The Twiceborn Queen (The Proving Book 2) Read online

  And probably an assortment of religious nutjobs trying to save us or kill us, depending on their particular brand of nutjobbery. It would be a nightmare. It didn’t take much imagination to see why Elizabeth wanted to keep the shifter world under wraps.

  If I won the proving, the whole headache would land in my lap. And I had to succeed: the only options were win or die. Running a shifter kingdom sure wouldn’t be any easier with every man and his dog on my back about Lachie’s miraculous return from the dead.

  “So we can’t ever go home?” The tremble was back in his bottom lip. “But my Lego …”

  He burst into tears. I leapt up, scraping my chair across the tiles, and rounded the table, feeling like the world’s worst mother. You were supposed to protect your kid from the kind of trauma that he’d been through. The poor little guy had been so brave, but there were limits to even the bravest ten-year-old’s endurance. It wasn’t fair, and I could never make it up to him, but I’d walk across broken glass just to try. I swept him into a hug, feeling his bony little arms clutch me tightly, his thin frame heaving with sobs.

  “I’ll get your Lego, okay? Don’t cry, Monster. It’ll be all right.”

  Garth’s ears pricked up. “Not a great plan, going back there.”

  I glared at him as Lachie sobbed harder. He stood on the other side of the long island bench that separated the kitchen from the eating area, leaning forward in unconscious menace. Well, probably unconscious. I wouldn’t put it past him to try to strong-arm me into doing what he thought best. “Too bad.”

  “There could be—” He glanced at Lachie and changed whatever he’d been about to say. “Other people might have been there.”

  Well, clearly other people had been there. My next-door neighbour, Tanya, for one, and the police who responded to her panicked call the night Garth attacked me in my own kitchen. It took a minute to realise what he meant.

  Someone could have set a trap for me in the hope I’d return.

  I sighed. Would life always be this screwed up? “It’s not very likely, Garth.”

  Neither Elizabeth nor Alicia would waste a moment shaking the dust of a place like our old home off their feet, if they even deigned to set foot in it at all. It would never occur to them that I might want to go back there.

  “Still possible, though.”

  God, he was nearly as stubborn as Ben. If only Luce were here I’d have the trifecta. Why did I seem to be surrounded lately by people who insisted on arguing with me?

  “Then you can come with me and frighten people off with that scowl.”

  He shook his head. “You need someone like Blue to check it out. Disarm anything magical.”

  “We’ve already established that Blue is missing in action, and I doubt there’s another goblin mage this side of Brisbane.”

  “I can find him,” he insisted.

  “Fine.” I was sick of arguing already and it was only breakfast time. “Go find him. You’ve got twenty-four hours. If you’re not back by then, I’m going without you.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Finding a single goblin in all of Sydney was never going to be an easy job, however good Garth’s werewolf nose or however many dodgy connections he could tap for information. When he wasn’t back by dinner time I rang him, to check he hadn’t been attacked by any murderous nurses.

  “Still looking,” he said, and hung up. Our Garth was a man of few words.

  When there was no sign of him at breakfast the next morning I felt a stirring of unease, but I refused to ring him again. Maybe next time I wouldn’t challenge a pig-headed guy like Garth to accomplish the near-impossible in a mere twenty-four hours. He’d use up every last second of it, determined not to fail. And he’d be even more cheerful than usual after a night with no sleep.

  I was still sitting at the breakfast table in a patch of morning sunlight, nursing a cup of coffee, when Lachie wandered in, his eyes bright with hope.

  “Is Garth back yet?”

  “You two must be related,” Ben muttered, grinning at me.

  “Yes, but he’s only asking because he wants his Lego back.”

  The kid practically quivered with excitement at the prospect. “I could go with you if Garth doesn’t come back in time.”

  “I don’t actually have to go the very second the twenty-four hours is up,” I pointed out.

  He turned a shocked look on me. “But you promised.”

  Oh, Lord. Those big brown eyes. I glanced at Ben.

  He shrugged. “You might as well. I doubt anyone will have targeted the house. And Garth’s not going to turn up any faster if you sit here worrying about him.”

  True. I could take Steve as back-up. In fact, it might even be better that way. Get it done before my paranoid werewolf got back and started demanding more time to hunt down a goblin mage who didn’t want to be found.

  But when Steve and I opened the front door on our way out, guess who was coming up the steps?

  “Found him.” Garth flashed me a triumphant grin.

  “So I see.” His big hand was clamped firmly around the bicep of a tall scrawny guy with a shock of bright orange hair. He’d lost so much weight since I’d last seen him that I wouldn’t have recognised him except for the hair and the John Lennon-style glasses. He stank of eau de Jack Daniels, and he swayed a little as he blinked at me through the round lenses.

  “Who are you? Where’s Leandra?”

  I sighed. “Let’s talk about it on the way.”

  Garth marched him toward the car. It was hard to say whether the hand on his arm was holding him up or stopping him from running away. A little of both, perhaps. He tripped over nothing—his own feet, maybe?—and nearly rearranged his face against the side of the big four-wheel drive.

  “On the way where? Where are you taking me?”

  Before we attracted too much attention from passers-by Steve whisked the back door open and Garth shoved him in, then climbed in beside him. Steve and I got in the front and Steve pulled out from the kerb smoothly.

  “Garth?” Blue’s voice sounded whiny, like a tired child. “Where are we going? You said you were taking me to Leandra.”

  “I explained this already.” Garth’s brows drew together in a scowl that suggested he’d been through it more than once. “Leandra changed bodies. Now she’s part of Kate. This is Kate.”

  He sounded like he was reciting from a book for beginning readers. This is Leandra. This is Kate. See Leandra in Kate!

  Blue stared at me from under his floppy orange fringe, his face screwed up in confusion. He must be completely smashed. With all the windows closed the car reeked of alcohol. I could see the wheels turning as his brain struggled to catch up with what his ears had just heard. When the confusion soured into a sullen expression I knew he’d caught on.

  “So you’re one of them?”

  “One of who?”

  “A dragon.”

  Garth gave him a flat stare. “You got a problem with dragons now?”

  “The whole world’s got a problem with dragons. Nasty beasts.” Spit flew from his mouth and landed on Garth’s arm.

  He wiped it off. “Remember your manners.”

  “Why? This one’s different, is she? Doesn’t go around using people and taking what she wants?” He laughed, showing yellowed teeth. “Yeah, right.”

  I almost stopped the car and kicked him out. What use was a drunken, hostile goblin? I couldn’t compel him; he was a mage. He’d have to be a lot drunker than he was to forget his magical defences against manipulation.

  But Garth had gone to a lot of trouble to find him, so I gritted my teeth.

  “I have a simple job for you, and I’m prepared to pay well.”

  He laughed again, a bitter sound. “Yeah, that’s what the last dragon said too. All you gotta do is make a changeling, Blue, and the money’s yours. Easy as falling off a log. Then as soon as the job was done he tried to kill me.”

  I stiffened. There couldn’t be that many dragons requesting change
lings. Had Blue helped Jason set up Lachie’s fake death?

  I turned back to face front before I could say anything I might regret. If Garth wanted the guy’s help so much, he’d have to persuade him on his own. I could hardly stand to look at him.

  I stared out the window and tried to ignore the angry conversation going on in the back seat. We were heading across the Bridge, the blue water below showing white tips. Another glorious summer’s day in Sydney. Already the sun shone white-hot, promising a scorching afternoon. I wore shorts and a sleeveless top. The car was air-conditioned but my house wasn’t, and it had been shut up for a while. With a bit of luck Tanya would have cleaned out the fridge for me. If not there could be some nasty surprises in there.

  She was a great neighbour. She’d been keeping an eye on the place for the last week, while I was supposedly in Brisbane visiting my sick mother in hospital. As far as I knew Mum was in her usual good health—that had been a spur-of-the-moment lie to cover up the world-shattering truth.

  The reason I’d had to leave home in such a rush sat in the back seat, arguing with the goblin. Blue was complaining about being “used” again. His nasal whine grated on my nerves. It was a relief when Garth snarled at him and he finally shut up.

  I sat back, happy to let the journey pass in silence. Steve drove with his usual competence, but left me to my thoughts. He wasn’t much for chitchat, usually, more interested in computers than people.

  A cowardly part of me hoped Tanya wouldn’t be home, but really it would be better to get it over with than leave her hanging. Tanya was a force of nature, a powerful personality. Who knew what she’d do if she decided there was something fishy about my continued absence? She might ring the police. Or worse—my mother. And that conversation would go downhill very fast. It would be news to Mum that she’d had a heart attack.

  We pulled into the driveway at last. The place looked smaller than I remembered, though not quite so unkempt as usual. Tanya must have sent Roy over to mow the lawn. The blinds were down and the house lay still, dreaming in the morning sun. A feeling of unreality crept over me—as if the familiar house with its green paint and its sagging gutters shouldn’t be here any more. It belonged to a different time, to a person who no longer existed.

  “So, what now?” I asked as the four of us got out of the car.

  Blue eyed the house with suspicion. “I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it for him.” He looked at Garth. “And then we’re even, right? One job, and then you leave me alone.”

  “One job,” Garth agreed, though he didn’t look too happy with the deal. He’d probably been hoping to win the proving with the aid of his pet goblin mage. I reckoned we were probably better off without the scrawny goblin. He was even less impressive than when Luce and I had met him last year. At least then he’d been sober.

  “Wait here,” he said.

  He approached the front steps, though he didn’t set foot on them, and sniffed the air. God knows how he could smell anything over his own stink, but he stood there a long time. Then he set off around the side of the house and disappeared from view.

  “What’s he doing?” The sun beat down on our heads, and I could feel its bite on my bare shoulders. A lizard crept out onto one of the rocks that bordered the overgrown garden. I felt like an idiot standing on the driveway doing nothing.

  Garth shrugged. “Don’t know. Goblin stuff.”

  I rolled my eyes. Goblin stuff. Let’s hope Tanya wasn’t home. If she saw us loitering in the front yard, I doubt “goblin stuff” would satisfy her curiosity.

  Imagine if I’d brought Lachie. Tanya would have had a heart attack—and five minutes later every person she’d ever met in her life would have heard about Lachie’s miraculous return from the dead. Plus she’d hound me in order to get every last detail out of me—and I’d probably cave, too. Tanya was relentless.

  But we were saved from Tanya’s curiosity when Blue reappeared and beckoned us over to the steps.

  “You got the key?”

  I offered him the front door key. “Did you find anything? Is it safe?”

  “Perfectly safe,” he said. “But there’s a tell-me on the lock here.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A trigger spell. As soon as someone goes inside, it alerts whoever set the spell.”

  “Cheaper than surveillance,” said Steve. He had an approving gleam in his eye. Probably already trying to figure out how to write a computer program that would do the same thing.

  “So we go in the back door,” said Garth.

  Blue gave him a pitying look. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s only anchored to the lock. It covers the whole house.”

  “I wonder who set it?” Steve stared at the door as if he might see the spell if he looked hard enough.

  I sighed. Yes, that was the big question. We didn’t know who would come running if we triggered their magical alarm.

  “Can you get rid of it without setting it off?” I asked.

  Blue sniffed and turned away as if offended. “I am a mage.”

  He spoiled the effect by catching his foot on the first step, which nearly sent him sprawling across the veranda. Garth made as if to catch him but Blue waved him off. He climbed the steps with the exaggerated care of the truly drunk, then crouched by the front door.

  He laid the key on the doormat and pulled a tiny knife from his pocket.

  Steve’s eyebrows shot up and he looked at Garth in surprise. “Didn’t you check him for weapons?”

  “It’s just ceremonial,” Garth muttered, but he looked surprised too. The goblin must have managed to hide it from him.

  Blue used the tip of the knife to pierce his finger. He squeezed a drop of blood out and let it drip onto the key, droning something dirge-like in the goblin tongue. I looked uneasily over my shoulder, hoping no one could see this peculiar performance. The dirge seemed to go on forever, until abruptly he stopped and inserted the bloody key in the lock.

  He unlocked the door and pushed it open. “All done.”

  “That’s it?” said Garth. “The tell-me’s gone?”

  Blue clumped back down the stairs and stopped in front of him. “Just said so, didn’t I?” He held out the bloodstained key, but when Garth would have taken it he didn’t let go, sticking his long nose right up into the werewolf’s face instead. “So we’re even now. No more night-time visits?”

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  “Good.” He released the key and headed down the driveway. “And don’t tell my family you saw me.”

  “What about the money?” I asked. Was he just going to leave?

  “Keep your blood money,” he snapped over his shoulder. “And leave me out of your dragon squabbles.”

  He staggered down the street like a scarecrow that had escaped its field.

  “Strange guy,” said Steve. “Friend of yours?”

  “Kind of.” Garth watched him go with a troubled frown.

  I was glad to see the back of him. Quite apart from a strong desire to beat the living crap out of him for his part in convincing me my son was dead, something about him set my teeth on edge.

  “Let’s go.”

  I bounded up the steps, eager to be done with the house and its bittersweet memories so I could get back to my miraculously alive child. Lego in hand, of course. I entered the dim hallway; all the blinds were drawn to keep out the heat. The sharp eucalyptus smell of disinfectant lingered in the air, probably from when I’d thrown up the channel stone on this very spot last week. Garth was right behind me. “Can you believe it’s only a week since we met?”

  That had been my first inkling of how my life was about to change—coming home and being attacked by an intruder in my kitchen. An intruder who had turned into a wolf and tried to tear my heart out. Happy times.

  “Should have killed you then and saved myself a lot of trouble.” He prowled around the tiny house, checking every room, assuring himself it was safe. If he’d been in wolf form his hackles probably would h
ave been standing up. Not a happy camper, our Garth.

  “I love you too.”

  His mouth quirked in spite of himself. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  I stared at his muscled back as he disappeared into the kitchen. Hadn’t been expecting that answer. Smart arse. At least he hadn’t completely lost his sense of humour. He hadn’t quoted Star Wars in days, which was a bad sign. Something was definitely eating at him.

  I’d hoped reuniting him with some of Leandra’s team would help him, but he still seemed to be struggling. Wolves were pack animals. They liked togetherness, but they loved order. A pack was a hierarchy where every member knew their place, and how they related to every other member. Simple. Clear and certain.

  First he’d lost his mistress, and the thralls had scattered. Then he’d lost Luce, the person he relied on to tell him what to do. Now life was full of new faces and uncertainties, and a lot of responsibility for making sure those uncertainties didn’t prove fatal had fallen on his broad shoulders.

  I knew how he felt. All our lives had been turned upside down in the last week, but Garth’s way of coping seemed to be digging his heels in and trying to control every last little detail, like his insistence on finding the goblin. Although, as it turned out, that hadn’t been such a bad idea. Whoever the tell-me had summoned would have been bad news.

  I stopped in the doorway of Lachie’s room. Funny how, even knowing he was still alive, the weight of all that remembered sorrow pressed down on me, gathered in this room. I hadn’t moved a thing; it was still exactly as it had been the day our lives unravelled, his school bag dropped on the floor by his chair, books spilling out onto the carpet next to pieces of Lego and a lone sock. The other one had probably been kicked under the bed, but I’d never looked. The room was like a shrine to my lost son, both a solace and an unbearable reminder of the bright little spark of life I’d thought forever extinguished.

  I drew in a shuddering breath. Garth’s keen eyes missed nothing. He laid a big hand on my bare shoulder, but all he said was: “Guess the kid really likes Lego.”