"She was totally hot," Mina said.
"You think?"
"Oh yeah."
"Cool," Decker said.
"You're just going to leave it at that without any analysis?" I asked.
Suddenly the driver slammed on the brakes really hard and I realized a Jeep had pulled out in front of us sideways, blocking the road. Meanwhile, a bunch of guys came out of some side alleys, waving huge guns around and yelling.
"I thought you said you had it under control!?" I yelled at Viktor as a man pounded his palm against my window and yelled, "Out of car! Out of car, animal!"
"I do have it under control," Viktor said, throwing his door right open. I swear I almost shat myself when he did this.
Decker was reaching for a weapon and looked pretty uncertain. "Boss..."
"I've prepared for this," Viktor said.
Mina watched him get out, and the angry men all swarm him, and she clutched the seat of the car hard and her gaze turned inward, her mouth set.
"You okay?" I asked.
"I'm going to have to use my powers," she said. "So let me...let me concentrate."
Outside, a huge shouting man tried to strike Viktor, and Viktor dodged and deflected the blows and then held up his hand. He held his palm up in the air, for a long moment, and I could actually feel how the air seemed to cool around him. The men's tempers all started to calm almost immediately and they didn't touch him again.
They started murmuring among themselves in low voices. Viktor said something to them. Does he speak Arabic too? I was starting to feel annoyed at how many talents he could pull out, but then again, maybe that was why he spent the whole flight on the laptop with headphones on.
It took a heart-stopping moment for him to really twist them, to stop them from looking in at us. I didn't breathe for so long I started feeling a little dizzy.
"We are of no interest," Viktor finally said, and they all just backed off, letting the guns slump in their hands or slinging them back on shoulders by their straps. Viktor stayed there, holding up both hands now, until they had all retreated back into the alleys and buildings.
He took out the feather he had at the movie theater and waved it across the car.
Then he swayed, and threw himself toward the driver's seat of the car. His already-pale skin was now greyish like a corpse.
Decker quietly hopped out, handed him his seatbelt, and closed his door for him.
I felt the crackling around Mina slowly die down. She let out her breath. I could tell she was seconds away from unleashing something, if it had gone differently. I reached for her hand and she clutched mine back gratefully.
"What was that?" she asked Viktor.
"I got it under control, as I said."
“Yeah, but now you barely have anything left in the tank," Decker said.
“Never mind that," Viktor said. "Keep driving. Just the local anti-shifter force, and we should be all right now."
Viktor really was powerful, to turn all those guys away from us like a Jedi. I'd never seen Waylon manage a trick on that level.
Chapter Six
Mina
It was cooling off, the desert sky turning gorgeous sunset shades, as we reached some ancient-looking structure with torches glowing in front of it and a few other all-terrain vehicles parked outside. We weren’t far from a river that I guessed was the Nile, but no one was giving us any good tour guide information here.
In fact, Viktor had hardly said a word since the attack. I didn't know much about sorcerers, except that powerful magic was extremely draining. Ansel tried to keep my mind occupied on the long ride with pleasant conversation. His life in Portland sounded like a dream--so normal. And I could tell that he knew just what a treasure it was to have a normal life, too.
Right now, my life was as far from normal as it had ever been as I walked out into the cooling air. Slabs of stone formed the building, rising in front of me, with crumbled, weathered statues of bird-people standing sentry outside.
A young woman in an elegant white robe-dress walked out to meet us. "My queen," she said, bowing to me. "You look weary from your travels. May I offer you a bath and fresh clothes before you meet the Grandmothers?"
Viktor looked at me. "Do you prefer to unwind first, or are you anxious to get to it?"
"I'm actually...anxious to get to it," I said.
"I thought so. It's been a very long journey here and Mina has every reason to think I might have lied to her about the purpose of this journey. Just put her at ease."
The young woman looked me over like I looked a little travel-worn to meet the Grandmothers, but then she just said, "Then, come, my lady."
"Ansel will come with me," I said. "He is my consort." I was being bold, and I knew Ansel wasn't sure he wanted to be my consort, but I decided right then and there that I wasn’t messing around. I'd never felt a connecting like this with anyone else, except Alistair. I also knew that if you wanted anything done, as a rich or powerful person, you had to demand it.
Sure enough, the woman looked uncertain but she didn't argue, just started leading the way. Viktor and Decker stayed back, but Viktor's eyes had a slight gleam of approval. Not that I cared if he approved.
I followed the young woman down a corridor that felt ancient and eerie, lit by just a candle here and there mounted on the wall. “A candle on the wall sure doesn’t give out as much light in real life as it does in a video game," I murmured.
Ansel laughed. The woman gave me a slightly bitchy look.
Okay, if I'm the savior of the entire shifter world, I'm not going to join in the mystical temple cosplay thing they have going on, I thought. I'd had enough of Alistair trying to ruin my fun to put up with it from a total stranger.
We stepped into the stone doorway that led to a smoky, warm room where a group of positively ancient ladies, dressed in many different types of traditional clothes and eye-catching jewelry, were clearly awaiting my arrival.
The words swept the room in a whisper. White Queen.
"You are lovely," said the most elegant of all the ladies, standing up and giving me a small bow. She was wearing a long white gown with long white sleeves and loads of gold jewelry that covered her chest and forearms almost like chainmail. Her long white hair was braided in coils. I could tell she was a bird, and probably a water bird. "All grown up. Ready to ascend."
"All grown up?" I said. "Have you been watching me?"
"Oh, no. It is just that, the last time we saw a queen...she was just a girl."
"The Red Queen," said a tough-looking woman in a fur-trimmed outfit, with admiration.
"Oh! You know where the Red Queen is?" I immediately felt better about meeting the Grandmothers and being in this dangerous place. If the Red Queen was here...
"No," the bird woman said. "I'm afraid we do not. The Red Queen came here ten years ago when her powers first stirred, to learn her destiny, and she did not take to the idea well."
"She's a wolf," the woman in furs said. "A good, old-fashioned wolf who doesn't want to be tamed. Fierce and brave. You dumped too much bird talk on her and she rebelled,” she said to the water bird.