She hurried down the corridor, but Echo was faster. She hooked her arm through Darci’s, steering her the opposite way. “Okay, we can eat later. Come on, I want to show you some of the estate. It’s beautiful, and you’ve been buried in that stuffy old library all day with books far too ancient for us to even understand.”
As they cut through a small living room and out the French doors, Echo didn’t say anything else, for which Darci was grateful. They wandered through a trellised walkway, heavy with creeping ivy—the same flora covering most of the castle walls.
Late afternoon sunlight caressed Darci’s skin but did little to warm the chill in her veins or ease the numbness in her chest. As they walked through the rolling gardens, Echo let her go. “Darci, whatever it is, you and Blaéz will work it out.”
“Then why won’t he talk to me?” The words burst free. She compressed her lips and fixed her burning gaze on the bee hovering over a honeysuckle shrub that grew along the paved pathway.
“Because they are all cut from the same cloth of stubborn, think they have to protect us,” Echo said on a sigh. “Just be patient. Remember, he chose you, brought you here. They’re immortals with horrible rules binding them, so they don’t do things lightly.”
Darci recalled Blaéz’s warning about the assassins from his world. No, he wouldn’t have made a risky commitment if he weren’t serious about her. Hope that had been fast fading renewed. “I just want to understand—to help him.”
“Even rocks crack, don’t give up. I ought to know.” Echo rubbed her upper arms then stuck her hands in her pedal-pusher pockets. Stark pain briefly clouded her eyes. “I had the worst time with Aethan. Our relationship became so strained…I-I left him.”
“You did?”
“Yes.” A wry smile. “It’s a long story. It will keep for another day. But trust me, talk to Blaéz, get him to open up.”
Darci considered Echo’s words as they continued down the pathway. She liked things out in the open, it’s why she never prolonged any relationship where she didn’t feel that spark.
As they emerged from the thick shrubs, Darci stopped, dumbstruck.
In front of her, a lake sparkled like fragmented diamonds. It surrounded a man-made island accessed only by a small wooden bridge that led to a timber and glass gazebo. Weeping willows trailed their droopy branches into the shimmering water, and lush trees edged the banks.
“This is so beautiful.”
“Yes…it is,” Echo said, staring at the gazebo. Her features appeared a little strained.
It pulled Darci out from her own worries. “You okay?” she asked.
“It’s nothing…I’m probably coming down with the flu or something.” She withdrew a white stone from her pocket and rolled it between her fingers. “Darci, what did Blaéz tell you about himself?”
At the sudden change in conversation, Darci rubbed her temples. The ache centered there upped sharply. “Not much. He explained he was a Guardian and from the Celtic pantheon, but because of some important goddess being abducted on the day he’d taken up his job, he, along with all of her protectors, were imprisoned in Tartarus.”
Echo nodded. “Inara. She was born into the Sumerian pantheon but represented all forms of life. She is the Goddess of Life. Of balance. That kind of power cannot be controlled by evil. It would cause destruction of earth-shattering proportion. The balance would shift—all plant life would die. Humans wouldn’t be able to survive on a barren earth. And without their prayers and worship, the gods’ powers would fade—”
At Darci’s staring, Echo laughed. “It’s true. Seems we all have a symbiotic relationship. Learned it all in my history lessons, how the realms intrinsically tie together. Anyway,” she continued as they walked toward the lake, “It’s why warrior gods from different pantheons were chosen as Inara’s protectors. All were invested in her safety. Millennia later, she’s still missing, and the pantheons are at loggerheads at her disappearance and blaming the other for what had occurred.”
“Shouldn’t they be looking for her?”
“They are, I suppose, but she has yet to be found.” Echo indicated a weathered wooden garden bench with a curved backrest near a weeping willow. “Let’s sit here.”
Darci lowered to the sun-warmed seat facing the lake. A stream of tiny, silver fish flashed in the sun-drenched waters. Insects buzzed a happy disharmonious chorus.
“Darci…” Echo turned on the bench and faced her. “I know it’s not my place to say anything, but there’s something I think you should know.”
At her grave expression, uneasiness crept through Darci. “Now you’re scaring me.”
“I wouldn’t do that. It’s just that when I first came here, everything was overwhelming and I didn’t always make the best decisions, but I want to help if I can.” Those serious mismatched eyes held hers. “From the way you’re reacted to him just now, I’m guessing you don’t really know this. If Blaéz appears so remote and cold, it’s only because he doesn’t experience emotions like we do. It’s why he takes part in cage fights and lets himself get beaten up, it’s the only way he actually feels something.”
Darci shot up from her seat. “What are you talking about? How can he not feel?”
“Because he lost his emotions while imprisoned in Tartarus.”
“You’re wrong! He feels, I know he does—” She faltered at the compassion in Echo’s quiet gaze. Darci froze. And felt as if her very foundation had shifted when a thought more terrifying took hold. Ice formed in her veins. Blaéz feltnothingfor her?
She stood there in the sunny garden, too cold to move. “He can’t—he can’t feelanything, no emotions at all?”
“Usually,” Echo agreed.
