Brave the Tempest (Cassandra Palmer #9) - Karen Chance Page 0,178

terrain,” I said, because his command over his element seemed kind of extreme.

But Pritkin shook his head. “He doesn’t have that kind of power, although the gods he worships may have, at one point. Legend says they built his castle for themselves, when they first discovered this world, using it as a command center for their conquest of Faerie.”

“And no portals,” I muttered, watching the manlikans fill in our only way forward.

“For portals you need ley lines, and none are close enough.” Pritkin hiked a thumb at the one far behind us now. “That’s connected to the nearest line, but even it requires a powerful locus to function. It was never found because it was thought to be too far away for a stable gate.”

Great.

I felt so much better now.

“So Aeslinn is forcing us to approach him the old-fashioned way,” I summarized. “And blocking the passes to make it harder.”

“And the worst of it is, he doesn’t have to hold us forever. Just long enough for our time advantage to run out. Then he and his allies can carry out more attacks on earth, and maybe even in the hells—”

“Is that what Adra thinks they’re doing?”

Pritkin shrugged. “He thinks it’s a possibility. The attack on Hong Kong involved a group of disaffected demons who didn’t like the new alliance. They didn’t like the gods, either,” he added, forestalling the question on my lips. “But they did fear them. They thought if they joined their side now, perhaps they’d get consideration when the inevitable victory took place. And if there’s one such group, there are probably others—”

“Nice to know that everybody is so confident in our chances.”

“—and once the time streams balance back out, we’ll be stretched too thin to commit to a full-on assault.”

“And we won’t get another shot for a decade,” I said, remembering what Caedmon had said.

Pritkin nodded. “We’re going to need to push forward our invasion.”

I managed to avoid rolling my eyes at him, but it was close. “Have you seen our army? They’re cooks and musicians. They’re not ready—”

“They will have to be.” It was grim. “This is our best chance to win the war quickly and save countless lives. Knock out Aeslinn, and there won’t be anyone to shelter our enemies. We’ll hunt them down, wipe them out, and then let the bastard gods rage on the other side of the barrier. Your mother’s spell has held for thousands of years; there’s no reason to think it won’t hold for thousands more.”

I frowned, because that wasn’t strictly true. “Mother said the gods got cocky while they were here, and grew too numerous,” I reminded him. “She said there’s not enough food where they are anymore—”

“Then let them starve! Or let them slaughter each other the way they slaughtered us!”

I looked at him in surprise, because that had sounded strangely vicious. I was usually the emotional one, with him being Mr. Cool-Headed—or pretending to be. His real feelings peeked through occasionally, but he usually kept a pretty tight lid on it.

But not today. Today, the green eyes were hot and the skin was flushed under the slight tan the Vegas sun had given him. And I didn’t think that was all down to the cold.

“But they’re not trying to do that,” I pointed out. “They’re trying to come back—”

“Yes, to destroy our people! Or distort them into hideous things to fight their bloody wars for them!”

“—and willing to take chances that they weren’t before—”

“Let them destroy their own worlds—”

I grabbed his arm, because he wasn’t listening to me. “Pritkin, they’re desperate. They did it to themselves, but they’re facing extinction—”

“Good! Maybe they’ll cannibalize each other and save us the trouble!”

I blinked at him, slightly shocked. “My mother was one of them,” I reminded him.

Green eyes blazed into mine. “You are nothing like your mother!”

“That’s funny. Everyone else keeps trying to tell me the opposite lately.”

“Then they’re fools!”

“Are they?” I searched his face.

It was strange; knowing who my mother was hadn’t changed my attitude toward the gods one iota. But the fact that Pritkin had some of their blood, too . . . weirdly enough, that did. It made me wonder about them for the first time.

“I still know so little about her,” I told him. “About any of them. I’ve been fighting them for months, but I still don’t know them.”

“Just as well.”

“Is it?”

I glanced at the oddly funny manlikans again. They made me wonder if I knew the Svarestri, either. Were they all like their