Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians) (17 page)

Her quick acceptance and faith in him baffled Garrick. He himself didn’t trust the female or what she was capable of. Well, okay, maybe he trusted a part of her. The human part that he’d befriended. The Harpy part was still up in the air, even though she’d just saved his ass from an even worse beating. It wasn’t right for a Fairy and a Harpy to be friends. They were mortal
enemies. But, he’d have to put that aside for now. Especially if he wanted either of them to make it out of this unscathed.

“Okay.” He gripped her hand tightly, winding their fingers together. “Don’t let go of me.”

Dani squeezed his hand in response,
and
they stepped through the portal.

She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she sure hadn’t expected Garrick to walk through a rock wall, and certainly hadn’t expected
him
to pull her through it. After they stepped through the rock, they’d been in a dark, cold and windy place. It briefly reminded her of the beginning of
Space
Mountain
, with flashes of light and color buzzing by at ungodly speeds. It felt as though they were in a vacuum hose, being tugged in a certain direction and helpless to fight it
…
until they’d emerged
on the other side
. The sun assaulted Dani’s eyes. She groaned
and
block
ed
the bright light from her sensitive eyes.

How many years had it been since she’d seen the sun? Nine?

Dropping her hands, she blinked quite a few times, trying to get her eyes to adjust. And when they finally did, she was awed
by what she saw
. The first thing she noticed was the color of the sky. It was a mix of pinks
and
oranges, the way she remembered some sunsets to be when she was
young
. But this was no sunset. The sun was high in the sky, beating down on them with a comforting heat that she’d long since forgotten. They were enclosed in a small valley that had walls of tan and cream boulders. Vines of green streamed down the rock in beautiful waves, and light pink flowers bloomed every few inches, clinging to the vines.

Garrick stepped away from her, inspecting flowers and bushes that lined the valley floor. She watched him as his brows narrowed and he bent to sniff the beautiful buds. He cl
eared his throat then,
having made some sort of decision, and started looking for a way out. It hadn’t taken him long though, and soon Dani followed him through an archway that had been hidden behind waves and waves of greenery.

“Where are we?” she asked, looking around at the slightly darker walls of the rocky archway.

He didn’t answer,
but after a brief glance at him
, Dani decided not to push it.

They
came out
on the other side
of the
small tunnel, overlooking even more rocks and large trees, most of which she’d never seen before. The trees stood tall and proud, many of their branches sprouting colors different than its neighbors. Only some were shades of green; others held hints of oranges, yellows and reds, and impossibly, blues and purples.

She’d never seen anything like it. She opened her mouth to say so, but caught another expression entirely on his face. Clearly Garrick had seen something like this before.

“Oh my gods,” he whispered, drawing each word out in length. “It can’t be
…
we
can’t be.”

“What?” She faced him, suddenly not sure what to make of
his reaction
.

“We’re in Caireal,” he replied.

She recognized the name, but her eyes narrowed in concentration as she thought of where she’d heard it.

“My realm,” he supplied.

“Your
realm
? We’re not
…
I mean we’re…” God, how could she ask what she meant to?

“No, we’re not in your realm anymore. We’re in mine.”

“Oh.” Dani nodded weakly. “Well, um. That’s good right? Your
…
people can help us.”

Garrick tore his gaze from the beautiful landscape that surrounded them and looked squarely at her. “They could, if we can reach them.”

“Why couldn’t we reach them?”

“
Because we’re on Annera,” he said, his voice sounding as though he couldn’t believe it himself. “
Harpy
Island
.”

Dani’s eyes darted
around, hoping that none of Garrick’s enemies were anywhere nearby. She couldn’t pinpoint the reaction that coursed through her—fear of course,
excitement surely,
and curiosity
maybe. “What can we do?”

“
Well, I could
.
…
No, never
mind.”
He sighed and rubbed a hand over his chin.
“
How good are you at acting?”

Her
eyebrows shot up. “That’s not really what I expected you to say. I ask you what we’re going to do and you want to know how well I can act?” She wondered briefly if he was feeling okay. He had taken quite a beating in the caves.

“I need to know if you can act Harpy,” he said. “Can you force yourself to change?”

“I don’t know. I was mad when I changed before.”

Her eyes met Garrick’s and she saw several expressions cross over his face. He took her hand and held it between both of his, his thumb swirling over the scars on her wrists. “Focus,” he said. “Focus on becoming a Harpy. Use my strength if you can. But don’t take it all.”

“Why would I take it all? And
how can I even take it?”

“Oh
,
you
have the ability.
Trust me. That’s why our races are enemies. Harpies can ta
ke Fairies’ essences. So you could
take mine.”

She
gawked
at him, her eyes widening. “But what happens if I
,
umm
…
take too much?”

“I’ll die.”

She wrenched her hand free. “Garrick, no. You want me to kill you?”

Reaching for her hand again, he said, “No. Of course not. I’m putting my trust in you the way that you did for me. If you need it. Now, focus. Become the Harpy. Just don’t kill me when you do,” he added as an afterthought.

She looked at him, seeing a nervous half-smile on his face. He was scared of her and what she could do to him. She’d seen his expression when he’d considered leaving her
on Annera
. She knew he could, he had told her how he could trace and that was all it would have taken for him to get off of
Harpy
Island
. But then his expression had changed, his resolve fading as he’d apparently decided not to leave her behind. And that was why she trusted him. Had trusted him when she walked through the portal to this new, crazy place. Still trusted him,
and
trusted his judgment that she’d have to become a Harpy in order to get on the track back home. Sighing, she closed her eyes and focused on the feeling she’d had when she changed in the cell. Yes, she’d been angry. Garrick was beaten, and the fact that her only friend was being pushed around had pissed her off more than anything. And even though he was scared of her, and her a little of him, she cared for him. He was kind and gentle, despite the fact that she could apparently kill him by literally sucking the life out of him.
But she didn’t want to, he’d been nothing but kind to her, healing her when she was hurt. She thought of
the
times he had healed her, of the shimmering light that bloomed between them and spread through her.

“Something’s happening,” Garrick said, though Dani’s eyes were still closed
in concentration
. “Wait, something’s
…
wrong.”

She opened her eyes then, her gaze colliding with his. “What?”

“You were changing right before, but just for a few seconds,” he said,
studying
her skin. “But it changed.”

She
peered
down
as well, catching sight of her skin as it glittered in the sunlight. It had a creamy golden color to it, and she followed the shimmer up her arms
.
T
he sight of her normally red hair gleamed gold and copper. “What the?”

“I don’t know.” He was nearly speechless as
he pored
over her hair and
her face,
then down
her body, and back to her face again. “What were you thinking about when you changed?”

She felt herself blush at the question. She’d thought of him. Thought of how he’d given her her first orgasm and made her feel al
ive for the first time in
a decade. Not wanting to tell him that, she said, “I was just thinking ‘Harpy, Harpy, Harpy,’ over and over again.”

“Hmm. Well
…
” He scratched his chin as his eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you’ll pass for one of the others. They all have that darker coloring you had before.
I’ve never seen one like this.
”

She
looked at the ground around them, intent on avoiding his gaze. She didn’t want him to see through her lie or to see her panic. How could she have changed
differently
this time?

****

Garrick was dumbfounded.
H
e’d had probably fifteen minutes to get used to it, but he still hadn’t. He’d never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life, and he’d seen things that would bring most humans to their knees. As he walked behind her, following the winding trail that led down the mountain, he had brief flashes of people bowing at Dani’s feet, praising her in all her glory.

He was fairly certai
n Harpies didn’t look like her. If any did, they’d remained hidden from Fairies all these centuries
. Maybe it was because she wasn’t born Harpy, but made into one. Maybe that was just the effect of her change in the sunlight.

He knew that she’d lied about what she thought of when she changed, if the slight flush of her cheeks was any indication, but he chose not to question her on it. He’d been too awestru
ck at the sight of her, and
of her torn clothing that barely covered her gleaming breasts.

“Are you sure about this?” Dani asked, peering over her shoulder at him.

Garrick whipped his gaze upward, hoping she hadn’t seen where his gaze had wandered.
“Yes
.
It’s the best shot we’ve got.” They reached the bottom of the steep hill and Garrick sped up to walk beside her. “Just make sure you hold on to—
”

Growls and hisses sounded all around them, and Dani clutched on
to Garrick’s arm with her sharp claws. He winced from the pain, but remained where he was as Harpy after Harpy came out of the tree line, circling around them, hissing and screeching. Their almost black eyes flicked between him and Dani, and he caught the familiar sign of hunger as they looked at him, and confusion when they looked at the golden beauty beside him. Dani’s wings curled loosely around her body, as if they could protect her from danger, but even as she did so, she remained latched on
to his arm.

A single Harpy wound her way through the throng of women, keeping her eyes trained on the two of them. Once she reached the front of the line, she stopped, standing straight and tall with her wings folded casually behind her back. She acted like their leader. Likely was, in fact, with the air of superiority that emanated from her very being. “Who are you?” she asked in her foreign tongue.

Garrick understood her though. He and most other Fairies had been
gifted with the understanding
of
their
language
at
a very young age. Not that any of the Harpies knew that.

“
She wants to know who you are
,” he thought at Dani, using their skin-to-skin contact as a catalyst. Then speaking the Harpy language, he told her how to respond to them.

All eyes focused on Dani as she sputtered the l
anguage she knew nothing about.
It sounded strange coming from her sweet, soft lips, but Garrick knew that it was imperative for her to respond in their tongue. They cared nothing about him other than the fact that he was a weak enemy, and one that was likely being snack
ed on by Dani herself. Knowing w
hat Ekhart’s men referred to her as, he had Dani introduce herself as Dani the Destroyer—which w
ould earn her some street cred
in their eyes—and to introduce him as her Fairy slave.

“What clan are you from?” the Harpy asked. “I’ve never seen you before. Have any of you?” She
glanced
around at her sisters. They responded with “no’s” and she returned her gaze to Dani.