I peered between the seats at my Godly comrade and rolled my eyes when Joseph clutched his hands in a mockery of Ryder, falling back with his tongue dangling out the corner of his mouth. My grin faded when two fingers gripped my chin and forced my head back to the instigator himself. Ryder’s eyes flashed from my eyes to my lips. My cheeks heated.
“Why are you here right now, anyway?” I grumbled, tugging on his wrist.
“The answer should be obvious.”
“Well, it isn’t.”
“Remember what I told you yesterday?” he asked. My jaw locked and he stroked the throbbing muscles, leaning in close enough for our lips to brush as he whispered, “I wasn’t kidding. And yes, that means I’m perfectly content being your seatmate for the whole twenty-hour flight, even if you pretend to hate me.” He kissed my forehead, satisfaction radiating from every pore.
“Want me to kick his ass?” Rose called from the front of the plane. She’d made herself at home in the flight attendant spot to better keep an eye on the cabin. The remaining pixies were scattered in the back, bodies sprawled across the aisles. One even lay backward on her seat, legs crossed and propped against the backrest. I seriously considered Rose’s offer for a good three seconds before signing a negative.
“I’d like to see you try, pixie brat,” Ryder taunted, fingers drumming a beat on his leg. “I’d have you pinned on the ground before you so much as laid a finger on me.”
The pixie bared her double-rows of teeth, black-stained eyes narrowing. “My thorns have been begging for a taste of your blood you—”
“Please fasten your seat belts.” Steve’s nasal voice came from the speakers overhead. “We’re preparing for takeoff.”
Rose made a crude gesture at the ceiling but dutifully fastened the belt around her hips. I reached for mine, and nearly grabbed Ryder’s arm instead. He took care sliding the black vinyl around my hips, making sure each of his fingers brushed against the skin exposed by my shirt that had hiked up at some point.
Sparks danced and my mouth went dry when he pressed his lips beneath my ear. “Safety first, glowstick.”
He chuckled when I tried shoving him away with all my strength. I caught Finn’s eye over the seat, but couldn’t gauge the weariness of his expression. The plane started moving and Joseph opened the book with another huff. Finn did a double-take when he spotted it.
“He’ll crack the code,” I explained and he nodded. I still wasn’t comfortable with the kelpie, not like I used to be, but the heavy weight of resentment that I’d harbored for weeks had dissipated overnight.
“Up for a game of I Spy? Or maybe tic-tac-toe?” Ryder thrust a notebook and a purple pen in my face. I sighed as Finn barely disguised his half-grin. “It’ll be difficult playing the license plate game from up here, but if you’re down I’ll give it my best go.”
I snatched the book and tossed it to the floor. “Are you seriously going to sit here this entire trip?”
“Absolutely. You and I, we have a long story to tell.” The palm of his hand curled around my cheek as his fingers brushed hair from my forehead. I leaned into the touch despite myself. “And this is only the beginning.”
Chapter 8
Water deep as my ankles sluiced over my boots, yet my feet remained dry.
I turned a slow circle, the ripped hem of my lacy dress dragging across the surface of the water, the ripples fanning outward in the small room. More water trickled down the gray stone walls stacked twice my height and dripped from the ceiling. Aside from the pool that never seemed to get higher, no matter how much water rained down, the room itself was empty.
My fingers twitched and a whip of liquid wound itself into my palm.
“What a morose little chamber.” Kaleal’s voice came from behind me. It didn’t surprise me that she’d found me here. She’d probably hovered behind me every night when I finally fell asleep, clicking her tongue in disgust at my inability to deal with my emotions. “Why you chose to lock yourself in here is beyond me. There are far more interesting rooms in this vast mind of yours.”
I pulled the whip through my hands, the water molding to my whims. The ancient being slouched against the wall, her body little more than mist wrapped in a human shape. Yet, even in the shadows, her purple eyes glowed: intelligent and wicked. Tendrils of liquid dripped from my ragged braid, soaking my back.
Despite her words, she knew why I’d tucked myself behind these walls, why I’d curled in on myself in the pool of water, staring at my reflection, willing myself to remain flat and blank every night. Outside this room, my mind was a riot of emotion, of memories.
Beyond that door carved into the wall beside Kaleal was a world of fire. That door had vanished the first night. Now it was back, open a crack, further evidence that I’d truly shattered my defenses.
“Why are you here, Kaleal?” I asked, my voice echoing.
“Because you willed me here.”
“We both know that isn’t true.” I curled the end of the whip around my wrist and snipped the length, leaving a crude bracelet behind.
“Are you so sure?” The pool remained flat as she stepped away from the wall. The streaming ribbons of her blue robe hung elegantly from her watery shoulders. “Maybe you’re apprehensive about burning this place to the ground. Maybe you’re ready to take hold of your role in this life once again, but you need a little push. Maybe you know I’m the one who can do that for you.”
She wasn’t exactly wrong.
I narrowed my eyes, waiting for her to reach me. Despite her lack of shape, we were the same height, roughly the same build. I reached for her before I knew what I was doing, and her eyes danced. “Just say you’re ready, and I’ll do the rest.”
I wrenched my arm back, wrestling control back with it. I didn’t need her. I didn’t need that extra push. Part of me knew that giving her even the smallest inch would mean sacrificing an inch of myself. Right now, I desperately needed to get myself back—not peddle it away.
“No.”
In four impossibly long steps, I was at the door. My fingers curved around the crystal knob, and I turned for one last look. Kaleal lingered in the center of the room, her back to me. I tugged the door harder, the heat outside warming my back. Sweat trickled down my neck.
“What are you waiting for?” the God taunted. “You want yourself back, don’t you?”
Damn her.
I flung the door wide. The heat hit me first, a punch that nearly knocked me to my knees. But I stood firm as the flames devoured me whole, vaporizing my dress and burning my hair. Despite the intensity of the fire licking at my heels, swiping its claws along my skin, it felt as pleasant as the water I swaddled myself in day in and out. It licked up my arms and seared down my legs: a phoenix reborn. A gown of feathery golds and reds and oranges rippled down my body. My silvery braid, once limp and ragged, now hung sleek and long enough to brush my hip.
Purple eyes scoured me, seared me.
I extended my arm, an imitation of her manipulation earlier. “As fun as this was, Kaleal, I’m taking the reins.”
I snapped and the dreary room of water went up in a roaring fireball. I closed the door, knowing the ghost of the ancient God had already taken her leave. I turned, finding myself at the end of a hallway. On one side was a forest of smoldering embers. The other was a smooth, rippling lake. Both extended farther than I could see. As I walked, a trail of flames followed me. I didn’t know where I was heading, but I sensed it was somewhere important.
I halted when the flames and water formed a cul-de-sac. At the far end of the circle, where flame and water met, was a door. It was charred and ragged with splinters. A handle of obsidian appeared when I reached forward. Wariness curled in my gut, but I couldn’t stop myself, my movements dreamlike as I pulled it back.
I was met with a bridge of glass. On either side and straight ahead loomed a vast, starless darkness. Standing on the bridge, at the edge of the haze that concealed the other end, was a man I’d never wanted to see
again.
He wore a well-fitted suit, the jacket buttons undone. His dress shirt was blue, his thin tie a strip of gold. He leaned forward on a tarnished, silver cane. Despite the distance between us, the mottled skin on the backs of his hands was stark in the pale firelight. It matched the burns curling around his jaw, reaching fingers into his hair. The effect twisted the Xs already carved in his sunken, somber cheeks. Across his forehead, four symbols burned lightning white in the middle, rimmed with a bleak darkness reminiscent of a well that had long run dry.
“Geoffrey.”
His fingers flexed.
“It can’t be you. You’re dead,” I stuttered, my mind reeling. I stank of nervous sweat. “You died. I killed you by the lake.”
“Funny how people sometimes don’t stay dead.”
Like me. How I was presumed dead for seventeen years. How I’d seemingly risen from the grave, reborn, when I’d discovered the Kraken.
I stumbled forward, trying to get a clearer read on his face. But where they had always run hot with emotion before, his eyes remained cold and elusive. I opened my mouth, but he beat me to the punch. “I wondered when you’d find me.”
“I didn’t know there was anything of you to find,” I breathed.
“I never wanted you dead, Zara.” His bi-colored eyes glimmered. “That was Toren and my mistake in trusting him. Then again, you never believed me. You never gave me a chance, and that was also my mistake.”
Hatred.
Pure, unrelenting hatred stained his expression.
He released the cane, swinging it back like a bat. I didn’t wait to see what he might be capable of doing. With a shriek, I slapped my glowing brands, forcing my mind to rip back from this hellish sleep. As my body faded, a torrent of flame licking at the heels of my ghost, I heard him say, “This time, I’ll make sure you stay dead.”
Chapter 9
“He’s back.” I choked on a scream, my voice rough with horror and sleep. “He’s back.”
Gray light nearly blinded me, and I jerked so hard I cracked my forehead. Someone cursed and arms snaked around me, but I threw out an elbow and bone met bone with a snap. The resistance vanished and I was free, gloriously free. I whipped around, tucking my back into the corner, knives of ice frosting my fingers, and blinked through the confusion.
Ryder cupped his nose, blood dripping from the spaces between his fingers. He swore colorfully in a multitude of languages.
“Oh, for crikes sake, let me,” Rose hollered, baring her teeth as she tumbled into the fray and nearly fell into his lap. She forced his head back and knocked his hands away. His incited cussing heated when she twisted his nose in a vice to stem the bleeding.
I felt like I was still in a dream, but the steam rising from the backs of my hands and warming my icy digits wasn’t a hallucination. Neither was the bracelet of clear water I couldn’t evaporate. I gasped in amazement. I’d done it. I’d actually done it. I’d freed myself of my self-imposed shackles and unleashed the full extent of my fire magic. And if I’d unleashed my magic, there was no way Geoffrey was merely a dream.
“Seriously, what did you expect to happen grabbing her when she was half-awake, yeah?” Rose laughed as she accepted a tissue from her lieutenant, a pretty brunette named Briar. “I have half a mind to clock you myself, ya oaf.”
Ryder’s response was muffled as she pressed her hand to his mouth. “Hush now, let me fix this before you end up with a black eye. Not like you don’t deserve one.”
A violent flash of movement at the edge of my periphery caught my attention.
“—now that’s how you block.” Through the gaps in the seat, Joseph mimed smacking Finn in the face with his elbow, but before he made contact, short, sharp gasps of laughter shook him so hard he folded in two. The kelpie regarded him calmly, mirth dancing in his eyes.
Finn caught my stare and tilted his head. I slipped my palms under the open flaps of my flannel shirt, hugging myself tightly until I felt a little more like myself again. Their laughter was dampening the horrifying quality of the reality of our situation.
Geoffrey was back.
But maybe… maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
“He’s not dead. Not even a little,” I said once they’d calmed down a bit. Joseph tugged his lips in concentration, motioning for me to continue. And Ryder—Ryder appeared downright murderous despite the fluffy, raspberry-colored towel he pressed to his nose. Smoke curled from his nostrils and his irises swirled.
“Who’s not dead?” Rose glanced between us, wiping blood off her hands using a wet wipe she’d procured from one of her pockets. “And how exactly do you know that?”
“Geoffrey. The Hand of the Gods. The head of the Order, you know, the guy who’s supposed to protect us but only seems to want all of us dead.” I flexed my hands in my lap, the twin magics warring with one another sparked irritably beneath my skin. “I believe you briefly met him four weeks ago.”
“The wanker who tried to kill you? The one you drowned after he blasted you?” The pixie stood and popped a hip against the backrest of a chair. One dusky emerald hand fell against her whip.
“The one and only.” I pondered his burns. Had he done that to himself when he’d launched that fireball at me? Had I somehow done that? I’d thought I’d thrown him before I’d gained my fire magic, but… everything was so hazy in those final few moments.
“And you… what, dream about him? That’s kind of creepy.”
“We share a mental plane,” I said, stretching my legs. That’s what Joseph called it anyway, another term he’d derived from one of his many, many texts. I’d confided in him not long after arriving in camp. He’d ripped through his reading material like it was nothing, wanting to know if he, too, shared the plane, but came up with an inconclusive answer.
“Uh huh.” And that was why I’d avoided bringing up the topic with the pixie. She was all about what she could see with her eyes and feel with her hands. Even her very magic by birth was rooted firmly in reality: primarily the ability to fly and create weapons out of handy materials. Going beyond the physical and delving into artificial concepts like dream-walking, was a stretch for her.
She peered at her black-clawed fingers. “Forgive me if I have a difficult time believing that not only is someone you hit with that much power still alive, but you’re also the only one who can connect with him that way.”
I went to run my fingers through my hair but stopped when I encountered the thick twists of a braid instead. It was a familiar braid, one that was as beautiful as it was intricate. Ryder rocked his head back and forth when I narrowed my eyes at him. The intensity of his anger had faded.
“Well, he did visit me now,” I growled. “We had a lovely little chat, him and I. Mostly affirming that both of us were, in fact, very much alive and very pissed off.”
I fiddled with my bracelet. It surprised me, the relief I felt knowing he was alive. I’d thought I’d wanted him dead, wanted him cast to the underworld forever where he couldn’t touch me or anyone I loved ever again. But the guilt I’d felt thinking I’d killed him… I didn’t want to be a murderer, even if I’d destroyed the lives of others to protect my own.
“He doesn’t know where you are?” Finn asked, reaching out to touch my shoulder, but stopping as he remembered himself. Ryder glanced between us, a coy smile forming on his lips.
I thought it over. “Not that I can tell.”
Joseph removed his glasses and rubbed his temples. “Do you think you can keep it that way? Because if he is back, and I assume he’s taking the helm of the Order once again, I imagine he’s going to do anything in his power to stop us from accomplishing our mission.”
I can teach you to block him if you wish. Kaleal’s whisper was little more than a touch of wind through the cherry blossoms of my mind.
“Yes,” I said, answering them both. “I can keep him out.”
“Right, then.” Rose clapped her hands together brusquely. “We’ll leave you to that, and I’ll
worry about dealing with him when he’s within reach of my whip.”
As always, I appreciated her matter-of-fact way of looking at the world, but I doubted it would be so simple. If I’d learned anything, it was that the Order was both well-equipped and relentless.
Finn scoffed as she made her way to the front of the plane. “Are you sure you’re ok?”
“I will be.”
“We’re making our final descent into Cairo,” Steve droned overhead.
“Good.” Finn did clutch my shoulder now. I was strangely ok with that. “Because you have a whole new battle in front of you.”
Chapter 10
“You remind me of an ancient queen preparing to address her unruly council,” Ryder said, hands shoved in his pockets as he looked me up and down. I squared my shoulders, wiggling my eyebrows saucily at the incubus who’d sneaked up as I peered out a window to the tarmac below.
“A queen who chooses denim and high tops over silk and stilettos sounds like my kind of gal.” I dug my fingers into the thighs of my dark-washed jeans. In the spirit of packing lightly, I decided against bringing my single dress. Instead, I opted for dark colors that set off the jewel-tone of my eyes, the metallic gleam of my hair.
“Exactly.” The incubus tucked an unruly strand back into place, smiling softly as he traced the pattern he’d created as I slept. “You look beautiful.”
I ignored the quiver in my stomach at his touch, glanced at Finn who tugged at the tight collar of his aqua dress shirt, and resumed my vigil at the window. Rose and her pixies had fanned out, checking for security risks. Only at her signal would the rest of us would deplane.
“What does the symbol mean?” I asked.
“Pardon?”
“Don’t play coy with me. I know you’re the one behind my hair.”
Ryder sniffed. “Is a man not allowed to have his secrets?”
“You’re hardly a man.” The crescent that was his smile grew in the reflection of the window. “And no, I’d rather you stop playing around and be straight with me.”
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