Alterant (Belador #2)(12)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Brina flopped down on a sofa carved from the trunk of a tree. It had Celtic designs scrolled along the edges and was padded with down-filled cushions. Her favorite place to strategize.

Her da had been a brilliant strategic planner.

Now she needed her own battle plan.

One that provided for a husband who could pass through the castle warding. Not just any man but—

The ward protecting Treoir Castle shivered with the introduction of power. Massive power.

“Must you always sulk?”

Brina sighed at Macha’s husky voice. Had she called up the goddess by thinking about her? Unfortunately, when Brina’s father had warded the castle against any other immortals, he’d made an allowance for the Celtic goddess to pass through unharmed.

He’d believed Macha would watch over his only daughter.

He’d never considered how a goddess could turn eternity into a living nightmare.

Brina lifted her gaze to where Macha now lounged above the giant stone mantel that spanned a fireplace two brawny warriors could stand inside. Waves of tawny hair spun with sunlight floated past Macha’s bare shoulders and covered the arm she was using to prop herself up. Today she wore a dazzling white gown created with thousands of perfect pearls. She turned her luminous hazel green gaze downward toward the fireplace grate and logs appeared. Flames blazed to life.

Macha’s attempt at being hospitable.

Or she was in one of her decorating moods.

Brina appreciated the gesture, but she would not accept being reduced to the level of a child. “Wee ones sulk. I am contemplative.”

“Ah, yes, semantics, as mortals like to say.” Macha waved long fingers glittering with jewels and rare metals carved in intricate designs.

“I’m glad you’ve come by,” Brina replied. The only reaction she received was a glint of curiosity in Macha’s eyes.

Brina went on. “I feel it’s time we discussed an heir.”

Macha brightened at what had to be an unexpected topic. “I have been so patient, allowing you to adjust to this life.”

Is that what Macha thinks I’ve been doing for the past four years in this place? Adjusting?

Brina forced her hands to remain at ease and not flinch with anger. She’d learned long ago that showing any emotion handed the goddess ammunition to use at a later time. Not that Macha was a cruel or unfair goddess, but like all deities she used everything within her power to get her way.

“Why must you keep this place so gloomy?” Macha glanced around the room.

Candles flickered to life, dancing soft light against the stone walls. A wicker basket filled with dried flowers and spices appeared on the smooth wooden table her father had crafted with his own hands, right down to the inlaid Belador Triquetra emblem. Her father had sat on that stout table facing her the last night they’d spoken.

Six nights later, Macha had informed Brina that her father and brothers were dead and that Brina could not leave the castle. Some memories were best left unbidden.

The goddess kept dabbling until the room changed from dark and lonely to toasty and … suspicious.

Watching Macha decorate picked at Brina’s limited patience.

When Macha spoke, her vibrant voice smoked through the room with purpose. “I’m pleased to find you ready to do your duty to secure the future of the Beladors.”

As if I have ever shirked my duty to the tribe. “Do allow me to point out their future is why I’m here. Every. Day. Forever.”

And alone, because Macha professed she could not remove the cursed warding.

Macha made a clicking sound of reprimand. “Insolence is unattractive, unproductive and … unwise.”

Not like she’s going to kill me, but she could make life more miserable than it is, though that would be hard to imagine. “My apologies.”

The goddess stared up as if studying the cathedral-high ceilings, then lowered an unreadable gaze. “I know you’re lonely here and we must continue your family dynasty.” She smiled. “Marriage would be good for you.”

Brina couldn’t prevent the sudden joy that flooded her face. Had she gotten lucky enough to catch the goddess on one of her more benevolent days? Macha knew who Brina wanted, the man she craved every waking hour. “I completely agree and—”

“You will choose a mortal Belador to wed, one who can enter the castle.”

Stunned, Brina lowered her bare feet to the rug-covered floor and stood, all ability to shield her emotions gone in the face of what Macha was suggesting.

Not suggesting. Ordering.

Brina said softly, “You know Tzader and I have been practically betrothed since childhood. He is the only man I want.”

The only man she’d ever loved.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot deliver you Tzader,” Macha said with such heartfelt sadness that Brina was tempted to believe her.

But facing the loss of the only person she wanted, the one person she lived for, caused her to speak without guarding her words. “Who can? Is there one more powerful than you?”

The air crackled with sparks of electricity, a prelude to real anger from Macha that could make the heavens plead for peace. “Stop longing for what you cannot have and act as an adult! As an immortal, Tzader can never pass through this warding.”

“He could if you would help us.”

“I gave my promise to uphold the warding around this castle and to assure Tzader’s immortality indefinitely. You expect me to break vows to both of your fathers?”

Brina should tone down her words, but she couldn’t. “I’m asking why you can’t right a wrong. Or won’t. Our fathers had no idea what they were doing to us. My da would never have created a ward that barred Tzader from the castle. He didn’t know Tzader’s father was going to ask you to pass his immortality to his son if he died fighting alongside my father and his men. And nobody expected our families would be wiped from the earth that day.”

Except maybe Macha.

Had she helped her da place this ward?

Brina hoped to never find out any of that was true.

Macha shrugged her indifference. “True, but it changes nothing. You will produce an heir in one year—”

Wait a minute. How had this gotten so far off course? “Or what? I do believe killing me would defeat the purpose.”

“Spare me the melodrama and the sarcasm.” A mild reaction flowed over Macha’s face that shouldn’t be mistaken as encouraging. She was a female, and a deity, at her best when she had everyone who served her squirming. “I will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of all Treoir heirs as well as protect my warriors from losing their powers. This castle can never fall to the Medb. The human world would face destruction like never seen before if the Beladors are conquered.”

That was well understood. But Beladors around the world weren’t the only ones at risk if the Medb killed Brina and took control of Treoir.

Macha drew power from the Beladors loyal to her. Take out the Belador power base and Macha became vulnerable. She’d always been a fair and compassionate goddess, but where was her compassion now?

When the goddess angled her head in a show of patience, her hair lifted, darkened to a deep chestnut color, and adjusted back into place around her shoulders of its own volition. “You don’t understand, do you?”

That might be possible if Brina could get an unclouded answer from Macha, but gods and goddesses spoke in circles. Doing so allowed them to wiggle out of a tight spot verbally.

Brina tried to sound sincere and open-minded when she said, “Please enlighten me, Goddess.”

It must not have sounded as sincere to Macha, who shot her a testy look. “I have been remiss in allowing you to wait so long to produce an heir, but … I could not ask that of one so young as you were when your family was killed. But you’ve indicated you’re ready and will take a mate.”

“Not unless it’s Tzader.”

“Why do you make this so difficult, Brina? You will either willingly choose a mate who can pass through this ward, or you will no longer leave this castle in any form and I will not allow Tzader to speak with you again.”

What? “I’ll go mad if I can’t at least travel in hologram or never see Tzader again.”

“Must you always think only of yourself?”

An unfair accusation, but it still nicked Brina’s pride. “I have done my duty as a Treoir descendant since birth. How can you accuse me of being selfish?”

“Oh, you have never failed your tribe, but what of Tzader? Do you expect him to wait forever on a woman he can never have?”

Yes. No. Brina didn’t know. I dream of him every night, holding me and making me laugh, just like when we were teens. She missed his smile, hadn’t seen it in a long time.

That gave her pause.

Was his unhappiness her fault for holding him to a teenage vow? Was she being selfish, expecting him to live alone in the mortal world just because she was stuck in this grand prison?

She would wait until the end of time for him, but she’d never force that on Tzader. His happiness meant all to her.

“You care for him,” Macha continued. “But he grows closer to another woman, the Alterant Evalle.”

The ugly sting of jealousy creeping up Brina’s spine was as full of blarney as the goddess. Tzader and Quinn both treated Evalle as no more than a younger sister. “Tzader would never choose Evalle over me.”

She hoped.

“Then why does he always defend Evalle, when the Alterants are an unknown element in our world? His allegiance with the Alterant presents a danger to you. The castle was warded against immortals, which Alterants don’t appear to be, which means they can breach Treoir’s defenses. They may be half Belador, but what about the unknown half?”

Brina puckered her forehead in thought, arguing, “Our warriors have overpowered the Alterants in their beast state, and Evalle has proven herself a loyal follower.”

At least Brina hoped she hadn’t misplaced her faith in Evalle, since the Tribunal would hold her responsible if Evalle failed to find the three escaped Alterants.

No time to worry about that right now.

Macha’s voice hardened with censure. “Alterants are shifting into beasts everywhere in Tzader’s territory.”

“The ones in the past two days don’t have green eyes,” Brina pointed out, though it meant little in the face of so many deaths. But she had a feeling the eye color was significant.

Macha admitted, “Our warriors are destroying these new beasts, but we have lost Beladors to the green-eyed Alterants in the past, and they still pose a threat. Have you considered that the green-eyed ones may be connected to the traitor that eludes our warriors?”

“Why do you say that?” Brina asked, surprised at the direction of Macha’s thinking.

“When Tzader and Quinn were captured by the Medb in Utah two years ago with the Alterant Evalle, the traitor was involved. Just a few weeks ago when an Alterant shifted and killed nine Beladors in … what do the humans call that place?”

“North Carolina.”

“Ah, yes. When our warriors died there, word of the traitor surfaced again. Consider the first Alterant that shifted and attacked Beladors six years ago. Tzader believes the traitor Larsen O’Meary was the Belador who had called members of our tribe to confront the beast.”

Aware of the past, Brina had no argument. Thankfully, Tzader and his team had survived that first meeting with an Alterant.

“Even though Larsen O’Meary is presumed dead, a traitor still walks free,” Macha pointed out. “Have you forgotten how one treasonous Belador helped the Medb destroy your family and put you in this situation?”

“Of course not.”

“Then why have you not ordered the only O’Meary descendant to go through a mind probe?”

Brina tried to form words to answer the ridiculous question. “Because we have no reason to doubt young Conlan O’Meary’s loyalty just because his da was rotten to the core.”

“Then there should be no issue with having Vladimir Quinn probe all areas of Conlan’s mind, right?”

How could this woman suspect the O’Meary boy? But Brina knew which battles to fight, and this was not one. Macha clearly wanted Conlan investigated. “I shall see it done.”

“That sounds more like a Treoir leader.”

Brina heard the warning and realized she had to prove to Macha she would always put the future of the Beladors first, even ahead of her own happiness. To prove she thought as a leader, Brina said, “I believe the humans suddenly turning into beasts and killing are not the same as our green-eyed Alterants.”

“Why?”

“Because neither Tristan nor Evalle shifted and killed humans.” Brina risked bringing up a sore topic. She’d argued against imprisoning Tristan the first time, but the goddess had implied she’d been doing it for his safety. Then Macha had forbidden Brina from speaking about his capture to anyone.

Waving a hand as if to quash the discussion, Macha said, “Only time will tell with the green-eyed ones, but we must find out why these new beasts are surfacing all of a sudden. Instead of searching harder for the traitor who presents a weakness in your defense, Tzader worries too much over Evalle Kincaid. Which gets us back to the problem at hand.”