by Dale Mayer
As soon as he said that, Rowan stopped struggling. He could see where the energy was zipped around in a circle. “It’s not possible to bind something closed with energy, is it?”
“Oh, yes, it is,” Grayse replied. He tapped the top of it and slid it back across to her. “This has got energy in a band all the way around it. Not this way across the top but along the middle and around the sides.”
She studied it for a long moment, reached out and pressed her finger to one spot.
Rowan could see the energy fall away. He looked at her. “How did you know to do that?”
“Because a weakness was there,” she said softly. “I could feel it with my fingers.” She slowly reached for the lid and popped it open.
Rowan wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but it looked like paperwork.
She pulled out several pieces of paper and opened them up. She gasped. “It’s made of the same material as that letter I’m trying to burn.”
“Which could be why you couldn’t get rid of it,” Grayse said. “It’s part of this piece, and this is completely wrapped in energy. If you can’t feel that, then I don’t know what to say.”
“I can feel it,” she said. “It’s buzzing through my fingertips.”
Rowan could see the papers were covered and surrounded in color, but it wasn’t blue, and it wasn’t gold. “There’s a weird energy too,” he said. “What is that?”
“It’s ancient energy,” Grayse said. “I don’t know what the paperwork says, but the actual material and the papers themselves are very old, according to the energy on it. If you don’t want to keep it, I do suggest we find a nice safe place for it and perhaps the letter you’ve been carrying around. Like in a couple museums and private collections, where some of these types of pieces are held.”
“Held to keep them safe or held to keep the rest of the world safe?” Phoenix asked, raising her gaze from the paperwork.
“What’s on the paperwork?”
“One is a letter to me from my father, one is a letter to him from his father, and one appears to be some sort of maybe recipe.”
Rowan couldn’t read any of the wording from where he was. When she folded the first and put it back in the box, he realized with disappointment she wouldn’t share. But then, why should she? It was her life, her history, her childhood. She read the second one, her breath catching in the back of her throat. She folded it and put it back in the box, then looked at the third one.
“It’s supposed to be a method of surviving walking through fire,” she said. “At least as far as I can tell.”
“And the letters?” Grayse asked bluntly. “What do they say?
“The one from my grandfather to my father says it was his gift to pass down, as it had been passed down to him and the Elders who had gone before, and he’s supposed to pass it down to the firstborn in his family. And basically my father’s is a repeat.” She pulled them out again, opened them up and held them up for both of the men to see.
Rowan realized it really was just that. “No explanation. Nothing?”
“No, that would be way too easy,” she said with a half laugh.
“No,” Rowan said. “He died, I think, or at least he’s been gone for quite a while. Maybe he’s not dead though.”
“There is a note in here about special energy,” she said. “The recipe tells about special family energy. As if our energy is different.”
“Meaning, you have abilities,” Grayse said. “They’re often hereditary.”
“So, did my father love me because I was like him, hate me because I was like him, or hate me because I was better than him?” she asked. She glanced from one man to the other. “Or does it even matter anymore?”
“It only matters if it matters to you,” Rowan said. “It’s what you do with your life from now on. Your father is dead.”
She shook her head. “No, he’s not. I can feel him, but now I also understand what that other energy I feel is. It’s my grandfather and possibly those who had gone before him,” she said.
Both men stiffened.
She nodded. “His energy is here. The same as my father’s. I’m wondering if that isn’t part of what this recipe is, to walk through fire and to live forever. Walk through fire with a family member, die in the process, but latch onto the Chosen One and live through them.”
“That doesn’t sound very nice,” Grayse said. “Is there a way to release them from our plane?”
She shrugged. “More writing is on the back, but it’s harder to read.” She read it quietly and then nodded. “Basically it’s how to live in spirit form. And that’s what they’re doing. I’m the Chosen One because I’m like them, so their energies aligned easier to mine so they can live through me.”
“Yet he tortured you.”
“I think, in here, it talks about that,” she said, pulling out her father’s letter that she carried with her, tapping the bottom part of the letter. “Making sure the person is prepared for what’s to come. I think my father took that and loosely applied his own idea of what being prepared meant.” She took a look at the box, lifting it up, putting her letter inside with the other letters, shutting it and then shaking it. “I don’t think anything else is in it.”
Then she stopped and looked closer at the bottom. “An inscription is on the bottom here and a year—1612.” She looked up at Rowan. “That’s a lot older than my great grandfather’s grandfather would have been,” she said.
“It was over four hundred years ago, so, yes,” he said. “Chances are this has been in the family since then, if not longer.”
“Maybe,” she said. “For that alone, it’s nice to have the box, but all this other stuff? Maybe not so much.” She turned to Grayse. “Is there any way to find out what abilities my father would have had?”
“Not that I know of,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a repository of that information? A database of everyone’s ability. But I’m sure you can understand that would be a very bad idea.”
Rowan added, “Think about the world at large and how many people would be afraid of them. I can’t think of anything worse. We’d all be persecuted.”
Grayse nodded. “So true. Anybody who doesn’t understand us would fear us. And fear causes retaliation,” he said. “Speaking of which, I highly suggest we leave this hotel, just in case.”
Rowan looked at him in surprise. “From the lawyer’s office?”
“The receptionist,” Phoenix said suddenly. “Something was in her gaze.”
“Exactly,” Grayse said. “If we check out now, we can always go to a different town or another hotel.”
“It’s probably too late already,” she said, checking her watch. “It is checkout time, but I don’t know that we can hide our exit from here.”
“Or we can just head straight home,” Rowan said.
She looked over at him and smiled. “That sounds perfect.” She turned to Grayse. “Are you coming back to Iceland?”
He gave a half a snort and stood. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Let’s get packed then,” Rowan said.
Phoenix got up, headed to her room and packed the rest of her stuff. She could hear a commotion outside the hotel.
Rowan called out to her. “Come on. Let’s go. They found us. We have to go now.”
She grabbed the box, her purse, putting it all together in her single bag, and found him standing at a fire escape.
“We’re going out this way,” he stated.
She raised an eyebrow, and he shook his head. “We have to go, and we have to go now.”
“Are they that angry?”
“I don’t know about angry as much as wanting to destroy something they saw as evil back then,” he said. “Mob mentality doesn’t allow for rational thinking. We don’t want to be here when they realize you are in this room.”
Phoenix climbed down the fire exit with Rowan behind her and Grayse bringing up the rear.
As she went to dash left, Rowan said
, “Stay here. We’ll get the vehicle and come back for you.”
She shook her head. “No, I can’t be separated from you.” She grabbed Rowan’s arm. He motioned to Grayse. He disappeared around to the front.
She looked up. “Do you think he’ll be okay?” she asked worriedly.
“You tell me.”
Just then, Grayse was thrown to the ground in front of them, his clothes on fire, screaming in terror.
They both ran to him, patting him down with their coats and jackets to stop the flames. And, when they could, they yelled for help.
Phoenix grabbed Rowan’s hand and said, “Stop.”
He looked over at her. “What?”
“This is a precog.”
He stared at her in shock. She motioned to the ground, and he saw no sign of Grayse. “We have to go help him now,” she said. She raced out to the front, Rowan with her.
The roar of the crowd built as they got closer to the street. The crowd had surrounded Grayse and were chanting something she couldn’t understand. He was shouting, explaining he hadn’t been involved, but no one was listening. No one cared.
They’d caught the scent of blood and, like a pack of animals, had him surrounded as he spun, reasoning with the unreasonable.
Then someone lit a torch on fire …
Rowan stepped in the middle of the circle and grabbed Grayse, plunging through the line to the other side, almost tossing him into the vehicle. Phoenix jumped in herself, hating the roar of anger from the crowd as they realized they were losing their prey. The smell of rage and fear and anguish. … That was what was really underneath it all. Had the crowd recognized Grayse from so long ago? Or was it just because he was here with her?
Neither made her feel better.
Rowan hopped in, turned on the engine and tried to back out. But they were surrounded by the angry mob.
“What just happened?” Grayse asked. “Talk about killer mobs.”
“We’ll explain in a minute. But we have to get out of here now. Rowan, drive,” Phoenix ordered.
He was trying to, but the crowd wasn’t going away. They were smashing rocks on the vehicle to get to them. He said, “If you guys have any way to stop this …”
“I do,” Phoenix spat. She opened her window, stuck out her hand, and shot fire all along the vehicle, sending the crowd screaming backward. “Now, drive. Drive. Drive,” she said, pulling back in through the window.
There was a space, and he hit the gas, and the SUV lunged forward.
She sagged against the seat and groaned. “I guess I don’t get to come back to this town again.”
“No,” Grayse said. “I presume you guys have a reason for what you did?”
She turned to him, seeing his gaze on her finger. She still held the fire in her hand. She quickly put it out and clenched her fist. She glanced at Rowan to see how he would react, but he was driving.
After taking a calming breath, she explained the vision they’d seen. “The last time we had seen one, it was about Irene. She had been there and fine, then running and jumping off the cliff and committing suicide. We didn’t even get a chance to think. So, this time, we raced out and grabbed you, so they couldn’t do whatever they would do to you.”
He stared at her. “That was a very twisted precog you two shared.”
“We’ve never had it happen before until Irene,” she said. “I don’t know why it’s happening between us now.”
“Because your abilities have blended to a certain extent,” Grayse said. “They’ve helped each other develop—stronger, better. And you have created a new ability between you.” He rubbed his hand across his forehead. He held out his arms and said, “I’m not burned, and I promise I’m not suicidal. I’m grateful for whatever intervention you did.”
“Just make sure you stay close,” she said. “I don’t know how long something like this can have an effect because, last time, the energy snatched Irene up and dragged her away from the cliff edge, but, as soon as she was cognizant again, she got up and took off on us on her own. It happened so quickly we barely had time to react.”
“So, what? I’m your prisoner for the next half hour?” he asked with a tilt of his lips.
She stared at him steadily and said, “It happened fast with her, but I can’t count on it, so I would think for much longer than that.”
*
Rowan could see the shock and disbelief on Grayse’s face. But Rowan was driving like a crazy man, without putting them in danger. His mind was consumed with the crowd and Phoenix’s fire. … She’d created and controlled it like a weapon. When he could speak, he said, “It’s because we’ve seen it before. We just want to make sure you don’t end up doing something completely freaky too.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Grayse said. “I’m not without some of my own instincts and gifts here, and I could recognize major danger when we were there, so your rescue was definitely timely, thank you.”
“Not a problem,” Rowan said. “There’s something about Phoenix and me now. Like you said, we’re stronger together.”
“That’s not unusual,” Grayse said. “We have several people with psychic abilities who partnered up, and it seems that, the longer they are together, the more their own abilities develop and grow, and, in a way, a third ability develops between them. Probably as a combination of their energies.”
“That’s a disconcerting thought,” Phoenix said with a laugh. “I never really knew much about what abilities were because I was raised with creating fire being a normal thing.”
“But only your father could do it, correct?”
“Correct,” she said. “As far as I knew, none of the other kids could. If they were all his offspring, it would explain why I was the Chosen One.”
“I wonder whether they were all his?”
“Some things you should just leave alone,” she said. “Nobody else survived that cult fire but me and potentially some of the energy of my father, which is … unnerving.”
“You can’t dwell on that now,” Rowan said firmly. “We are heading to the airport, and we’ll be back in Iceland soon.”
“It’s still a long set of flights,” she said. “Hardly an easy trip.”
“It will pass quickly. Just like all the rest of our trip passed.” He watched as she nodded and sank back into the corner, her head dropping against the side panel of the vehicle and closed her eyes.
In the review mirror, he raised an eyebrow at Grayse. He nodded and said, “Sleep’s the best thing for all of us. After an energy outlay like that, the adrenaline hits you, and then, all of a sudden, it stops and drops. Make sure you’re okay to keep driving.”
“I’m fine,” Rowan said. “At least, until I get home again.” He thought about it and said, “Is there any other paperwork we have to do, do you think?”
“We should hit the bank here, so she can access the accounts.”
“Maybe stop at one closer to the airport then,” Rowan said.
“Yes. It’s one of the national banks. So it shouldn’t be a problem. She has to get access to that account.”
Rowan nodded and brought up the banks on his route. There were two. “She’ll also need more food.”
“She does burn through a nice amount, doesn’t she?”
“And she’s burned out right now. That’s why she crashed. We’re twenty minutes away from a bank. I don’t know how quickly we can get our flights changed. I know another flight goes out today because I had to decide whether we would leave today or tomorrow.”
“Today would be better for all our sakes, but let’s hit the bank first. Deal with that, then maybe the airport and grab food there.”
That was what they did. They pulled into the parking lot of the bank. Rowan gently shook Phoenix awake.
She startled slightly and looked at him and blinked. She smiled when she realized it was him. “Are we at the airport?”
“No. We’re at the bank,” he said. “We need to make sure you can get access to
your account.”
She nodded and said, “Good plan. I wonder if that’ll be a problem.”
“I don’t think so. We got a lot of documentation from the lawyer.”
They jumped out of the SUV. Everyone stretched, and then they walked into the bank and inquired about speaking to a manager. They managed to get cards for her and to set up online banking, so she could access the money as she needed to.
With that done, Rowan shepherded them from the bank and back into the vehicle. He noticed Grayse was ready to collapse. “Now we’ll go to the airport,” he said. “I’ve already got a couple calls in about our flights, and they were checking. If we can get confirmation that we are cleared to fly out today, then we’ll take the rental back and go have a meal at the airport.”
As he was about to turn on the engine, his phone rang. Their flights were confirmed for today. With that in mind, he backed out of the parking lot, drove to the rental drop-off at the airport. Seeing that both of his travel mates were getting even droopier, he pushed them through baggage check. They headed to a restaurant and ordered coffee immediately and food.
Phoenix sat with her eyes half-closed and head resting in her hands, elbows on the table.
Grayse crossed his elbows and just dropped his head on top of the table and said, “I’m out.” By the time the coffee and food arrived, he was capable of lifting his head and looking around blurry-eyed. “Wow. That was like a ton of bricks hit me.”
“Energy’s like that,” Rowan said.
Grayse looked at him suspiciously. “But nothing affected you?”
“I’ll make it to the first flight,” he said. “Then I’ll be out.” He gently squeezed Phoenix’s fingers. “Phoenix, honey, wake up.”
She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. “I’m not really asleep.”
He grinned and said, “Glad to hear that. There’s coffee and food. Let’s eat. We’ll be boarding in about two hours.”
She nodded. “It’ll seem like a very long two hours.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But just think about it. Your life has changed completely. You have money. You know more about your heritage. As for your own property, you can take some time to think about it. Although that crowd was disruptive, and we’re away from them now, I highly doubt they’ll start anything at the airport.”