The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

I wasn’t going to fuck it up.

“So how do we grow that body of yours back?” It would be weird to have her head hang around. A fully limbed Nimue would likely be more effective an ally. If we couldn’t grow it back for some reason, I would have to find a nice mannequin body for her. I could dress her up.

“So you’ll go get the bag?” Nim asked. I nodded and a sigh of relief huffed from her lips. “Thank the goddess. I don’t want to see what a bunch of demons would do with my head. They like to bowl, you know. Now let’s talk about getting me to a nice chilly lake. I need it isolated and deep because I do not want someone coming across my body while it’s growing back and starting some true crime documentary. Toss me in the deepest part, and in a few months I should be ready to fight.”

“First, you can answer a couple of questions for me.” I had been thinking about this since the moment Myrddin had stared out of the window in the café. He’d looked at Dean with…some unnamed emotion. It wasn’t fear, but I thought fear was in there. “What do you know about Myrddin sending a pregnant woman off the plane?”

Before Nim could answer, Lee strode in, Dean at his side.

“Mom, I know you’re in… Whoa.” Lee stopped in front of Nim. “That is a head in a box.”

“You look exactly like your father.” Nim’s face had lit up. “Well, except the eye. You must be the little human one. Lee, right?”

Lee’s eye widened and it stayed on Nim. “Mom, why is the head talking to me?”

It was good to know something could still freak my boy out. “The Hidden Ones brought me back a present. Meet Nimue.”

Lee took a step back as if the head might attack. “But she’s with Myrddin.”

“Nope. She was being controlled like your dads, and when she got out of thrall, he cut her head off and put it in this box.” I gave Nim a sympathetic shrug. “It’s a nice box.”

“Is it?” Nim asked. “I didn’t see it. I kind of woke up here. It’s very plain on the inside. Tell me he didn’t just shove me in a basic brown box.”

It was pretty ornate and painted a nice midnight blue. “Nah, it’s got some bling. And a bunch of ancient writing that’s done in a very elegant hand. It’s quite tasteful.”

“Zoey, focus,” Daniel said.

Lee was studying the box. “This says it keeps magic from…I think the word is growing. Is this somehow keeping your body from growing back?”

“Yes, and that is a complete crime because my boobs are truly fabulous.” Nim’s lips had curled up. “You grew up really well, honey.”

“Nim, that is my son.” I should have known. She was right. It was my fault. The minute she’d gotten all serious and shit I should have pointed and done that Donald Sutherland scream thing because horny Nim had definitely been replaced with a pod person.

“Yes, and he’s very adult now. And don’t tell me I should find someone my own age. I’m ten thousand five hundred and fifty something years old. The last dude even close to my age gave me a magical roofie and then cut my head off, so you’ll have to forgive me for wanting some youth,” Nim shot back.

“I’ve never…” Lee began.

“No. Absolutely not. Do not complete that sentence.” I pointed a finger my son’s way because I wasn’t about to listen to him talk about how he’d never done a bodyless head before. Boundaries. We needed some, my son and I. “What did you need, baby?”

“Lee asked about my biological dad.” Dean managed to stop staring at the head. “I told him what my mother told me. I was conceived during a summer ritual here on the Earth plane. I believe that is why I have the power I have.”

“You were conceived at a midsummer ritual?” Dev asked. We’d gone to many of those because fertility rituals were powerful when held within those rites.

Lee shook his head. “Nope.”

“I was conceived at the ritual known as Burning Man,” Dean said with absolutely not an ounce of irony. “My mother was into spiritualism at the time.”

His mom had likely been into pot and the festival circuit.

“Oh, shit.” That had come from Nim and answered a whole lot of my questions. “Was your mom a cute brunette with a nice rack?”

“What is this about?” Dean looked to me, seeming to know Nim couldn’t be too serious.

“I wanted to get the ‘Luke, I am your father’ moment out of the way,” I admitted. “Dean, I’m pretty sure Myrddin’s your dad.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“So Myrddin knocked up a human at a music festival. I knew he and Nim planned to explore the world, but I thought they would go to museums or something. They were out in the world for ten years. How many little wizards did he manage to make?” The next day Dev still seemed to be mulling over everything we’d learned. He was in his seat on the new plane and we’d been in the air for an hour or so. When I looked out the window all I could see was ice and tundra far below.