by S. E. Akers
Kamya swiftly wrapped one of her whips around his neck. Within less than a second, she had yanked him back by his hair, reached into his mouth, and stretched out his tongue.
“Give me your blade, Tanner,” Kamya requested. “He doesn’t need this…since he doesn’t want to talk.”
I crossed my arms. “Maybe a jaguar has gotten it?” I remarked with a dry laugh.
Tanner and Kamya looked at me curiously and then passed each other a few odd stares.
“What?” I asked, surprised that they didn’t catch on. “I was making a joke…because he can turn into a crazy jungle cat,” I clarified.
“The man that’s trying to kill you, he turned into a black jaguar?” Tanner asked.
“Yes…the Turquoise Talisman,” I said, wide-eyed as I pointed to Benicio.
Tanner stepped back and lowered his head. “Sorry…my friend,” he apologized uneasily to Benicio. “Kamya,” Tanner directed curtly.
Kamya let out a grunt. “All right,” she grumbled as she released his tongue with a pinch and loosened her whip.
Benicio stood strait up and patted his mouth. He pivoted back to Kamya. “It is always a treat when cooler heads prevail,” he stated with a glare.
As soon as he turned around, Kamya gave his rear a sneaky whack as she pretended to roll up her whip. “Ooops,” she said with a not-so-innocent grin.
Now I was confused. “What are you two doing?” I asked.
“Shiloh, this is Federo…not Benicio.”
“WHAT?” I asked, mentally ringing out my ears. The man approached me with his arm extended warmly. I started to pull back until I noticed the color churning in his eyes. It was a light golden brown, almost like honey swirling in pot. Where’s the blue-green hue?
“They speak the truth, young one. I am Federo. The Amber Talisman.”
“But—you look just like him…except for the eyes,” I mumbled as I shook his hand.
“I should. He is my twin,” Federo laughed.
If his words weren’t convincing enough, the look on Tanner’s face and Kamya’s stifled actions confirmed his claim. Talk about a huge mistake!
“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled. “I honestly thought you were him. When my watch started glowing, I just assumed, well… I didn’t realize it was shining because of Ferrol.”
“Easy mistake,” Federo insisted. “Think nothing of it. I would have thought the same.”
I smiled humbly and held up my watch. “I won’t be making that mistake again. One of the turquoise arrows hit it. It’s broken.”
Tanner took it off my wrist. “That it is,” he confirmed and then pitched it onto a pile of rubble.
“Turquoise arrows?” Federo probed. I nodded. The Amber Talisman walked over to several of the bodies lying on the floor. “These are some of my brother’s men.”
“What were they doing here?” Tanner asked him.
“What are you doing here?” Kamya interjected, raising her brow warily at the Amber Talisman.
“I came here looking for my brother. I’m afraid he’s mixed up in something sinister. I heard his brujo was in the area. I was hoping he could lead me to him.”
“Does his brujo have painted marks and pierced stones on his face?” I asked.
“Yes,” Federo confirmed.
“He was here, but he got away,” I replied.
“Maybe that is for the best. He is very powerful.” Federo turned to Tanner and grimaced. “He comes from a clan of Shuars.”
I turned to Kamya for some elaboration. “Head-hunters,” she said without batting an eye.
That explains his collection.
“Now there’s someone you can finally settled down with, Kamya,” Federo joked. “I cannot think of a pair more wickedly suited.” Kamya threw him a frivolous smile and propped her legs up on a bench.
“What is Benicio, a long-standing and not to mention, loyal member of the Guild doing with a band of minions and a brujo? Hunting her?” Tanner questioned.
“I cannot answer that,” Federo replied. “But his alliance with Valisco is because of the stone…the stone he never received those many years ago,” he added in a dire tone.
Kamya hopped straight to her feet. “HE STOLE IT!” the Ruby Talisman raged as she stormed back and forth. “Benicio stole the discus!” She stopped mid-stride and whirled around to Federo. “Does he have the stone?” she demanded and cracked her whip. “You had better answer me this time!”
“Yes,” Federo answered swiftly. “My sources tell me that he is in possession of it.” Kamya was so furious she cracked her whip in the air, several times — luckily it didn’t hit any of us. “But,” Federo added, “Something went wrong. I heard he was not able to claim the sunstone’s powers.”
Kamya looked slightly relieved, but my concern was directed at Tanner. He stood there suspiciously scrutinizing my expression. He knew about me taking away Padimae’s curse, the last person who had their hands on the stone. It wasn’t long before Professor Grey connected all the missing pieces of the puzzle, and by the way he was staring at me, I figured he was on his last few.
“Shiloh. May I have a word with you, privately?” Tanner requested with a tactful tongue.
That didn’t take long.
Before I could answer, Kamya tapped my shoulder and nodded towards the balcony. “You missed one,” she announced.
The rest of us looked up, on guard. Sure enough, one of the cloaked thugs was fleeing the scene. I threw my hand up to hail one last bolt, a little too confidently. I’d conjured them up so quickly earlier that I thought I had one in my hand. I didn’t. When I opened it to release the surging energy, a torpedoing streak of fire shot out instead. On the bright side, it hit the last survivor. Engulfed in flames, the man plummeted off the balcony and smacked the floor.
Oh shit…
Tanner and Kamya turned their heads to me. Softballs couldn’t have plugged the holes their gaping mouths had made. Federo, on the other hand, seemed clueless about what conjuring the flames actually meant. He didn’t know the stone I claimed wasn’t one that reigned over fire. I cowered back as they approached me.
Tanner edged Kamya out of his way. The look on his face went from stunned to steely the closer he stepped. “I think it’s time for that talk now,” Tanner proclaimed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The suite was completely empty when the four of us arrived back at the hotel. Kara was down with the rest of the group enjoying a sunny retreat by the pool. That gave my three interrogators plenty of privacy and freedom to skewer and grill me like a side of beef.
“Fire up the flames,” I mumbled, hoping to lighten the mood. None of them thought it was the least bit cute. Tough crowd.
Tanner was chomping at the bit, but Kamya shook her finger. “Ah, ah, ah… Ladies first,” she argued and pushed him out of her way. Her eyes flickered as soon as she placed her hands on my chest. She lingered there for a good minute and then rose to her feet. “He’s in there,” Kamya announced.
“You’re positive?” Tanner questioned, sounding like he would love any answer but the truth.
“Yes,” Kamya insisted with an irrefutable snap. “I would know his aura anywhere, and I’m one of only a few fire elementals who can sense him in this state.”
“Can he talk to me?” I asked her.
“Yes,” Kamya answered. “If he chooses. But he isn’t talking to me, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
“Why?” I posed.
“Kamya is one of Helio’s closest confidants,” Tanner interjected. “He chose her personally to receive the ruby. If he was going to talk to anyone, it would be her.”
“I still don’t understand why he’s inside…me?” I stressed.
“I’m a little confused about that as well,” Federo posed. “Other than whoever has possession of his stone, the only other being Helio may bond with is the one who claims the diamond. But that is impossible.” Tanner quickly ushered Kamya out to the balcony, leaving me all alone with Federo. The Amber T
alisman began to study the culpable look on my face. That forced me to pointedly look away.
I remained quiet while I watched Tanner and Kamya arguing. I turned back toward Federo, nervously clutching my purse. His brown eyes were now flaring like lit sparklers on the Fourth of July.
“I cannot sense your energy,” Federo remarked. His gaze fell upon my hands. He seemed to be eyeing my concealed moonstone. “Tell me, young Shiloh…what pray tell is your stone?”
Tanner had ordered me not to reveal my stone to him, but that was before the whole mistaken-identity mess. Whether it was my mentor’s decree, or possibly my gut, I chose not to officially say a word. If there truly was “no other person” Helio could seek haven inside, rest assured Federo already knew. My silence was moot, with the exception of holding true to my word.
“I am hurt, my friend,” Federo remarked to Tanner when he stepped back into the room. “You have been keeping a big secret from me.” Tanner stopped in his tracks and shifted his stare to me.
Federo pointed to my concealed moonstone ring. “Clever place to hide a tiger’s-eye,” he remarked to Tanner.
“Yes…Is certainly is,” Tanner lied. He then issued me a stern mental warning. “Let him think what he chooses. Do not reveal anything about the gris-gris. I don’t want anyone to know you have a moonstone hidden under there.”
Message received, I expressed to Tanner with a wide-eyed smile.
“I understand the need for such measures, of course, but know you can trust me with this knowledge. I swear to each of you, this secret shall remain with me,” Federo pledged.
“See that it does,” Tanner insisted with a notable flush. “If Benicio is trying to claim Helio’s powers, possessing the diamond would entice him even more.”
“What’s so special about the stone?” I asked.
Tanner cut me off with a firm, “We’re asking the questions.”
Federo came to my aid. “It is a reasonable one, Tanner,” he asserted. Tanner looked none to pleased with his argument. Federo acknowledged his objection respectfully, but revealed, “Young one, it is a very special stone that contains the essence of an extremely powerful being.”
“Enough said,” Tanner maintained.
“As you wish,” Federo agreed.
I proceeded to hit a few of the highlights, mainly to see if I could tone-down Professor Grey’s beet-red face a couple of hues. He already knew about my visit to Ms. Lá Léo’s, so I started from when she’d tricked me into drinking the cursed coffee. However, Kamya kept badgering me about what happened in Catemaco.
“Just so we’re clear, this all started from darkening the door of the wrong voodoo shop, to get Bea a gift?” Tanner asked.
“It would appear so,” I replied.
“Do you see why I told you to stay away from witches?” Tanner grumbled.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “But I honestly thought I was going into a tourist shop.”
“Maybe if your chaperone had been keeping a better eye on you, none of this would have happened,” Tanner charged to Kamya, who was sitting kicked back in a cushy chair and honing the ruby blade of an intimidating crooked knife.
“You’d better reign in that tone, Mr. Grey. Beatrix told me to ‘keep an eye on her’. She didn’t order a 24/7 stakeout,” she scoffed. “Honestly, you need to tie a bell around this one!” She quickly turned to me and added, “No offense.”
I brushed off her remark with a wave. “None taken.”
“Look beyond my sharp words, Shiloh. I’m upset about the discus,” Kamya apologized. “Helio entrusted it to me to guard…personally. I have never let it out of my sight before. I should have brought it with me and not relied on a simple protective charm to keep it safe.”
“Valisco is a very powerful brujo,” Federo remarked. “I’m sure he helped my brother locate it and was the one who broke your spell. He pulls his magic from the spirits of creatures who lurk in the darkest of places.”
“Well, when I get it back…and the stone, I plan on shoving this blade in his ‘darkest of places’,” Kamya vowed with swish of her knife and a devious gleam.
“What does the discus do?” I asked.
“He spilt from his stone for a reason, Shiloh. The discus acts like a portal. That’s the only thing that can transport his essence out of the stone,” Kamya revealed. “Only one was granted the ability to summon him out on their own, even without the discus…when the time was right.”
“Adamas?” I asked.
Kamya nodded. “That’s why he’s able to latch on to your soul. In a strange way, your being there was a blessing. He sensed the diamond. That is what binds and insures his refuge. He helped create the powers that the diamond affords you. A small part of him lives within you, through your stone. That’s what he’s clinging to.” Kamya rose to her feet. “So, in a way…your luck may not be so unlucky after all.”
“He needs to come out,” Tanner insisted. “He can’t stay inside her. She can’t afford to have his presence affecting her powers. You saw what happened at the cathedral.”
“And I burnt down a pier,” I confessed. “Accidently.”
“He will not come out until we find his stone,” Kamya stated. “He has no where else to go but back inside it. Benicio has the stone, so I’m afraid there’s no safer place for him to be right now.”
Tanner turned to Federo. “We have to find your brother and get that stone…before he locates Shiloh. I’m sure his search will intensify now that Valisco has tracked Helio’s aura.”
“I have no idea where he is. That is why I was at the plaza today. I am looking for him too,” Federo explained. “I know he is a member of the Guild, but my friend, I have seen his heart grow black over the years. Even sharing a blood-bond, I know he is evil and must be stopped.”
“And here I thought if any Talisman would fall off the morality wagon, it would be you, Federo,” Kamya jeered.
Federo’s face tightened into a scowl. “Do not question the sway of my pendulum, Kamya. What is it they say about glass houses? A whip can do more damage than a stone,” Federo fired back.
Kamya gracefully brushed a speck of lint off the sleeve of her shirt and flipped him the bird. I felt like I was sitting here watching a younger, more violent and brassy version of Bea.
“Do you remember the house you went to the other night?” Tanner asked.
“Vaguely,” I replied. “The cab might still be there…and the driver,” I added with a squeamish roll.
“A dead man in the jungle would not last very long,” Federo assured with a flared set of nostrils.
Kamya smacked her legs and let out an ironic laugh. “I still can’t believe she was in Catemaco…on the same night we were there! Probably at the same time too,” she added in a huff.
I looked at Tanner. “That’s where you went the other night?” I asked.
“Yes,” Tanner replied. “Kamya needed my help when she discovered the discus had been stolen…and she heard about the sunstone prophecy one of the brujas had made during the Night of Witches festival. They said that the supreme one who walks amongst the flames would rise. I’m a member of the Guild. I had to go with her to check it out.” Tanner shook his head. “I didn’t know that you were the one handing it over to Benicio on a silver platter. I would have stayed here, preventing this whole mess in the first place.”
“This sunstone prophecy has brought an unusual amount of Talismans to the area,” Federo asserted with a serious gaze.
“Malachi has no knowledge of it,” Tanner assured him.
“What about Ferrol?” Federo inquired.
“He’s after her,” Tanner clarified with a nod aimed at me.
“Don’t forget about Lorelei,” I stated. “That was part of the reason she was at Ms. Lá Léo’s shop. She questioned her about the prophecy. That’s why Ms. Lá Léo tricked me into delivering it. She didn’t want Padimae put in harm’s way and was too scared to do it herself.”
“Lorelei?” Federo questioned in a shri
ll gasp. “Are you sure she’s in the area?”
“Quite,” Tanner affirmed. “Shiloh ran into her yesterday when she appeared inside a cenote.” Tanner’s brow arched higher. “And she appeared in a wave the other night. That was her third time to encounter her.”
“Fourth,” I clarified. I figured I would “let it rip”, as long as I was being honest. “I saw her when I was at a club called Nocturne.”
“You were at Nocturne?” Tanner questioned. His words were slow and sharp.
“What was she doing there?” Federo asked. It was easy for him to squeeze in his question in light of Tanner’s abrupt pause.
“She was talking to a guy. A Talisman named—”
“Damiec,” Tanner interrupted with a glare. “And he’s not all Talisman.”
“She knows,” Kamya assured him. “I caught up to her when she was fighting him off in the street.” Strangely, Tanner’s displeasure turned into relief. Gratitude, maybe?
“And what was your impression of him?” Tanner asked, strangely like it was life or death.
If he had asked me almost a month ago, when I’d had the crazy dream, I would have said, “intrigued” or possibly “aroused”. However, seeing that the bastard wanted to slowly torture and kill me, aside from the unnerving fangs and talons he sported, I replied, “He’s a monster. He would have killed me if Kamya hadn’t come along.” My answer seemed to flatten out the vein twitching vehemently on his brow.
“Is he dead?” Federo asked.
“No. He’s still alive,” I replied.
“He is a hard one to kill,” Federo grumbled. “You are lucky to have gotten away.”
“Damiec knocked Kamya down the street with a gust of water, and I got dragged to Ms. Lá Léo’s voodoo shop.”
“Manipulating the water is something a normal earth stone can’t do. Do you know if he bit anyone?” Kamya asked.
“Yes. He bit Lorelei,” I answered.
“That explains it,” Kamya confirmed with a grunt.
“She drank some onyx powder and went up to meet him on the roof. After he bit her…they kissed,” I revealed.