Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

Ring of Sums was simple to utilize, it was one of the trickiest talismans in the Lore. The ring could make almost any wish come true, but the more one used it, the more it chose to misinterpret the wishes.
    In the past, he’d heard of two different possessors. One man’s first wish was for a fortune in gold. Chests of it had appeared outside his front door.Another man’s fourth wish was for the same. Gold had fallen from the sky, burying his family.
    And the ring allowed no wish to be reversed.
    Lothaire could either put Dorada on hold and risk the ring’s misinterpretation later, or face her now and risk that the ring would be moved from Webb’s compound.
    The logical move would indeed be to seek out the sorceress. “Find her for me,” Lothaire said, “and I’ll face her.”
    Hag nodded. “I’ll be on the lookout as much as my visions will allow.”
    “And what of my confusion, my lack of focus?”
    “Your Bride can calm your mind as well as anything I can concoct for you.”
    “What should I do? Bring Saroya with me as I fight to reclaim my ring?” She won’t rise anyway, his mind whispered.
    No, tonight she would. She must. Would it be enough to soothe his mind?
    In any case, he would still seek a potion. “I can’t expose her to the Lore. My enemies would annihilate her.”
    “Then return to her proximity as much as possible. Talk to her. Touch her.”
    “It’s inconvenient. Just brew something for me.”
    “There’s a remedy, but I’ll need five ash vines to make it. The vines aren’t usually found on this plane. I’ll have to roll to locate some.”
    “Do it.”
    She pulled that wad of black cloth from her belt, unfolding it onto the counter, loosing dozens of small bones of various shapes. She scooped them up and rolled them like dice, then studied their placement, focusing her foresight. “There’s a pack of wolverine shifters in the forests of Moldova. They use the vines to heal their mortal slaves after vigorous sex.”
    “How do I find the pack’s den?”
    She hesitantly rolled her bones again. “It’s somewhere within a day’s travel of Riora’s temple.”
    Riora the goddess of impossibility. “I know the location.” There’d beroughly six hours left before dawn in Moldova. He would trace outward from the temple, mile by mile, while checking back for Saroya’s rising every hour. “I go directly. I want the potion base ready for my return.”
    “There will be dozens of males,” Hag said. “Can’t you use a blood debt for an extra sword or two? Only a madman would storm a shifter den alone.”
    He raised a brow. And your point is?

19
    T he shore.
    Ellie was staring at it, her hands and cheek pressed against the invisible boundary.
    She was so close she could smell the salt air, could hear the waves, but she could touch nothing.
    The boundary extended only to Hag’s covered porch, as Lothaire had obviously known. Ellie’s forehead still throbbed.
    The scene before her was so different from her beloved mountains, the view here open and startlingly endless—
    Her shoulders tensed when Lothaire traced beside her. She dropped her hands, furious with herself that he’d caught her staring longingly at the ocean. “You let me get this close but won’t let me touch the sand, the water?”
    “It’s just like with the jewels.” His words dripped with amusement. “You’ll be happy simply to have seen this.”
    She quietly said, “I hate you more than hell.”
    “I know. Comfort yourself with the knowledge that you’ll only have to deal with me for mere days more. With Hag’s new potion, I could dream of the ring tonight. Why, you could be dead tomorrow!”
    “I plan to come back and haunt you.”
    “Then you’d have to get in line. For now, I’ll return here in a few hours or never.”
    “I know what I’m hoping for.”
    After he disappeared with a muttered oath, Ellie turned over idea after idea for escape. But she just didn’t know enough about this world to navigate her current situation.
    She remained at that boundary until daylight vanished over the ocean in a riot of purples and oranges. Sights like this could make a girl want to not already be dead.
    With a heavy heart, she went inside, taking a stool at Hag’s counter.
    The fey was working on some potion, looking frazzled. Perspiration beaded above her top lip, loose curls dangling over her flushed face. Even the tips of her pointed ears were pinkened. And still Hag was gorgeous with her