Abby and the coven arrived right when they said they would, bright and early. I was awoken by Mori shaking my shoulder and mumbling something about a bunch of women laughing and chatting loudly downstairs.
“Witches,” I said with a yawn. “They can be quite loud when they’re all together.”
“I can hear.”
I waited for her to climb out of bed, but instead, she snuggled deeper under the covers, holding onto me firmly. I chuckled, trying to get her to let go, but she shook her head, not budging. “We have to go down there eventually.”
“Eventually being the keyword. Still sleepy.”
I brushed my fingers down her cheek, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Can I ask you something?”
“Always,” she replied, not opening her eyes.
There were no wrinkles on her face anywhere, no sign that she’d been alive for a few thousand years. Eventually, though, if we survived the war, I’d grow old, and she would remain exactly the same. I hated to admit it, but some voice in the far back of my mind wanted her to remain as she was now, mortal, with just a hint of starlight. It was selfishness or jealousy; I couldn’t decide which.
“Forrest? What’s bothering you?” Her dark brown eyes studied me from the nest of my arms and the blanket. She reached up and held my cheek softly.
“Just wondering what would happen if you actually became mortal,” I whispered.
She said nothing for a long while, and I worried I’d upset her by bringing it up, but then she smiled and kissed me. “I think I’d be okay with it, as long as I had you to teach me how to be mortal. We both know I’m not very good at it yet. The whole eating and sleeping thing is a bit strange.”
“And aging?” I asked with a smile, tapping near her eye. “You’ll get wrinkles.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Not before you.”
“Oh, you think so, huh?”
“Everyone knows it’s the man who winds up aging faster because the woman drives him insane,” she stated with a matter of fact tone, though she grinned.
“With you, I have no doubt.” I tugged the blanket up over our heads and tickled her until she was squealing with laughter and begging for mercy. I wasn’t about to give her any when a loud banging started at our door, and I poked my head out. “What?”
“The entire house can hear you,” Kate replied, sounding like she was laughing. “Get your butts out of bed and downstairs. Breakfast is ready, and Abby wants to talk to us all.”
“We’ll be right down,” Mori told her, and I sighed, flopping back on the bed. “Come on.”
“You were the one who didn’t want to get out of bed first,” I grumbled.
She shrugged, drawing her now shorter hair back into a loose braid that she flung over her shoulder. Several stars flickered against the dark locks, then they fell to the floor around her feet. She stared down at them, puffing her cheeks out as she watched them fade out.
“We’ll get it back,” I promised her.
“It’s not the end of the world if we don’t. Just strange is all.”
She shook out her hands and starlight flickered at her fingertips but went out just as quickly as it appeared. After another try, she gave up and said she’d meet me downstairs.
I stretched as I climbed out of bed and peeked out the window, checking the street. It was packed with cars, and I grinned, thinking of the first time we met the coven here and how many witches there had been then. How they’d looked at us all when we’d told them our story. They’d been the first ones to believe we weren’t crazy. The first to help us.
And now it seemed they would be here to help us again. Only this time, the enemy was not so easily defeated.
Once I was cleaned up and presentable enough, I headed downstairs and was immediately pulled into the strong arms of an old witch.
“So good to see you’re still alive,” Abby exclaimed as I hugged her back.
“I just wish we had better news,” I replied sadly.
She nodded solemnly. “Lucy, yes, we were going to have a small ceremony for her this evening with the rise of the full moon. Every witch needs a proper goodbye, even if she’s not physically here for it.”
“Think it’ll help Kate?”
“It will at that.” She patted my hand, her eyes on the rest of the witches walking around the house, and even more, coming in through the doors.
“Did you meet Mori yet?” I asked, needing to talk about something other than the obvious absence of Lucy.
“That I have, and I have already congratulated her on a job well done.”
“With?”
“The message, my dear boy. We saw it. I daresay others have, too.”
I was about to tell her the coven was the first to arrive, but she pointed toward the front door, bustling away. Calling after Kate, she disappeared into the kitchen.
I turned around, ready to greet whoever had heard our call, the first to come to our aid, but the man who walked through the door lodged the words in my throat, and I went completely numb.
Three men stood in the foyer, talking quietly to each other until the man in front shifted his gaze to mine.
“Forrest? Tristan and Craig want to talk to you—What’s wrong?” Mori asked, coming up beside me. “You’re so pale. Forrest?” She waved her hand in front of my eyes and broke the trance.
“Sorry I just—hold on a second,” I mumbled and felt like I was walking through sludge to reach the man with eyes that exactly matched another dragon. One I’d missed since the day I watched him killed. When I was an arm’s length away, I swallowed hard and told myself that though this was not Kadin, my father, this dragon was more than a welcome sight.
“Hello, Uncle.” I held out my arm.
He stared at it intently, then shoved it aside and yanked me into an embrace. “Nephew. Gods, it’s good to see you alive.”
“You as well,” I exclaimed, squeezing him. “Everyone assumed you dead. For years now, you’ve been thought to be dead.”
“I needed my solace, but I feel that may have been a mistake, after all that’s happened.”
“No. Father understood why you left. He spoke of you often, how much he missed his older brother, but he told me, time and again, the crown never suited you.”
Keanu chuckled deeply, sounding just like Kadin.
“I had no idea you were coming here.”
“Sounded like a good plan at the time.” He rested his hands on my shoulders. “I may not have been there to save my brother, but I will be here to fight by your side, once you share who this enemy is, of course.”
“That is a very long story.”
Each time I looked at Keanu, I had to remind myself this was not my father come back from the dead, they so resembled. In his prime, Keanu was a damned good fighter. He’d led the army and had been in line for the crown, until a tragedy stole away his wife and two children. After the loss, he shut himself away, and then one day he was gone. I never heard from him again, but Father always told me he had no doubt his brother was alive. I realized now they’d probably been communicating one way or another.
“And who is this beautiful creature?” Keanu asked, smiling as Mori reached us.
“This is Mori,” I said, and he took her hand, kissing the back of it as she smiled. “She’s… well, she’s—ah…” I frowned, unsure of what to say exactly.
“I’m the gatekeeper to the gods, a star, and his fiancée,” she answered for me.
Keanu’s brow shot up.
Still smiling, Mori added, “Yes, I know. How could a dragon like that land someone like me?” She winked.
Keanu burst out laughing as I scowled at her.
“She’s definitely a keeper,” he mused.
“Don’t I know it,” I growled.
“Why don’t I show you and your men into the dining room? Abby’s just finished expanding it,” Mori offered. “You didn’t bring any more, did you?”
Keanu glanced over his shoulder at the two dragons with him, man and woman. “Oh, I might’ve brought a few. You sure that dining room is big enough?”
He whistled, and Mori and I watched in wide-eyed amazement as dragon after dragon walked in the front door. Mori managed to point them in the right direction after each one paused to shake my hand.
“See you in a few minutes, nephew,” Keanu told me as he joined the rest of his dragons.
“Did you know?” Mori whispered, still stunned, but grinning happily.
“Not at all, but I think, if this is a sign of anything, we have a damned good chance of forming that army after all.”
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, and I could tell by the look on her face, she was thinking the same. But as the morning wore on, and the dragons and witches made themselves at home, chatting and laughing together like old friends—which it turned out Abby and Keanu were—the doorbell rang, and Kate rushed to answer it.
I heard her talking to someone, then she bellowed Craig’s name. He’d been with me and Tristan, helping set up more chairs as Abby and her witches used magic to expand the dining room to accommodate so many. Craig glanced at me curiously, then rushed to the front door. A few seconds later, he laughed out loud, and I had to find out what was going on.
I peeked out of the room to find him enveloped in a bear hug by a very large, very broad demon.
“Who is that?” Mori asked.
“I’m not sure,” I told her as the demon finally set Craig on his feet and stepped to the side. “And I’m not sure I care. Damn.”
Another twenty demons trailed in as Craig, and the burly demon strolled toward us, cackling about something or other, both near to tears they were laughing so hard.
“Forrest, Mori, let me introduce you to the demon who taught me everything I knew before he was banished from Boshen for doing so. This is Bear.”
The demon, horns jagged and curled at the tips, skin darker than mine, and covered in white-etched tattoos, grinned wide, flashing fangs.
“Bear?”
“At your service,” he said.
I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re serious?”
“Afraid it is. My other name was not suited for me, so I changed it.”
“Well, I think it suits you,” Kate said as she held out her hand.
Bear stared at her outstretched hand, then picked her up in a hug instead. “Nice to see someone finally snagged Craig. I told him it’d take a badass to win him over.”
“Yeah, alright, why don’t you get the rest of your clan settled in, eh?” Craig muttered.
“The rest of them won’t fit.”
“How many of there are you?” Craig asked, glancing back toward the closed front door.
“About a hundred or so, but I only brought a handful. The others are in a hotel in town.”
“You took that many from Boshen?” Craig asked surprised. “How did father not find out?”
“Who said he didn’t?” Bear winked. “Not like I gave him much of a choice, I took the roughest of us, his best fighters. If he wanted them back, he’d have a fight on his hand.”
He patted Craig on the shoulder and waved his arm over his head, calling out to Keanu. The two shook hands heartily, and Craig and I were left watching in confused awe.
“Do you feel like we missed out on a hell of a lot?” I asked Craig.
“Just a bit,” he agreed. “Here we were back in the realms fighting between dragons and demons and those two are acting like old buddies.”
“There’s going to be a lot of catching up to do at some point.”
The doorbell rang again, and we both gave each other a look and turned, wondering who else it might be. I went to open the door this time and couldn’t lie that I was disappointed to find one man—just one man, by himself—in jeans, a flannel shirt, and sporting a thick beard looking back at me.
“Can I help you?” I asked politely.
“Yes, I believe you can, King Forrest,” the man said and bowed his head. “Harold. Sorcerer. I received the message. This is the meeting place, yes?”
Sorcerer. He looked nothing like the sorcerers I was used to seeing. “It is. How do I know you are what you say you are?” I eyed his street clothes suspiciously again.
“Allow me.” He waved his hand over his front, and I caught a glimpse of dark magenta and midnight blue robes, then they vanished out of sight again. “Hard to travel in robes and not draw attention.”
“Sorry, had to be certain. Are you alone?”
He glanced over his shoulder as he said, “For the moment. The others will be arriving as soon as they can, but I fear I don’t come with good news.”
“Meaning what?” I opened the door wider and let him inside, shutting it quickly behind him.
“Right after we saw your message, we were attacked here in the human world,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “A creature made of bone and shadow, one I have not seen in a very long time.”
One of Baladon’s minions? That’s what it had to be. “That is not good news.”
“We destroyed it. The others are covering our tracks to be certain we weren’t followed.”
“Won’t matter, I have no doubt Baladon knows where we are already.”
“Baladon? That is the enemy plaguing you?”
“All will be explained. The dining room is through there, those who have already arrived wait inside. You should join them
He walked away, his shoulders tense.
I sensed a bit of regret with his decision to answer our summons for help.
Mori slipped her hand into mine, and I relaxed to have her close. “Problems?”
“Just wondering how many are going to run for the door when we tell them what’s occurred in the realms, what—who—is coming.”
“I don’t know, this group seems the perfect ones to take into battle with us,” she mused.
I noticed Bear and Keanu chatting away then heading to the nearest table and engaging in an arm-wrestling match. “Yes, maybe you’re right.”
“We won’t know until we tell them.”
I walked with her to the dining room that no longer resembled a dining room by any stretch of the imagination. If Abby was able to use magic like this, we had hope for fighting against Baladon. Then I glanced at Keanu, Bear, the rest of the dragons and demons. Could any of them still shift or were their powers being drained away just like the rest of us? There was no use speculating, and I walked to the front of the room, waiting for everyone to take their seats. The doorbell rang again, and I readied myself the best I could for whoever had just arrived.
And to inform everyone that had joined us that what we faced was not just a simple enemy. Yes, this was going to be fun.