Wyvern's Lair (Desert Cursed Series Book 5) Read online

  So much for kissing him senseless.

  “What are you doing?” His hands were on my hips as if he wasn’t quite sure if this was real or not. Hell, I certainly was beginning to wonder myself if this wasn’t some sort of weird-ass dream.

  “Beating you up?” I offered, unable to lift my head. It felt like a cannon ball on top of my shoulders, heavy and unwieldy.

  A sharp laugh escaped him. “Piss poor job, cat.”

  “Oh, I know.” Maybe I could just lie here and hold him down until Lila and Ford came to look for me. Or Maggi could knock him out. Totally the stupidest plan I’d ever had, but there it was.

  I just had nothing left in me, and I wasn’t willing to pull the flail on Marsum as long as there was a chance I could bring Maks back. The same as I believed there was a chance to bring my brother back from the dead, there had to be a way to bring Maks back from the power of the Jinn masters.

  His hands slid over my hips to the curve of my ass, his fingers tightening over me, digging in with a more than pleasant pressure. “You make this too easy. I should have let Maks take my head long before.”

  Maggi let out a low hiss.

  I closed my eyes. “What do you mean I make this too easy?” I shimmied, moving one hand to my side to try to push off him. “Little help?”

  Maggi said nothing. I managed to twist my head to look for her, but she was gone. Damn it, I was on my own again.

  “I want a child. The next of the Jinn masters will be yours and mine with more power than any other.” He grabbed me and flipped me over to my back in a smooth movement that knocked the wind out of me.

  “Hardly gentle. You should work on that. Lady skills are lacking,” I wheezed.

  I fumbled to get my hands between us, to hold him off, but he was doing the same. Only Marsum reached between us to unbuckle his belt.

  The nausea hit me hard and I didn’t try to hold the vomit back. I turned my head and spewed chunks, mostly fluid at this point. Stomach acid laced my mouth and I dry heaved where I lay, wishing I could just close my eyes and sleep. After the puking, that was.

  “Disgusting,” he snarled, his voice and tone deep and totally not Maks. He pulled back, his weight leaving me.

  I didn’t for a second think he was going to let me go that easily. There was the sound of a buckle closing and then he pulled me to my feet.

  “Stand up,” he snapped as I wobbled. I draped a hand over his shoulder.

  “What’s wrong with me?” I mumbled more to myself than to him.

  Marsum grabbed me by both arms and shook me straight until I was looking at him. His eyes locked on mine and despite what had to be the worst puke breath, he slid his hands up to my face and held me close enough that our noses were touching. I closed my eyes, wishing for all the world in that moment that he’d just kill me and get it over with.

  “Keep your eyes open,” he snarled. Maks’s voice, Marsum’s tone.

  “Unless you want me to hurl all over you, I think it’s best—”

  “Something is wrong with you, woman. Open your damn eyes!” Was that panic I heard in him?

  I reached up and held onto his forearms and forced my eyes open. “Why do you care?”

  Those blue eyes raked over my face, studied my eyes as he pulled one eyelid open, and then he shot a hand to the center of my chest between my breasts and pressed hard. I wanted to know what he was looking for, what he thought was wrong, because I suddenly realized that the longer he looked at me, the more worried he was, the worse whatever was going on in my body probably was. Bad mojo indeed if a Jinn master was worried.

  “Goddess be damned,” he finally muttered. He let me go and my legs buckled, sitting me right back down. I lay back and stared at the black sky above, watching the stars move and heave with each breath I took.

  “What’s the verdict?” I managed to ask, wondering just how strange of a world it was that Marsum was suddenly, weirdly, concerned for me. Or maybe that was Maks coming through?

  “I can’t get a child in you right now, not until your body has been cleansed,” he growled. “That is going to be a royal pain in my ass, you know that?”

  I drew a breath and formed the words slowly. “What do you mean, cleansed?”

  “You . . .” He was suddenly there, over me in a crouch, once more peering into my eyes. “Something happened to one of the stones you were thieving for Ish. What happened to it? You broke it, didn’t you?”

  I blinked once. “Yes, I shattered the diamond with the black lightning in it. The witch stone.”

  He grimaced. “You were holding it when it broke? Which hand?” He picked up my left hand, dragging it away from my side, and then the right, looking them both over. “No scars. Where was it when you were holding it?”

  I couldn’t fathom what he was getting at. What he was trying to tell me.

  “Yes, it was . . .” Was it under my shirt when it had shattered? “I think under my shirt.”

  He pulled my shirt up, exposing my bare flesh. The night air actually felt good on my flushed skin. “Here? You have a crystal pattern scar, and it’s new by the color of it.”

  Marsum touched the spot between my breasts where the stone had lain inside a pouch, not a single moment of sexuality to his inspection. I frowned up at the sky and pulled my shirt down. “Yes, but what does—”

  “You absorbed the power of the stone, you idiot.” He grabbed both my hands and pulled me to a standing position. “You need another stone from the same cut as that black-flecked diamond to push all that power into or you’re going to die. And die very soon.”

  He paced a tight circle, obviously deep in thought. This was the moment I could take my flail and smack him, kill him. But that wasn’t going to happen. He knew it, and so did I.

  “There is another,” he muttered, his tone changing once more, deepening, aging. “That one you had with you, the witch. She has the Emperor’s lines too. She will do.” With that he turned and started away from me.

  Leaving me there.

  To die.

  So he could impregnate Ollianna.

  5

  The idea of Marsum in Maks’s body getting a child on Ollianna was enough to fire my muscles past the sickness that was apparently killing me. Again, where the hell was Maggi? Had she really just fucked off on me after saying she would help if she could?

  “You are not going to touch Ollie.” I stumbled after him, hating how weak I was.

  Marsum looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Jealous?”

  “Not of you, shithead. But Maks is mine.” So okay, maybe a little jealous.

  “What are you going to do about it? Nothing. He let himself be shoved to sleep like the coward he is,” Marsum said. “I need an heir, one that is stronger than all the others, and a woman with the Emperor’s bloodline is the answer—” He snapped his mouth shut as if he’d said too much.

  Then he continued. “But I suppose I could take you with me. Just to be sure.” The mist of the Jinn began a slow swirl around his feet. He moved like a damn snake, striking out and grabbing me, throwing me over his shoulder and then striding forward.

  Upside down was not a good place for me to be. I heaved and gagged as though my entire stomach was trying to push itself up and out of my mouth.

  We weren’t moving very fast, that was about the only good thing I could see. “Where are you taking me?”

  I had to stop him; I knew that much. Stop him from getting to Ollie first. “Ollie isn’t the Emperor’s child. Me or nothing, sweet cheeks.”

  A blatant lie, but maybe he wouldn’t realize it.

  The string of profanities that escaped him told me that maybe he did believe me. One point for the liar.

  “Then we need to get a stone,” he growled. “This one won’t do.” He touched his hip and I realized he was carrying the Jinn’s stone, the amber stone. I reached for it.

  “You sure?”

  He slapped my hand away. “Stop touching it.”

  I snickered, words p
opping out of my mouth I couldn’t stop. “That’s not what you said a few minutes ago.”

  “Are you drunk?” There might have been a hint of laughter in his voice. Marsum didn’t have a sense of humor. That was Maks coming through, it had to be.

  “I feel like I’m dying,” I said. “Makes me crazy funny. Want to go out with a fucking bang.” I clapped my hands together though it was a weak clap at best.

  He stopped and pulled me off his shoulder to my wobbling feet. I couldn’t stand without his help and I clung to him, clung to Marsum, the worst enemy of my family and the Jinn who’d destroyed so much.

  “Then we need to fix this. Because I need you still, at least long enough to give me a child if indeed you are the only granddaughter of the Emperor.” His jaw flexed and there was a glimmer in his eyes that I knew was not Marsum. I lifted my hand and touched his jaw, for just a second the world standing still. “Maks?”

  His throat bobbed and he leaned his head in. At first, I thought he was going to kiss me, but that would be disgusting—puke-mouth that I was. But he didn’t kiss me. His hand cupped around my face, digging into it. “There is a way to keep you from being overwhelmed by this.”

  He shook his head. “No, don’t you dare, boy! Don’t you dare tie us to her. We’ll both die!”

  What was happening? “Maks, what way?” I whispered those words, hoping against hope.

  Hands on the side of his head, he tried to step back but I hung onto him, holding his wrists. “Maks, don’t leave!”

  His eyes closed, pain rippling across his face, his tone deepening past even Marsum’s sound. “For that, I’m going to leave her to die now, boy. That’s enough out of you. If you can’t behave, you get nothing.”

  With a quick motion, he pulled one hand free, leaving me standing there, hanging onto his other wrist. His eyes were dark and his tone deepened once more. “I think I’ll just kill you and be done with it. That will end his fight.”

  Despite the dark of the night, black mist swirled up around us. The magic of the Jinn raced around us, faster and faster, like a whirlwind of darkness even here in the heart of the night.

  In the distance, a voice screamed my name, called for me, searching for me.

  “Lila.” I said her name but couldn’t call back. The magic rushing between Marsum and me was too much, too thick, and it was choking me.

  Of course, there was one more player in the mix. One I’d given up on.

  “I think not today. We need her still.” Maggi stepped into view, her gauzy skirts swirling up in a gust of wind, almost as if she still had her own magic.

  The sound of something clicking, metallic and sharp, cut through the air and the black mist dissipated on a breath of the breeze.

  The first thing I noticed was that the nausea was gone, and my body relaxed. Something shivered through me, soothing like honey on a throat raw from coughing, easing away the sick feeling, easing away the pain and fatigue until I was on my own two legs easily, standing there, hanging onto Marsum. His forehead pressed against mine, hands holding my face, thumbs tracing the curve of my cheeks. That was not Marsum.

  “Maks?”

  “He needs you. I’ll do all I can to keep him in line,” he whispered.

  “Maks!” I yelled his name and grabbed him hard, the clinking of metal chains something I should really have paid attention to. “You have to fight! You have to fight him!”

  He blinked once and then gave me a slow wink. “He can’t fight me, pussy cat. And you won’t kill me because he’s in me. What a glorious conundrum. That being said, you need to die, I think. That will be the only way to keep him truly in line.”

  I took a step back, and before I could think better of it, I snapped a fist upward in a perfect uppercut, smashing it into his jaw. His blue eyes rolled back, and he slumped away from me to the ground. But I was going down with him, pulled along by the handcuffs connecting us.

  Oh, shit.

  “Maggi!” I yelled for her.

  “ZAM!” Lila screamed my name and I looked up in time to see her dive-bombing me. She pulled up at the last second, blue and silver scales iridescent even in the night, small wings stretched as wide as they could go. “Holy sheep shit, where have you been? And who is this? Freaking hellfire on a candle stick, is that Marsum?”

  Her words were rapid fire and I shushed her with a wave of my hand. Already an idea was forming now that my brain wasn’t addled by the nausea that had taken me over so fully. Much as I wished this night was over already and I was sleeping in my bedroll next to Balder’s feet, I knew that was more than a few hours off.

  “Yes, that’s Marsum, but Maks is in there too. He . . . saved me, Lila.”

  “No, I saved you.” Maggi moved to stand in front of where I was crouched over Marsum.

  “You handcuffed me to him. How the hell is that saving me?” I tugged up the hand attached to Marsum, cuff to cuff. “Seriously? Something in you thought this was a good idea?”

  “Those cuffs connect you in more than a physical sense. They blend your magic and lives together. He wasn’t wrong about the stone and the damage it was doing to you—I just didn’t see it until he pointed it out—but leaning on his strength and power, you will survive. If you hurry.” She smiled as though she thought I should thank her.

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” I stared up at her, unable to fathom what had just happened. “He wanted to kill me. How will this,” I held up my cuffed hand, “stop him now that he is literally within arm’s reach from me and I can’t get away?”

  “Well, for one thing, he would die. And that would be the end of the Jinn masters. Such is the bond of those cuffs.” Again, Maggi smiled, only this time, there was a hint of malice in the look.

  Damn it, had this been her plan all along?

  Lila was completely horrified if the way her mouth hung open—with nothing coming out despite the way her jaw flapped—was any indication.

  My winged friend finally seemed to pull herself together.

  “Oh.” She dropped to the sand next to Marsum and jammed two claws up his nose, pulling on the nostrils. I batted her away and she pulled her claws out, and wiped them in his hair. “So, no cubs for you and Ford then, I guess? ’Cause I see that look on your face. I know it. You love him, of course. Even if he is a jerk right now.”

  I wanted to say I had a feeling there would be no cubs for me at all—ever. But for right now, I didn’t need Marsum thinking I was useless to him too. I needed him to need and want me. To believe I had value to him.

  “Maybe this is not the time for that discussion.” I sat my butt in the sand there beside Marsum. Maks. Whoever he was.

  “Marsum, looks like you’re coming with us.”

  “WHAT?” Lila’s screech lit the air, and the hair on the back of my neck stood. I held up the hand cuffed to him and then pointed at Maggi. “You see her?”

  Lila turned and then gave a quick nod. “Yeaaaaaah.”

  “I’d bet both horses that she’s not taking these cuffs off until she gets what she wants. And she won’t tell us what she wants, will she?” I quirked an eyebrow at my unlikely savior.

  Maggi tipped her head in my direction. “Correct. The only way to find a path that will stop the Jinn is to keep him close.”

  I swallowed hard. Keeping him close was dangerous for a hell of a lot of reasons. Time to change directions a little.

  “I’m guessing Ford is out looking for me too?”

  “Yeah, he went another direction,” Lila said. “Why?”

  “Good. We’re going to need to get our story straight before we see him.” I touched the handcuffs and tugged at the chain that now attached me to Marsum and by default, Maks. “Because no matter how this goes, Ford is going to be pissed.”

  6

  The only good thing I can say about Maggi having put one handcuff on the Jinn and attaching the other to me was the leverage it had given me for the uppercut I’d delivered. It kept him out cold for a few minutes so we could discuss wh
at was going to happen.

  I only hoped that when he woke, there would be no wrestling with him. I’d already tried to outmuscle Maks once, and it had ended with me on my back. That strength would still be there, even though Maks was not the one in control of the body.

  Lila hopped around my feet, a seriously agitated dragon in miniature. “You have got to be kidding me. You want to take him with us? Why? I mean, I love the Toad, too, but we know he’s not exactly in charge of this body.” She pointed at him with the tip of one sharp little claw as I lifted his left hand to stare at the cuff around his wrist.

  I twisted around to look at Maggi. “You aren’t going to take them off, are you?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t know why I made them, why my power chose that form. But when I saw him coming toward us, I knew their purpose. Magic is funny that way, sometimes it acts on its own for our best interest.”

  “Doubt it. I think you knew all along what you were making and why,” Lila said. I agreed with her.

  He moaned, stirring. We were almost out of time here. Even so, I answered Lila.

  “I was dying, I think, and he did consider saving me, Lila. He needs me because he wants a child out of me. As long as that is the case, then he won’t hurt me.” I think. Maybe. Hopefully.

  He’d seemed to truly want to stop me from dying—at least for a moment—and while Ollianna would have probably agreed to give him a child—seeing as that was what she wanted—I wasn’t about to tell him that. I was the granddaughter of the Emperor, and that was a powerful bloodline the Jinn master wanted to take advantage of in the worst way possible. I just had to keep him from realizing there was a whole swamp of witches related to the Emperor. I grimaced at the thought of Maks with them, any of them.

  Lila looked between me and Maggi. “Okay, so he thought about saving you so he can knock you up and make cute little bastard Jinns, but that doesn’t explain why you want to take him with you, with us. I hate to say it, but cut his arm off. It’ll regrow and we’ll be free.” She leaned in and poked at the cuffs. A tiny spark of magic zapped her and she leapt back, hissing, her lips curled back over her teeth.