by Jamie Magee
“You knew? Before you saw…?”
“I didn’t have very long to know, and I was worried about you…I saw your plan in Gwinn.”
Adair arched a brow.
“Adair,” he said as his lips brushed Dove’s temple. “I’m good with it too, you betraying me,” he said with a hint of teasing in his voice.
“Oh are you?” she challenged playfully, narrowing her eyes.
He reached for her hand, and his fingers fell between hers then folded tight. “When Talley told me this the other night…I thought it would freak you out.”
“He told you?”
He nodded. “When I fought him in the alley.”
“Why did you think it would freak me out?”
A heart-stopping grin spread across his face. “Because I thought you hated me or, at the least, would never forgive me for sending you away.”
Adair’s smile fell a little. “The person I was then…she was pissed at you, hate though…impossible.” Adair tilted her heard. “You’re officially, forevermore, forgiven for your sins.”
“Am I?” he asked with a raised brow.
Adair felt a pang of pain in her heart but pushed it away. “I know it hurt us both. I know we both did things we regret. But we were living out a charade, one that broke the curse and kept Dove safe. Zale would have known I had fooled him if we were not miserable.”
His fingertips tightened around hers. “I’m still going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.” He leaned in, taking her lips once more.
“Absolutely fucking beautiful,” they both heard Dagen say.
When Adair glared at him, he lifted his brow in guilt and whispered. “My bad, gotta to install a language sensor, I guess.” Dagen lifted his head. “Auntie Reveca has advised you all return to the Boneyard, you know, to put the little one to bed and all.”
“What’s going on?” Judge asked, reading Dagen’s expression and knowing Reveca wasn’t worried about bed times.
Not saying a word, Dagen opened his mind and let Judge see it.
“Possible?” he asked.
“Don’t know. Is your ‘zap’ card still valid? Need me to move you—either way I’m standing guard, so don’t give me any sh—stuff about the matter.”
Judge grinned. “I’ll take you and every man you’ve got, nothing is going to hurt my Doves.”
Dagen nodded once and waited for Judge to move his family. A breath later, Judge was laying his little girl down, tucking her in, and staring at Adair’s lovesick gaze as she brushed her hair out of her eyes, wondering how anyone could be any luckier than he.
***
Most everyone at the beach was stunned. Not so much so because there was a child—Gwinn had called it all play by play from the other side of the fire, told them Adair had done it. She knew from the second Talley had tried to touch her and was repelled.
But the danger was not over in her mind or Reveca’s. They had everyone ready to not only lay eyes on this child but to protect it, get it far away from the very dark evil that had just escaped Talley and Mia.
Finley had mildly freaked out when Judge vanished with Adair and Dove, but not because she feared he’d hurt them but because she wasn’t entirely sure how he had done so.
Her fears were quickly overridden when the Sons stepped forward and pulled Talley’s kut from him.
Finley stepped up. “The curse is broken. Look at me, Rush,” she beseeched him. “I’m not hurt, he didn’t even hurt the real Adair—not really.” She rushed her gaze to Talon. “Please.”
Without expression, they handed the Kut to Reveca, and within a bat of her eye, it turned to flames as she dropped it to the sand. “It’s possible,” she stated as the flames reflected in her gray eyes.
She glanced back at Dagen. One look said all precious cargo should be locked safely behind the barrier of the Boneyard.
Reveca was about to provoke the devil himself.
“Oh,” Finley said, stepping back a little
Scorpio and Rush stripped Mia’s shirt, too. They’d take more from him and Talley if they needed to, but right now Reveca was almost sure she had enough of the essence to track Zale.
The fire turned blood red, black smoke easing off of it.
King was to Reveca’s right, Cashton to her left with Gwinn beside him.
Reveca knelt down and carefully chanted a spell that would collar Zale, she wouldn’t be able to control him with it, but she’d know where he was and where he had been. Sometimes, something as simple as knowing those things would tell everything you needed to know.
At the same time, Gwinn chanted a spell that would locate him and draw him back here. King and Cashton’s energy only added to the strength of every word they said.
A roar was heard from the flames, and deep inside of them, Reveca could see Zale. He was back with the Unclaimed in her very own Edge, prowling the border, enraged.
There was no pulling him back, not with the spells they had on hand, but the possibility was there. The collar was in place, now she could read where the boy had been, each and every soul he had crossed. What they said to each other may have been absent to her, but that wouldn’t stop her from tracking them down from letting her Sons have a little fun interrogating them, to understand what traps Zale had set to avoid his demise and learn how deep this business with the drug Black went.
“Looks like we are well on our way already,” Reveca said as she realized how much time Akan and Zale had spent together. They had been careful about it, never really letting any one see them.
Reveca winked at Zale just before she commanded the flames to die. One way or another, she was going to have the last word when it came to that fuck.
A breeze picked up as the fire vanished, and the thick humidity of the summer night that had been saturated in evil abated.
It was as if everyone took a collective sigh, then lifted their gaze to Finley and Talley who were clinging to each other.
“I see some new faces,” Talley said in his laid-back teddy-bear tone. He nodded to Cash. “This my replacement? If so, buddy, scoot over, because I’m fucking back.”
Rush was the first one to slam his arms around Talley. Talon was right behind him, then all the Sons, too.
Reveca stood back from them all, watching. Five years ago, she had stood here over her dead friend’s body, begging for Talley’s life. She was sure her Sons had reached an all-time low that night. She questioned their humanity and, to some degree, their loyalty.
She never would have imagined they were right. It was all a horrible ordeal that they had to live through, that tested them, but made them stronger in the end.
Sometimes bad shit has to happen, it just does.
She felt King’s hand slip into hers and his body move closer, and she knew these victories right here, no matter how fleeting, were going to make them invincible in the long run. Each fight pushed them to trust fate a little more, to have faith in the impossible.
She was going to believe in the impossible, in her victory—in the day where evil was defeated.
***
Before Talon returned to the Boneyard with Reveca on the back of his bike, a brilliant cover story had circled the Boneyard ten times over for the mortals to understand. The immortals were well aware of the truth, they didn’t understand it completely, and they didn’t care, all that mattered was Talley was back from the dead and was not cursed. And better yet, his woman was, too—and hold the phone, Judge was a daddy.
The story held as close to the truth as possible for the mortals’ sake. Talley had been attacked by Zale, imprisoned. Finley and Adair had to flea in order to save their lives.
Adair had come back to town but kept a low profile, she was only there to get updates in secret from Reveca and Talon on the siege.
Tonight, when they went to make their trade off, the Devils Den gave up information that freed Talley, and the Club was sure they could keep Finley and Judge’s daughter safe now.
The siege was over.
Everyone was free to ride out at will, and maybe they would, but right then, they were celebrating.
Talley was literally dunked in a tub of beer, Finley was too, right at his side. Music was blaring, and everyone was telling their part over the night. How they were sure it would have ended the way it had.
Talon had stood before them all and gave a speech full of what his men always needed to hear, liked to hear—how they were strong, how patience and good planning always paid off and no battle was lost…it was just left to win another day.
Judge and Adair had come out on the balcony, neither one of them willing to leave Dove alone. Talon had raised a toast to his boy, cracked a few jokes about fatherhood, and then the party went on.
One by one, the Sons in the core of the MC, with the exception of Judge, made their way to Church so they could lay out their battle plans.
The Boneyard needed to celebrate now. It was well deserved, and it would build morale, the very energy that kept the Sons strong, but there so much more to do.
Bag by bag, Talon burned the Black they had gotten from the siege as he listened to the boys tell him how long they thought they had before the law came looking into their involvement in any of the “missing” Devils Den men.
They spoke of how they were getting the script business back online and what gangs were moving in because they heard money was good in town, thanks to the drug Black.
They discussed what souls had to be found for Crass’ list. Talon paired the Sons with one of King’s men; a partnership was built between the Dark Angels and the Sons, not quite a brotherhood, but well on its way.
***
The gray light of dawn was daring to peek across the horizon when Jade boldly walked across the open field. In all truth, most could not see her because she had spelled herself invisible, but when daring to cross immortals, one must be both wary and bold.
Most in the Boneyard were settled in, ready to sleep through the day and then ride out the next day.
If they were not asleep—most were not alone and very occupied.
Occupied was exactly what Akan’s guard was. Jade heard his partner screaming long before she reached the cage and carefully opened the door.
There he was, waiting.
“I thought you forgot about me, sweet.”
Jade smiled coolly then approached his cell and quietly spoke the words that would open his cage.
As the spell fell, Akan shifted his image into one that matched his guard so he could make it off the property—much further if Jade had set up everything else she was supposed to.
Right as he stepped forward, she seized him with her magic.
“You bitch.”
“We had a barter,” Jade said, smiling sweetly.
“I lost control of the risen dead, which we are about to be overrun with.”
“Not my barter.”
“All of it was one barter. You approach Ambrosia with the barter to use one of yours as a vessel, and you ensure that I, the spell caster, was free and clear of the Sons the night the spell met its term.”
He flinched trying to break her magic and failed miserably.
“You will be free from the Sons if you complete your end of the barter.”
“No. All is lost now. We have to start over.”
Jade grinned sheepishly then, with a thought, flung him back into his cage, causing his image to flicker back to his own.”
“You whore,” he hissed.
Jade tuned on her heel to leave.
“Wait, fine,” he said to stop her. “Barter again. I uphold this, and you take me through time. Once for every soul.”
Jade laughed, and shook her head. “You will not uphold your first barter and want another.” She stepped closer. “I am here because it was my word I would be. But I am a patient woman…the Queen of all Voyagers has now been born. In time, she will grow, and when she does, she will free her people with the same vengeance her father will destroy you with.”
“I haven’t wronged any father.”
Jade only grinned.
“What have you seen? Who is this?”
Jade was silent.
“I free them, and you tell me who the Queen is.”
“Why? You cannot slay her? No one can, your very own spell enchanted the womb she was carried in.” Jade shook her head in fake dismay. “Undefeatable, such a strange word for it implies defeat or that, at least, somewhere in time, defeat existed.”
Akan’s mouth dropped before he spoke. “Zale didn’t come through, did he?”
Jade grinned. “Well, I’m sure in a few hours, when the Sons are through celebrating, they will pull you out of your cage for a fun chat…maybe they can fill you in on the gossip.”
She turned and made it three steps before he spoke. It wasn’t a plea. It was a spell that was key, a key to prison.
For ages, Voyagers had been imprisoned by the wicked witch Zale, forced to do his bidding as his insane mind plotted for a tomorrow he never took the chance to live.
A violet Fold opened just before Jade, she turned and her stare willed Akan to keep unlocking the door.
All around him, tiny lights emerged, thousands of them. Then, all at once, they charged toward the Fold, home at last.
“Now let me free,” Akan said evenly.
Jade bowed ever so faintly then released the door to his cage.
He was gone before she could bat an eye.
Many thought Zale was half mad, and maybe he was, but the Voyagers knew more times than not, his ideas came from his silent partner, Akan. The lithe man who would shift his image almost constantly but always…always dressed in black.
Jade knew she had freed evil tonight, and she had already seen the consequence for her actions. But for now, her Queen slept nestled between her mother father for the first time in her life, and thousands of her loyal subjects had been freed from the binds that had tortured them for far too long.
A future as wicked as Jade had seen needed all the time travelers it could muster to protect the fates of those who would slay the darkness that was engulfing the light, which brings balance.
Where To Find Jamie Online:
authorjamiemagee.com
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Other Books by Jamie Magee
“Web of Hearts and Souls”
Insight (Book 1)
Embody (Book 2)
Image (Book 3)
Vital (Book 4)
Vindicate (Book 5)
Enflame (Book 6)
Imperial (Book 7)
Blakeshire (Book 8)
See (Book 1)
Witness (Book 2)
Synergy (Book 3)
Redefined (Book 4)
Derive (Book 5)
Rivulet (Book 1)
Contemporary Novels:
Impulsion
Friction
Deploy
Acknowledgements
Over the past four years I have published seventeen novels and each of the acknowledgements are moved from one novel to the next. That wasn’t done to take short cuts, but because on this journey I have been blessed enough to keep the same souls at my side. I wanted to take the time with this acknowledgement to state how precious they are to me.
My Creator, for I know this gift and desire to write comes from a power I will never truly understand.
My husband, no doubt, deserves some kind of medal! The man is there from the first instant the idea is thought to life, through the long days of writing where I slip into another world. He manages the blessed life we have built, taking care of our little ones, making sure that there is some kind of substantial meal on the table for each of us. He’s a saint when it comes to telling me what day of the week it is, and letting me know that dawn is approaching and it might be a good idea to get some sleep. He understands that music drives me and is just fine with the same song playing on repeat for days until I have the scene trapped in words. He’s used to
having a conversation with me and in mid-sentence I stop and rush to write a line down. There is no doubt that he didn’t sign up to share his wife with the fictional family that always dances in my mind, but he rocks it all the same. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have someone want your dreams as much as you do, someone that never lets doubt creep into your mindset.
My children, they make me smile every day. They are now to the point where they’re all for naming characters, dancing to that same song that plays over and over. They love to joke about ‘mom’s bubble’—they know that mom dreams wide awake and tease me when they have to pop that bubble to tell me something.
Steffini Walker, Sabrina Hoover—there are not words to express how thankful I am to have found you both! Your love for these characters inspires me each and every day. I love you girls!!
Special thanks to Maria Pease, Steffini Walker, Alysia Kurtz, and Morgan Wyiley for working through the edits on this episode!
Graphic designers are one of the unsung heroes of the publishing world. Which is sad because they’re the ones that give your daydreams a face, they bring the emotion and definition to your work that readers new and old will recognize over time. Emma Michaels is another gift; she not only helped me find the image for my debut novel, Insight, but has also been through each of my covers since. She has a way of understanding exactly what I envision and does not rest until that vision is there before us both. This cover was far different from the others. It had to be more than an image that may or not change over the course of time. It had to be a logo, a brand, something that could be identified with this story for seasons to come. Emma rose to that challenge, and I have to say this is one of my favorite covers. It’s almost as if she saw the emblem in my mind clear as day and worked until it was created. Emma, you are amazing!
My Betas are amazing. It’s their truth that makes them that way, how they are not afraid to tell me what they like and don’t, how they don’t bat an eye when I hand them a contemporary story, a YA story, or this story. They read each with an open mind and their feedback is priceless. There is not a doubt that it always mirrors the feedback my readers will give me once the story is published for the world at large.