by Dyan Chick
Chapter 30
Feeling helpless, I looked from Terra to the Circus and back again. There had to be something I could do. I ran my hand through my hair and tried to think of something. I hated feeling out of control. Why hadn't Aunt Kay taught me how to use magic when I was a child? If I had been practicing my whole life, maybe there would be something I could do to fix this. Some spell that could save them. If Brenon wasn't cursed maybe he could use his magic to take down Terra.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still. The journals in Aunt Kay's house flashed through my memory. The Curse. I could break the curse. The only reason Brenon hadn't wanted to break it was because he worried Terra would be too strong and she would take their magic. But she was doing it anyway, even without them being free of the curse.
I didn't know what the Fae realm was, or how to access it, but I wondered if it was what I tapped into when I had the strange sensations flood through me when I used magic. Could I call on that? Manipulate it? If that was Fae magic, what was the magic I could use from this earth? The rose. I'd made a rose, using the Sayge ideas and pulling from my own. It felt different than when I called to lightning.
Glancing over at Terra and the twins, I realized that they had no interest in me. They didn't see me as a threat. Now was my chance.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. Reaching inside, I felt for the sensation that filled me when I used lightning. The lightning wasn't coming, but I could feel a pull deep in the pit of my stomach that tugged at me. It was the same sensation that traveled with the lightning. Holding that feeling in place, I remembered the rose. Holding my palms out in front of me, I kept my focus on the lightning tugging as I worked to create a rose from the earth. I concentrated on the softness of it, the clean scent, the raw beauty.
Opening my eyes, I looked down at my hands. I was holding a flower, but it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The petals seemed to be made entirely of light. The stem was green and fresh, as if just cut from the earth.
Acting on instinct, I ran toward the Circus, holding the flower as tightly as I could. I crashed into the blue light that held them all in place and threw the flower toward the center of the group before falling back onto the roof.
A blazing white light shot through the air, causing a moment of blindness. When the light subsided, it took a few seconds to blink away the spots. I looked up to see the members of the Rose Circus, free of the blue light that had bound them. At first, I didn't recognize them. There was no fur, no horns, no tails, no yellow wings. The people that stood on the roof were radiant, glowing with all the colors of the rainbow.
I stared at them for a moment as they looked at their hands and each other. Then, the whole group charged Terra and the twins.
Knowing I needed to get out of the way, I tried to stand but didn't have the strength. Whatever magic I had done, had taken all of my energy. Rolling over to my stomach, I crawled on my hands and knees toward the building, near the broken window to watch the Rose Circus at work.
Brenon stood taller than anyone else, his face smooth and free of the markings it had borne, but his movements were the same. Just as graceful, and just as powerful as ever. He leaped into the air, arms extended, palms open. As he reached the blue bubble that was surrounding Terra and the Sayges, a white light shot from his hands, shattering the bubble.
In a flash, a woman with long brown braids moved at a speed I could hardly follow. She was next to Terra in a heartbeat, then stepped back, out of their immediate reach. With a few graceful steps, she was next to me, cradling something in her hands.
I looked down and saw that she had the iron dust vial. The cork was still gone, but it didn't look like she'd lost any of it while she'd retrieved it. The woman knelt down next to me. A pair of yellow eyes blinked at me. Even with the curse broken, they retained the slitted pupil of a cat.
"Evangeline?" I studied her face, trying to make out any other recognizable factors.
She smiled, then handed me the vial. "Hold this. If Terra comes for you, or we go down, use it. If we win, dump it off the roof."
I nodded, but Evangeline was already gone before she could have seen my response.
Looking up, I saw that the roof had turned into a battlefield. Though, this time, it was different. Terra, Mercy, and Pearl were surrounded by the members of the Rose Circus. They were glowing and beautiful. No longer tied to cursed forms, they now looked every bit the magical creature they were supposed to be.
Lightning shot across the roof, radiating in a circle from the center of the crowd. A few people moved away or dodged the bolts. A figure near me lit up like a sparkler, and I held my breath as I waited for the body to fall. As people moved away from the lightning-covered person, I recognized the leather jacket and blonde hair.
Tristan's entire body was crackling with lightning. My pulse quickened. I hadn't even seen him come up here. Tristan might not be my favorite person, but he seemed like he was trying to redeem himself, and despite his past actions, he was my blood. I wasn't ready to lose him without getting to at least ask him a few questions.
Without thinking, I pushed myself to standing. I wasn't about to let Terra take him down. Everything seemed to be moving slowly. Or I was moving faster than I should be able to. Iron dust clenched in my hand, I steadied my breathing, trying not to spill the precious cargo.
Terra was focused on the Rose Circus. Her gaze locked on Tristan as he flashed with light. With a scream, he fell to his hands and knees. A wicked grin filled Terra's face, and her eyes reflected the sparks I'd seen her shooting.
Nobody seemed to notice me coming around the battle from behind. Then, for a second, Tristan's looked up, his eyes locked on mine. He lifted his arms from the ground and brought his hands together, the electricity moving up his body until it seemed to be contained only to his arms, then through his arms, forming an unstable-looking ball of sizzling light.
Tristan stood, lifting the electric mass above his head, then he glanced in my direction briefly before turning back to Terra. He was channeling the lightning she'd thrown at him. Was that what I had done?
"This is why I hate Dark Fae," Terra said, raising her hands to throw another spell.
She was distracted. I moved closer to her, and just as I closed in on her, Mercy saw me, diving in front of Terra and knocking her to the ground.
Losing my balance, I stumbled, spilling the iron dust out across the ground. It covered a portion of the roof right in front of me. A deadly pile of powder, there until the wind blew it away.
For a moment, all I could hear was the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. Everyone was staring at me and the roof was silent, as if we were all holding our breath. And why not? That powder could kill most of us that were standing here.
From the corner of my eye, a flash of light streaked across the roof. I turned toward the light just in time to see Tristan's gathered lightning striking Terra. The blow knocked her off balance.
Then, without missing a step, Goldie and Joe threw themselves on Terra, landing right in the pile of iron dust. A cloud of the toxic powder blew into the air and I sucked in a breath, trying not to breathe in the stuff.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around me, pulling me back and I landed on top of someone, unable to tear my eyes away from Terra hitting the ground.
She let out an inhuman howl of pain when she landed in the pile of dust.
I pushed myself up to sitting, not caring who was holding on to me at the moment. All I could do was watch as Terra's body began to convulse, then it started to crumble.
Turning my head away, I pressed against the warm chest behind me. The arms pulled me in tighter. I didn't have to look to know it was Brenon who was holding me. As my breathing slowed, I noticed something different about him. With my head pressed against his chest, I could hear a heartbeat.
Chapter 31
I looked up into Brenon's familiar green eyes, and for a moment it was as if time stood still. It was like we were the only ones on the ro
of. Those green eyes, that dark hair, they were so familiar to me, yet now I was staring at a different face.
It was still Brenon, but the scars were gone. I reached my arm up and traced my fingertips along his skin. It was smooth, flawless. Inhuman.
Brenon brushed my hair away from my face. His expression had a sense of peace to it that I'd never seen on him before. "How did you do that?"
"I did like the book said. Like Kay said. Somehow, I was able to channel magic from both realms." Everything seemed to be a bit of a blur. I thought back the process I used and how I was able to channel magic from both earth and Faerie. It shouldn't have been possible, at least it had seemed like it shouldn't be.
"How do you feel?" Brenon asked.
Kay had alluded to how dangerous it was, yet here I was. I stretched my arms out in front of me. I didn't look any different or feel any different. I ran my hands over my hair and down my arms. I felt the same. Shouldn't something have changed?
"I don't feel any different," I said.
Brenon helped me to stand. "I don't know how you did it."
As soon as I got to my feet the rest of the world started to come into focus it was like a pair of noise-cancelling headphones were removed from my head I was suddenly hyper-aware of my surroundings.
The sounds around me were happy. Laughter filled the air mixed with cries of joy. Small groups were hugging, and people were holding hands and jumping. Others were running around or doing cartwheels. It was as if I could feel the positive energy running through me in waves.
I hardly recognized most of the people and creatures that filled the roof. It was hard not to get swept up in the pure joy of the moment, and I found myself smiling as I watched the celebration. Brenon wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer to him. "You did this. We're free because of you."
"Almost," I said. "The curse might be broken, but you're still not home."
Before Brenon could say anything, somebody slammed into me pulling me away from him all I could hear was high pitched giggles as a flash of mousy brown hair bobbed up and down in front of me. It took a moment for me to realize who this person was.
I put my arms on her shoulders and stopped her movement. "Goldie?"
"Can you believe it?" She extended her bare arms in front of her, showing me beautiful olive skin, no longer covered with a permanent layer of gold.
"How did you do it, Ara?" She looks from me to Brenon and back again. "It shouldn't be possible. Should it?"
"I'm still trying to figure it all out for myself." I pulled her in for a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'm so glad you're still here."
"I know!" Goldie had told me once before that she wasn't sure if she would go back to the way she had been before she was cursed or if she would cease to exist. Being human, she wasn't granted immortality like the supernatural creatures she'd been living with for so long. I couldn't imagine celebrating this moment without her.
Since I hadn't seen Gia, I hoped she was with my brother, keeping him safely away from here. Which meant there was one more person I needed to see to make the moment perfect. "Where's Joe?"
Goldie spun around, looking at the crowd. "He was right behind me."
I turned from her to where Brenon had been standing. He was no longer there, and when I looked back to the crowd, I saw him in the middle of a group hug.
Scanning the people gathered, I wondered if Joe had been pulled into the middle of it. I glanced over to where Terra had been standing when Joe and Goldie had pushed her down. "Goldie, was he with you after you took down Terra?"
She nodded. "He was right behind me after that, then everyone started to cheer, and I came to find you."
I tensed. "Goldie, where are the twins? The Sayges that were with Terra?"
Goldie's face grew pale. "I don't know. I was so caught up after we killed Terra that I didn't think about them."
This time, when I looked back to the crowd, I wasn't searching for a friend, I was looking for the one person that I didn't think would be celebrating. As expected, I found Tristan standing away from the group. He was staring at me. Had he been watching me the whole time?
The eye contact was like a silent invitation, and he bypassed the Circus members to walk to where I was standing, then stopped in front of me. "I wasn't sure if you still wanted to talk to me."
"Of course I want to talk to you." Watching him help defeat Terra had gone a long way to giving him a second chance.
"Your brother's fine if that's what you're wondering. Gia wiped his memory and took him back to school. He won't remember any of it."
"She can do that?" I asked, too stunned to consider the ethics of the memory wipe.
"Gia has a lot of gifts that the Sayges find controversial. Let's just say her running away to join the circus isn't the only dark spot in her past," Tristan said.
When this was all said and done, I had an awful lot of questions. But right now, I needed to find Joe and help my aunt. An annoying tugging deep inside was telling me that the missing twins were connected to both Joe's location and my aunt's house arrest, but I didn't want to listen to my gut.
"Have you seen my friend, Joe?" I asked. "Or the twins? Did anyone stop them?"
"Your human friend?" Tristan asked.
"What's going on over here?" Brenon said as he joined our group, Evangeline at his heels.
Tristan turned to them as they approached. "Ara's human friend is missing."
Evangeline turned around and walked away.
"Where's she going?" Goldie asked.
Before I could say anything, Evangeline whistled, instantly silencing the celebration. "Anyone seen Joe? Human. Ara's friend. Was following Goldie around like a lost puppy. Anyone?"
Her question was met with silence.
My heart pounded in my ears. If he were here, he would have said something. I couldn't ignore the strange feeling I was having. "Brenon, I think the twins took him. And I think it has something to do with my Aunt Kay."
"Why do you say that?" Tristan asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know. Just a feeling."
Brenon looked at Tristan. "That's one of your things, isn't it?"
"What are you talking about?" I said.
"It's more than a feeling, isn't it, Ara?" Tristan asked. "Like a tugging. Something pulling you there."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"It's a Dark Fae thing. Pay attention to it. You've got a deep connection with Joe so you can sense him in a way that humans can't. But as long as you can sense him, he's still alive," Tristan said.
Tristan's words caused both comfort and concern. Knowing that I could sense Joe was reassuring, but I didn't want to find out what it would feel like to not sense him. Trying to find that same tugging sensation over the knots in my stomach, I focused on Joe. The same thought as before entered my mind. Somehow, Joe and Aunt Kay were connected. "I'm still sensing that he's with my aunt. But that doesn't make any sense."
Evangeline rejoined our group. "Yvette thinks she saw him leave with the twins."
"Why didn't anyone stop them?" I asked.
Brenon grabbed hold of my hand. "Ara, we're going to get him back, and we're going to finish them off. Don't worry."
"Okay." I nodded. "Tell me what you need me to do."
"You realize what this could mean," Tristan said, looking at Brenon and Evangeline.
"There's no way they can get that gate open," Evangeline said.
"What does this have to do with the gate?" I asked.
"Your aunt, she's important to the Sayges. To this whole realm, really." Evangeline shrugged.
I looked at the three Fae in front of me. The whole not knowing thing was getting frustrating. "Someone just explain it to me."
"It's part of why Terra was so interested in your mother," Tristan said.
"Just spit it out."
"Your aunt is the guardian of the gate," Brenon said. "She's the one who monitors it to see if there are any changes. Someone from your family has don
e that since the gate was sealed after the curse. In the early years, it was a place of constant battle as various groups tried to get back in. But once they found out there was no way to enter without me breaking the curse, they stopped and they started chasing us down instead. That's when we started traveling and using Sayge magic to create the blue pills."
"The town you destroyed." I turned to Tristan. "Did that have something to do with the pills?"
He nodded.
It was all connected. Every piece. "It wasn't Terra who wanted it gone, was it?"
I didn't need the answer. I knew the twins were the ones who had been giving Terra the information. They were connected to the Sayge community and could blend in easier than Terra or her wolves with supernaturals in general. "We have to stop them, whatever they're planning to do."
Chapter 32
There were no lights on inside my aunt's house when Tristan's birds flew away from my view. I shuddered, recalling the feel of their wings against me while he teleported us from the rooftop.
A moment later, smoke rose nearby and Brenon and Evangeline appeared. Part of the magic that had been suppressed was their ability to travel through teleportation. Tristan's Dark Fae magic looked very different than the other's smokey entrance. Now that the curse was broken, I had a feeling I was going to see a lot more magic from my companions.
"No car," I said. "Maybe they aren't even here." Last time the elders had come to visit my aunt, there'd been a car in the gravel driveway. This time, it was just us and the assorted children's toys I'd never asked about. I wondered if it was part of a rouse for any humans that might wonder about a house in the middle of nowhere.
"Look closer," Evangeline said, pointing to the house.
Narrowing my eyes, I stared at the farmhouse, then I gasped. A faint purple color hugged the edges of the structure. The whole house was glowing. I needed to start paying better attention.
"What does that mean?" I asked, turning to look at the Fae behind me.