The Curse (Belador #3)(5)
Macha’s glare returned full force. “What gave you the ridiculous idea that I’m patient? I had you freed from the Tribunal prison based upon your agreement to investigate, and deliver, the origin of Alterants. Have you forgotten?”
Let me think about this. No, I generally remember deals made with deities. Sarcasm would only get her toasted. Literally. Evalle explained, “I’ve been trying to—”
“I know what you have not accomplished, such as bringing Tristan in to swear loyalty to me and the Beladors. You said that Alterant would provide significant details about your kind. Where is he?”
“I don’t know … yet.” The night Evalle agreed to the deal with Macha, Evalle had been facing imprisonment for the rest of her life, for crimes she had not committed. Who wouldn’t jump to make a deal for freedom at that point? And she’d been sure Tristan would agree, since he and his sister were on the run from VIPER as escaped fugitives. But after three weeks of calling out to him telepathically Evalle hadn’t heard so much as a whisper in response.
“Perhaps I was hasty in getting you released.”
“No, you weren’t.” Evalle couldn’t afford for Macha to change her mind and end Evalle’s hope for true freedom. “The VIPER teams need every able body in Atlanta right now, which is why I haven’t had time to hunt down Tristan. You told me I had to fulfill my Belador duties with VIPER. We’ve all been running constantly because of this outbreak of gang wars.”
“Gang wars are a human problem.” Macha waved a hand in dismissal at the mention. Belador warriors, who lived secretly among the human population, made up the bulk of VIPER assets. Her derisive tone left no doubt about where Evalle’s other commitments fell on the goddess’s list of concerns.
“Not this time,” Evalle explained. “We’ve found trolls involved with the gangs.” She checked to see if anyone observed her talking, but no one seemed to notice. People flowed around them the way water avoided a rock in a stream.
“Your first priority is your warrior queen when her safety is in question.”
That snapped Evalle’s attention back to Macha. “Has something happened to Brina?” As goddess of the Beladors, Macha’s first concern was Brina, the last living Treoir. Belador powers depended on a living descendant residing on Treoir Island.
“The answer to that should be obvious since you’re breathing.”
Macha would never be known as the nurturing goddess.
Evalle asked, “But Brina’s not under immediate threat, right?”
“You don’t think so? As of now, you are still the only Alterant who has sworn fealty to me and the Beladors, in spite of the sanctuary I offered to all who will.” Macha’s tone sharpened, making it clear that she considered the lack of Alterants coming forward to be an insult. “Tristan and his group of beasts remain at large, not to mention any other Alterants we haven’t located. With so many beasts and that traitor O’Meary unaccounted for, of course Brina is under immediate threat.”
Evalle flinched at Alterants being called beasts. She hated that term almost as much as she hated the unknown blood that gave her the bright green eyes and the urge to change into a monster when threatened.
As for the Belador warrior queen, Brina should be safe in her warded castle on Treoir, hidden in a mist above the Irish Sea. But Evalle caught the shift in Macha’s demeanor, the chill in her tone when she mentioned the Belador traitor, Conlan O’Meary. Evalle frowned. “I don’t see how Alterants are connected to the traitor.”
Macha’s luminous hazel-green eyes turned to flint. Furious energy whipped across Evalle’s skin, singeing fine hairs along her arms. “I’ll speak slowly so I don’t have to repeat myself. The traitor is working with the Medb Coven. You claimed the Medb intend to use Alterants to invade Treoir Island and attack Brina. Even you should be able to connect those dots without paper and pen.”
Evalle wiped a damp palm on her jeans and bit back a retort. Three weeks ago, she’d been locked in a prison with no hope of escape because she couldn’t bring herself to hand over other innocent Alterants and condemn them to the same fate. She owed Macha for her freedom and for giving her a chance to prove Alterants were not mindless animals and deserved to be a recognized race.
She also didn’t want to be turned into a charcoal briquette. “I see your point and with a little more time—”
“Neither of us has the luxury of time, especially you. An Alterant has killed one of Dakkar’s hunters. He filed a grievance with the Tribunal, demanding justice and compensation.”
On a scale of bad news, that slammed the top. Dakkar ran a bounty-hunting operation that VIPER allowed to function as long as Dakkar executed the occasional contract for VIPER. But he could be wrong about fingering an Alterant for the killing since Rías were humans who also shifted to beast state, and the Rías she’d witnessed had slaughtered without thought.
Evalle asked, “Is Dakkar sure an Alterant killed his bounty hunter? Could have been a Rías. Their eyes—”
“Yes, yes, I had a report about Rías eyes appearing human in color instead of bright green like yours, but I doubt the dead bounty hunter was able to report the beast’s eye color,” Macha finished with dry sarcasm.
Evalle started to point out the differences didn’t stop at eye color alone, because she could control her beast when shifted and so could Tristan. But she wasn’t allowed to shift, and with the exception of two Rías that Tristan had trained, the other Rías she knew of were mindless beasts when they changed form, immediately mauling and killing any humans within reach. To some, all beasts looked alike.