With a final kiss to her temple, and a silent prayer to the Cosmos, he let her go.
***
Audrey had thought she’d had her eyes opened to a new world when she arrived at the Arcanum, but the moment she’d entered the underground archives of the fortress, she’d felt like Dorothy waking up in Oz. She’d stepped out of the black and grey world and into bright Technicolor. Magic thrummed from the earth, calling to her like a siren’s song. It was akin to the power inside her, but not the same. It was more like the power that ate Zyne magic for breakfast. Power that could eat the world for breakfast. Or maybe the power that had created the world? Standing in front of the doorway to the Hall of Echoes, she felt like a speck of dust.
She could never go back to her old life.
Cian’s words from that morning echoed in her mind. Whatever happens, do not lose yourself. He’d talked a lot about grounding. Finding her center. Of all the things they’d practiced in their meditation classes, grounding had been the hardest for her. She didn’t have roots of her own. She’d never known anything solid. She never stayed in one place. She could barely keep her feet planted when sparring. It was her nature to bounce around.
She reached for where her mother’s necklace usually hung and found bare skin. Do not lose yourself. Good advice if you knew who you were, but she was afraid she didn’t.
I guess we’ll find out. She held her breath and took a step into the unknown.
She’d expected to feel different on the other side, but there was only a slight tingle as she crossed the glowing threshold, and a pop in her ears, as if the pressure had dropped. She turned to look back, but there was no longer a doorway. No audience. No Corvin. Just an endless hallway. Panic wanted to rise up, but she kept a tight leash on it. She took a deep breath and several quick strides toward the door at the opposite end of the hall.
As she crossed between them, the first two torches went out.
A tsunami of energy slammed into her and shoved its way through every cell in her body. Audrey cried out as it tried to rip her consciousness away with it. She gritted her teeth and reinforced her mental shielding. Another wave made her actually wish that she could pass out and not feel anything, but she focused on the pain, letting it ground her in her body while the pressure of the magic built, pounding away at her psyche.
She wasn’t sure when she’d decided to crawl, but she found herself on her hands and knees, trying to breathe without puking. She sat back on her heels, and the world slowly righted itself. The pressure eased. She took another moment to get her bearings.
Everything behind her had dissolved into absolute black. It was like kneeling at the very edge of the world. Instinct made her dive forward, and with that came another mental thrashing.
She curled onto her side, and the pain became kicks to her stomach and back.
She tasted blood, and her ears were ringing. The blows came faster and harder, and she cried out in a voice she didn’t recognize as people yelled in a language she didn’t understand. A kick landed on her head, but instead of unconscious, she found herself underwater. Bursts of light and loud claps of thunder came from all directions. She bobbed above the surface to catch a glimpse of an old-fashioned ship being torn apart by canon fire. She took a breath to scream, but water filled her lungs instead.
This is not me. It’s not real.
She opened her eyes to see the smooth black marble floor of the hall at eye level. Her chest heaved, convulsing uncontrollably with the memory of water as she sucked in normal air. Tears leaked out of her eyes in relief.
Those were not her memories.
Cian had said she would experience visions and memories from past lives. She’d imagined some sort of peyote-induced vision quest where she “spoke to the ancestors.” She had not taken him literally enough.
She had not taken any of this seriously enough. For the first time, she understood what Corvin meant when he talked about the Legacy. It was so much bigger than one person. It was eons. Lifetimes. And like it or not, she was a part of it. The didn’t understand it—but she didn’t have to to realize she’d made an error in not respecting it.
Audrey sat up, shivering, and stared into the encroaching abyss. If she looked hard, she could see it moving ever so slowly closer, eating away at her safe ground. What would happen if she just sat there? Would it swallow her up too?
She glanced at the three torches between her and the door, then slowly climbed to her feet. She didn’t want this to take any longer than necessary.
She took a deep breath and ran as hard as she could for the door. Two sets of torches went out as she crossed them. And then her shields were crushed under fifty tons of pressure as a barrage of images and feelings assaulted her in fast reeling time.
She fell flat on her face, screaming as her neurons overloaded. Most of it was flashes of color, echoes of pain, jerks of emotion pulling at her insides like fishhooks. Voices. She tumbled through it, end over end, helpless.
She was nine years old, watching Jack’s dead body being wheeled away by the paramedics while a lady in a trench coat tried to ask her questions. Thirteen, shivering on a doorstep in the rain. Sixteen, her first day in juvie, when they’d broken her jaw, and she’d been so hungry, but she couldn’t eat. Turner was yelling at her as he whipped her with his belt. “You’re just a worthless piece of garbage! Nobody wants you!”
It felt like hours later when she finally came back to herself. She was lying on the floor in a fetal position, facing the end of the hall. Her hands and feet were blocks of ice, and her head still felt as if it was going to spontaneously combust. Tracks of tears had dried in a line across her cheeks and nose and pooled on the floor, along with the blood from her busted lip. She checked with her tongue that her teeth were still in their sockets, then rolled to stare at the last torch. Her thoughts came in slow, globular forms as the flames danced in her double vision.
Do not lose yourself.
She squeezed her eyes shut as fresh tears leaked out. But who was she? She was nobody. A bottom feeder. Unwanted. Trash. She could fade into the black right now, and no one would care. The world would go on exactly as it had before.
No, that’s not true.
She wasn’t just a nobody. She was special. She was Zyne. She was here, enduring this, because she was strong enough to pass this test.
She had magic, and smarts, and…
Corvin.
Her eyes flashed open, and now she saw the flames of desire dancing in his gaze, his bright, unguarded smile. She could smell his soap and feel the tickle of a feather on her skin. Her next breath came easier. And the next after that.
She rolled to her knees and crawled toward the door. Beyond that door, he was waiting for her. He would always be there, because…
He loves me.
She crawled past the last torches, and they guttered out.
Darkness swallowed her.
She saw Jack’s worried face as a woman spoke to her, her low voice hoarse with panic.
Audrey clung to her mother, wrapping her hand around the moonstone around her neck.
Her mother pulled away, passing her over to Jack. Her face was contorted with sorrow as streams of tears poured from her eyes.
Audrey held onto the necklace and began to cry.
Her mother pulled the necklace over her head and put it over Audrey’s.
Jack lifted her up into the cab of the truck.
Her mother reached out and placed a hand on Audrey’s chest. A glow of pink light filled the cab for a moment, and she felt a swell of warm energy envelop her.
Audrey gripped her mother’s arm like a lifeline, screaming.
The last she saw of her mother was her hand twisting free of her grasp.
“Audrey!” Corvin shouted.
Gurgling like she’d woken up underwater, she pulled herself out of the nightmare and blinked her eyes open to find him holding her in his lap. They were on the floor in the marble chamber outside the Hall of Echoes. Patricia, Ro
deric, and Cian huddled over his shoulder.
She reached up to cup Corvin’s cheek, and he pulled her into his chest. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Is it over?”
He rocked her in his lap. “It’s over. Let’s get you to the healers.”
She wrapped her hands around his neck as he lifted her to her feet, then swept her into his arms. She could barely hold her head up, and it was much more comfortable tucked into Corvin’s neck anyway. “No, Corvin, just take me home.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Corvin left the bacon sizzling off the burner while he fixed a plate of eggs and fruit. The toast popped up, and he spun just in time to catch it, then slathered it with butter. He put the heap of bacon on its own plate, warmed up his coffee, and swept into the bedroom silently. There was no need—Audrey hadn’t stirred for over twelve hours. He wasn’t concerned though. He’d stayed in bed a day and a half after his trip through the hall. He knelt on the bed beside her and swept some of her hair aside to set the tray down in place of his pillow. He caressed the side of her face, then tickled her nose.
Not even a twitch.
He waved a piece of bacon under her nose. She groaned and began the agonizing crawl from the depths of slumber. When she blinked her eyes open, he smiled and ate the bacon while she watched. “Mmm, so good.”
She flipped him off.
“Definitely not a morning lark, are you? More bacon for me, I guess.”
She grunted and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
He handed her the coffee and rearranged the tray directly in front of her. A surge of excitement rippled off her, and he laughed—he’d never known anyone so happy to eat. But then he realized she was looking at him. When their eyes met, the buzz of excitement shifted to a languid heat, trickling down the front of his body. His heart gave a heavy thud.
Then he looked away and remembered to block himself off from reading her emotions. Still, a spark of hope had been ignited in that one glance.
She still wants me.
He cleared his throat and shifted to hide the evidence of his desire. “How is Her Highness feeling this morning?”
She answered through a mouthful of toast. “Like I spent the night getting beat up by ghosts.”
He raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t a bad analogy. “The good news is you never have to do that again.”
Audrey munched her way through a piece of bacon, looking at him but not actually there.
“Everything all right?”
“Mmm.” She bent over her plate to dig in. “S’good, thanks.”
He rubbed along her thigh. “You can go back to sleep if you want.”
She slurped coffee and then her head snapped up to attention. “I can’t. We have to go get Lilly.”
“By ‘we,’ you mean…”
“Me and you.”
“To bring her here, to the Arcanum?”
“Well, yeah. I wouldn’t just dump her on the side of the road somewhere.”
“Even though that means revealing the Legacy to her? And that she will face the same choice you have?”
“Yes.” She squinted at him. “What’s with the third degree? I thought you’d be happy to hear I changed my mind.”
He held up his hands in an innocent gesture. “I am. But we can’t just storm into a mundane hospital, spells blazing. That sort of extraction takes high-level magic—persuasion, memory wipes, Hohlwen—”
Audrey gripped his arm, her face stricken. “You said we could help her.”
He sighed, wishing he knew what she was feeling right now and how carefully he should tread. “I meant it. Which is why I explained the situation to my mother last night. I couldn’t sleep knowing that poor girl was suffering needlessly. My mother sent a flight of Hohlwen. They should have returned by sunrise. Lilly is probably resting in the healing ward as we speak.”
She let go of him and frowned at her half-eaten plate. “How could you do that?”
This had been the reaction he was afraid of, that she would see it as a violation of her trust, which he’d fought so hard to earn. “I’m sorry. I thought the ends justified the means, that you would be glad I had gotten her to safety as soon as possible.”
She scowled at him and shook her head. “You just assumed you knew what I wanted, without even consulting me?”
“You were dead to the world,” he said reasonably.
“That’s bullshit. You could have woken me up.”
“I could have,” he said, bowing his head. “But I didn’t think I needed to consult you.”
“Why the hell not?”
He stared into her eyes, letting her see the raw hope in his. “Because you said last night that you wanted me to take you home. I thought that meant you were planning on staying.”
What if you were wrong?
“I—” She snapped her mouth closed. “I did mean it that way.” She looked surprised at her own answer.
A ball of tension released from the center of his chest, and he could breathe easier. “I realized the first thing you would want to do was get Lilly out of that place.”
She nodded. “It was.”
He scooted a little closer. “And then I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could put you at ease instantly? I wanted to be able to tell you everything was well, that you don’t have to run off into another fight. You can relax.”
Her eyes teared up. He took her hand, and she squeezed his fingers.
“So,” he tucked her hair behind her shoulder and feathered a few kisses over her cheek and ear, “finish your breakfast, take a shower, and then you can go check on her.”
Audrey wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. He’d been waiting for hours and hours to have her back in his arms, so he didn’t hesitate to oblige her.
She pulled back to whisper, “I think I’m hungry for something else.”
“Mmm, really?” He dove back in for another taste of her mouth. As she reached for the button on his jeans, he heard Smoke flying toward the tower, announcing Roderic’s arrival.
Audrey stilled and listened for a moment, then her eyes widened. “He might have news about Lilly.”
Warmth brushed over him at the thought that Audrey was beginning to understand Smoke’s calls. And then he snapped back to reality. As much as he wanted to completely lose himself in Audrey for days, their reunion would have to wait. He brushed her cheek with his thumb. “Rain check?”
She looked at him through her lashes and bit her lip, which did nothing to quell his desire. He pulled her solidly against him and dipped her back for a deep, promising kiss. When he released her, she was sporting a solid blush. His chest swelled with pride at the clear evidence that he had an equal effect on her.
“Yes,” she said, her voice raspy. “Definitely.”
He swept her off the bed and set her down on her feet, then kissed her nose. “Wash up. I’ll make some more coffee.”
Audrey smiled and disappeared into the bathroom.
He made a fresh pot and then sat in his chair and waited for Roderic while Audrey showered. Smoke flew to his shoulder and butted his head, then pecked gently behind his ear. Corvin scratched his neck and gurgled an apology under his breath. They’d barely seen each other the past few days. “Thanks for keeping watch, buddy.”
Smoke stretched his wings back in a display of pride.
“I know. You always do your job. But I’m going to need you to give me and Audrey some privacy a little longer.”
Caw-caw, he said, admonishing Corvin’s manners, and then he took to the rafters and out to his roost.
I’ll make it up to you later.
He sighed and turned to face Roderic at the top of the stairs, a grim expression on his face.
Corvin shot to his feet as a heavy stone dropped to the bottom of his stomach.
“The place that Audrey was retrieved from is no longer there. The building burned down.”
Corvin cursed under his breath.
“It gets wor
se.” Amber flooded Roderic’s stone-grey eyes. “The remnants reeked of sorcery.”
He rubbed his head, overwhelmed with the implications for a moment. When Audrey found out…
“Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Roderic asked.
“She’ll want to hear it from the source.”
Audrey walked into the room, brushing her wet hair. “Hear what?”
Roderic suddenly found his boots very interesting. Corvin met her in the middle of the room. He held back from pulsing any power at her and instead just wrapped his arms around her. “She wasn’t there. The hospital burned down.”
Audrey dropped the brush to the floor. Silence choked the next few seconds. Then she spoke through gritted teeth. “I don’t understand.”
Words escaped him, so he hugged her to his chest. She shoved away from him and stormed over to Roderic. “Tell me.”
“The Hohlwen we sent returned with a report that the building had been razed to the ground. Then I went myself to investigate. It was an incendiary spell. Nothing else could burn down to the foundation so cleanly. There was a concealment spell on top of it. The magic reeked of sorcerers.”
Audrey scowled and shook her head. “Sorcerers?”
Corvin came to her side. “Mundanes who have become a scourge to our kind. They have no power of their own, but they use ancient dark rituals to siphon energy from Zyne to fuel their magic.”
She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “Do you think they took her?”
Roderic sighed. “It is definitely possible. But the trail I found was days old. I could only track it to the parking lot.”
Tears built in Audrey’s eyes, and Corvin reached for her. She spun away from him and ran up the stairs to her tower, slamming both doors behind her.
Roderic squeezed his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“You did what you could. She blames herself,” Corvin said, debating whether he should offer comfort or give her space.
To Tame A Wild Heart: A Zyne Witch Urban Fantasy Romance (Zyne Legacy Romance Book 1) Page 19