Across The Divide

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “No.” Amara crossed her arms, shifting her head to stare at the floor.

  “So you came to get rejected by a man who can barely stand or form a sentence?” Garrett clicked his tongue. “Shameful, Amara, and incredibly sad.”

  “Shut up,” she growled.

  “Funny. I don’t remember hearing that from you before. Thought you liked it vocal.”

  Amara rolled her shoulders back, stiffening her posture, her nose flaring. If looks could kill, Garrett would be dead on the ground.

  Her response only formed a bigger smirk on his face as he turned to me.

  “What a sight.” Garrett strolled over, gratification at seeing me at his feet sparked haughtiness in his stance. “The once great Wanderer is no more than a toothless, sad bastard.” Smugness galloped over his face, his lip hooking up in a laugh. “Look at you.” He motioned to me. “Beaten, bloody, weaponless, shoeless, and feeble as a baby.”

  I finally noticed I was still dressed in the same stained, ripped clothes. And I was barefoot. The absence of my boots stirred me to sit higher. Did they take them? Look? Did they know?

  “As fun as it is to come here and view you like this, Vadik wants to see you.” Garrett yanked me onto my feet. My legs buckled under my weight, the room spinning. One of his minions, a massive fae with dark hair and eyes, entered behind him. Cadoc was Garrett’s muscle. The fae was huge, a boulder of a man. He was a few inches shorter than me, but he was almost as wide as he was tall. The bulges protruding from each arm were like mounds of densely packed earth, rippling with every move. At one time I could have fought him. Today I was not at my best. Not even close.

  Weak and magic-less. But my pride still did not relent. I puffed out my chest, glaring at Cadoc as he stepped to me, releasing me from the cuffs chained to the wall. The itch deep in my gut stirred again as I recalled he was the person who last touched her. A memory of him carrying Zoey off rushed into my head.

  “Where is she?” The words snapped from my mouth before I could stop them, barely loud enough for Cadoc to hear me. It was pointless. He was an underling and did what he was told, no more.

  He said nothing as he retied my wrists and tugged me forward. I stumbled and gritted my teeth, fighting against the weight bearing down on my frail body. The fever still ravaged me.

  Cadoc pushed me forward, my mind spinning with every movement. Sweat trickled down the side of my face. I was determined to stay upright if it was the only thing I managed. Garrett and Cadoc walked me out of the room with Amara following behind. Garrett glanced over his shoulder, a frown creasing his forehead.

  “He shouldn’t be moved. He’s still ill,” Amara declared.

  Garrett’s eyebrow cocked up. “Don’t tell me you of all people care about his well-being? You who’s been lying, cheating, and deceiving him for years?” A huge smile spread on the Irishman’s face. “You sure didn’t seem to care about him the other night.”

  At one time I might have cared what Amara did…or who. No more.

  She ignored his insinuation. Garrett shook his head and faced forward again. Two more of Garrett’s men joined the group, walking behind to box me in. I wasn’t stupid enough to try to escape. I had no axe, no magic, and barely any strength to stand. The fever continued to rage through my veins, pumping out drops of sweat down my face and back. The more steps I took, the more my legs shook, and my stomach cramped into knots. As much goblin poison as I took in, I was surprised to be alive at all. But a conflicting ache in the pit of my soul made me restless, desiring to move, to keep walking.

  The connection to Zoey was distant enough to ignore, turning it into white noise. I redirected my focus on the surroundings, tailing along through a maze of corridors, up a flight of stairs, and down a hallway. There was little doubt I was in Vadik’s compound, which was rumored to be somewhere in Seattle. How long was I unconscious? It was hard to know. The trip from Peru to Washington wasn’t as long for fae as for humans. Fae doors sprinkled all over the world would shorten our trip to minutes or hours, depending on the moods of the doors that day.

  My feet pushed between the hand-sewn oriental rugs and dark wood floors. The house was the type you would imagine if someone said they lived in a modern Italian-inspired villa. Intricate iron railings, antique furniture, curved arched doorways, and large paintings hung on the walls, depicting landscapes, oceans, and dead, rich ancestors. Wealth from “old money” oozed from the pores of the large house. In my haze I couldn’t lock on anything particular, all portraits blurring into a haze of undistinguishable faces and streaks of color, although something struck me about some of the paintings, like I had seen them before. I knew I hadn’t, but the sensation of déjà vu coiled around my mind.

  Garrett finally stopped in front of double curved oak doors and knocked.

  “Enter,” a deep voice called from the other side. Vadik.

  My muscles constricted in defense as Garrett opened the door and motioned for Cadoc to bring me through.

  Vadik sat at a desk with his fingers steepled together, leaning back in his leather office chair. His white-blond hair was slicked back, emphasizing his dark navy-blue eyes, which sparkled with arrogance and ruthlessness.

  A huge bay window framed him, sun sparkling off the deep blue lake. We sat high enough to look down at the dozens of white yachts and sailboats floating and darting across the water like bleach spots on a blue canvas. A private yacht berthed below bobbed in the house’s boat dock, eager to go play in the sun. The green, dense forest beyond only emphasized the stark white of the boat’s sails and contrasted sharply with the few boats whose owners were rebellious enough to pick another color to flaunt on their sails.

  I knew this area—Bellevue, Washington, along Lake Sammamish. I had stolen from a few properties over in the prestigious West Lake Sammamish area. Maybe it was why some things in this house looked familiar. Had I stolen from here? I didn’t remember ever being in this house, but my mind wasn’t functioning properly.

  Cadoc pushed me close to the desk. He held up a lot of my weight, and I pushed my shoulders back, trying to stand straighter. Besides not wanting to show how weak I felt, Vadik inflicted a hatred so deep, I had to swallow back the urge to leap over the desk and rip his head off his body.

  “I have to admit, I am surprised you survived. You were out for almost four weeks. There were a few times we didn’t think you would wake,” Vadik said evenly. “You are stronger than I thought.” He dropped his arms and sat forward. “But then again I probably shouldn’t be too astonished. You are the fierce Wanderer, are you not? You were conceived to fight, to survive, to escape. Possibly even death.”

  I pinched my lips together. I had many questions, but none were about me. With men like Vadik, you let them talk. They loved to hear their own voices too much to stay quiet.

  “Silent and stoic.” Vadik kept his eyes locked on me. “Living up to your name…oh right…except for actually not being a Wanderer anymore.”

  My feet shifted underneath me as if burrs were stuck to the bottom of my feet.

  “How does it feel to no longer have your magic?” Vadik’s eyes flashed, a slight grin curling his mouth. “Now a human has your powers—a Collector, a seer who wants to destroy us, dissect us like lab rats?” He piled each word on top of the other, building them up to taunt me. “Now you are dying a slow painful death. You will grow feeble…useless. Dying like a pathetic human if you even last that long since many enemies will come for you. And none of them will give you the quick death you will beg for.”

  If he wanted to piss me off, it was working.

  Vadik pressed his lips together, his jaw straining before he let out a breath. “Your stunt is causing me a lot of headaches. I am not sure if you are extremely foolish or exceptionally ingenious.”

  My brows furrowed, confused at what he was talking about.

  “You don’t remember, do you?” Vadik scoffed, shaking his head. My silence was enough of an answer for him to continue. “We were returning throu
gh the fae doors, and you decided to chuck both of your boots through an opening, which simply happened to be a multidimensional door.” One eyebrow cocked as if to say you knew exactly what you were doing. “They could be anywhere, and most likely not together.”

  We stared at each other. Something in his gaze unnerved me, almost like pride.

  “I knew you would keep it close.” Vadik’s head shook slightly, mumbling to himself. “I should have seen it. The most obvious and careless place to hide one of the most powerful objects in the world. In. A. Boot.” He cleared his throat, returning his focus to me. “Now it is out there, lost. And no one will ever realize a legendary treasure is in the discarded shoe they just walked by. Some homeless man will probably be walking around with the Stone of Destiny in his heel.” He let his irritation swallow his sentence and hang in the air.

  I no longer had the stone, which meant I was no longer beneficial to him.

  “What do you want?”

  A gratified smile rose on Vadik’s face. “At first I considered your life, but I’ve had time to rethink your usefulness to me. Anger made me rash.” He sat back in his chair. “But disobedience will never go unpunished. You will pay for defying me.”

  “If you don’t want me dead, then you must want me for something.”

  “I do.” Vadik’s demeanor was calm like a huge lake, but what was below in the depths and darkness is what you worried about. “Death would be the easy way. This isn’t a one-time deal. Your existence is mine to own. As it always should have been. You will do everything I say.”

  “No. One. Owns. Me.”

  A knowing smile played on his mouth. “There you are wrong.”

  “I don’t have my powers; I am worthless to you.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” His navy eyes glinted. “You could get them back.”

  Vadik’s words cleared through the murkiness in my head, recalling why we wanted to challenge him in the first place. He was right. A man was being held here who possibly could restore my magic.

  “Regnus,” I responded. Regnus was an extremely powerful shaman, the head of the shaman leaders. He raised Amara after she lost her parents. I met him once through her. He was a known recluse and stayed hidden from people, and he only allowed her to get close.

  Amara told me Vadik kidnapped Regnus. He was the reason we were coming here. But that’s when I also believed Amara had been abducted the day of the fae storm. I pushed away the dread seeping down my throat. I swallowed. “Regnus…you think he will be able to extract them from Zoey? Can he do it? Without her here?”

  Vadik leaned back in his chair, watching me for a while, his brow creased. I didn’t understand his sudden silence. A trickle of sweat ran down the back of my neck. Vadik tilted his head, his gaze finding someone behind me. “Another thing you forgot to tell me about, Amara?”

  I felt and heard her shift behind me. Instinct rolled my gut into a knot.

  “I see.” Vadik shook his head, humor danced in his eyes.

  The sickening feeling in my stomach expanded. “Where is Regnus?”

  Vadik stood, straightening his suit jacket. “Ask her.”

  I looked over my shoulder at Amara. She glanced away, crossing her arms.

  “Amara.” Vadik’s voice was full of adoration. “My little deceiver. Such an incredible talent for it. The best I’ve ever known. Her tongue is truly talented. She can’t help it; she whispers in your ear like a snake charmer, weaving truth and lies together so well you can’t tell the difference.”

  “What is he talking about?” Deep down I already knew the truth but needed to hear her say it out loud.

  She sighed, turning her face to mine. “Vadik never had Regnus. I made it up.”

  “What?” I growled.

  “I needed you to act.” She shrugged her shoulders. “You needed a reason to move. To go after the stone, and I gave you one.”

  “Was there ever a moment you spoke truth to me?”

  Her dark chocolate eyes locked with mine. “Yes.” I could feel the underlying meaning in her gaze, but it fell numbly on my heart.

  “So where is he?”

  She glanced away

  “Amara. Where. Is. He?”

  She faced me, her chin set high.

  “Dead.”

  “What?” Rage burned like fire in my lungs. The years this woman put things over on me. I felt stupid, blind, and gullible. I understood being a “storyteller” was part of her nature, the type of fae she was. But I had foolishly let myself believe I was one she wouldn’t deceive. We worked together because we were both liars, thieves, and survivors. This was our truth.

  I was simply another naïve asshole who fell for her charms, beauty, and wicked tongue. It was disturbing to think there probably wasn’t one person in here she hadn’t used it on.

  “He’s been dead for a while.”

  The entire time she let me believe there was hope. It never was an option. Disappointment crept into my lungs when the truth hit me. No Regnus. The shred of hope I was holding on to broke. There was nothing to save Zoey or me. It had to be death for one of us.

  And it was going to be me.

  A deep rumble came from my chest. Cadoc grabbed me and held me back from attacking Amara. My body pushed forward, leaning toward Amara as she backed against the wall.

  “If you knew he was dead, you never would have come here. With Regnus in play it got you either to go for the stone or to come here. Whichever way…” Amara trailed off.

  “You got what you wanted. A job well done,” I replied, turning away from her. I could no longer look at her face. I was more disgusted with myself. She worked it so I would have to tell her the location of the stone, give her the actual stone, or willingly go to Vadik’s, walking into a trap.

  She was good; I’d give her that.

  I turned back to Vadik. “I will not let Zoey die.”

  “No? This works for me too.” Vadik slipped his hands in the pockets of his pants, walking around the desk. He was almost as tall and as wide as me, though he commanded more attention. Cruelty danced in his aura, what you expected from a demon. Back when the fae and human worlds worked together, superstition ran high. Demons were feared and honored as much as the gods. However, I always had a healthy disgust for them. I stayed clear of them as much as humans.

  “Your little human and her pet have made me richer. DMG wanted her badly and paid obscenely for her return.”

  “What are you talking about?” I blamed my fevered brain for not connecting dots fast enough.

  “DMG has been a profitable acquaintance.”

  Anger hitched along my spine. “You work for DMG?”

  “I do not work for them.” Vadik’s eyes flashed black before returning navy. All demons in their “pure” form had black eyes, but the exact level of a demon revealed itself in their natural color. You knew what level of demon you were dealing with whether they were dressed in business attire or jeans. Yellow or yellow-green was the most dangerous of demons. His navy eyes told me he was not the highest, but he certainly wasn’t at the bottom. Far from it. If yellow was the top, like the general, then navy was the major. Powerful enough to be feared.

  “They kill fae.”

  Vadik took a breath and leaned back on his desk. “I am a businessman. I provided a service. Merely because we are fae doesn’t cause me to feel kinship to all fae. Like humans, there are those who are not worth saving. I provide leads to their whereabouts. It has made me a hefty income.”

  “So you sell out your own kind for money?” Disgust coated my words.

  “Power runs the world, ours and theirs, whether it comes in money or objects.” He inhaled, peering at me as if I were a silly child. “They were going to get the information from someone. Why not me?” Vadik’s nonchalant attitude caused me to grip my confined hands together. I always sensed he was ruthless and power hungry. It was why I kept the stone away from him, but I didn’t realize how evil he was. “I get what I want…until it no longer works for me.
DMG has gone past their usefulness. There is something there I want more, something I want back.”

  My shoulders tensed.

  “Your human.”

  “She is not my human.”

  “Oh, I think we both know that is a lie. Your weakness for humans will always be your downfall.” He grinned. “Or in this case, hers.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “I’ve come to understand if you kill her, your powers will be restored. If you do not, she will be the useful one.”

  “Stay away from her.”

  “You and I both know that will never happen.” Vadik stood, walking to me. “I am being kind giving you a choice. She is actually the better choice. She can bring in money as my thief and my fighter.”

  My nostrils flared. He wanted me to ask. I hated he would get exactly what he wanted. “What do you mean?”

  “At first I thought she was insignificant, a human who could easily be replaced or gotten rid of.” Vadik set his stance, challenging me. “However, she is anything but. I should thank you. Such an incredible find, especially now that she has your powers. Finding her a part of the underground fight club opened my eyes to a whole new revenue.”

  Again, I felt my stomach drop in anticipation, seeming to know where this roller coaster was going.

  “It was easy to get rid of the human man and his pathetic excuse for a gang running the underground fighting ring and take over the business. Humans pay to see and bet on fights, drink, and indulge in all their favorite sins with my girls. At the same time, fae pay for the service to freely take from a concentrated pool of humans. All are drunk, emotional, and greedy. Everyone is happy. And I do very little.” Pride emanated off his skin. “Zoey will be my lead fighter but will also be stealing more out of their pockets and homes.”

  My tongue seemed to swell in my mouth, I could no longer breathe.

  “You can see why I would prefer to have her. But I will let you decide. I know you declared a promise to her.” Vadik lifted his chin, his gaze directly into mine. “You won’t be able to help yourself. You will go after her. And I will follow.”