Amazon Queen by Lori Devoti

continued, but I ground the end of the staff into the earth and squared my shoulders. My face calm, I replied, “No, no need to call the council. I’m fine.”
    Her expression darkened. For a second I thought she might argue the point, but she didn’t. “How
did
you survive?” she asked. “The cabin . . . it was there one minute and a raging hell the next, eh?”
    “The explosion threw me clear. I hit a tree, but I’m fine.” It was more than I wanted to say. I was still struggling to get a grasp on what my reaction should be. Pain, anger, and something strangely close to reason warred for control of my attention—some little voice telling me Thea had done the right thing, returned to camp, gathered the tribe . . . What more could I have asked of her?
    My jaw tensed. To find me? To let me know she had survived?
    Another spasm grabbed my back. I gritted my teeth and held my breath until it passed.
    “Did you see the son?” she asked. Her gray eyes were level now, her focus solid.
    The spasm over, I was able to shake my head. “Humans showed up. That’s all.”
    “Are you sure?”
    I hesitated.
Was I?
But finally I nodded. Neither of the farmers had struck me as anything more than one-hundred percent human. Not that that guaranteed they were. The sons had apparently been fooling the Amazons for the past century. We had learned, unbeknown to my friend Mel’s mother, Cleo, that Mel’s father had been a son. I respected Cleo . . . I didn’t think she would have been easily fooled. But that had been before Amazons knew the sons had powers similar to their own.
    We were more aware now. And I was positive neither of the men fighting that blaze had been sons. Now, the rabbit? Much as I didn’t like to admit it, I still wasn’t sure about him.
    Thea twisted her lips. “I wonder how he knew we were coming?”
    “Knew?” Caught up in my anger at Thea, I hadn’t thought about why the son’s cabin had exploded. “You think he booby-trapped the place with us in mind?”
    “You think it was coincidence?”
    No. She was right. Houses didn’t just explode, at least not very often. “He knew we were coming,” I repeated.
    “How?” she asked.
    I shrugged and another spasm clawed through my body. I paused, then kept going, hoping she hadn’t noticed. “He knew we would come looking for him. What else would we do?”
    “So he tried to kill us.” She said the words softly, then raised her eyes as if expecting a reaction.
    I didn’t have one. It was a sneaky way to fight a war, but then, we were talking about someone who had a stockpile of guns.
    The guns. I’d forgotten about them. My brows pulled together. Why would he blow up his own collection of firearms—many still in their boxes?
    “What?” she asked.
    I shook my head. “Nothing. We should get back to camp.” I turned and another tremor gripped my back. I muttered a curse. I wasn’t used to feeling this much pain. I’d been injured before, many times, but the effects had never slowed me, not like this.
    I closed my eyes, wondering if Artemis was sending me some message.
    Thea’s hand ran down my back. I stiffened.
    “You’re hurt?” Her eyebrow twitched. “I can help.”
    Caring for the wounded was one of the high priestess’s jobs, but for some reason I didn’t want Thea’s touch or help.
    I stepped away and walked as straight and solidly as I could manage toward camp. With the help of nothing but stubborn resistance, I even kept my staff from dipping toward the ground.
    My fairy godfather had tried to kill us. Someone should take back his wings, rip them off an inch at a time.
    Hopefully, that someone would be me.

Chapter 5

    The sons had won
again, at least for a while. After my collision with the tree and my run-in with Thea in the woods, I’d gone back to the farmhouse to discover Kale, my council contact, still had not called. I had called Mel instead, only to find she’d taken her daughter to Michigan and wasn’t expected back