“Night and day, the two of you? That is part of the story, I take it?” Grandmother Demi asked. “Ah. You gave her half of yourself?”
“I did.” He went to the door. “Chairete, Grandmother.”
“Chairete, Kyrios.” When she said the age-old blessing, she meant it.
He let himself out rather than disturb the rest of the family, and began the slow jog up the steep mountain.
He’d reached the second turn when his mind lit up with the golden warmth of Jen’s focus. A few seconds later, there she was, banking gracefully as she swept a slow circle overhead.
Everything is so beautiful, she said happily.
“No more beautiful than you,” he responded as she curved around, then tried to hover, flapping her wings. “Does that sound smarmy?” he added, glancing over his shoulder, half-laughing and half-horrified. “It sounded smarmy when I said it, but not in my head. I just realized I’m out of practice at courtship.”
Jen’s thought came back, light with laughter. You can’t be any more than I am. I’m beginning to love this new form, so no, not smarmy. Especially coming from you, because I feel the truth with your words. Someone else? Maybe not so much.
Nikos tried a macho growl. “If anyone else tries to court you, I’ll have something to say to that.”
Jen’s laughter was like wind chimes of silver. “Oh, so will I, and probably with a flying side-kick in case they don’t get the clue.
He watched with intense pleasure as she dove down the adjacent crag, then flew upward. Her thought came, Hovering is HARD! Like treading water with weights. I do better riding the currents. Especially the warm ones, down in the valley. I really want to go exploring there, but Iliana said to stay away, that that area is unstable below the hot springs.
“Toxic gases,” Nikos warned, as he made the turn upward into the sixth zigzag. “Absolutely off-limits. It’s been marked off by barbed wire for over a century—even animals don’t go there. Young shifters are taught from their first flight to stay well above the valley. This island is actually a not-quite-extinct volcano. We think the mineral springs are heated by leftover veins of lava.”
Mineral springs? As in sulfurous hot springs? came her thought, along with a vivid image of her holding her nose.
“The sulfur stench is part of the toxic gases at the bottom of the gorge,” Nikos puffed, keeping his pace steady. “But the springs filter out the impurities by the time they reach where my ancestors built the infirmary. Not only is the water infused with healing minerals, but there is a very thin stream of qi running through it as well.”
I remember reading about islands devoted to medicine in ancient days, she said, banking close to him.
He reached up and brushed his fingers lightly over her wing as she flew close to him. He said, “In ancient times humans went to Kos to be healed. Or to Ikara for their medicinal honey. Shifters came here, to our mineral springs. It’s the qi that helps the mythic shifters.” He puffed out a short sigh. “Nothing here is a miracle cure, and we don’t make any such claim. But there are situations where the waters do help.”
And you are also part of the cure, in unicorn form?
“Yes. Though my unicorn’s healing power is strongest with issues relating to qi, I can be more effective than the waters in severe cases, especially trauma caused by attack through mythic powers. I can’t suddenly heal a broken leg. All I can do is send qi into the cells, encouraging them toward growth and renewal. A slow process, though faster than just leaving the person on their own.”
So you can heal mythic shifters attacked by something like Keraunos’s lightning? The thought came as she swooped overhead, then turned to regard him. At the mention of Keraunos’s name, the rich shimmer that seemed to be a part of her feathers dimmed in a subtle ripple.
“Yes,” he said. And forced himself to the truth. “Speaking of. I expect he’ll turn up fairly soon. If you want to return to California, I completely understand, and I support such a decision.”
Her bright, crystalline laugh rang through his mind again. I deeply appreciate how you always offer me choices. That is ten times hotter than the worn-out compliments of flirting, at least for me.
He suppressed what Jen’s inner voice saying the word ‘hotter’ did to him. He had to wait. They had to wait. “It’s the only way I know how to be.” One more lap. He put on some speed.
Though she sailed up and outward in a slow, elegant circle, her voice on the mythic plane was more intimate than a whisper in his ear. To answer your question, we’re in this together, that’s my understanding of how being a mate works. As for Keraunos, well, he won’t take me by surprise again. Which brings me to his boss. Tell me about this Medusa, so I don’t walk into HER without prep.
Medusa.
Nikos mentally kicked himself. Too little sleep and the sheer euphoria of having Jen with him, even if they couldn’t touch, and his usual guards had dropped. Anyone who wanted to watch his progress up the mountain would surely note the glowing golden phoenix flying around him.
And here was Jen, quick as always. You truly don’t have to keep me in a safety deposit box. I know I made a stupid start to this new life by managing to get my head wrapped in a bag, but that was part inattention and part ignorance. I’m paying attention now, and I’m working on the ignorance.
Nikos headed up the last stretch at a spring, timing his words with his breathing. “I think you know that Medusa is a gorgon. I don’t know if she can kill directly eye to eye. There are claims she’s caused deaths by suicide. What she does is attack her victims’ deepest emotions. Failure, shame, regret. She magnifies them until the victim is paralyzed. Never let her meet your eyes.”
He felt Jen’s shiver, and under that, a quick glimpse of a vaguely familiar man lying on a floor. But the glimpse lasted less than a second, and then it was shoved down deep. He sensed long habit.
Behind his own mental shield—kept up so he wouldn’t hurt her with his own deepest worries—he wondered if he’d just seen Robert’s death.
He forced himself to go on. “As for what she’s after. Easy answer: this island. At the center is our medicinal springs. For centuries—longer—we’ve run the infirmary on a donation basis. We take in any who need help, and the wealthy know that. Many are generous. We are economically sound—very sound. And yet the super-rich always think they have to be richer. Medusa was raised by a plutocrat. He buys and sells companies. Countries, even. All to amass more billions. She wants to build her own empire. She came to me a few years back and proposed we team up as a couple. I’d run the clinic, and she’d build it into her idea of a money-making business.”