“Nice to see they’re consistent assholes,” Lina grumbled.
“Yes.” They sat there in companionable silence for a few minutes while Lina digested that latest information. “Is there anything else you’d like to ask me?” Lacey asked.
“Yeah, there is. Why does Zack have all his memories and I didn’t get mine back until after I met my guys? And why don’t the guys have their memories of our first life together?”
“That, unfortunately, I cannot help you with. Those are questions for Baba Yaga.”
“Crap. I was afraid you were going to say that.”
They stayed for a while longer, Lina reluctant to give up this valuable time with Lacey. The Seer gave off a loving, peaceful, confident, generous aura Lina felt totally at home in. She only hoped she could achieve that level of peace when she was that age.
Hell, she just hoped she reached that age.
Finally, Lacey stretched and climbed off the rock. “Time for us to go, dear. Your Watcher will have likely paced bare spots through my carpet.” She smiled.
Lina laughed. “I’ll make sure he pays for the damages.”
The climb back up the path to the top of the overlook was a little wearing, but not as bad as Lina feared. Once they hit the path, Lacey linked arms with Lina.
“You’ll do fine, child. What everyone keeps telling you, no matter how trite it might seem, is true. Trust your instincts. Do not second-guess yourself. If you learn to ignore the doubt, you will soon learn the sound of your gut leading you the right way. Don’t get overconfident, of course. Pride truly does precede a fall. Yet don’t let anyone try to convince you that you are anything but a Seer. You were born to this for a reason. Never forget that.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.”
“Ah, it is nothing. And anytime you are here, please come to see me. I welcome the chance to talk with you. I rarely get a chance to meet with other Seers in person. Besides, you’re technically part of my extended family now, anyway. And my own children have long since departed this world.”
Lina felt sad about that. “Are any of your immediate family still alive?”
“Oh, yes. Many. But they are scattered to the wind and rarely get back to the compound for visits.” She patted Lina’s arm. “But it’s all right. Plenty have adopted me as their mother or grandmother. So I’m not lonely, if that’s your worry.”
“Do you mind cross-species adoptions?” Lina snarked.
Lacey laughed out loud. “Not at all. I would consider it an honor.”
As they approached Lacey’s back porch, she spotted Zack’s nervous face in the window of the back door.
Lacey laughed and softly said, “Do not fear, Lina. He truly is happy. Well, and worried like a nervous mother over your health and well-being. Baba Yaga did keep her end of the bargain. Your Zack is right. Baba Yaga does like to mess with people’s minds.”
Lina stopped and gasped. “You know all that?”
Lacey smiled as she tapped her temple. “I am a Seer, dear.” She tugged Lina’s arm. “Come along. I’ll make us all lunch. As long as Brodey hasn’t devoured all the fresh bread. Those wolves tend to eat like hyenas sometimes.”
That gave Lina another thought to ponder. “So what do hyena shifters eat like?” she only half joked.
“Oh, they eat like wolves.” She smiled.
Laughing, they stepped onto the porch.
Chapter Three
After lunch, Lacey asked to see the items from Yellowstone. “I don’t know if I can help, but I’m willing to take a look at them.”
Zack, who’d taken to always carrying the items in a knapsack, laid them out on her table.
When he pulled out the little statues, she recoiled. “Those you can put away, thank you.”
Confused, he put them away. “What is it?”
The Seer rubbed her arms with her hands. “The simple answer is they’re made of catlinite. Pipestone.” She noticed their blank faces. “It’s the same kind of stone Native Americans used to carve ceremonial pipes and stuff out of.”
Lina couldn’t wrap her head around that. “Huh? You’re saying Lenny was a Native American?”
Lacey shook her head. “No, I’m not saying anything of the sort. Anyone could have carved the stone.” She pointed at Zack’s bag. “But what I am saying is I’ve seen something like that before. Several hundred years ago. The cockatrice soaked them in blood during a ritual. You said that’s a spell book?”
Lina nodded.
Lacey reached for the book and started to page through it. They all silently watched her. Nearly ten minutes passed before she nodded. “Ah ha.” She laid the book, open to a page, and pointed at a specific passage. “Right here.”
It was in French. Zack spun the book around and read it out loud in English.
“‘The blood of our enemies captured in stone guarantees victory against others. Use them wisely and well.’ Then it details how to do the ritual to soak the statue in the blood.” He looked a little ill. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not read that part.” He closed the book and laid it on the table.
“There’s probably no way to figure out who carved those,” Lacey said. “No telling how old they are. But I can’t imagine too many of their kind knew how to do it.”
“They sure are sneaky bastards, aren’t they?” Lina snarked.
“They had to be,” Zack said. “King Elsleng banned their existence. He sanctioned their being hunted down and destroyed after…” He took a deep breath. “After Zaria and her men died, he sort of went on a rampage. He wanted revenge. The cockatrice went underground into hiding. They had to.”
“I guess that’d give me a complex, too,” Lina said.
Zack shook his head. “Don’t even go there. Their kind was small in numbers to begin with, and they chose their path. There was never a case of a cockatrice waving a white flag and saying, ‘Hey, I’m on your side, these other fuckers are nuts.’ They have always tried to start trouble. That’s why they were shunned way before that massive showdown in Hilmelgamos.”
“Don’t start none, won’t be none,” Brodey quipped.
“Exactly,” Lacey said. She looked at Lina. “I know you have a good heart, but remember, there is a very valid reason why the cockatrice have always been persecuted. They brought it on themselves. They have throughout the eons perpetuated a culture of hate and revenge throughout their kind. Less than two hundred of them survived in the entire world following the battle at Hilmelgamos, a majority of them women and children. Most of their virile men were warriors and killed in the battle. That’s another reason their powers declined so greatly. In their race, the lines are passed through the men, not the women. It’s not like any other shifter race. A woman can be born a cockatrice shifter, but she won’t pass the genes down to her children. There was a lot of inbreeding by them to try to replenish their race.”
“Break out the banjoes,” Brodey said. “You ain’t getting me in no canoe. I can tell you that.”
The laugh helped ease the tension.
“But that is why,” Lacey continued, “they have relied so heavily on dark magick throughout the centuries. They are mentally and spiritually deficient. Morally bankrupt.”
“That also explains why Edgar said he hounded Zack and me through several lives,” Lina said. “He made paparazzi look like playful puppies.”
Zack nodded. “Fixated. Obsessed.”