Embraced by Embers

by Kasey Mackenzie

  Dorian glared and laid an arm along Zoe’s shoulder. She cast a glance at Jake, who made a point of placing his arm along my shoulder. She moved her eyes to stare into mine and man, if looks could have killed I’d have immediately plunged six feet under.

  “Oh, my good friend Zoe,” I suddenly said as if a sudden thought had occurred to me. “Paul sends his love.”

  Rage suffused her face and she tried to step forward only to be held in place by Dorian. “What have you done with my brother, you bitch?”

  My smirk echoed all the smugness Dorian had earlier flashed. “I haven’t done anything to him. I’m sure his body is snug as a bug back in the monastery. We’ll keep him just as safe as you keep St. Louis—and Isaac’s Freeholders. No need to worry your pretty little head.”

  With that obvious warning delivered, we ended the dramatic little scene that had gone nowhere either side had anticipated. Dorian and I exchanged one more heated look, and then I allowed my guardians to tug me toward our vehicles. Isaac and Avani had less than 24 hours to gather their valuables and leave St. Louis. While I still had unanswered questions to investigate and missing siblings to find.

  Chapter 9

  We piled into the SUVs parked in the driveway and hurried past Dorian and company. Disquiet pooled in the pit of my stomach as I watched Isaac drive. None of this made much sense. Not that Dorian had taken over the St. Louis Chapter or that my father had tried to lure me into a trap—those actions were pretty par for the course. But the fact they just sat back and watched us drive away without—

  I tapped into both Fire and Spirit and stared at all angles of the vehicle with Elemental Sight. And then my worst fears were confirmed.

  “Pull over and everybody out now!” I screamed, both aloud and telepathically to the people in the second SUV, already forming magic into as large a shield I could manage just in case my warning came too late.

  Fortunately everyone reacted to the panic in my voice immediately. Isaac screeched to a halt in the middle of the road, as did the SUV behind. Everyone flung doors open and scrambled out of the SUVs and toward the nearest yards, all empty since we hadn’t yet made it out of the neighborhood Dorian had taken over. We were barely a few feet away when fire teased the air, and I knew someone must have remotely pressed the trigger when they realized we’d evacuated the vehicles.

  We were still way too close for everyone to survive. I whirled and flung up my hands. My half-formed shield solidified as I manipulated magic at warp speed. Rather than forming a circle around us, I fashioned it into a long thin wall separating our whole group from both vehicles.

  Others caught on to our predicament and the Dragons and Gryphons leaped in to help. Earth magic flared in emerald green brilliance as grass and dirt ripped from the nearby yards into a secondary wall behind my shield formed of Spirit and Fire. Diamond-bright shards of Air funneled into a third wall behind that one just as the first explosion rocked the vicinity.

  My ears rang from the sheer volume of sound caused by the fire and shrapnel exploding outward. My wall took the brunt of that first explosion, and I fell to my knees when the shield wobbled and failed. I was too damned worn out to do anything but watch as the second SUV exploded. Fire and shrapnel flew once more, slamming into the earthen shield and eating through it in seconds. My heart leaped into my throat as the shield formed from Air buckled slightly and then held firm.

  “Oh thank god,” I murmured before accepting Jake’s hand to stand more easily than I could have managed alone. Exhaustion rode me hard. A state to which I was too quickly becoming accustomed.

  Dia staggered over to lean against me as we eyed the hollowed-out shells burning in the streets. “Damn. My favorite shoes were in my overnight bag,” she joked to defuse the tension.

  I shook my head with a forced grin, and then my gaze whipped toward the cul-de-sac a few hundred feet away. Sure enough, Dorian and company had jumped into their own vehicles and were now bearing down upon us. And we no longer had vehicles of our own to retreat into.

  “Break into groups of three or four! Evade these guys, obtain alternate modes of travel, and we’ll meet up somewhere safe. I’ll send everyone an address using Spirit once we work that out. Now go!”

  Theo and Melody scowled at my suggestion, so I told them they could come with Jake and me. Nic and Liam partnered with Rhianne and Lily while Dia teamed up with Avani and Isaac. Isaac and Avani indicated they planned to make grabs for backup stashes of gear they had secreted in a small safehouse nobody but the two of them knew about. Jake and I telepathically decided to head to his house near SLU to see whether it would make a good backup location to hole up in while we conducted our investigation. Which would have to be extremely fast, considering the 24-hour window of time now ticking down.

  That, or we’d have to send Isaac and Avani away until we wrapped things up. That might actually work better, because instinct told me it’d be better to hide my intentions from Lily. My heart told me she was trustworthy—she’d saved multiple lives and stood up for us several times already—but my head couldn’t let me trust so easily when so much was at stake. Not when the lives of people I loved were on the line.

  Each of our groups broke off into a different direction, cutting across yards where the vehicles couldn’t follow. I smiled grimly when I pictured the frustration on Dorian’s face that they couldn’t just scrape our dead bodies off the street and transport us to wherever they’d planned—Garret’s headquarters at St. Gabriel, probably.

  Each of our groups also used magic to camouflage our retreats. Jake had to use Earth magic to mask us with an illusion that would fool anyone who looked at us into seeing whatever they expected. I was just too damned magically spent to cast a concealing firewall. He could tell how tired I was, so he pulled me close and took as much of my weight as I’d allow. Which was way more than usual.

  Theo and Melody stuck close as we zig-zagged through yards and streets until we reached a busy shopping plaza. At that point we called a taxi, using cash to finance a ride to a place within a five-minute walk of Jake’s house. My liegesworn insisted we approach on foot so they could scope things out to make sure it hadn’t been compromised. Given that Jake had used a shell company unrelated to his current identity or Clan Zi to finance the purchase, we were hopeful.

  Once all three of my companions were satisfied, Jake used the keypad to let us into the basement door in the back. He reactivated the alarm system and I felt somewhat safe for the first time in hours. Although I knew just how false a sense of security that could be.

  Jake and I gave the others a quick tour of the sprawling Victorian-style house while also checking for any signs of intruders. I also scanned each room with Spirit to check for any nasty surprises, something fueled by raiding the pantry for non-perishable snacks. Even then, my body was dragging by the time all the rooms had been declared free of danger.

  Jake knew the signs well by now, so he insisted that I take an hour-long nap after I devoured several more protein bars and bottles of water. I agreed because no way would I be able to telepathically contact the other groups until I got some sleep. He tucked me into the bed I’d only briefly shared with him before we moved to Greener Pastures, and I fell asleep instantly.

  No surprise that my father waited for me inside my dreams. I’d warned him to stop pulling that shit, but given that he had never once done anything I requested…

  We were back on the street near the cul-de-sac by Isaac’s not-so-safehouse. The SUVs were still intact, and I had the out-of-body experience of watching myself frozen in time as I’d started to scream for everyone to evacuate. Garrett glanced from the face of one child to another, and damned if he didn’t actually look—concerned. As if he truly cared what happened to us. Not that I would buy that thought for a minute.

  “This wasn’t part of the plan,” he finally remarked, glancing to the me who wasn’t frozen like a statue.

  I infused my voice with extreme sarcasm. “Oh really? I suppose you told Dorian
he should just deliver his message to me and let us depart in peace.”

  Garret frowned. “What message?”

  He sounded truly confused, but I showed no outward expression to hint whether I believed in that emotion. “So you also expect me to believe he was lying about you wanting to meet in person to discuss the next steps in our deadly little dance?”

  His brows rose and he shook his head. “Why on earth would I need to meet in person to do that? I can infiltrate your dreams almost any time I want—especially when you’re this exhausted.”

  Which I usually was these days. “So you also didn’t tell Dorian to blow up our vehicles when we least expected it after we turned down the invitation he extended?”

  “I most certainly did not.”

  My brows furrowed. “You did order him to take over the St. Louis Chapter of Freeholders, didn’t you?”

  His lips twisted slightly. “Now that I did do. Or at least agreed to when he suggested it. I can’t afford for your clan to gain too many allies, Cassidy. Not until I convince you to see reason.”

  I snorted at that last statement. That he truly thought he could turn me to the dark side showed how truly little he knew me. “Then what plan are you referring to, father of mine?”

  He gave a more sincere smile when I called him that, despite the sarcasm still lacing my voice. “Dorian was to inform you and Harris about his being voted out as Steward. He was also supposed to offer you a trade. Isaac’s position restored in exchange for the safe return of my precious little Flower.”

  I blinked. “Lily.”

  Garrett nodded, expression serene. “Indeed. There is nothing on this earth I would not give—and nothing I would not do—to see her safe and sound. And the pain I would unleash upon anyone who hurt her would be unthinkable.”

  How odd to think that he might actually care about one of us; because that sounded very much like actual love in his voice when he discussed my wildcard of a sister. I might have felt jealous if I didn’t despise his sociopathic, villainous ass.

  “I have done nothing to Lily except everything in my power to heal her after that death spell Baby Brother threw.”

  “Yes, Drew did mention that she jumped in front of a spell—but he said you threw it at him.”

  I gave a bark of laughter. “Are you fucking kidding me? I barely know how to use my abilities in Spirit, whereas he’s your evil genius magical progeny. And if I’d wanted him or Lily dead, why would I have worked so hard to save her? Damned good thing I worked out how to use Spirit to reverse that spell. He meant to permanently kill me.”

  Muscles worked in his jaw and temples at that revelation. He seemed to be mulling over my words with serious consideration. On the one hand, he was raising Drew to follow in his footsteps and they had a shared past that he and I did not. On the other, only one of us two children had repeatedly lied to him. I’d been nothing but honest, even if completely opposed to everything he stood for.

  I decided to point that out. “Wasn’t it Drew who so very recently went behind your back to launch an unsuccessful attack against Clan Zi’s very well-fortified headquarters? Wasn’t it Drew who lied to you about that—and who knows what else? Aren’t I the one who only temporarily killed Keith and then gave him a second chance to redeem himself with me? Why would I ever cast a permanent death spell against one of my own siblings? You know how much family means to me.”

  Emotions flashed across his face in quick succession as he listened to my words. None of them were outright disbelief, so I decided to press my advantage. “Ask yourself this: Of the two of us, which one would you least trust to stand behind your back with a knife?”

  I shook my head because my body needed actual rest, and I was so over this father-daughter chat. Spirit answered my call, and the scene we’d been standing next to suddenly skidded into action. My dream-double hurried everyone out of the two SUVs and formed a shield to protect the people around her—including the worried Lily hovering nearby. Two explosions hit in fairly fast succession, and Lily was one of the first Dragons to bolster my shield—focusing her efforts on the area directly in front of me.

  I pointed to where a fiercely protective Lily now stood frozen in time since I had stopped the scene again. “Does that look like someone who’s worried that I’ll be the one plunging a knife into her back? Or does it look like someone willing to jump in front of a spell to save my life—the same way I would hers. Can you say the same for Drew? Would he do that for you?”

  By the flash of emotion in his eyes, I knew my words had hit home. “Now if you’ll excuse me, my body is about to waste away after all your allies have put it through. We can finish this discussion later.”

  His mouth opened to protest, but I’d already channeled Spirit to break away from the dream. I then wove a simple low-level ward to protect my dreams from further disturbances and slumbered for real.

  Boy, there was something satisfying about playing the rebellious daughter when one’s father was an egomaniacal tyrant trying to take over the world. A big smile lit up my face when Jake kissed me awake nearly two hours later. I was in such a good mood from pissing Garrett off that I didn’t bitch about him letting me sleep longer than planned.

  Theo and Melody looked up when Jake led me into the kitchen, where a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast waited. Obviously someone had made a run to the nearby corner market. I slid onto a stool at the huge island and dug in. Jake set a chilled can of Dr. Pepper in front of me and I pulled him in for a kiss. “Bless you!”

  Melody let out a laugh. “A Dr. Pepper fan, are you?”

  Jake chuckled. “That’s the understatement of the year.”

  I just winked and kept stuffing my face. Once I felt something approaching human, I let out a sigh. “All right. I’m gonna park on the couch while I contact everyone else. You think it’s safe to bring them all here?”

  Jake followed me into the living room and settled next to me on the sofa. My stalwart guardians started cleaning up in the kitchen, content to let me stay in another room since it was a relatively open floor plan. My bondmate wrapped an arm around my shoulder and hugged me.

  “I made a few calls while you were gone, and it looks like this place is still off the radar. Zoe was blindfolded when brought here for the trial, her brother is still dead back at the monastery, and everyone else who drove here with Isaac is still loyal to him. I had one of the Clan’s private investigators dig, and it doesn’t look like this house has been compromised.”

  I let out a relieved sigh. This place held a special place in my heart, since it was where I’d started falling in love with Jake. I felt safe here in a way I didn’t feel anywhere else. Even more than my cabin at Greener Pastures, it felt like home.

  “All right. I’m going to summon the troops here. We can then decide on our next steps. Isaac and Avani are going to have to grab what they can and run until they sort their Chapter politics out, but I really want to investigate my missing siblings before we leave. I feel like concrete proof of what Drew did to them will help drive a bigger wedge between him and our father.”

  Jake nodded thoughtfully. “That can only help our side. And maybe it’ll also help you decide for sure whether to trust Lily or not.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Confirming her details will at least validate she was telling the truth about that.”

  I leaned back into the couch, enjoying the warmth of Jake’s body pressed close and shut my eyes. Spirit jumped at my command, and I picture Dia clearly in my mind. Seconds later, my psyche leaped out of a thread of Spirit where my sister was currently holed up with Isaac and Avani. I didn’t recognize the small apartment where they sat around a kitchen table eating, but relief at seeing them safe flooded me.

  ((Did you save some pancakes for me?))

  Dia blinked in surprise but then kept eating. ((Sorry, sis, you’ll just have to find your own.))

  I projected mental laughter into her mind and then included the other two in my communi
cation. ((Jake cleared his house where we held Zoe’s trial. Isaac and Avani both know where that is, so feel free to head here ASAP. We’re gonna make our game plan from there.))

  Isaac reached out to clasp Dia’s hand and nodded. ((This is one of my main safehouses. Avani and I had plenty shit stashed here to get us through until we take out Garcia and reclaim our positions. We should be able to make it to you within the hour.))

  ((Excellent. I’d say take care of my little sister except she can take care of herself.))

  Dia smiled. ((And that’s why you’re my favorite big sister.))

  ((I’m your only big sister.))

  ((Semantics! Now don’t waste your energy arguing with me. We’ll see you soon.))

  I bid them all goodbye and then focused in on Liam and Nic next. They had taken shelter in a Clan-owned hotel not terribly far from Jake’s house. They’d claimed the best suite in the hotel and were enjoying a takeout meal around a fancy wood table. Lily seemed to be playing nice so far. Of course that could change at a moment’s notice; something I couldn’t afford to forget.

  ((Hey family.)) I included only the three I trusted in my telepathic greeting. ((That better not be my Dr. Pepper you’re drinking.))

  Rhianne snickered, earning a puzzled glance from Lily who was seated next to her. ((I’m quite sure you’ve broken into your stash at home by now. Or that my big brother made an emergency DP run to soothe the savage beast.))

  ((I may have started on my second can. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t welcome more!))

  ((So greedy,)) Liam drawled telepathically. ((I take it you found everything at Jake’s house as it should be?))

  ((Yep. Jake already confirmed that it hasn’t been compromised. All four of us swept it for magical traps when we arrived. Dia, Isaac, and Avani should be here within an hour.))

  Nic tilted his head. ((Are they going to be able to meet that deadline?))