by Jen L. Grey
"Some of it she does to herself." Dax huffs and rubs his temples. "What are you trying to prove?"
"It'd be nice if we could just get back to Ria's." I'm about to fall apart here, and he wants to argue. What in the world is wrong with him? "Then, maybe you could lecture me?"
Charlie transfers some of my weight toward him and sets a slow, steady pace.
"I'll just carry her." Dax grabs my arm and pulls me toward him.
Oh, hell no. I won't be manhandled. I let out some of the vibrant purple strand, which burns his hand. "Do not touch me like that again."
"Shit." He yelps and shakes out his hand. "You didn't have to do that. I was trying to help, for God's sake."
"You had a funny way of showing it." The power clobbers me from every direction. Dammit, letting loose some energy wasn’t a wise idea.
"I've got her." Charlie wraps my arm around his shoulder, and we move again.
The colors inside me are beautiful. It's almost like a fireworks show on a hot summer night, but the difference is the fireworks are exploding within me. Each burst feels like a sucker punch to the gut, and it hurts to just breathe.
A breeze picks up around me, which pulses and aggravates the power already warring inside me.
"Dammit, Chris." Dax grinds out the words as if he's in pain too. "I can see the house from here. We're almost there."
For some reason, that makes everything inside and out more sporadic. Almost like it knows time is running out. The Water Artifact calls to me, pulsing and taunting. I still have no clue where it is, but the Elements inside me respond to it.
Something rumbles underneath us, and Charlie pulls more of my weight onto him. "Sweetheart, please try to calm down. The ground is shaking."
My vision becomes hazy, but I press on. I have to get back to Ria's; that's my only goal. "I'm trying."
"This is ridiculous." Dax lifts me up as if I'm a child and begins sprinting to the door.
I want to argue with him, but that would be stupid. Not only is my life at risk right now, theirs are too.
Charlie runs in front and opens the door. "Hurry, she should be fine once she gets in here."
When the door shuts, relief engulfs me. The water element is no longer attacking me, and my inner powers calm down. The colors stop fighting against my dark reaper magic and recede back into my core. Holy shit, that was so close. I'm still cradled in Dax's arms which are tight around me.
"You okay now?" Charlie's hazel eyes shine with concern, and he touches my arm.
"Yeah, I feel so much better." I wiggle, lifting up my head, and face Dax. "You can let me down now. I feel fine."
He arches his dark eyebrow and nods. "All right." He sets me back down on my feet, and I almost stumble. "Easy there." He reaches out to steady me.
"Whoa." The world is standing still once again, and I hold on to the wall just in case. "Thanks for your help."
"That's what I'm here for." He gives me a small smile as the air around him goes back to its usual color.
"Come on, let's get you to bed." Charlie grabs my hand and helps me up the stairs.
At the top, Ria comes into view. She's sitting on the floor cushions with one of the large leather books out in front of her. She glances up and focuses on me. "You're finally back."
"Yeah, we got caught up in the city." I force myself to walk tall and straight. I don't want her to know that I was struggling before we got back. The less she knows the better.
"Dax was getting worried because you had been gone so long." She flips a few pages and stops.
Is that an underlying threat, or am I being paranoid? "Well, he must have caught me just in time."
"You're telling me." Dax's laugh is deep and a little off key.
"So did you guys have a good time?" Ria shuts the book and scans all three of us up and down.
"Yes, we did." Charlie steps forward and kisses my forehead. "I haven't been able to spend time like that with her in a very long time."
"Oh, really?" Her eyes widen, and she tilts her head.
She's fishing now. I wonder what she's up to. "Yeah, between work and the council back home, we are run pretty ragged." Okay, I need to change the subject before she asks more questions. "But we enjoyed our time here. We actually went on a boat ride around the island."
Her shoulders tense, but she takes a deep breath, forcing them to relax. "Oh, really? That's nice. That is one of the more popular attractions here. Did someone tell you about it?"
"Yeah, one of the merchants." Charlie steps next to me and grins. "And boy, they were right. I think we fell in love with your world."
"That's great news." She stands and places the book back on the shelf. "So, have you considered my offer to stay here?"
"You know I'm already on board with the plan." Dax shakes his head and points at me. "The less I have to worry about her, the better. That amulet makes it a lot easier on me."
If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was telling the truth. Jackass. "Actually, we have."
Charlie rubs the back of his head and bites his bottom lip. "It sure is a hard offer to ignore."
"So, what he’s saying is yes, we're considering it." Now that Damien is here and is watching my whereabouts, I'm not even sure if staying here is a possibility anymore. The saying is true; you can't run from your problems.
"The deal is for just the three of you." She arches an eyebrow and crosses her arms. "We have never allowed someone outside our own people to live here, so no additional visitors are welcomed."
What is she getting at? Is she assuming that we would want to bring more people here? "I understand that. The point is to get away."
"Just want to make sure the offer was clear." She glances at each one of us, and her eyes land back on me.
"That would be the point of leaving our old world behind." Charlie squints and taps his foot.
"Well, I just wanted to bring it up again since you had someone show up tonight." She stares at me as if she's watching my every move.
"That someone was definitely not invited by us.” Dax steps closer to me; his jaw tense.
Shit, how does she know that? We were all alone at that point.
"Okay, but who was he? Why was he here?" Her lavender eyes glow, and the room fills with light.
What the hell is going on? "Are you following me?" This isn't cool. I refused to be watched here like I am back home.
"No, I'm not following you, but I do have to keep an eye on you." She crosses her arm and her eyes fade out once again.
"That makes no sense." How is that even possible? Is she watching us somehow? "You'd have to be following me then."
"No, that's not true." She motions around us and lifts her hands. "The water told me about the man and the woman he brought with him."
How is she connected to the water? That shouldn’t be possible from what I’ve learned. The more I learn here, the more confusing it is.
"He is not a friend but rather someone who is threatening her." Dax gazes off and purses his lips. "So, it's a good thing I was there so we had more people than them."
"Yeah, that demon is nothing but a freaking nuisance to us." Charlie's tone is low, and he clenches his fist.
"A demon?" Ria stills for a moment, and the corner of her eyes wrinkle.
Having a demon around is never a good thing. "Yes, he wants to know when I'll be getting the last artifact." Might as well tell her the truth. Maybe that will buy me some points with her. "He's been after me to get all the artifacts from the very beginning."
Her breathing picks up, and she takes a step toward me. "You can't take the Water Artifact. We won't allow it."
Does she believe repeating that mantra over and over will make it come true? I got it the first time. "I have no intentions of taking it..."
"Good." Ria cuts me off before I can finish.
What the hell? She didn't even let me finish. "Like I was trying to say; I don't plan on taking it if we can make this work." The damn amulet better not let m
e combust, or we'll have problems.
Charlie and Dax move in closer each time Ria's temper flares.
"What does that mean?" Ria stomps her foot, and her forehead wrinkles.
"As long as this amulet works and I don't implode, I won't take the artifact." Does she really need me to spell it out? And here I felt like I was dense most of the time. "However, if I begin to implode and think that I'm going to cause havoc on the world all around me, then I can't keep that promise."
"But you have to." Her hands shake, and she points at the amulet. "You took that from me."
"As you said earlier, it's about the millions." For once, I know what's right and wrong. It may have taken me a while to get here, but I'm finally here. "If I realize that I can save millions by making a better decision, then that's what I'm going to do."
Ria glares at Charlie and Dax. "Do something about this right now. You all agreed to my terms."
"Do you think I can tell her what to do?" Dax snorts and raises both hands. "She can control three of the elements. I don't have a chance, so I'm just going to stay aligned with her."
"And I love her." Charlie puts a hand on my back and rubs his thumb over my shirt. "So I will stand and support her."
"But the artifact belongs to us." She marches over to me and gets in my face. "I won't allow you to take it."
She won't allow me? I want to burst out laughing right now. "Well, then it's a good thing I don't plan on asking your permission if it comes to that."
She flinches back as if I slapped her. "You..." She runs her fingers through her hair and pulls. "I don't know who you think you are, but you better watch your back." She shoves past me and marches out the door.
Great, I've made a new frenemy.
Chapter Thirteen
The next couple of days seem to fly by. It's crazy how well we're acclimating here. After Ria cooled off the other night, she returned and seemed to be in better spirits.
I'm not sure why, but there has been no other mention of the artifact or Earth. She's not home very often, but I'm not sure if it's because of us or if that's her norm.
Dax has even taken to blending in here in a way. He doesn't go very far from me, but he has managed to make a few friends of his own and get little tidbits of information from here and there.
Ugh, I'm not even sure what to wear. I've gotten a few new pieces of clothing from Ria, but it still seems too weird to dress like them. All the women tend to wear longer dresses which is so not my style. I grab an emerald green dress from the closet and slip it on.
"Hey, you about ready?" The door opens, and Charlie walks in. His blond hair is messy, which is the way I love it, and his hazel eyes scan me up and down. "Damn, that color looks great on you. It almost matches the water here."
"It's a freakin' dress." I lift up both sides, letting it fan out. "Why in the world do the women wear these here?"
"Well..." He saunters over to me and wraps his arms around my waist. "I think it's sexy." He leans down and begins kissing my neck.
Warmth spreads through me, and I let out a small moan. "You think so?"
"Damn straight I do." He kisses lower and my breathing begins to pick up. We share a room here, but there isn't enough time in the day, and it doesn't help that I never tire of him.
He throws me down on the cushions and begins exploring even lower, moving some of the fabric. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." I slide in my fingers into his hair and pull. For some reason, he loves that.
A loud knock interrupts us. "Hey, are we going or what?" Dax's tone sounds annoyed.
"Damn him." Charlie doesn't stop kissing me, and his hands begin to creep up my thigh. "Just ignore him."
Oh, how I wish I could. This is just now getting good. I try to push Dax out of my mind, but he pounds on the door once again.
"Chris, don't ignore me." Dax jiggles the door handle and sighs. "You both got me up early to go to the market."
"As much as I hate to agree with him, we did." Is it bad that I still want him to convince me to stay?
His hand stills, and he lifts his head to meet my eyes. "Fine, but you have to promise me something special will happen tonight to make up for it."
"Only if you give me motivation again." Every day, I seem to fall more and more in love with him. I don't even know how that's possible, but we fit together so perfectly.
"Don't worry. I will." He winks at me and gives me one last, lingering kiss on my lips. He stands and pulls me up by my hands. "All right, Dax. We're coming out."
Once I'm on my feet, I readjust my dress to make sure nothing is sticking out, then I open the door to find Dax leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"So now you're a creeper?" Was he planning on standing out here the entire time until we came out? If we hadn't stopped, that would be really awkward,
"When you wake me up before the butt crack of dawn, there is no pushing it off until later." He arches an eyebrow and pushes off the wall.
"Dude, not cool." Charlie walks out and laughs. "Now she's going to be paranoid tonight."
Did he just go there? "Charlie, if you keep that up, there won't be anything to get paranoid over." I don't want everyone knowing what we were getting close to doing.
"I..." Dax closes his eyes and shakes his head. "Just let's go. I don't want to continue this conversation."
Nor do I. At least he and I are on the same page right now. "Okay, lets head out to the market." At this rate, I may die of mortification before I even get there. I reach up around my neck to make sure the amulet is there. Thank God. I always fret that it disappeared in the middle of the night or something. I love having it. I feel like a normal person with it on.
We walk out the door and into another perfect day. The weather is comfortable, hovering near seventy degrees, and the suns are out with only a few clouds in sight. You'd think since this is a water world, it would constantly rain, but that's not how it works here. From what we've learned, it doesn't rain here except on very rare conditions.
"I don't understand why you don't sell at the market?" Dax comes up beside me and purses his lips. "Since you can connect with the water here, you can spell just like the others can, and it would help us appear to be integrating into their society more."
That's a very good question. "I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. We're still getting acclimated."
"We are not in any rush." Charlie takes my hand and squeezes. "We still need to find the Water Artifact. That’s where our focus needs to be.”
The market comes into view in front of us, and one of the vendors waves at us.
For the past couple of days, we’ve spent a lot of time here. Most of the vendors aren't happy about us, but there are a few who we've made friends with. We continue our way through the market, and a few of the vendors say, “Hi.”
Melody’s table is up just a few from where we stand, and her eyes meet mine. "Hey, Chris. Glad to see you again today."
At first, I thought the ogre incident made us enemies, but that next day when she saw us, she came over and apologized for how she reacted. She felt threatened by the ogre, and knew she would get in trouble if she gave him something for free. That’s not how things work here in this water world, and she knew Tide was on his way. Ever since then, she's the one we hang out with at the market, and she's even let me recharge some of her items.
Dax walks over to her table and picks up a small bottle of water. "So these are the refills for the vapor gadget that you sell?"
"Yes, and I have a fan that can be purchased. Both parts have to be spelled in order to make the machine work." She reaches out and takes the bottle from him, placing it back on the table. "Please be careful with this. I have to pay three-fourths of the sales price for any item I have here. Even if it breaks, I'm still required to pay that price for using a spell."
That seems really odd. "Why would Ria make you pay for something you didn't sell? You would think that they would make exceptions for accidents."
<
br /> She shakes her head and sighs. "That's not how it works here. We don't pay by the item we sell; we pay by spell. The charge is for having the privilege of using our water, not selling in the market."
"Well that doesn't make sense." Charlie's forehead creases, and he taps a finger to his lips. "Chris spelled the ogre’s gadget the other day, and she didn't have to pay anything."
"Most of us can't communicate with the water like she did." She looks around and then lowers her voice. "Only Ria is able to do that. So we have to ask for her blessing, and then she commands the water to do our bidding."
So that's how they're able to make sure they get a cut of each of the vendors’ profits. They're able to control how many spells are done and charge according to what Ria allows. "I hadn't realized that before."
"Yeah, this is how things are done here." She sighs and runs her fingers through her hair. "The truth of the matter is I barely make enough money to get by."
Why would their leaders do that to them? Now that she’s made the comment, I take a good look at her. Her dress is patched, and her shoes are a little worn. "Does everyone struggle this way or just a few?"
"Haven't you noticed that only Ria and Tide are well-dressed here?" Dax is looking at the table next to Melody and tilts his head.
I look more closely at the merchants around us. Wow, those people have shoes that are falling apart and holes in their dresses. "How did I miss that?"
Charlie crosses his arms and taps his foot. "Hey, do you want to go walk around for a minute?"
He wants to go check it out just like I do. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
Charlie and I head off, and meander through the market once more. I'm not looking at the products they sell but the people themselves. It's disturbing now that I'm looking closely. People's clothes are worn out, and many have bags under their eyes. Even the children aren’t playing around like they do back on earth. They are staying by their parents, helping them work. There are no laughter and no toys anywhere around. At first, the kids appeared to be well-behaved, but they look just as stressed as the parents.