by Abby James
“A map,” Emrol breathed.
I spun a slow circle looking at everything at my feet. “A map to what? This is not Darkwells.”
“No,” said Jona. “This is the place before.”
“Huh?’ Harry said.
“I’ve seen pictures in some library texts,” Jona said, lowering the magical orb of light he’d conjured out of nothing, which danced around in his palm. He lowered his hand as far as he could into the hole to illuminate the farther reaches. “This is an exact replica I saw in one of the text. It dates back a few millennium. This is what was here on this spot before modern times.”
“An entire city,” I breathed. “This is amazing.”
“How long do you think it’s been here?” Juliet said.
“Since the start of the tournament,” Emrol said.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Honus said.
“It does if this is our clue,” I said.
“A light to lead the way,” Juliet said. “Jona you’re the light.”
“No, he’s not,” I said, pointing to a temple rising above the city. From this angle, with Jona’s orb casting a brilliant light over the map, a small sharp glow emanated from inside the model temple.
“There’s our light,” I said, moving closer to the temple, trying not to step on any of the relief work and destroying it in case anything else was useful. “I’d say this is where we are supposed to go.”
Behind me someone snorted. “Sure, let’s all pop back a few millennium,” Mila said.
“Samara’s right,” Emrol said.
Mila squeaked in annoyance.
Ignoring her, Emrol continued. “I know how to get there.”
I stared up at him dumbstruck, then at each of the team to see if anyone else had understood.
“Wait a minute,” Honus said. “You’re not seriously suggesting we all go back to those times. They were brutal back then. Sacrifices were the norm. There was no electricity and everything you ate had to be caught.”
“Harry, Samara, move away from the center of the map,” Jona said.
“What are you going to do?” Juliet said.
“We need a picture to take with us so we can easily find our way to the temple.”
“You don’t think that ugly thing won’t be easily seen,” Mila said.
“I’m not taking any chances,” Jona said. “We’ve got to do this right the first time.”
“Are you going to use more sorcery to take a picture?” Juliet asked, sounding impressed.
“Yeah, my cell,” Jona said pulling his cell from his back pocket.
Harry and I crammed over to the wall and gave Jona an uninterrupted view of the three dimensional map.
“How do you think Emrol can get us there?” I asked Harry, but he shrugged, shaking his head.
“With any luck Mila will get stuck back there when we return,” he said.
I chuckled. At least some of us were banding together to help us get through this mess. Without Mila it would be a fun team.
“Okay, got it,” Jona said staring at his screen.
“Stay where you are,” Harry said. “Once I change climb onto my back and hold on. Oh, and try not to pull out too much fur.”
He stripped his boxers without any shame, but I guess we’d all seen what was underneath already. My eyes still watered from the sight; lucky Linda.
The change was fast, noisy and painful to watch. Even so I couldn’t look away. I’d seen it happen once, but the fascination would likely never grow old. The way his nose elongated into a snout looked the worst, but once the teeth extended and the hair grew thick all over his body it was hard to believe moments ago he was a man. And huge. My god. As a man he hulked over everyone. As a bear he dwarfed the hole.
He turned his head and stared at me through small black eyes. Taking that as my cue, I shoved his boxers into my jean’s pocket and approached.
“I hope you remember you offered this,” I said, as I ran a hand over his pelt, fingers sinking in and still I didn’t feel his body. It was gorgeous and smooth, and I felt tempted to bury my face amongst the fur and breathe in the wildness of him. Maybe that was a result of the energy that came my way from touching him. I think I was becoming attracted to the raw energy that came from an animal extra specially powered.
He smelt of the woods, fresh air and pollen. And that was likely my now enhanced senses.
I leaped up onto his back without too much effort thanks to his added juice, then lay down on his back, digging my fingers into his fur and hoping I wouldn’t pulled out clumps when he leaped.
The bound was smooth. We sailed up. I closed my eyes, fearful for one moment he wouldn’t clear the rim and would crash down with me underneath, but with the soft jerk to say we landed, I opened my eyes and stared at the rest of my team.
“You did it,” Juliet clapped.
Mila stood behind everyone with her arms folded across her chest, shutting herself off from the exuberance.
“How do you expect to wind back a few millennium?” Honus said to Emrol.
Jona was the only one with the light bulb moment expression written across his face.
“You’re going to use glamour to make us believe we’re all back there.”
“We’ve all seen the map enough to help conjure the image in our minds. I just need to nudge you all enough to grow your imagination. It shouldn’t be hard.”
“Oh cool. I’m happy with that,” Honus said, “At least we’re not going to be back there for real.”
“You obviously don’t know a lot about glamour,” Jona said.
Honus’s smile dropped. He flicked a look at each of us, a nervous frown creeping across his face. “What?”
I shrugged my allegiance to his ignorance.
“Oh god, you buffoon. Weren’t you just caught in a fae’s glamour less than half an hour ago?” Mila groaned.
“Glamour can be no less real to your mind.” Emrol’s calm voice was in contrast to Mila’s snarky sharp tone. “So real in fact people have been known to die while caught within the web in their minds. They cannot distinguish fiction from fantasy.”
“Do we really want to do this,” Honus said.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” I said. “We all saw the light.”
“This sucks,” Honus breathed, his shoulders drooping.
I looked away from Honus to Emrol. “How are you going to do this?”
“One at a time. If you all focus on what you saw then it will help direct you to the same spot. I want you to think about the temple. The light within the temple. I think that should keep you all together. I can set you there, but if you focus more on some other part of the map you may end up closer to that place than were we all want to end up.”
Everyone nodded.
“Should we sit down or something?” Honus said, his nerves creeping into his voice.
“If you want,” Emrol said. “It won’t make any difference once you’re there.”
Emrol turned to Mila. “You want to go first?”
“Sure.” She smiled, staring up into his eyes with total trust and adoration.
Emrol placed his hands on either side of her temple. “Close your eyes.”
She pouted, then puckered her lips and thrust her chin forward. Emrol smiled and leaned down, giving her a light but lingering kiss. Juliet whispered a groan beside me, and I have to admit I felt the same. Why did he pander to her whims? But I guess fae held no loyalty except to their own kind. He didn’t care that she was a glass A bitch, only that she was a good screw and lost within his charms even without beguilement. Strangely enough, I didn’t hold that against him. He was staying true to the nature of his faction, just as Mila was to hers, the bitch faction, an ultra rare faction, so rare it contained only two people, Mila and her sister.
Kiss over, Emrol stared into Mila’s eyes, she stared back, then slowly her eyes closed, her mouth parted. Soon Emrol let her go and turned to Jona.
“You’re next.”
&n
bsp; Jona did not pucker up for a kiss and neither did he look into Emrol’s eyes, but his eyes also closed and his face softened after a few moments.
Emrol worked through each of us, one by one until he reached me.
“You’re turn, sweetcakes.” It was the first time he had used any form of endearment with me, and I would have to say, embarrassingly enough, I liked it. I’d gotten over my insta-swoon over Emrol. I had also become accustomed to his super hot looks such that I could continue to behave normal while around him even when he was standing this close in front of me, staring down at me with his luscious turquoise eyes. Okay, so maybe my girlie parts tingled a little with our close, intense eye contact, but I wasn’t about to ask for a kiss.
Instead of staring into his eyes, like Mila and Juliet for that matter, I closed my eyes in preparation for what I had seen happen with everyone else.
I wasn’t too worried about what would happened when he touched me. The worst would be I ended up zapping back through the years faster than everyone else.
A vibration hummed at my temples were his fingers touched. Next I felt a lurch in my heart and before I knew it I was yanked off my feet. That’s how it felt, but it couldn’t be right for no one else fell back on their asses because they felt like they had been wrenched off their feet. It had to be my own ability enhancing Emrol’s, telling my mind to give my body a ride.
I landed with a heavy thud onto my back, the wind slammed out of my lungs. I rolled to my side coughing what little air was left, then took great sawing inbreathes. Once I was breathing again, I slowly rose to sitting and looked around. Flaming torches clung to the walls, casting flickering shadows off the stone work. I lay on the cold gritty surface of a stone floor.
“Guys,” I yelled as I slowly rose to my feet. No answer.
Dammit, this had to be because of my ability. Our abilities combined and I must’ve jettisoned myself somewhere else in my head. I turned in a circle. Now my eyes had adjusted to the light I could see the basic layout of the room. It was empty except for one stone table in the center. My body spasmed with a sudden shiver as I stared at the heavy slab.
This place was definitely not Darkwells. At least no part of Darkwells I had seen before. Given the lack of lighting other than the primitive torches, the gritty stone floor and gaping spaces devoid of anything resembling the twenty-first-century, I would have to say it had worked. I’d rolled back the millennium to ancient times in my mind, only where was everyone else? I had tried to focus on the temple, but at the last, when Emrol had touched me, I focused on the extra sensations I always received when he touched me.
Two steps was all I took when I heard footsteps in the distance. It had to be the others. Thank god. I rushed to the back of the room, the direction from which they came and the dark passage that led farther into the building. The flicker of flames danced off the walls as they approached. They had grabbed themselves a torch and approached at a rapid pace if the hard smack of the footfalls were an indication? People who knew where they head moved that fast through dark corridors not people who had just landed here from another millennium.
I backed up away from the passage, but there was nowhere for me to hide in a room with only a stone table. I had dawdle too long. Three people entered the chamber. None were part of my team.
The guy with the flame stationed himself like a guard, coming to an abrupt halt, one hand behind his back, standing erect like he’d snapped to attention. From behind him appeared a fourth man, sauntering past the three and farther into the room.
All were wrapped in elaborate clothes of lush animal pelts and vibrant colored material, woven with jade and feathers. Under the extravagant material draped over their bodies they wore simple loin cloths. The man standing directly in front of me was adorned with an ostentatious headdress of sprouting feathers and jade jewelry wrapped multiple times around his neck.
He smiled at me and creepy tingles rushed throughout my body.
“At last.” He spread his arms. “Welcome, Samara.”
24
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.
This was not good. I didn’t need to be a sleuth to know I was in deep trouble. Emrol said the power of fae glamor was enough to kill someone in real life if they suffered convincingly while stuck within their minds. And how the hell did this guy know my name? And where was everyone else?
“Do not be alarmed, my child. Your arrival has been much anticipated.”
Shit, they had been expecting me. What the fuck?
“Who are you?”
The guy in the big headdress strode closer and crouched in front of me. “Someone who has been eagerly anticipating this moment.”
“How do you know me?”
“The supernatural world is much smaller than you would believe.”
“Scullion?”
He stood. The feathers on his headdress fluttered and the flame from the torches flickered as a small gust of wind ran through the room, which had to mean there was an exit somewhere close by.
“The pleasure is all mine.”
I scuttled to my feet, and the men who’d entered with Scullion stepped back, creating room like they were readying themselves for my attack. Scullion could not know my ability. No way. I’d only recently discovered the truth myself. Unless…shit. No, I couldn’t believe Luca had betrayed me. He was loyal to Darkwells Amy said. But how much did she really know about the elusive vampire. He had disappeared for a week, claiming he’d been roaming the streets trying to get a name on who was after me. But it could’ve been a hoax, an elaborate cover up.
No, I couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t understand how you are here.”
I was in glamor, still at Darkwells, safe as long as I didn’t suffer a shock that made me believe I was mortally injured.
“It’s very easy, Samara. I intercepted your friend’s fae trick. It’s quite easy to insert yourself within another’s imagination if you know how.”
“So you’re inside my head.”
He indicated to our surroundings. “This is all your architecture. And perhaps a rather good approximation of the real thing. I couldn’t say for sure since I wasn’t alive at the time. I like the outfits, by the way. Although I don’t think I would blend in very well on the streets.”
“So if this is my imagination then I can write you out of this scene?”
He laughed and his minions joined in with him like the classic tough guy and hired help sort of set up you saw in gangster movies. He waved a finger at me. “That’s very funny. I like it. But I’m afraid it’s not accurate. You see, I brought myself here, and only I can take myself out.” He walked over to the stone table, ran a finger along the surface before turning to me. “I do hope your fae friend informed you of the dangers of being in glamor.”
“This lasts as long as I allow it. All I need to do is shut it out of my mind.”
“That is an insult to the fae and their control of glamor. Do you really think it is that easy?”
Given his smug expression, perhaps not. I stayed quiet not wanting to be a part of this conversation, more accurately, threat.
“Where are my friends?”
“You needn’t worry about them. They play no part in this.”
“Why me?”
He paced in front, keeping his eyes on me.
“Are you really that naive to the forces that have led you to Darkwells? I must say Nathan has been remiss.”
If I thought I could get away with it I would rip Nathan’s name from his mouth. Traitors like him did not deserve to speak of people whom I cared for with such condescension.
“You fascinate me. You’re an enigma.”
“I’m boring really.”
“Not according to someone I pay particular attention to.”
Could that be the person Luca was chasing? “You were a top student at Darkwells, well respected. And you betrayed everyone to become a skurk.”
“Really, you surprise me, given your father.”
&nb
sp; Cool it, Samara. He’s goading you. “And I suppose you are going to tell me the two of you were good friends.
“We’ve met a few times.”
We’ve met. Wrong tense. The lighting was poor. I couldn’t see clear enough to guess his age, but from what I could make out I would say mid-thirties. And if that were true he would’ve been young when he met my father.
Scullion turned to me, casting an eye from head to toe in the way men do when they’re trying to degrade you. “I must say I’m vastly underwhelmed by what I see before me. I expected more spunk.”
I straightened and lifted my head. “Why are you here? Or is this a case of following the leader.”
He chuckled as he came toward me. “There may be some spirit in there somewhere, but you’ve been allowed to grow soft. Too much nurturing. Nathan played his part well.”
I followed his paces with my eyes. “For that I am eternally grateful.”
“You know he used to be someone who made other supernaturals pause to think before they angered him. Now he is tamed, a mockery.”
“If he is such a mockery then why didn’t you take me earlier? Seems to me he was very effective at his job. I’ve been safe for all these years.”
“I never underestimate my enemy. McGilus has made a fatal error in underestimating me.”
“He hasn’t underestimated you. That is why he sent Nathan to be my guardian. He knew Nathan was your match. I would not have made it to Darkwells if not for Nathan. McGilus knew what he was doing.”
“If he is so great, why are you here with me now?”
He had me there. “He is a better supernatural and a better man than you.”
Scullion moved like the wind, leaping toward me. The slap was a surprise. The force of it sent me staggering to the side. I’d seen his hand at the last, with no time to duck or move away. The sound of smacked flesh echoed around the chamber.
“I will teach you obedience. I will show you what it means to be great and what it means to be afraid.”
He kicked out, catching me behind my knees, which sent me to the floor. The sharp pain of colliding with the stone vibrated up through my bones, but I bit back my cry. No way would I give him that.