Page 16

CHAPTER 16

THR33PEAT REUNION

SHANNON

I had hoped that whatever was trying to keep us from following after Alana… the human guy… the Sombran gods… Fate… whatever … had given up once Freya taught us how to find ways around the blocks they’re throwing up.

Sometimes we have to go under. Once we had to shimmy through a ‘crack’ between two walls that nearly had Kennedy and Loki turning back until she figured out how to fit her belly through. It irked the hell out of me that the big demons could fit, though they had the added bonus of being able to turn to shadow and make themselves a little bit smaller. Meanwhile, all of us women are different heights, different builds, different sizes, but it’s her poor bump that keeps giving her trouble.

I’ll give Kennedy credit. She’s determined as hell. She refuses to admit if she’s tired, and she won’t slow us down. If she starts to drag, she allows Loki to carry her before insisting he let her down again so she can leave him free to use his orb to help guide the way.

I asked her after she struggled with the upright ‘crack’. Her answer didn’t surprise me. Though her child will be the second halfling born in this age, she doesn’t know what to expect from them. She’s helping me now because we’re basically family now, and if the time comes that she needs the favor returned, she wants to make sure me and Mal will be there.

Of course we will, but those pregnancy hormones are no joke. If this is something Knnedy has to do, I’m not about to tell her not to. Instead, I bite my tongue when she takes a little longer to maneuver her way around the blocks, all while reminding myself that we’re going as fast as we can—and, if it wasn’t for Kennedy’s bond with Freya in the first place, I’d still be beating the crap out of the bouncy wall that blocked us about two hours ago.

There haven’t been any obstructions for the last twenty minutes or so. Those are rough guesstimates since time doesn’t quite exist in Sombra—especially in the dark shadows—but it seems long enough that I start hoping that we’re getting closer. That they’ve decided we’re worthy and we can catch up to Alana and her kidnapper before something else catches up to them first ?—

Suddenly a thunderous roar splits the darkness. It’s so loud, I whimper, someone else gasps, and one of the other women shrieks in fright. The ground shakes. The air rattles. Smaller squawks and spooked chattering erupts in the echoes of the roar. The prey beasts leave rustling sounds in their wake as they try to run from whatever the hell made that noise.

—like, oh, that .

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

My hands grab fearfully for my mate. His arm, his side, his shoulder… whatever part of him I can find beneath his shadows, I dig my fingers in and hold on tight.

Malphas wraps his arms around me, murmuring reassurances that I can’t hear over my thudding heart.

“What the fuck was that?” I blurt out.

“Oh, no,” moans Kennedy. Freya’s wrapped around her mistress so tightly, the shadowy squirrel-cat has basically made herself into a scarf.

She didn’t run, though, so good on her for that. If my legs weren’t paralyzed by that roar, I might’ve.

“That wasn’t an arkoda.” It’s Loki that answers, and after his experience living in these shadows, I believe him. I’m grateful, too. Arkodas are like the Sombra version of rabid grizzlies. No way we could get past one of them, and maybe I’m crazy for thinking of a search and rescue mission as, like, a quest to retrieve my daughter, but something tells me that we have to. “It’s a huigitz.”

Kennedy’s forehead scrunches. She must be digging into Loki’s essence to get a human reference for the shadow predator because, after a moment, she pales. “Ah, crap.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “Tell me, Ken. How bad is it?”

“Bad,” is her breathless response. “Think ‘moose meets lion’, bad. It’s gotta be eight feet high at least, with antlers and a fuzzy mane. And teeth.” She shudders, stroking Freya’s shadowy fur. “So many teeth.”

Wonderful .

“Fear not, Shannon.” Lucian slips away from his win and his mate, gliding over toward me and Mal before turning to address us all. “I have seen this.”

“Great,” snaps Billie. She started getting anxious after one of the last blocks, almost as though it finally hit her how far her and Glaine have travelled into the shadows. He’s still holding his sword, while she’s been clutching his arm as though she likes to walk connected to him, no gold chains required. “The doppelseer has watched all of us get gobbled up by a shadow monster.”

“Not quite, Tandy’s kin. Before we found our mate, the gods hid her from us. All we saw was red. But since she’s accepted us both into her heart, her bedding, and her cunt?—”

Tandy snorts, not an ounce of shame that her psychic mate is sharing her business like that. “You flatterer, you.”

His lips twitch just enough to break his serious expression for a heartbeat. He recovers quickly, though, before continuing where she interrupted him, “—we see more that involves our dear mate. And this… we have seen this.”

One at a time, Lucian gestures at Tandy, then Billie, then Sierra.

Damien steps forward. Then, in that creepy voice he gets when he’s reciting a prophecy, he says, “ Diamonds in my laugh, I shine too bright… make your pulse race under the neon lights… you talk big, I guess we’ll see… ”

Kennedy gasps. Even as he stops, she hurriedly adds another line: “Can you keep up with a girl like me?”

What the?—

“Kennedy? You’ve turned psychic on me now, too?”

“No! It’s just… I recognized it. Those are lyrics to one of my favorite songs!”

Huh? “What are you talking about?”

“It’s ‘Ooh-Bop-Bop’,” Sierra mumbles. “Thr33peat’s break-out hit single.”

Oh. Well, that would explain it. I was never a fan of Thr33peat—though I adore the three individual members on their own just as they are without stanning them the way that Kennedy does, or how Hope is a huge follower of Whiskey Rose’s career—and it’s probably been a decade since I heard the bubblegum pop hit of my high school years.

Tandy slides her gaze over to Sierra. “You remember?”

Sierra pauses, then nods. “Yeah, I remember. I remember a lot from those days.”

Tandy flinches.

Billie releases Glaine. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’ve waited months for the two of you to finally grow a pair and hash this out.”

“Bee, I don’t think this is the time?—”

She points at Sierra. “We’re immortal, Sierra. We have nothing but time. And if your mates have seen something to do with us, with ‘Ooh-Bop-Bop’? Then we can find the time.” She jerks her thumb at Damien. “Listen. This one? He likes to speak in riddles, but sometimes he uses song lyrics in his prophecies. He did it for me with ‘Heart Barely Used’. That’s your song. ‘Ooh-Bop-Bop’ was ours. When we were a group.”

“When we were friends,” Tandy says softly before raising her voice. “Before I fucked up and betrayed you.”

Sierra bites the corner of her mouth. “That’s ancient history, Tan. We don’t have to bring that up now. Not when Shannon and Malphas’s baby needs us.”

Tandy glances at Lucian. He nods at her, and I know that whatever he’s seen, this is exactly the time they need to hash this out.

“Listen. I’ve told you how it happened. How Jared lied to both of us… I thought that justified my behavior. It didn’t, Sierra. It never did. I should’ve known better than to turn to him when you were the one I cared about. He was just a dick. You… you and Billie were my best friends.”

“I told you I forgave you?—”

Billie nudges Sierra.

Sierra glares at her, though she does amend it to: “I told you I would try. And I am. Jared… what the fuck do I care about Jared Turner when I have Dagon? My mate loves me. He’ll never stray. I can trust him.”

“You can trust me, too. Remember what Billie said. We’ve got nothing but time… and, if you’re willing to give our friendship another try, I’d love to be Auntie Tandy to that baby you’ve got cooking.”

Sierra’s hand settles on her bump. For a moment, I think she’s just going to blow off Tandy again—and I might throttle her if she does—but, instead, she gives her old friend the same smile that’s graced the covers of nearly every single freaking magazine on Earth.

“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah. Auntie Tandy… I’d like that.”

Billie’s poke becomes a proud pat on Sierra’s arm. “So long as you remember that I get to be her godmother. And, yeah, maybe that means I’ll have to be a gods mother in Sombra, but you know what I mean.”

Sierra chuckles. “Yeah, Bee. I know.”

Aw. I’d be lying if I said this scene wasn’t super freaking heartwarming, but I’m impatient and worried and still need to get my daughter back so…

“What exactly did you see, Lucian?”

“The huigitz is a ferocious beast with only one weakness. Music. A three-part harmony expertly song will serve as a lullaby, enabling us to get one step closer to retrieving Alana.”

Retrieving Alana … here’s hoping that he saw that , too.

Still, you have got to be shitting me. “Are you saying that the only way to get around it is if Sierra, Billie, and Tandy sing a song and put it to sleep.”

He nods. “We cannot risk getting too close to it. They can project their voices, and with their combined harmony, the huigitz will no longer be a threat.”

Great. I’m going with it. At this point, I’ll go with anything.

As long as it gets me my baby back.

I turn to the members of Thr33peat—and that’s when I notice that the three of them are facing off, looking like a Thr33peat reunion in the middle of Sombra’s shadows is the last thing any of them want.

Oh, come on.

“It’s just one song. I’d do it, but Lucian said three-part harmony, and I can’t hold a key in a freaking bucket. Please. For Alana.”

Sierra steps forward. “You’re right. It’s just one song.” She cracks her neck, rolling her head a few times before nodding. Then, to my amazement, she couches down a little, bending her knees and planting her palms on top of them.

Billie rolls her eyes, then moves to stand next to Sierra. Crossing her arms over her chest, she cocks a hip against Sierra’s shoulder.

With a blinding grin, Tandy bounds over to them. Her arms get folded behind her head, a pout on her lips.

Kennedy starts flapping her hands in excitement. “Oh my god, oh my god . A Thr33peat reunion!”

Hope surges forward, standing next to her so the two have a front-row seat to what’s about to happen. And I know that’s exactly what they’re thinking because Hope squeals. “I can’t believe we’re getting a private Whiskey Rose concert.”

“It’s better because it’s Thr33peat !”

Hope doesn’t argue. I guess she’s just excited to see Sierra sing. Me? I’m just kinda hoping they can get on with it before their squeals draw the huigitz closer to us before they get the chance to put it to sleep.

And that’s when Tandy switches her pose, moving her hands from her head to her hips. “One.”

Billie cocks her hip in the other direction, throwing one arm up in the air. “Two.”

Sierra pops up, landing in a wide-legged stance. “Three.”

There’s no music. Honestly, there doesn’t need to be. And as though a good twelve years haven’t passed since they performed this song together, Thr33peat begin to sing—and, okay, they sound awesome a capella.

Hope and Kennedy cling to each other, dancing in place as they sing.

When it’s Tandy’s turn to sing the chorus, I actually find myself singing along a little under my breath, remembering more of the hit than I thought I did: “...one look, one shot, can’t get enough… ooh-bop-bop, this is how we love…”

Kennedy gives me a warning look. Oh, right. Three-part harmony and Shannon sounds like a dying cat. Got it.

Halfway through the song, Loki and Dagon separate from the group. Within seconds, they’re back, and the look of relief on their faces tells me that, holy shit, this actually worked!

Still, we wait until they find their song, Kennedy finally losing the battle with herself as she sang out the last line with them. For a heartbeat, I worried that that might’ve been enough to wake up the huigitz again, but when I don’t hear a crank roar, I rush over and hug each one of them in turn.

Then, as Tandy, Sierra, and Billie hug each other, I start to back away from everyone else.

“Thank you so much. And I’m so glad you guys are friends again, but now that the huigitz is sleeping… Bye!”

And then I’m off again, with Mal never missing a step to stay beside me.