She glanced around the doorstep, trying to locate who was talking to her. The sound hadn’t come from the intercom or speakers. Rather, it sounded like they were next to her. “Hello?”
“Who are you and what do you want?” There was that deep, demonic growl she knew so well.
Smiling at Caleb’s irritated tone, she continued to search for him. “Caleb, it’s me … Kody. I need your help.”
“You don’t look like—” His voice broke off mid-sentence.
One second she was on his doorstep, the next, she was inside his elegant home.
Before she could move or react, a pair of well-muscled arms pulled her against a steely chest. His black hair was a little longer than he normally wore it, but his eyes were the same shade of brown and his face every bit as chiseled.
He held her far too long and cupped her head like a father would a child. There was no mistaking the relief and love in that embrace. When he finally stepped back, he cupped her chin. “It is you, right?”
She nodded as tears welled in her eyes. “It’s me.”
“My God! You look just like your mother now. Back when I first met her. How are you here? You were dead! I saw you die. How are you not dead?”
She smiled at him. “An unfortunate event, but luckily I have friends in the right places.”
“Me money’s on that rat, Artemis.”
Kody smiled at the sound of Aeron’s voice as the ancient Celtic war god joined them. She moved away from Caleb to hug the tall blond man who was far more handsome than anyone should be. “I’ve missed all of you so much!”
Aeron’s arms tightened around her. “Aye, lass. We’ve all been the sadder without your lovely face to cheer us. You smell better, too.”
Caleb shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re back, and in what I assume is your original body?”
“Sort of.” She scowled. “I’m still kind of confused about it. This is what I looked like as a teenager, not how I looked when I died as an adult. Weird, right?”
“Artemis,” Aeron said with a laugh. “She could never do ages properly. Besides, everything with her is like playing a game of horseshoes.”
“Horseshoes?”
“You know,close enough.”
She laughed at the reference that in horseshoes, it didn’t matter if you actually hit the target. It only mattered who was closest.
Aeron was right. Vintage Artie, as it also explained her lack of ability to say anything correctly.
She glanced between the two of them. “Where’s the rest of you?”
Vawn appeared by her side. Tall and thin, she was a ghostlike wraith many called a banshee. Dressed in black rags, she had long, stringy red hair and dark eyes and lips, with a distinctive tattoo in the center of her forehead—a dark, elongated star.
But looks weren’t what they seemed. Vawn wasn’t always Gwrach y Rhibyn—the hag of the robin. She’d started out in life as a man who’d been cursed into that body after he broke the heart of a woman and she killed herself for him.
Now, he was forever damned to walk the earth in that woman’s body.
The saddest part? It hadn’t been his fault that he broke her heart. The woman had preyed upon him and stalked him near to madness. Then, when he refused to return her insane love, this curse had been her final vengeance. To ensure that he’d never forget her.
It was heartbreaking, really.
Vawn was a constant companion of Kaziel, a cwn who’d been created by the gods. His kind were messengers who guarded the gates of Annwn—the underworld. In a way, cwns were like banshees, in that anyone who heard their baying was destined to die.
Similar to Vawn, Kaziel had a tattoo in the center of his forehead. Only his was a sun symbol that marked him as being aligned to the side of light, even though he was a creature torn between light and dark. Forever lured between them. Never trusted by either, and cursed by both.
Just like Caleb.
Kaziel had long, pale blond hair that fell to his shoulders. Tiny braids interlaced with beads and feathers held it back from his chiseled, handsome face. And unlike Vawn, he had other facial tattoos that curved from his chin up and over his cheeks in the shape of tusks. They came to a sharp point under eyes that were so light and green they glowed with an ethereal, fey light.
