River of Magic (The Mysterium Chronicles Book 2)

by Simone Pond

  “Do bring the child forth,” ordered the Alpha.

  The two men hoisted me up again, digging their fingers into my armpits, and transported me across the room. They deposited me in front of the Alpha with my back against the fire. The heat felt so wonderful at first, easing the chill from my bones, but soon the metal from the chains began heating up. I tried shuffling away from the flames, but the Alpha grabbed my shoulders and held me still, sniffing me.

  “You’re different,” he said.

  “Oh, sweetness, never mind the girl. She’s been cooped up with galley rats,” said Glendora.

  The Alpha eyed me carefully as the hot metal of the chains scorched any exposed sections of my body they touched. I had to get away from that fire before the links branded my skin. The right-side pocket of my trousers began to grow warm. The golden star. Maybe I could use it without having full access to it? Since I couldn’t move more than one inch at a time, I fell forward into the Alpha, leading with my right side. When my leg touched his body, he yelped in agony and launched backward about twenty feet, landing on his backside.

  “What in Ashtar’s fiery pit?” he roared, jumping to his feet.

  “I don’t understand,” said Glendora. “I have her magic bound tight. There’s absolutely no way she can break my spell.”

  I lay on the Persian carpet and rolled away from the fireplace toward the Alpha, like a bowling ball.

  “Stay put, child! You have a charge on you that I don’t want near me,” shouted the Alpha.

  But I kept rolling—chains clanking and singeing my skin—right toward the hairy beast. He jumped out of the way.

  “Do something about this!” he ordered Glendora.

  “Men!” she shouted, clapping her hands.

  But her minions shook their heads. They didn’t want to get near me, not after witnessing someone as strong as the Alpha getting thrown back. The fools had no idea what was happening, and I enjoyed every moment of messing with their minds. To see someone as powerful as the Alpha afraid of a woman rolling on the floor in chains was the highlight of my week.

  “It must’ve been the fireplace that fueled a charge,” said Glendora, standing up and approaching me on the floor.

  “You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” I said.

  “You think your Ancient One scares me?” She cackled and nudged me with the tip of her pointy shoe. When nothing happened, she bent down closer and shoved my body with her hands, rolling me onto my back.

  “If you’re not scared, then you really don’t have a clue.” I laughed, but the witch didn’t find it funny and kicked me in my side. The sharp point of her shoe pierced my gut and I couldn’t breathe or think—or anything.

  “There …” Glendora’s voice sounded like a faraway echo. “Can we please discuss business now?”

  I heard the sound of sniffing in my ear and then felt a cold nose next to mine. “Be careful. We don’t want to kill the child. Not before your cousin arrives.” The Alpha’s words surrounded me in a bubble, and I felt myself drifting into darkness.

  You must stay awake and listen.

  I tried to fight back the curtain hanging over my head. I needed to stay awake and hear what the two conspirators were planning. But their conversation came in and out in waves. Broken pieces of information.

  “Broke our previous deal …”

  “Lure him … sweetness …”

  “Mysterium will be mine to reign …”

  “Only if you kill him, Wolfie …”

  “And your prize?”

  “Red Ruby, of course …”

  Though the warm blood continued oozing from the gaping hole in my side as I faded in and out of consciousness, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what the witch and the wolf were plotting. Glendora needed the Alpha to kill Magnus because if she did it she’d lose the power of the Red Ruby. The Alpha was powerful enough to pull it off and it helped that he already had a previous deal with Magnus. It’d be easy to arrange for another meeting. In exchange for killing Magnus, Glendora would secure control of Mysterium for the Alpha. He’d have two kingdoms to rule, and Glendora would have her precious Red Ruby—and her pesky cousin would be out of the picture for good. I’m sure there was another layer of the cake Glendora wasn’t sharing at the moment, like her designs to stay in Lycaeon and possibly rule with the wolf.

  “Come, let’s make a toast and seal it in blood,” said the Alpha.

  “What about the girl?” asked Glendora.

  “She’s half-dead. She’s not going anywhere.”

  The wolf’s deep bellow blended with the witch’s pitchy cackle and swirled around in my head like poison. For a moment or two as I lay there on the floor of the study, listening to everyone leave the room, I did lose hope. I thought maybe the wolf was right, that I wasn’t going anywhere. But then, I heard a slight tap at the window and saw what looked like an angel.

  Chapter 20

  The angel turned out to be CeeCee. She unfastened the window and climbed inside, tiptoeing over to me. Her hands moved over the wound in my belly and a warm feeling began trickling through me as CeeCee removed the heavy chains from my body. I lay still and let the waves of relief roll and ripple until I felt a little better, but my magic was nowhere to be found. CeeCee helped me sit up.

  “How did you get here?” I whispered.

  “Too much to explain right now. Benjamin tracked you down. Here, this is yours.” She handed me a golden star—the one that had landed in the riverbank when I winged it at what I thought was the captain of the pirate ship. “Let’s just get out of here before those two come back.”

  I pocketed the star and hoisted myself up. CeeCee draped the chains around her neck and I leaned on her shoulder as we ambled over to the open window.

  Outside on the balcony, a beautiful golden eagle sat perched on the ledge. His green eyes glistened in the night. Benjamin. He spread his giant wings and lifted off into the air so he could sweep back around to grab us. Freedom was just a flight away. I couldn’t wait to get out of Lycaeon and back to our ships.

  CeeCee and I climbed up on the ledge of the balcony and stood awaiting Benjamin’s return. On the adjacent balcony, the doors shot open and the Alpha rushed outside. He jerked his head toward me and CeeCee, sniffing the air intensely.

  “So, the eagle has come home,” he roared, drawing a bow and aiming an arrow skyward.

  “No!” I shouted.

  He turned to face me and gave a wicked grin. “You foolish child. You can’t escape from me twice.”

  Without a second thought, I yanked one of the stars from my pocket and hurled it directly into the heart of the Alpha. The gold pierced into his broad chest and sent electric jolts through his ribcage and arms. The bow clattered to the balcony. The Alpha collapsed as the gold coursed through his system, eating him alive. His moans shook the foundation of the estate.

  The light will either change it or destroy it …

  The Alpha continued choking and howling as his large body flopped around on the balcony. Then his bulky muscles began to deteriorate and degenerate, shrinking smaller and smaller with the gold churning through his cells. Soon, the Alpha was nothing but a heap of the black robe trimmed in gold and some loose hairs drifting in the breeze. An orchestra of howls echoed from the forest and rose up like a tidal wave through the grove.

  Glendora stepped out onto the balcony, smiling wickedly. “Well done, sweetness. I couldn’t have planned that better myself. One down. One to go …” She lifted her hands, to send forth some of her black tar no doubt, but in a matter of milliseconds CeeCee whipped out the very chains the witch had used on me and leapt across to the other balcony. Like a tornado, she bound up Glendora and shoved her into the corner.

  Benjamin came in from the north. CeeCee quickly returned to my side and we stood holding hands as the eagle swept down and snatched us up with his talons, carrying us away from the grove. Away from Glendora and Lycaeon.

  ***

  Benjamin dropped CeeC
ee and me onto the deck of the Jericho, then shifted into his human form. Matthias—who’d been pacing around—came running over and hugged me. He mumbled words of gratitude into my ear.

  “My father told me you raced off after the Giza went down. He didn’t say where, but I knew …”

  “I was angry,” I said.

  But that wasn’t the only thing. Though I’d saved many children, I had deep remorse for the ones I didn’t get a chance to rescue. I desired to take down the pirates on my own and make them pay dearly, thinking it would assuage the pain. But my impetuous and rage-driven actions had made things much worse. I’d almost died at the hands of a witch and a wolf, leaving the Ancients stranded on the river.

  “It was a loss, but you did everything you could,” said Matthias.

  I nodded, knowing the loss would be another burden I’d have to carry with me, like leaving behind my mother and losing Nils on the Uphaz Bridge. That’s just the way things were designed.

  “There’s some good news …” said Benjamin, grinning.

  “Bring it on. I could use some right about now,” I said.

  “We have Isabella.”

  Though I wanted to strangle the traitorous little witch for running off with the chuckling hyena, a surge of hope raced through my chest. All was not lost—now that we had the Overseer we could make her open the Rankin Canal and leave the Confederated Six once and for all. Thank the Ancient One!

  “Where is she?” I almost shouted.

  “In my stateroom,” said Benjamin.

  I started to storm off across the deck.

  “Wait!” called out Benjamin. “Don’t yell at her!”

  I turned around. “I’m pissed. After all I did to help her escape, she just ditched us for that ridiculous hyena!”

  Matthias walked over. “It’s not like that. Sawyer kidnapped her.”

  I laughed. “And you accused me of being too trusting?”

  “She’s the reason Benjamin was able to find you,” said CeeCee.

  “Really? How’s that?”

  Benjamin took my hand and held it. “I tracked her and the hyena down in Lycaeon. Small cave. She was drugged and chained. Clearly she was being held against her will. I waited for him to go out and I nabbed her. While flying back to the ships, she saw your golden star on the riverbank. I brought her back to the Jericho, picked up CeeCee, and we went back to Lycaeon to find you.”

  It sounded feasible, but after the amount of deception and trickery I’d encountered up to that point, I’d grown wary.

  “I’d like to hear it straight from the witch’s mouth,” I said.

  “Just don’t piss her off,” said Matthias. “We’re about half a day from reaching the channel. Do whatever you want after we pass through, but until then, keep it in check.”

  I gave him a professional nod of understanding, letting him know my days of “flying off the handle” were behind me. Getting through the channel was the most important goal. I would do everything in my power to ensure that happened.

  Benjamin unlocked the door to his stateroom and stepped inside, and I followed behind with Matthias and CeeCee. Isabella lay nestled under a pile of wool blankets, asleep in one of the twin beds. Matthias, CeeCee, and I sat on the empty twin bed as Benjamin leaned over Isabella and stroked her long brown hair, whispering for her to wake up. The tenderness of his touch revealed a river of emotion flowing from his fingertips. She slowly opened her doe-like eyes and smiled so sweetly at Benjamin that my own heart jumped. They had feelings for one another. And if she felt this way about Benjamin, there was no way she was in love with Sawyer. This meant there was a strong possibility her story was true. She registered the three of us sitting on the opposite bed and sat up quickly.

  “Hi, Isabella,” I said.

  She smiled and got up to give me a hug, squeezing me close until our magic started reacting like oil and water.

  “My hero, Jordan Temple,” she said.

  “Please. No need to butter me up. I’m not falling for any more lies.”

  She sat back down and wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders, shivering in only a silk robe. “Rightly so. But please do allow me to explain.”

  “Didn’t your boyfriend give you any fancy clothes to wear?” I asked.

  “I must tell you what happened, so you don’t have this tone in your voice. I’m on your side. Remember that, first and foremost.”

  I stared at her for a moment, quietly taking in her nonverbal cues and energy levels. She seemed steady, not anxious or uncomfortable. The only thing pressing on her was the desire to tell me her side of the story. One I hoped would be the truth.

  “Okay, let’s hear it,” I said.

  “It’s true, Sawyer and I were lovers.” She glanced over at Benjamin apologetically. “It was lonely on that river cruise and Sawyer had a certain je ne sais quoi about him. A savoir faire …”

  “Enough with the French,” I interrupted.

  Matthias chuckled under his breath and I nudged his knee with mine. “Sorry, but Fancy Pants is a total douche,” he said.

  Isabella laughed lightly. “Well, yes. He certainly turned out to be just that. But he wasn’t at first. In the beginning he was confident and capable. He most certainly didn’t have that nervous tic. That returned when I told him I was finished with the river and needed to get back to Endor and put my magic to good use. I’d heard from my clan that Glendora was doing deplorable things to enchantresses. I was compelled to return and assist.”

  Benjamin sat next to her and gave her a cup of water and said, “The shifter followed her to Endor. Begged her to be with him and to teach him the ways of her kind. But as you know, hyenas are shifty bastards. He started getting into some shady stuff.”

  Isabella sipped her water, then set it down on the nightstand. “I told him I didn’t want to be associated with him anymore. And he pretended to take it well, but he didn’t. At all. He was secretly plotting a way to keep me forever in his possession. The perfect opportunity came when he found out I was helping others like me from the real Endor. He went to Glendora with the information and thought that she’d ban me from the city, forcing me to run into his arms and live in his cottage in the woods. He hadn’t anticipated her locking me away in the High Tower.”

  So far everything Isabella had spoken made perfect sense, and judging from the way she interacted with Benjamin it seemed they had something between them. But it could’ve been another spell.

  Benjamin sensed I wasn’t fully on board and continued, “Sawyer screwed himself. So he started doing tons of research about Isabella, hoping to find something related to her magic to teach him how to do what she did. He got better at illusions and learned about her family line—hence the Overseer background—but he couldn’t quite seem to nail down how to get to the High Tower. When he heard about us traveling north, he figured we’d want to go beyond the canal so he approached us.”

  “So, he took a gamble that I’d do anything to extract Isabella,” I said. “For a jackass, it was a brilliant plan. But that doesn’t explain why they left together.”

  Isabella leaned forward. “Jordan, please believe me. Don’t you remember my condition when we first arrived? I was passed out and don’t remember what happened from that point. All I know is that I woke up in some tiny hovel of a cave, soaking wet and wearing this silk robe. And Sawyer was fussing over me, feeding me hot soup that tasted like bitter grass and wrapping me in blankets so tight I couldn’t move. He told me I’d come to love him again. That he’d create another place just like the cottage he had prepared in the woods. But that we couldn’t go back to Endor because it was no longer safe. He said we’d make our home in Lycaeon, his original home. Then he did … unspeakable things.” Isabella lowered her face into her palms and cried body-shaking sobs.

  Benjamin sat wide-eyed and clueless, so I got up and moved him out of the way. I stroked Isabella’s back, making sure to keep a thick padding of blankets between us to absorb any warring magical energies.
I told her everything was okay now. That she was in good hands.

  “The whole time I was stuck in that cold cave, I thought about that story you told me when we were trapped in the hole in the ground,” said Isabella.

  “Which one?” I asked.

  “That all of us are descendants of Shteim'esrei and at one point everyone followed the Ancient One. I thought about how I never followed Ashtar, nor felt good about using my magic for powers of darkness. Your words really stuck with me, Jordan. Gave me hope that I would be okay.” She paused and looked up at me with the purest smile coming through her brown eyes. She was telling the truth. “And you know what? That’s when Benjamin showed up. He rescued me from the hyena. Then I saw your golden star glittering on the riverbank, and I knew in my heart something had deeply shifted in me. I knew the Ancient One would take care of me the way he’d taken care of you.”

  I hugged her, not caring if her magic would poison mine, or if mine would zap her. The moment called for a seal of approval. Or something to bind our hearts and our alliance to the Ancient One. And the strangest, most beautiful thing happened … nothing. Absolutely no painful shockwaves or draining of energy or feeling of illness. Isabella had been washed clean of her old self and she truly was the one whose fleece was white as snow.

  “Wow,” she said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re a fantastic hugger!”

  Matthias stood up and reached for my hand. “She is. And now that this is all sorted out, you should get some rest, Isabella. Benjamin, find this lady some proper trousers.”

  We left Benjamin and Isabella to themselves. When we turned the corner to go to the upper deck, CeeCee gave me a pat on the shoulder and a wink, then strode off in her own direction, leaving a trail of glittering light behind her. And leaving me alone with Matthias.

  Chapter 21

  I was alone with Matthias under the moonlight and I felt incredibly self-conscious and jittery. “I could use a nap,” I said, though it was the furthest thing from my mind.