by Bella Klaus
“There is no means in angelic medicine to tear two joined souls asunder,” she replied, sounding grave.
“Then demonic medicine?” I blurted. “Greek gods?”
Valentine pulled me into his side. “Mera is right. We need recommendations for several healers, not just one. As the most eminent practitioner of soul healing, you must have colleagues around the Supernatural World we can consult?”
Her shoulders sagged. Maybe she thought we were going around in circles, maybe she thought she’d already given us a solution to rid the world of Kresnik, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice myself when most members of the Supernatural Council weren’t making much of an effort against him.
“Your best option at this stage would be to consult the history books,” she murmured. “Or find a supernatural who remembers Kresnik from before his previous defeat and see if they can identify potential weaknesses.”
My gaze locked with Valentine’s. The only Greek god we knew was a scoundrel who couldn’t even produce a simple register without being coerced. Valentine’s shoulders squared, and he offered me a tight smile.
It looked like my prediction that Hades would become an important ally was truer than I’d ever imagined.
Healer Hadriel completed her examination, finding no other sources of violation except for Kresnik’s soul bond and concluding that I was suffering from magical exhaustion. After prescribing forty-eight hours of soul remedies and rest, she booked me into the hospital’s convalescence suite.
Our next destination was another elevator ride away that took us around the main hospital building, a huge round structure surrounded by transparent tunnels that reminded me of Saturn and its rings. I only caught glimpses of Atlantis City in the distance, which was a mostly green paradise encased within a dome.
Neither of us spoke through the ten-minute journey, both lost in our own thoughts. Now that I shared a bond with Kresnik, he could probably access my magic, but could he enter my dreams? A shudder ran down my spine.
The elevator slowed toward the convalescence suite, another circular structure the same size as the Soul Healing ward. Once our transparent cab had attached itself to the building, the doors hissed open, revealing an apartment the size of the derelict penthouse.
Its open-plan interior was the height of a two-story house, with twenty-foot-tall walls, pale wood floors, and a mezzanine level that I guessed contained the bedroom suite. In the middle, a huge navy blue rug that housed an electric blue sofa formed the living area, and on the far-left wall stood a large kitchen and dining table.
“Are you alright?” Valentine placed a hand on the small of my back and guided me out of the elevator.
I stepped out, waiting for the elevator doors to shut before meeting his concerned gaze. “What are we going to do? It almost sounded like Healer Hadriel thought I was the solution for making sure Kresnik never escaped.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and the muscles of his jaw tightened. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I won’t lose you.”
“You won’t.” I placed my palms over his chest.
Valentine’s heartbeat resounded against my fingertips with a force that I felt deep within my bones. Maybe he thought I was considering self-sacrifice. I had to speak before he carried out his threat to put me in manacles.
“Listen to me.” I slid my hands around his neck.
His eyes narrowed. “Is this where you assure me you won’t do anything stupid and proceed to get yourself captured or hurt?”
I couldn’t even bristle at his words, because they were laden with truth. Instead, I shook my head, clinging to him as though that might keep him in place. “This is where we work together. If you want to put me in a pocket dimension for the duration of the war, then make sure it’s one that blocks Kresnik’s bond with me.”
“I’m not sure that such a thing exists.” His features relaxed, but not enough to demonstrate he was convinced by my words.
“Maybe we should ask around.”
Valentine’s brows formed a deep V. “You’re serious about hiding away?”
I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder, letting his sandalwood and musk scent fill my nostrils and calm my senses. Valentine’s smoky magic curled around me in a warm hug, an assurance that no matter what happened in the upcoming weeks, he would always be my protector.
“Kresnik needs to die,” I murmured. “But I need to stay alive to have that future with you. If isolating me somewhere while breaking this bond is a solution, then let’s try it.”
“Alright.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pressed a soft kiss on my forehead.
I tilted my head up to meet eyes bluer than the ocean, which shone with the depth of his concern. Maybe he’d had enough time to come to terms with this new complication, because the red in his irises had reduced to the thinnest of flecks. Creases formed between his brows, and his lids were heavy with sorrow.
A buzzer rang, making us jump apart and turn toward the source of the sound—a birchwood door beneath the mezzanine. Who else but Healer Hadriel knew of our location?
I glanced at Valentine and frowned. “Do you think that’s the concierge?”
“Nobody welcomed me when I last stayed here.” He pressed a finger to his lips, then pointed at the upper level, indicating for me to hide.
With a nod, I hurried across the wooden floor and up the stairs to a cozy mezzanine bedroom that overlooked the living area. I jogged past the king-sized bed that took up most of the space and stopped at three doors along the wall. The one on the left contained an empty walk-in closet, the middle an oatmeal-colored bathroom that matched the bed, and the third had a brass plaque marked EMERGENCY.
The door beneath where I stood clicked open. Valentine exchanged words with another deep voice, but I couldn’t follow the conversation as they spoke in low voices. After a few minutes, a set of lighter footsteps hurried inside, and a female voice cried out.
“Mera?”
My heart somersaulted, exploding into fireworks of hope. “Aunt Arianna?”
Chapter Seven
Time stilled, and the space between heartbeats lengthened. I leaned against the emergency door, my breaths turning shallow. The entire mezzanine felt like it had tilted to the side, tipping me toward the balcony overlooking the living-room area.
Anticipation tingled through my limbs, and butterfly wings fluttered in my belly, seeming to carry me around the king-size bed. Not smiling, not breathing, not daring to hope, I floated on numb limbs toward the stairs.
I hadn’t seen Aunt Arianna since leaving Logris in disgrace. We’d spoken on the phone hundreds of times and video-chatted in the three years we’d spent apart, but she had never tried to get a permit to visit London.
With hindsight, I guessed she was so afraid someone might suspect me of having fire magic that she settled for sending me care packages of magic-suppressing chocolates.
“Mera, where are you?” she said.
My heart flipped like a crêpe. The last time I’d heard that voice, it was from the mouth of a shapeshifter faerie Hades and the Mage King had hired to set up that trap. What if the Mage King had handed Aunt Arianna’s DNA samples to Kresnik’s minions and this was another attempt to capture me? I doubted that even Valentine could tell the difference between the impostor and the real thing.
I reached the top of the stairs and gripped the handrail, placing all my weight on my arm in case my legs buckled. The wool of my turtleneck felt too tight, too warm, too coarse, and the muscles under my skin quivered with longing.
She stood a few feet away from the base of the stairs, her mouth and arms and shoulders falling slack, her head tilted upward, and gazed up at me with wonder. It was the same fixed gaze I’d noticed from those who saw my phoenix.
“Mera?” Her voice trembled.
My steps faltered. “It’s me.”
Her blue-gray eyes glistened—the same hue mine used to be before I came into my power. I used to think Aunt Arianna was r
ed-haired like me, but after spending so much time in the Flame with fire users, I now recognized her hair color to be a darker shade of strawberry blonde.
Looking at Aunt Arianna was like seeing an alternative version of a reality where Aurora hadn’t escaped Logris for the lure of Kresnik. Same features, only my aunt’s were rounder and softer.
The only thing that differed were their bodies. While Aurora was tall and wiry, Aunt Arianna was short like me, but curvaceous. My throat thickened. She looked so small and out of place in these luxurious surroundings.
As if our minds had synchronized, the shock of seeing her fell away with a snap, and we rushed into each other’s arms.
Aunt Arianna’s hug was warm and soft with a nutmeg and cinnamon scent that engulfed my senses, reminding me of the days when I had returned from the academy, feeling low due to some slight from Ellora Vandamir and her harpies.
I let my eyes flutter shut, savoring our contact. “Is that really you?”
“I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
My chest swelled with a surge of emotion, and tears spilled from my eyes. That was all the confirmation I needed. It was really her.
Aunt Arianna stepped back, sweeping her gaze down my form and then back up again. “You haven’t been eating.”
I shifted on my feet, trying not to cringe at the prospect of lying to my only parent. “It’s been a busy few weeks.”
Her eyes softened. “I’ve read every paper published since we escaped Logris, but it’s hard to work out the truth.” She turned to glance at Valentine, who stood a respectful distance away beneath the edge of the mezzanine. “If you restored His Majesty like it said, then why did it take so long for you to look for me?”
Valentine and I exchanged glances, and he offered me a tight smile that said she’d be better off hearing the story from me.
I exhaled a long, shuddering breath. “Why don’t we sit down for a cup of tea while I fill you in?”
Her features melted into a warm smile. “That sounds wonderful.”
I guided Aunt Arianna to the electric-blue sofa, and we sat side by side, the way we used to on the two-seater in our old cottage. My breaths slowed, and my mind flooded with fond memories.
For the longest time, it was just the two of us, reading together, cooking together, celebrating minor rituals in our living room. It had meant so much when Aunt Arianna had accepted me when the Academy suspected me to be a Neutral and hadn’t minded at all when my magic failed to manifest. Because of her, I grew up knowing love.
Her fingers intertwined with mine, and she turned to me with a watery smile. “What happened after the firestone’s effects faded?”
I reared back, furrowing my brow. “It was supposed to go away?”
She mirrored my frown. “The faeries who helped me enchant the blood assured me that the firestone granules would allow only you to draw on the power it absorbed.”
“Something must have gone wrong with their spell,” I muttered. “The stone encased my heart and absorbed most of my magic. Aurora and her people had to perform a ritual to separate me from it.”
Her eyes widened. “You met your mother?”
The memory of Aurora sliced through my gut like a dagger. I pulled my gaze away from Aunt Arianna’s, turning to a low table with a lapis lazuli surface that held an array of leather-bound menus. It was bad enough telling her that I knew the stories she had told me about my beautiful, kind mother were fabrications, but how on earth would I break the news of her horrific death?
My fingers trembled so much that I could barely get a grip on the menu.
“Mera.” Aunt Arianna placed the back of her hand on my temple, the way she did when checking for a fever. “Is there something wrong?”
Valentine reached across the table and took the menu from my loose fingers. “Focus on your aunt. I’ll order us an all-day brunch.”
As he walked to the other side of the apartment, I dropped my gaze to my lap, drawing so much air into my lungs that I felt they might burst. “So much happened these few weeks that it’s hard to know where to begin.”
“Start with when I spoke to you in your cell,” she said.
All the breath in my lungs whooshed out with a sigh of relief. That part of the story was easy. With a nod, I told her how I’d almost escaped but got caught and used my engagement ring to reach Valentine in the palace’s mausoleum.
After skimming over the part where the blood lure curse turned Valentine’s brothers into feral beasts, I turned to Aunt Arianna and met her wide eyes. “There wasn’t enough power to generate any flames, and that’s how Valentine got to rise as a preternatural.”
Her shoulders sagged. “This is my fault.”
Valentine emerged from the kitchen area with a huge tray and set it on the low table. “If you hadn’t masked Mera’s fire magic, my colleagues would have had her executed.”
And Hades would have taken possession of my soul. Without the chance to get to know me as a person, he would have forever considered me a fascinating beast to be kept within a golden cage.
The mingled scents of savory food and warm chocolate filled my nostrils, and my stomach gurgled with the reminder that I hadn’t eaten in ages. Valentine’s all-day brunch turned out to be a massive tray crammed with dishes. In one quarter, eggs baked in saucer-sized mushrooms sat in a bed of steamed chard and rosemary-roasted potatoes and roasted tomato halves.
In another section sat perfectly formed varieties of eggs Benedict, some with slices of ham, others with smoked salmon, and some with spinach. My mouth watered at the selection. I reached for the third quarter containing avocado toast and selected a piece topped with asparagus, red onions, and cherry tomatoes.
Aunt Arianna picked up a chocolate-covered Belgian waffle from the fourth quarter and exhaled a long sigh. “The faeries I bargained with must have ended the enchantment to give you the use of your magic after I disappeared.”
I bit down on my toast, my eyes bulging. “You owe faeries money?”
The corners of her lips turned down. “It’s as His Majesty says. They couldn’t catch you with fire magic or you’d die. Since I already had an escape route to Atlantis, I made a deal to save you that I’m incapable of repaying.”
“Which is why you never returned to Logris?”
She nodded. “Faeries can be quite vengeful creatures. At least here in Atlantis, everyone is afforded a level of privacy from pursuers.”
“How much do you owe?” asked Valentine.
Aunt Arianna’s cheeks turned pink. “I couldn’t possibly divulge—”
“I insist on paying,” he said in a voice of steel. “We would like you to attend the wedding and be part of our family.”
Now it was my turn to flush. After all the disasters that happened since getting engaged, I’d forgotten about walking down the aisle in a fancy dress. I placed a hand on Aunt Arianna’s, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Please. When Logris is safe again, I’ll need you close.”
She bit down on her waffle, eating it with slow, deliberate chews the way she always did when thinking through a problem.
I held my breath. Aunt Arianna was an independent witch, frugal with her money, and took care of us both without needing charity. She’d never borrowed anything over the years—not even a cup of sugar. Relying on Valentine to pay off her debts had to sting, considering she didn’t trust vampires, but I hoped she would push aside her pride and accept his help.
“My children will need to know their grandmother,” I said.
“Alright,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “I’ll write down the amount after brunch.”
“And the name of the faerie who holds your bargain,” Valentine added.
She nodded and took another bite of her waffle. “Thank you. It’s reassuring to know Mera has a fine protector.”
Warm gratitude filled my chest, and I exhaled my relief. Aunt Arianna had always disapproved of my relationship with Valentine, sayin
g that high-ranking supernaturals only had one use for innocent young Neutral girls. Maybe she was starting to warm to Valentine after all.
I pressed a kiss on her cheek. “Thanks for helping with the safe house in Notting Hill.”
“It was mostly thanks to His Majesty and his staff.”
“I told you to call me Valentine,” he said.
Nodding, Aunt Arianna shifted in her seat. “I mostly worked alongside Kain and Caiman, who helped me source large quantities of firestone, and I made additions to the wards to stop your magic from burning the place down.”
I nodded, remembering digging up the ward stone wrapped with my hair.
She twisted around in her seat and met my gaze with a frown. “How did you find Aurora and convince her to help unlock your magic?”
“It’s a long story.” I bit down on my avocado toast.
“We have enough time, don’t we?” She glanced at Valentine, who nodded. “Tell me everything.”
My gaze swept across the table, where he’d laid out three teacups and a bone-china pot that matched the apartment’s pale decor. There was no point in telling Aunt Arianna the sanitized version of events that Hades had shared with the Supernatural Council. She had a way of sniffing out lies that rivaled an Inferno hound.
Pouring out three cups, I continued my story from the point where we arrived in Kresnik’s derelict mansion, telling her about Jonathan’s attempt to abduct me, teaming up with him to rescue what I’d thought was the rest of the coven, to finally meeting the residents of the Flame.
Aunt Arianna barely touched her waffle, only taking a sip of tea when I took a bite of my brunch. She stared at me with unblinking eyes. “I can’t believe she arranged for that young man to spy on you.”
“It wasn’t really her.” My gaze dropped to the tea. “She was only a team leader in the Flame. By the time I met her, she’d been completely brainwashed.”