Then Qiuniu reached his hands toward me, and I had to refrain from snapping at him myself. I’d just heard him tell Burgundy that they couldn’t simply pump magic into my mother, but I didn’t want to divide his attention. And I didn’t even feel like I needed healing.
Or maybe it was that I didn’t think I deserved healing.
I removed my necklace so it wouldn’t impede the healer’s abilities, laying it on the bureau and ignoring the instruments’ protest over being set aside. Then I stepped forward, accepting the healer’s hands and the magic he offered. A whisper of music swelled around us, but the healer didn’t lean any closer or kiss me. Possibly because all three of my parental figures were currently in the room.
Qiuniu shifted my left hand so that he was holding both my hands in his right palm. With his left hand, he reached up to brush his thumb across the scar on my forehead. I felt it smooth under his touch — even as his utterly affronted frown informed me that it hadn’t completely faded. Then he gave me a look informing me in no uncertain terms that I was the one to blame for that.
And since it was my knife that had done the damage, it kind of was.
“Thank you,” I murmured. Then I offered the healer a shallow bow that transformed his frown into a curl of a smile.
“I will see to your mother, dowser. And then your grandmother … if Pearl will allow …”
My grandmother harrumphed from behind him, letting us know that she was cataloging everything being said even though her attention was glued to my mother.
I retrieved my necklace, twining the chain three times around my neck so that it lay within the collar of my armor. Once again, I ignored the mutter of indignation that came from the instruments.
“I haven’t heard from the other guardians, and would like to check in on them myself,” the healer said. “Will you escort me to the portal?”
“Not Jade,” Gran said. “Jasmine or Benjamin can see you to the bakery.”
I twisted my lips wryly. “I’m not allowed out of the house.”
My father chuckled under his breath.
“Well,” the healer murmured. “If you were mine to protect, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight either.” He winked at me.
Gran cleared her throat. And then, I put two and two together and figured out what Gran held against Qiuniu.
Warner.
I smiled at the thought. Even though, if examined too closely, Gran’s affection for Warner and her dislike of the healer’s propensity to flirt could also be read as her distrust of my ability to remain focused and faithful. Of course, I knew that dragons weren’t a prolific species, and the healer’s flirting had more to do with me being female and half-dragon. I was already fairly certain he and Haoxin, the two guardians closest in age, had an ongoing thing.
“Yazi …” my mother whispered, struggling to keep her eyes open. “Jade …”
My father stepped around to my mother’s side. “We’re both here. You can sleep now.” He glanced up at the healer, who nodded.
My grandmother reached for me, and I accepted the arm she offered and the comfort meant to accompany it.
“We won’t go anywhere before you wake.” My father glanced my way pointedly.
I gave him a look, somewhat pissy over being blackmailed while standing at my mother’s sickbed.
He flashed an unrepentant grin at me in response.
Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t going anywhere.
Yet.
“Get your stones please, Burgundy,” the healer murmured. “I’ll help you align them.”
Burgundy nodded, already hustling toward the door before the healer had completed his request. I suspected the stones in question meant the box of healing charms I’d seen her use on Gran.
“Your tea must be getting cold, Gran,” I said. “Do you want me to bring a cup up for you?”
My grandmother sighed wearily, patting my arm. “No. There are many things to discuss, and your mother is in capable hands.” But as she spoke, she sounded as though she might have been trying to convince herself.
I had no doubt as to the healer’s abilities — and not just because I was fairly certain I’d been mortally wounded when he’d healed me in the nexus. But then, I hadn’t spent the last two weeks having my magic drained from me, fueling a massive magical working that encased an entire city.
The thought of other loved ones fueling another magical working — namely, the dimensional gateway — surfaced in the forefront of my mind again. And as it did, it made me keenly regret all my promises to wait. To listen to reason.
“Jade,” the healer said with a sigh. “It would be better if you stepped out.”
“What?” I cried.
“You’re throwing magic around, my girl,” Yazi said, his gaze on my mother. “As you do when you get upset. Disruptive magic.”
“Yeah, well … so do you!”
My father gave me a look.
The healer laughed quietly. “It’s the instruments, I believe.”
Well, that quelled my pissiness instantly. The instruments had impeded Qiuniu from healing me. “Oh. Okay.”
I stepped into the hall, brushing past Burgundy returning with her wooden box. Gran followed me out.
With nothing else to do, I eventually found myself pacing the main-floor living room and waiting on the oracle. Mory had informed me that Rochelle needed to refine her sketches before meeting with me. And, of course, the fact that the oracle needed to do so wasn’t intimidating and annoying at the same time. Not at all.
Everything apparently hinged on the delicate point of what Rochelle was seeing. So I was all armored up but not allowed to leave the house. And worse, Mory was my assigned babysitter.
The necromancer was currently curled up in one of the two antique love seats that bookended the gray-and-white marble surround of the living room’s retrofitted gas fireplace. She was napping. With Ed on her stomach.
As he’d talked of earlier, Qiuniu had headed to the bakery. He was going to attempt to contact the treasure keeper through the portal in the basement and see if he was needed elsewhere. As Gran had ordained, Jasmine and Benjamin Garrick were accompanying him, because apparently even one of the nine guardians of the world wasn’t allowed to wander Vancouver alone.
I had returned to a totalitarian regime, evidently. Except I still wasn’t certain who I was supposed to be bowing down to.
“You know that Jasmine and Benjamin are watching out for each other,” Mory murmured, her eyes still closed. “The healer just didn’t know where the bakery was.”
“Was I talking out loud again?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn it.”
“You’re freaking out. That’s cool. We’re all just in survivor mode already.” Mory’s eyes opened and she pinned me with her dark gaze, effectively chastising me without even lifting her head. “Since we lost you. Since we almost lost Pearl and Scarlett.”
I threw myself down on the second loveseat, facing the curtained front windows. I had laid my katana across the coffee table, even though the spindly legs and antique oak top — matching the arms of the couches — looked too delicate to hold the weight of a folded steel blade that teemed with magic. All the power drained from Sienna, from all the Adepts she’d murdered, and from Shailaja … the rabid koala. That was way too heavy a burden to be resting … waiting … endlessly waiting in my grandmother’s living room.
“Wow, you’ve got a lot of shit rolling around in your head, Jade.”
I snorted, leaning forward to run my fingers along the twenty-four-inch blade, stirring the magic contained within it. The dragon slayer. Though the built-in sheath on the back of my new leather armor was invisible, it had felt weird wearing the weapon while sitting.
“I know,” I finally said. “I mean, about Jasmine and Benjamin, and you all being in survivor mode. I’m just worried about who else you might lose the longer I hang around doing nothing.”
“You’ve been pretty active for a person doing nothing.”
/>
“Don’t try to make me feel better, Mory.”
“Why?” she asked mockingly. “Because you’re a bad person now? Evil Jade?”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
She looked utterly nonplused. “Visions take time. You don’t want to be going in blind, Jade.” She softened her tone. “That’s the fastest way to get the rest of us hurt, yes?”
I clenched my teeth but didn’t answer. I was so all over the place emotionally. And yeah, rationally, I knew I’d been severely mentally traumatized, then badly physically injured. But I just …
I just wanted it done. All of it. No matter how childish it was, I just wanted to be moving, moving through it, past it.
Magic shifted, announcing the oracle’s approach along the upper hall and down the stairs. I looked up at the doorway a moment before Rochelle appeared. Beau loomed behind her.
The petite, white-haired oracle smiled at me wearily. She was holding three sketchbooks. The edges of each were smudged to a solid black.
“When was the last time you slept? Properly?” The question was out of my mouth before I could hear my own hypocrisy. I wanted desperately to charge forward — but apparently, everyone else should be getting a solid eight hours of sleep every night.
“Certainly you aren’t suggesting I can’t look after my own mate, dowser?” Beau growled from the doorway.
I lounged against the arm of the loveseat, resting one foot on the coffee table and slinging my left arm across the back of the couch. As if I didn’t have a care in the world.
The green of his shapeshifter magic edged Beau’s eyes.
I grinned, completely egging the werecat on.
Rochelle sighed.
Mory snorted.
“A battle is coming,” Rochelle said, stepping forward and angling her body so she could speak to Beau and me. “A battle like I’ve never seen before, not even with the demons on the beach.” She paused, resting her light-gray gaze on me. She wasn’t wearing her sunglasses, which was a rarity. Even inside.
I straightened, nodding to indicate I understood. I hadn’t even known her then, but Rochelle had seen a vision of the final battle with Sienna. The mass demon summoning in Tofino.
“We need to focus on that battle.” The oracle glanced back at Beau. “Not on needling each other.”
“You’re not going into any battle,” he growled. But the sound was more desperate than angry.
Rochelle reached up, caressing his face.
Mory looked away at the same time I did. We met each other’s gaze, exchanging awkward looks.
“Okay,” Rochelle whispered.
“Okay?” Beau sounded incredulous, as if they’d been having the same argument for days and he’d expected to never win.
“Yes, okay. But you need to give me time to explain everything —”
Beau swept his pregnant wife into what looked like a soul-searing kiss, crushing the sketchbooks between them.
Yeah, both Mory and I peeked.
The shifter broke the embrace, smoothing Rochelle’s hair behind her ears. He placed a delicate kiss on her forehead, then strode off toward the dining room and kitchen with his cellphone in hand.
Rochelle turned toward us, crossing to the antique chair upholstered with delicate pink flowers nearest the doorway. As she sat, she set the three sketchbooks at the end of the coffee table, then looked over at Mory. “We’re going to need to gather everyone.”
“Everyone?” Mory echoed, reaching for the satchel she’d propped against the leg of the love seat. “Including the twins?”
Rochelle paused, contemplating the question and looking beyond Mory for a moment. The white of her magic rolled across her eyes. “No … but we need Liam first, because he needs to rejoin his parents and the necromancers at the stadium. Jade’s already given Burgundy what she needed —”
“What’s this all about?” I asked, not actually expecting an answer. I was fairly certain the general of the army of misfits had just walked into the room.
Still, I didn’t have a problem being a soldier.
Well, not much of a problem.
Rochelle awkwardly grabbed the arms of the antique chair and shifted it closer to the coffee table so that she could more easily reach her sketchbooks. I resisted the urge to lunge forward and help her get settled. But it was a near thing.
Perched on the edge of the chair, Rochelle leaned over her rounded belly and tapped her sketchbooks, as if indicating that all my answers lay within those pages.
And seriously — no matter how foolhardy my grandmother might accuse me of being, playing a game of show-and-tell with the oracle was one thing I would never look forward to.
“After Liam, Benjamin Garrick,” Rochelle said to Mory. “Then Jasmine. You last.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.” Rochelle cleared her throat. “We’re going to need you, Mory. Getting Scarlett out of the grid didn’t change that part.”
Mory exhaled sharply. “Okay. Okay.” She looked over at me, clutching Ed to her chest. “I can do it, Jade.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “I’m not going to fight over something I don’t know anything about.”
The necromancer jutted out her chin, back in belligerent pixie mode. “But you are going to try to stop me.”
I glanced over at Rochelle, recalling our conversation in the bedroom. Her left hand was resting on top of the sketchbooks. On top of the destiny she’d seen. The destiny she needed my help to thwart. “I will do my best to follow the oracle’s directives.”
“Fine,” Mory said, tucking Ed into her bag. “Good.”
“But …” I hardened my tone, keeping my gaze on Rochelle. “I’m not sacrificing anyone.”
Rochelle smiled tightly. “No matter what Angelica was implying, Pearl placed Burgundy in the strongest position she could. Directly between you and her. Having the junior witch seal your circle was barely necessary. Because your magic doesn’t work like that, right?”
She meant that I naturally contained my dowsing and alchemy abilities. I didn’t pull energy from the earth like a witch did. And as such, I didn’t need the same boundary precautions. “Right.”
“And if Burgundy had gotten into trouble on her own, while you were doing your thing and getting Scarlett free, she had Pearl right next to her. Pearl’s magic sealing her circle.”
Sometimes I was such an idiot. A blind fool.
“I would never ask you to do anything you weren’t capable of doing, Jade,” Rochelle said softly. “Because I see … you. I see your actions, your choices.”
“Okay.”
“But …”
Ah, crap. With the oracle, there was always a freaking ‘but.’ “But?”
Rochelle eyed me for a moment. “We’ll talk about that part later.”
Lovely.
Delightful.
This was going to be an ongoing conversation, because apparently it was something I could handle only in bite-sized pieces.
“Give us ten minutes. Then bring Liam in,” Rochelle said, speaking to Mory again. “Please.”
Mory nodded, slung her bag across her chest, and hustled out of the living room.
“So,” I said. “Alone at last.” Trying to be playful and failing miserably.
Rochelle chuckled quietly. Which was kind of her.
“Three sketchbooks,” I said. “Three total, or just three for me?”
“Three for you.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah, I’m going to need a vacation.”
“We’ll hawk some of Pulou’s gold. It’s the least he can do.”
The smile slid from Rochelle’s face. “I have enough gold, Jade.”
I shifted uncomfortably. And for another truly painful moment, I desperately missed Kandy and Kett and Warner. My true companions. My soul mates. They understood me. Understood my need to keep the darkness at bay with sarcasm and humor.
Rochelle took the topmost sketchbook off the pile, set it on the coffee table, and s
lid it toward me as far as she could without getting up. I pulled it the rest of the way, setting it before me. But I didn’t open it.
“I debated showing you this one,” Rochelle said. “Because I’m not certain it’s wholly relevant to the immediate situation.”
“Okay.”
“But I understand that Beau gave you a preview already, and I didn’t want you to think I was hiding anything. I’d … I’d like you to just flip through it quickly. To get an impression, but not dwell on anything.”
“Because I can’t change it?”
Rochelle shook her head. “I’m not certain. It’s set about nine years from now.”
“That’s a long way to see.”
“Yes. With many, many things in between now and then.”
“But you believe that what occurs in these pages, in this vision, is tied back to the elves?”
“I believe so. But not because I see the elves, not nine years from now. Because of how the vision came to me. And the timing.”
I waited for the oracle to elaborate.
She twisted her lips wryly. “A tale for another day? I haven’t had time to sort it all out myself.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath, reaching to flip open the first page of the sketchbook.
Mory jogged back into the room, sliding through the doorway and past Rochelle on the hardwood floor in her hand-knit striped socks. “I almost forgot,” she cried, thrusting her hand toward me.
She was holding a chocolate bar. A dark-chocolate bar with pistachios and dried cranberries, to be exact. From the ever-delectable, soul-fueling Chocolate Arts, to be even more exact.
“Oh my God,” I whispered reverently, gently prying it from Mory’s grasp. “Where have you been, my beauty?” I was practically cooing.
“In my bag,” Mory said. “I picked it up for you this morning. I have another one.” She looked at Rochelle. “In case things get really bad.”
The oracle stifled a chuckle.
The misfits were totally laughing at me. But, as I carefully slipped the paper wrapper off the bar and lifted the clear sticker sealing the flap, I didn’t care one bit.
Then the full implication of Mory’s words actually sank in. “Wait!” I cried. “You were holding out on me?”
Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9) Page 15