural creature I’d heard of, and a few I hadn’t.

  “Where are we?”

  Coyote answered, sober, his voice dull. “We can say it now that we are here. Tian Shan, the one place you will be safe from Orion’s minions. From any demon left behind when the veil closed. From those who would end your life, and the life of the child you carry.”

  Blaz blew out a sharp breath, fogging the air up around us. We have a problem. I am not the only dragon here.

  Chapter 2

  The four of us slid off Blaz’s back as he reared up and spread his wings. His neck arched back as if he would blast the intruder with his flames. A flash of red and gold, violet eyes, and a wingspan that matched Blaz’s, stunned me. A dragon, yes, but one we knew well. “Ophelia, what the fuck are you doing here?”

  The female dragon ducked her head, drawing closer, but keeping her body in a submissive posture. I came here to heal.

  Blaz snorted. You mean to hide.

  Her violet eyes blazed and she slammed her head upward and into his exposed throat, sending him tumbling backward. I may no longer have a rider, but I can still kick your ass, Blaz.

  Their argument was broadcasted to all of us by the look on Erik’s and Coyote’s faces. Erik was fighting a smile, and Coyote just shook his head as he muttered, “Dragons.”

  With my feet on the ground, I took a good look around. We were in a monastery, the stone walls rising higher than the dragons’ heads. The walls—that deep orange color I’d first seen through hazy eyes—stood out against the snow and ice covering the tops of them. The monastery was large. Bigger than I would have expected, that was for sure. From what I could see, it covered several acres of the mountainside it was built into, and we were in the main courtyard, if the large gated doors behind us were any indication.

  Zane started to fuss and I rocked him gently. “It’s all right, little man. You’re safe here.” A weight I didn’t know had been on my shoulders slid off and I let out a breath that felt as though I’d been holding it for days, maybe weeks. “You’re safe.”

  The sound of running feet snapped my head up and I crouched with Zane in my arms, holding him with my left and pulling a sword with my right. Safe we might be, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.

  Three monks—they couldn’t be anything else with their long flapping orange robes and completely bald heads—ran toward us. They were young for monks, I could see it on their faces, the smooth skin, and belief in their eyes that all was well with the world.

  Boy, were they going to get a fucking shock as the world shit all over that.

  Blaz tipped his head toward me. That was particularly bitter, my friend.

  I shrugged, but didn’t lower my sword.

  The monk in the middle stepped forward, placed his hands palms together, and bowed low. “Welcome to Tian Shan. Be at ease, Blood of the Lost, we have waited many years for you. Come, we will show you to your room.”

  I frowned and lowered the tip of my sword, fully expecting I would have to use it at some point. “What’s your name?”

  He smiled, his grin spreading across his face. “Bao.”

  “I’m Rylee.”

  The others introduced themselves one at a time, except for Catya who was suddenly clinging to my leg.

  I stay with you, Rylee. You and the babies.

  “The girl stays with me,” I said, and Bao nodded.

  “Of course. Please, do not be afraid, it is safe here, truly safe.”

  I had a hard time believing that.

  But even I knew it was rude to point out how fucking ignorant he was when we were here to partake of his, and his monastery’s hospitality. With Catya clinging, hanging off my leg, I followed Bao. I didn’t care where Erik and Coyote went. Now that we were—supposedly—safe, I remembered clearly they had been part of the plot to end Liam’s life, and I wanted to put as much distance between myself and them as possible.

  Zane let out a mewl and I paused. “Shit, I’m running out of formula.”

  “Ah, we have several nursing mothers, perhaps one of them would be able to help.” Bao smiled as he spoke, a definite twinkle in his eye. “Come, I will introduce you, the baby will likely not wait on your time or mine to be hungry.”

  We backtracked and took a turn to the left, followed a winding pathway through the monastery that seemed to go on forever. The hallway opened into a large room, the ceilings at least twenty feet high, the floors set in river rock that clicked under my boots. In the center of the room was a large table that had so much food on it, I thought I could se
e the heavy slab sag in the middle. A number of people sat around the table, laughing and talking softly, the murmur just audible, and not enough to decipher words.

  Alex would be in heaven with all that food. My heart gave a lurch, reminding me how much I’d given up. Of the people I loved and deserted to come here. I had abandoned them, left them to fend for themselves.

  No, they understand. Rylee, you do this so we can all be safe. Be kind to yourself, my friend. Be kind. Blaz’s words were a hollow comfort.

  Throat tightening, I looked up at the ceiling, inspecting the rafters, as if the answer to all my problems would be written there.

  “Daisy,” Bao called out, bowing over his hands. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”

  Zane let out another of his mewling cries and I rocked him gently, feeling awkward. Tiny babies were not something I’d spent a lot of time with and I felt like it showed.

  A feminine figure stepped away from the table. She was taller than me, her hair braided back from her pale pink skin. Pink? As she drew closer I saw only the troll in her. Like Tara, the half breed who’d helped Liam. But this wasn’t Tara. Just some unknown supernatural. I crouched over Zane as I whipped out a blade with my other hand. “That’s close enough.”

  Daisy stopped in her tracks. “I am a half breed, but I do not favor my father’s side.” She blinked several times, her wide brown eyes taking me in with a single sweep. Her shoulders straightened and her lips trembled. She could have been Tara’s sister; they were so similar in looks.

  I slowly came out of my crouch, my arms aching from having held Zane nonstop for hours. “I know you’re a half breed. What the hell, what human would—”

  Catya’s voice inside my head stopped me. Her mother was taken by her father without consent. I stared down at her. “You know, you are far too young to understand that.”

  She shrugged. My soul is old, and I see people’s hearts, their past, and what makes them who they are.

  I didn’t want to ask her what she saw when she looked inside me. I didn’t need to know. Or maybe I already knew. “So, she’s good?”