Two officers swept lights over the area. As the beams hit the landscape, I checked out the miracles our magic had wrought. Formerly yellowed grass had transformed the ground into an emerald carpet. Dead tree limbs glistened lively, dotted with early spring buds. Life had reclaimed old mottled brown trees and bushes. Owls hooted in the tallest trees and small animals scurried among the bushes. The whole site radiated life to both the natural world and the paranormal unknown, a treasure trove of unfathomable magical artifacts.
I grinned up at Adam, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me. The lights shut down, painting the air with midnight ink, until a natural faint shimmer rose up from the stone circle. Radiant magic sparkled like multi-hued jewels on the trees and flora. “It’s beautiful.”
“You did this.” His smooth, lilting voice was a slow caress down my body.
“Not without help.” I hugged him tight. My heart dove into my stomach. “Zoe!” I clamped onto Adam’s arm. “I lost her by the visitor center. Three…fairies were almost captured.”
Adam called Jax and instructed him to track down Zoe and to look for any paranormals. After he hung up, we walked away from the energy inviting us closer to Mini-Stonehenge. “Was there a reason you came to the park?”
My teeth chattered and I shoved my hands up my sleeves. Adam shrugged off his leather jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders.
“Thanks.” I snuggled into its warmth, inhaling his familiar scent, along with a whiff of sunshine and moonlight. More elemental scents invaded my new world. “I thought the hotel might be watched. I wanted to slurp up some of the energy here while I snagged my phone.” I scanned the area. “It’s in Ronan’s backpack.” I nearly strangled on his name. “Hey, what happened to you? I don’t think Riley saw you. Did you invoke this invisibility glamour?”
Adam snuck his finger across my lips. “The magic must have naturally shielded me. I hung behind to grab the backpack and cover our tracks.”
I shook my fist in his face. “The memo fairy hadn’t given me Ronan’s plan. He nailed us to the wall. Did you know about his scheme?” The words tasted like dirt in my mouth. I grimaced and swished my tongue over my gums. These strange elemental scents and tastes were becoming irksome. I needed elemental chocolate.
He shook my shoulders, his fingers digging into the leather. “Riley found us through luck. Ronan didn’t set us up.”
“You’re a lap behind the field if you think that.” My heel caught on a tangle of vines. A clump of limp leaves cushioned my fall to the ground. I looked at my watch. Seven thirteen. Figures. I scooted off the plant onto the moist grass and crossed my legs.
Adam crouched down. “You seriously think Ronan set us up?”
“Too many coincidences. Why did he really go to Melisande’s hotel and hide it from us? Calling his father alone from San Jose? His nasty attitude at the Rift?” I wiped my damp hands on my sweatpants. “That’s just the icing on the cake of crap.”
“He’s not exactly the most open person.” He held out his hand. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the hotel.”
“No.” A dead flower received the impact of my fisted anger.
He sighed in frustration. “Why not?”
“It’s not safe.” I clenched my knees before I permanently deadheaded another flower.
“Do you trust me?” He stroked the back of my hand.
His touch fired tendrils of reassurance through my heart. I jerked my hand away. “Stop playing fairy tricks on me.” In the span of seconds, my instincts and trust began sparring. No romance going on there.
Adam searched my face, his eyes glowing around the rims as if embers smoldered behind them. “No games, Aria.” He rose to his full height, towering over me. “I’ll never betray you, nor lie to you. Nor have I ever. We clear on that?” His tone brooked no trash talk. “What did Ronan do that’s got you all fired up?”
My neck smarted. I jumped up, rubbing the spot, dying to rub out Riley’s life as easily. I knew I’d disabled the tracking device inside me when I blasted Riley’s campus. Why else hadn’t his apemen found me by now? Just in case, I wanted double assurances. “Can the energy here deaden a tracking device?”
Adam’s nostrils flared as his face went all Ronan scowly. His hair curled and uncurled like an angry fist.
I tugged his hand but the mountain of fairy testosterone didn’t budge. “Let’s go.”
“It’s probably a crap-shoot here, but I bet Riley stuck one in you. Ronan assured me his father wouldn’t use the trackers because your innate magic made them useless. A lie, but that’s how he convinced his father he still had his implanted after he removed it.”
We set off toward a thicket of mist-shrouded trees, ghostly silhouettes in the dim park.
“Ronan implanted the tracking device in my neck.” I slipped on a patch of soggy grass. “I’m pretty sure I already disabled it.” I touched the puncture, zinging it with a ripple of a brain wave, and felt nothing to indicate it was still live.
“What?” Adam stopped abruptly, holding my arm steady. I guess he’d gotten used to my natural bad luck and wasn’t taking any chances of my ass kissing the ground.
Birds took flight, squawking, wings flapping. Although I hadn’t noticed anything unusual in the gloom, apprehension prickled across my shoulders. “Keep moving.” We continued trudging toward the trees.
“Was Ronan acting for his father?” Adam steered me to the left into a border of bushes along the trail.
“Who else? I awoke and he was sticking a gun thing in my neck. He flat out told me it was a tracker and don’t try to run.” A small animal scurried across our path, rustling into the bushes. I hugged Adam’s arm closer. “I thought I’d dreamed it until my neck just now burned.”
“Was Riley in the room?” We halted within the veil of trees. Branches clicked and creaked above our heads, resembling old bones in a hangman’s graveyard.
“Ronan was alone, but the room was audio and video bugged.” The faint glow from my glowering eyes extended a few inches beyond my face. “I told you he’s playing games. This isn’t how this was supposed to go down.” My right pinkie twinged. My shoulders tightened. Stop the world, so I can escape.
A clatter arose in the brush to our right and we spun toward it. A crunch followed in the same spot, and I peered into the deepening black night. The thickening cloud cover had stolen the last of our starlight.
“Are we still invisible?” I’d released my glamour by the Rift.
“No. I can’t hold the glamour for long. My magic really isn’t mine, you know. It’s mostly Ronan’s. You might, but wait until we need it.”
“Will mine shield you?” Several pairs of footsteps slogged through the wild park area. A spur of familiarity added a new knot of dread in my gut.
“Don’t worry about me.”
I stood on my toes and raised my lips to Adam’s ear. “It’s Ronan.”
Did he believe me about Ronan? Did I believe me? My heart twinged and my head ached, battling each other. I squeezed Adam’s hand so hard, he flexed his fingers, shaking me off. I dug my shoes into the wet ground to keep from running toward Benedict Ronan.
“Hold it together.” He rubbed my back underneath the leather jacket. Electricity tingled along the edges of my tattoo at his touch. “I feel him too. There’s more to the picture than meets the eye.”
“He was negotiating his freedom with my part of the Illuminaria.” The envelope helped keep the chill off my midriff. Would I ever see the whole book?
Adam rasped his fingers over his chin. “Invoke the glamour and return to the Rift. We’ll use the energy there.” We skirted a brick planter filled with stinky, moldy compost.
“I read more of the pages than I shared with you two. I wanted something to believe in that didn’t come out of your mouth or Ronan’s,” I explained as if I was sitting on the witness stand.
“I get it.”
“I guess Ronan thinks I betrayed him by holding out. I need
ed to understand how crucial it was to keep them from Riley’s hands. You’re right about your magic belonging to Ronan. The doppelgängers alone don’t have much innate magic…at least not yet. They pull from their linked sorcerers. It’s all in the lost pages.”
“Ronan and I figured that out. We never thought opening the Rift would change that aspect of our nature.”
I needed to tell him another crucial fact I’d learned from those pages that bothered me to the depths of my soul. “The more magic Ronan uses, the more it will hurt you. It’s the cost the sorcerers pay to wield their magic. Eventually, he’ll kill you if he uses too much magic.”
Adam sucked in a breath. I took his hand in mine, tried to peer into his faintly glowing eyes, but he averted his face. Emotion leaked into his death grip on my hand. “If he dies, you die too. If you die, he loses magic. You two balance each other out in that respect.”
Adam scrubbed a hand over his face. “God, what a mess. What would’ve happened if we’d closed the Rift, even if it was possible?”
“I don’t know. I skimmed the pages, but didn’t get a chance to read them all.”
A branch snapped in the nearby trees. Adam tugged on my hand.
Stealthily, we made our way to the Rift, trudging away from the thin air of malice nipping at our heels. I only tripped once on my thirteenth step. My aura riled up with my new infusion of magic. I tried to restrain it, but Ronan’s lure was too strong and a sliver slipped out, opening a fissure, waving a welcome to the Aria Zone sign. Ronan’s power yanked harder. Obviously, the connection between us transcended all things human and earthly. If only I could trust it once again. At that moment, my heart let my head take charge.
“She’s here,” Ronan said, unmistakably loud and clear, and oh so very near. Was he baiting me, or warning me?
“Concentrate,” Adam nearly snarled. “I can’t help you with magic until I figure out what I’m doing. You can do it. You’re stronger than he is.”
“I’m trying,” I said under my breath. Tug of war ensued between Ronan and me, weakening my tired defenses. Obviously, he’d regained his magical strength. Strong, recharged, an invisible rope of energy built between us, braided with threads of each other and Adam. Wrestling against Ronan's power, I lost control of my glamour.
The light of two flashlights illuminated me. “There’s our wayward master sorcerer.” Riley’s chuckle grated along my last nerve. “Stun her.”
I released Adam’s hand so as not to disclose his presence under his faltering cloaking spell. I tore off, bobbing and weaving, distracting their attention. The direction of their voices stemmed from the stone circle so I ran in the opposite direction, away from the card-carrying members of the Buzz Kill Club.
Gopher holes created a tricky path, and I feared busting my butt on any misstep. I leapt behind a cedar to calm my racing heart. Peeking around the trunk, I couldn’t make out Ronan or Riley, but Ronan’s aura glommed onto me, stroking me from head to toe, melting my insides into wanton syrup. I readied a knockout spell and threw the mental blast at one of the two bodies waving the flashlights. A grunt and heavy thump on the ground tailed my targeted knockout. With all my recent practice, it was much easier to direct my brain waves. I couldn’t contain an excited grin. Take that, you sorry saps.
My second blast shot forward. An infinitesimal whizzing confirmed the mind toss, but I didn’t hear a second grunt and thump. Instead, the energy swerved and boomeranged toward my sheltering tree. I lunged behind the trunk, but the deluge caught me and threw me toward the tree. I thrashed my forehead into the rough bark. Blinding white light exploded in my skull. The electrical wave of magic drove me backward in a gust of prickly wind. My legs flew out from under me and I fell, the back of my head smashing into a decrepit, crumbling log.
Chapter 27
In muffled tones, I heard my name in two distinct arias that created a whole song, Ronan and Adam’s voices merging as one. Riley stood four or five feet to Ronan’s left. Stars gathered in my eyes, but they didn’t stop me from blasting a targeted dose of an ass-kicking snooze at Riley. He crumpled to the ground in a quiet thump. The Rift magic was already filling me up, slowly but surely.
I was one giant ache from thudding head to searing footpads. On the flipside, Ronan and Adam’s magic mated with mine, a sweet intoxicating joining. Soul deep, heart bound. Warmth and sunlight flooded me, and I had the sense of Ronan and Adam’s souls dipping into mine, becoming one with all that we had been, all we were destined to be. Complete again, but at what cost? Who’d spin the hard drive that clunked against my skull? My vision swam in and out of focus. I gripped my head to stop it from careening away.
Ronan knelt beside his father and checked his pulse. “She all right?”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart.” Adam gathered me in his arms. “Where does it hurt?”
“Where…doesn’t it hurt?”
“Can you be serious for once?” Ronan’s curt voice snipped my last nerve.
“Go suck on a grenade, Ronan.” Whether I felt it or not in my battered body, I managed to instill a dose of animosity in my tone. “How dare you throw my magic back at me? I thought you and Dickard wanted me alive?” I spat the words out, along with a leaf that’d snuck its way into my mouth. The faint taste of azaleas coated my tongue. Ugh. I was sick to death of kissing the ground and slurping on nature’s bounty.
“You did that?” Adam lashed out, his arm hardening on my neck. His fae magic rose, but mine wasn’t receptive. In fact, I wasn’t sure I could throw another knockback spell at an ant, unless lucky thirteen decided to kick in.
A sharp stick dug into my knee, giving me the encouragement I needed to stand. I approached Ronan and his father, lying prone on the carpet of woodsy debris. I pulled the gun I’d filched from Riley’s office out of my back waistband and pointed it at Ronan. “Move away from him.”
Sparing a frown, Ronan stood, held up his hands, and backed away. “I’m on your side, Aria.”
My anger refused to be caged. “If I throw a stick, will you leave?”
Adam joined us and removed Riley’s weapons, which included a nasty-ass dart gun probably filled with Riley’s exclusive magic killing elixir. He tossed me a flashlight, then tied an air band around Riley’s wrists and ankles, leaving me suitably impressed with his newfound abilities. Before Adam had a chance to back away, Riley was already coming to. I was also suitably impressed with my newfound control, and glad that I hadn’t zapped him to heaven, or in his case, hell.
“Well, well, well.” Riley sputtered out the words, struggling against the invisible bindings on his wrists. “Finally, our fae doppelgänger has arisen.” Excitement trembled in his recovering voice. “You did well, Ronan, exactly what I’d hoped for.”
“You used me to flesh him out?” Stunned rage thickened Ronan’s voice, and he slammed a fist against a tree trunk.
The flashlight beam lit up our little Come to Jesus session. “What are you, the pied piper of magic?” I said, my mouth raring to go off on Dickwad. Ronan deserved his chance, so I bit my tongue hard.
“I suspected you had found your other half after we screwed with the Rift. His identity was a mystery until tonight. His pull on your magic had been too strong over the years. Your abilities were hampered by him, his absence. He’s the missing element in my alchemic potions using your blood. So much magic had returned to Earth after the Earthquake Cluster event, the shakeup of the ley lines…so much no one knew about or could even begin to fathom. The return of the sorcerer-fae magic, and the return of the magic of the original twelve doppelgängers, latching onto the DNA of humans with an iota of ancient magic in their bloodlines. Neither one of you would have been born without the other to balance you. Now that you’ve bonded and opened the Rift, you’ll reach your full potential. And you’ll live now. So you see, in essence, I saved your lives by coercing you to open the Rift properly.”
“Not that you’ll be around to see it.” I smirked and toed Riley’s leg.
“
Oh, I will, I will.” Riley barked out a smug laugh. “Do you really think you can handle the purest form of magic now saturating the world without me? Like you said earlier, I have your instruction manual, and so much more.”
“Please.” Sarcasm drew out the word. “The bullshit gauge is going to explode. You think I’m gonna waltz into your Club Lockup and bow to your will?”
“No one has access to the Illuminaria or my extensive research except me. Anyone tries and it’s all set to self-destruct.” Riley’s smugness defied his bonds. “I have your mother’s blood. Who do you think was the second sorcerer to help Ronan open the Rift the first time?” My mouth hung open and he laughed. “Oh, yes. Your mother, father, and I made quite the team in our university days.”
“Fat lot of good it did since you couldn’t open the Rift.”
“Because she wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t the true thirteenth.”
“Shut it.” I stamped my foot on a pile of decaying branches, sending splinters flying into the air. “You’re not all that.”
“You and Ronan are just like your fathers. Idiots who didn’t know any better. You need me to teach you the ways of the Forbidden.”
I’d have frozen from shock if I weren’t already an iceberg. Adam brushed against me, and a tiny spark of electricity radiated up my arm to my shoulder.
Anger and frustration contorted Ronan’s features. “What did you say?”
“You’re not my son,” Riley said in a conspiratorial tone as if he’d waited to drop that tasty morsel for eons. “You never anticipated that one, did you? As smart as you thought you were, Ronan.”
“You…are…not,” Ronan toiled to speak through his stunned confusion, “my father?”
“Sorry to disappoint, but your mother wasn’t my great love.” Huskiness broke Riley’s steady voice. “Don’t get me wrong, your mother gave me everything I wanted. She gave me you, Ronan, from the blood of the last sorcerers on Earth. Fortunately,” he chuckled, “she was pregnant with you before we met.”
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