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Evalle had new eyes for the rugged landscape they passed as Storm drove them through northern Arizona.
The day had been a blur from the moment Bidziil showed up at the cliffs this morning in a Suburban. Storm took control, cloaking the vehicle, then wrapped Evalle in a blanket Bidziil produced from the cargo area.
Her poor mate had been bled dry of majik by that point. Storm climbed into the back where he pulled her into his lap, leaving Bidziil to drive them back to their villa.
His uncle had gained more knowledge about their preternatural world than he probably ever wanted.
But he’d been genuinely relieved they’d survived. Haloke’s death hurt Bidziil, but he held no ill will toward Storm. He couldn’t forgive the woman for what she’d done to Sonny, Imala, or them.
Evalle never carried a grudge and considered herself a forgiving person if someone made amends, but Haloke never would for the deaths. Those young men no longer had a life ahead of them once she turned them into collateral damage in her personal war of vengeance.
Every time Evalle saw Storm falling to his death, she wanted to rip Haloke to pieces.
Storm’s hand reached for hers, folding their hands together and bringing Evalle back to their peaceful drive.
He asked, “What has your emotions worked up?”
“Just thinking about Haloke and Adsila. What a sick pair.”
“That’s an accurate description.”
The seer had been cruel to Bidziil, but Storm’s uncle would recover. Seeing Storm alive went a long way toward his healing.
Evalle mused, “I just can’t get over how Haloke could blame Bidziil for her son’s death after he’d done so much for Roy. He did all that because he’d cared about her when he was young.”
Storm cocked his head. “Where’d you find that out?”
“That old blabbermouth, Yazzle, when we visited Bidziil’s office today. According to Yazzle, Bidziil had been angry about Haloke marrying a non-tribe member who left her pregnant, but he still cared for her and wouldn’t turn his back. That’s why he took an interest in Roy.”
Before the meeting with the elders and Bidziil, she and Storm had showered and crashed, promising to visit later and debrief everyone. They slept hard for six hours.
Their wild lovemaking had been one to remember for all time.
“Everyone talked too much at the same time in Bidziil’s office,” Storm grumbled. “My jaguar wanted out of there.”
“They did, but I guess that’s how that group functions,” Evalle agreed. She gave Storm’s hand a squeeze and received a smile she would now see again and again.
Storm reminded her, “You were telling me about talking to Yazzle.”
“Oh, yes.” One look at her mate and her brain drifted. “Yazzle runs off at the mouth, but seems to care for your uncle. That squirrely elder couldn’t get over how Adsila had used him to get information for Haloke and to cover for her when she had to slip away under the pretense of going home sick. They dated covertly. Yazzle felt guilty for everything that happened. I told him we are only responsible for our own actions.”
Having taken his sunglasses off once the sun dropped low in the sky, Storm gifted her with a brown-eyed glance that said he had a wise mate.
No, Evalle couldn’t claim being wise or she’d have sorted through the mess in her head sooner. Still, she believed in the saying, “You either win or learn.”
She’d won and learned. Double bonus.
From now on, she’d trust in herself and her mate.
Storm admitted he’d been lost over what happened to her in Abandinu’s realm.
Emotional scars for both of them were healing.
Storm mused, “Yazzle only made the mistake of trusting someone he cared about. Haloke went searching for dark majik, fully intending to use it.” He drove quietly for a mile then said, “Adsila had an unhealthy attachment to Roy and Haloke. All three were damaged people. Bidziil said Adsila hadn’t sounded the least bit remorseful. She cursed him, us, everyone for killing Roy. She gloated over her part in the deaths.”
“Sounds like Roy got his self-destructive genes from his mother,” Evalle noted.
“True.” Storm tapped a finger on the steering wheel as if in thought. He finally said, “I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for my uncle and the way he works to improve life for his people. My dad would be surprised in a nice way and proud of his brother.”
See? More learned, which meant another win.
Evalle had shared her mate’s melancholy mood long enough. She’d lift his spirits with the truth he’d hear in her voice. “Your dad would be proud of you, too, for coming to help and preventing more young men from dying.”
“I hope so,” was all Storm would allow.
Her mate had begun to heal his heart, too. It had to be easier to care for his uncle than harbor anger.
Shaking his head, Storm beat his thumb on the steering wheel. “Haloke was delusional, but Adsila was just as much of a whack job.”
“Evidently a brilliant one for what she did with that bird,” Evalle pointed out. “Haloke had me convinced she could read the eagle’s mind.”
“That’s only because you were under a spell. You said you started questioning Haloke when she said she could heal you.”
Too little almost too late, Evalle added silently. Thinking over how they’d all been tricked, she said, “Adsila would make a dangerous spy with her ability to create an eagle as a robotic drone with a hidden camera. It took me getting closer to realize I didn’t feel any life energy coming from it, but I also figured that was because my preternatural ability was gone.”
“Crazy stuff,” Storm muttered. “The eagle recorded you talking to it.”
He’d moved his hand to touch hers without looking, as if he’d done so unconsciously.
She turned her hand over and gave him a little squeeze.
A whoosh of happiness rushed from her mate then he winked at her.
Grinning, she admitted, “Not my best moment talking to a bird.”
“Anyone would to a big eagle that landed so close. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Other than admit I was a gryphon, among other things?” She lifted her eyebrows at him.
“Weren’t you the one who told Yazzle he was only responsible for his actions? Give yourself a break.”
“I guess.” But she wouldn’t stress over it. “Without Adsila supporting Haloke with intel and gaining her entrance to the homes of the two men who died, I don’t think Haloke would have been as successful.”
“I don’t either,” Storm agreed. “She would have turned into a powerful seer if she’d applied herself for the good of others. She cloaked her scent everywhere but her home. When Adsila dropped you at the hogan, the security team discovered Adsila had circled wide to find a place to park then walked to where she could operate her controller for the eagle. They found the car first, then heard her screaming, “I will kill that jaguar!”
“Not happening,” Evalle said with conviction. Crazy woman.
So many things could’ve gone wrong, though.
Evalle unconsciously swiped a look at her unmarked skin. The lines had vanished after she shifted.
Adrianna would be smug, claiming she’d been right about the gryphon trying to break out.
Evalle couldn’t argue the point.
“You okay?” Storm asked in a concerned voice.
“I’m fine. Sorry I didn’t handle our talk about the lines better. I should have told you what Adrianna said and not lost my temper. I just ... panicked.”
His fingers tightened slightly, letting her know he understood. “I can’t say that I would have done differently in your shoes when I know you were trying to protect me. You suffered a trauma no one could understand no matter how much we thought we could. I think Garwyli was the only one who got it. He kept telling all of us to back off, that your healing would come from inside. You did exactly that when you shifted.”
Evalle joked, “I’m not sure that would have happened this soon if Haloke hadn’t convinced me to jump off a cliff.”
Storm’s hand clenched and his emotions rocked the cab.
She soothed, “Easy, baby.”
He relaxed and pulled his emotions back. His level of control always amazed her. He’d admitted his jaguar had refused to return that control while battling Haloke, but Storm said his animal would not allow anyone to kill Evalle.
Stretching his shoulders, her mate said, “Hope you’re ready to have me as your partner when we return home and you’re ready to patrol the streets again.”
“You think I’m going to complain about having you close?” She gave him a sly smile.
He must have been expecting her to complain. He did a double take, returning his attention to the road. “You usually snap at me about being able to do your Belador duty and how you can’t with me hovering.”
“Maybe I want to hover over you for a while.”
He uttered a surprised, “Really?”
She now understood what he’d gone through for so long. She came clean. “I watched you almost die when I’ve always believed you were invincible. Oh, I worried a lot when you were on a mission, but deep inside I believed you could survive anything after getting your soul back.”
His eyes warmed. “I have that because of you.”
She waved that off. “We did that together, but I died a thousand times as I watched you fall. It’s going to be a while before I want you out of my sight either.”
Love poured in streams from Storm.
Her throat clogged with emotion.
Storm pulled her palm to his lips to kiss then laid her hand on the console again as he slowed the vehicle and took a turn off the paved road. After leaving dust in their wake on a stretch of dirt road, he found a place to park. He’d said they’d walk the final distance on the Sandal Trail that led to the Betatakin cliff dwellings where Natives had lived a thousand years ago.
A sacred place that had held significance for his father as a child.
Twilight fell across the red mountain range.
Warm wind carrying the fresh smell of the land stirred the hair she’d left to fall around her shoulders. She smoothed a hand over the beautiful pale-beige deerskin dress given her by Bidziil. He said it had belonged to his and Sani’s mother.
Evalle never wore dresses, but in this moment she felt special wrapped in an outfit created with love by Storm’s grandmother. Something that connected her to Storm’s heritage. Like the moccasins she wore. She could never fight in them, but she wanted a pair of her own. These shoes would rock at home.
Storm would always be hot no matter what he wore, and definitely when he wore nothing, but she admired the way his tan buckskin shirt fit. It dressed up his dark jeans. Silky coal-black hair fell with a narrow braid wrapped in a tiny strand of leather hanging down the right side of his face.
After walking a ways, he led them off the trail before they reached the monument area.
“Where are we going?” She was only curious, not concerned. With both of them enjoying natural night vision again, she could see fine with yet another ten minutes until total darkness.
Had Storm brought a candle, or did he plan to majik them up a fire for light?
Singing in a deep voice drew her gaze further ahead in the direction they were walking.
A crowd of around thirty came into view. Hundreds of candles illuminated their faces.
She asked, “Who are they?”
“Bidziil said he wanted to be here and asked if he could invite others who knew my father.”
Not a big gathering, but an intimate one. It had to give Storm a warm feeling to know these people remembered his father and cared enough to be here for him.
Still holding her hand, Storm guided her to where Nascha stood in spectacular Native regalia with rows of beads around his neck and an eagle feather hanging from his braid.
The three elders stood nearby, all dressed like the others in their best clothing.
Storm waited for Nascha to finish singing. When he did, Storm spoke in a smooth voice. “You honor us, old one.”
“As you have honored us, son of my friend.”
Tears burned the corner of Evalle’s eyes, but she wouldn’t allow the waterworks.
Bidziil walked over and placed a necklace of turquoise and carved beads over Storm’s head then a similar one over Evalle’s. His uncle paused to tell her, “You are a beautiful mate inside and out. Storm deserves you and you him. You will both be considered family from here on out. We are your people.”
Damn. She couldn’t stop the tears as Bidziil kissed her cheek. But one glance at Storm told her he fought his own.
His fingers clasped hers tighter as he asked, “You ready?”
“Absolutely.” She drew in a deep breath and hoped she made no mistakes tonight.
Storm had gone over everything with her.
She wanted this more than ... her powers and gryphon. Those were important, but nothing compared to bonding with Storm.
She had a partner for every step of her life.
After tonight, she’d have one for all eternity.
