After leaving Mist and Anna in the courtyard near the tavern, I rose into the sky, stretching my wings. The air caressed the scales, leaving swirling wisps of black seidhr wafting off the edges and I circled the city, cloaking my presence with the second pass. It wasn't enough to root out the treachery Lamashtu had created in my demons—I needed to be vigilant against her next attempt.
Anna's words reached me, my name and power carrying her voice through the air, despite the distance. And she wasn't wrong. Manannan's presence was like a bone fragment between my talons, irritating and impossible to ignore. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't deny Mist had to return to Asgard. I couldn't force her to stay and she was too loyal to give up her vows of duty.
But I needed to know why Manannan was so determined that he'd give up five years of his life for a female who would barely talk to him. Mist was worth it, to be sure, and I huffed a laugh into the evening air as Anna's tease reached me. She would miss Mist as well.
Banking, I adjusted my flight to carry me back over the part of the city that held my females. Maybe I'd check on them once more, just to see if Anna was successfully seducing Mist, before I returned to the palace to question the sea god.
"Lord Pazuzu will not take kindly to you attempting to touch his mate." Mist's use of my name had my heart thundering and I shot forward. She knew the consequences. She'd never do so unless Anna was in danger. A growl built in my throat. If some idiot demon had harmed either of them, I'd pull them apart with agonizing slowness.
Prepared to attack with fangs bared and talons reaching as I approached, I pulled up at the last second seeing Anna and Mist enter the tavern. Instead, I landed on its flat roof and spoke to the other mind that had uttered my name here.
"What happened, Captain Dedrick?" Brick crunched under my talons as I shifted my feet, staring down at my wolf.
He turned, looking around, then up, and I released the cloak of air hiding me. Dedrick bowed, ignoring the startled squawks of demons who found themselves within feet of my spiked tail, flicking irritatedly down the wall and across the cobblestone paths as I waited for an answer.
"My lord, several scorpion demons, three manticores, and a minotaur unwisely attempted to touch Valkyrie Mist and Mate Anna. Mist held them off but when I arrived, I stepped in to guard their backs until they entered the tavern," he told me while sharing the memory with me.
Smoke billowed from my wings and nostrils. "You know which demons?"
"Yes, my lord. I've marked them."
"Guard my females and once they are done visiting with their friends, escort them back to the palace. I want those demons in my dungeon. I'm having idiot for breakfast."
Dedrick sent a signal on his wrist brand and bowed.
Gouging another groove from the roof, I launched myself into the sky before I forced Mist and Anna out of the tavern and back to the palace. Dedrick would defend them, I knew that, but by the Abyss, it pissed me off that any demon had attempted to touch them. I was done leaving Mist weaponless. She'd have armour and weapons whenever she wanted from now on. I wouldn't put her in that position again, nor would I revoke my agreement of freedom whenever she wanted to explore. She was fierce and I needed to trust her skills.
Maybe it would be better to get Mist back to Asgard. Anna would be far more agreeable to having guards around her without feeling smothered. I couldn't do that to Mist.
Fury lent speed to my wings and after touching down, I shifted back to my humanoid form and sought the sea god.
Unsurprisingly, he was sprawled in the gardens by the saltwater pools.
"Why are you so insistent on Mist's return to Asgard?" I asked without preamble as I strode into the glade. "Do you doubt her loyalty to Asgard?"
Manannan's head rose from his hands, peering sideways at me through blue unkempt locks. It appeared he'd been moping in one of the chairs by the shore, elbows on his knees. I dropped into a companion chair as I waited for his answer.
He scowled. "No, but she doesn't seem to be pressuring you to return her."
I shrugged. "She knows she must work a five-year contract to earn the passage back to wherever she'd like to go. And it doesn't explain why you are here, attempting to press a claim on her." I kept my body relaxed like the question hadn't been eating at me, but I watched him carefully.
A flush rose on his skin and he shifted in his seat. "I... I care about her. Probably more than I should, given she no longer wants anything to do with me."
No longer? "You speak as if you had a prior relationship with Mist."
He looked away, staring at the waves rippled by the wind, then met my gaze again. "I did. We connected when her best friend was first kidnapped, then navigated a political situation that resulted in her best friend being soulmate-bound to princes of two different realms. I thought what Mist and I had was more than physical, more than sex, but without explanation, she stopped talking to me." He winced. "She's refused to have anything to do with me ever since, as you've seen."
I sat back in my seat. He seemed to be telling the truth and his thoughts mirrored his words. But it didn't fit with what I knew of Mist. She wasn't cold or cruel.
"You really have no idea why?"
He shook his head slowly. "No. We were fine in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company, then after her sparring session with her best friend and a highly accomplished elven warrior, she refused to so much as speak to me." He flung a hand out in a dismissive gesture. "I know I failed Inanna, driving her into your arms with my stubborn need to control her, but I swear I didn't do that to Mist."
"Inanna was a free spirit. As a Vanir fertility goddess, she was stubborn and as mercurial as the weather. You were lucky to have the time with her that you did. I envy you your daughter with her."
Manannan sighed, looking away to gaze into the watery depths. "I was out of my depths with her, so star-struck that a goddess more than three times my age would deign to even look at me, let alone become my consort and bear my child. Shells, I was an idiot." He gripped his hair with both fists, hanging his head. "I knew I wasn't her first relationship and that Aine wasn't her first child, yet I insisted on trying to keep her with me, to tie her ever closer. I smothered her."
I crossed my leg and leaned back, struck by his mournful tone. Certainly, he'd played a role in her leaving him, but I'd also deliberately tempted Inanna away. She'd been a sensual armful when I seduced her and she'd readily agreed to my mating bite. And by Tiamat, the knowledge of her carrying my offspring had overridden any guilt I felt about taking her from him.
Or at least, I'd thought the child was mine at the time.
In hindsight, it had been too soon after she'd been with him to be certain. It was possible that it was his. Not that I'd tell him that. Even three thousand years ago, we'd had few fertile females available to us. I would have raised the child either way, then done my best to create another with her.
Still, I did knowingly break up their relationship.
"I had no better luck trying to keep her safe. Her independent nature, while such an integral part of her, left her vulnerable to my enemy, Lamashtu. You aren't the only one who mishandled your relationship with Inanna," I revealed. Why I'd admitted that to him, I wasn't sure, but I did empathize with his loss. "Anna is her descendant. When Inanna died, she left your daughter Aine and numerous half-human offspring before either of us had met her. At least, I believe they were hers. It's possible they could have been her twin's children. Ishtar lives on Vanaheim, I believe, now that she's retired from being a Valkyrie, and I know she's had twin girls herself."
Manannan grunted. "I hated you for a long time, blaming you for Inanna leaving me. But I know I bear the brunt of fault. I don't begrudge your relationship with Anna, whether she comes from Inanna or Ishtar."
"Just my relationship with Mist?"
Before he could reply to my taunt, another voice spoke from behind us, "That, is none of his business."