Alterant (Belador #2)(29)

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?”