Once I closed the cover, silence. The noise of the world disappeared, making it easier to concentrate. This was my nirvana. Safety. My magical home where I didn’t have to hide behind the mask of being human.
“I thought you would have been here earlier,” said Gareth, emerging from the darkness. With smooth, agile movements, he approached me in silence.
Responding to the voice before recognizing it, I dropped the flashlight and readied my sai. He continued to advance closer, allowing the point of the sai to press lightly against his chest. From the small illumination given off by the discarded flashlight, I could see his raised brow and the little smile.
“Do you plan on putting those away?”
“I don’t know. Do you plan to stop stalking me? Because it’s really creepy and weird.”
“I don’t stalk you, I know how you think and I told you—I know your scent.”
I lowered the twins and then sheathed them. “Are you telling me that before you said that, a little voice in your head didn’t speak up and say, ‘This is something I should never say out loud’?”
“I make you uncomfortable?” he asked softly.
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of an answer. He made me uncomfortable because I hated that when he was near me, I looked at him too long, watched him too carefully, revisited the time he had kissed me too often, and had much too vivid flashes of his body, which I’d seen far too many times. I tried to convince myself that it was him—he ignited some kind of primal longing in most people, and it wasn’t unique to just me.
“I can track most people as long as they don’t use magic to block it.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know which spell it is, would you?” I asked. His light chuckle reverberated off the walls, a deep, throaty sound that made me smile.
“If you are so ready to get rid of me, then why don’t you hurry up and try to track down Conner?”
He was right, he knew how I thought. I picked up the flashlight and handed it to him and then knelt down before taking out the knife that I had secured at my ankle. My fingers ran over the loose dirt to create a large circle. I used the knife to cut my finger and spill blood into the circle and then rested back on my heels. My magic, which was used so infrequently, required a little coaxing. Often forced into dormancy it unfolded in waves, and I could feel the warmth of it wrap around me. I looked up at Gareth, wondering if he could see the various hues that unraveled and entwined, representing the various types of magic I possessed. They coiled together and floated over the circle. A large map appeared, an area with about a hundred-mile-radius from my position. All the intricate parts of the city were displayed, and there it was, a silver glow that pulsed over it. Not like before, when it had popped up and quickly disappeared. He wasn’t using magic to block me anymore, but instead extending an invitation to where he was.
“Is that where he is?”
I nodded. “But I don’t know if it’s just him or more. If they were in other areas of the city, there would be more flecks of light. Instead it’s just in one spot, and it’s more than a fleck of light. It’s wider, longer, indicating that there are more than just Conner.” I didn’t know how many more. Before, he’d only had three, but in the past few days had he recruited more?
I smothered the magic and watched as it recoiled back to me, but Gareth was still staring at the spot intensely, and when he spoke his voice was edged, lower. “I don’t know how people deal with being so vulnerable to magic.”
The confidence and arrogance slipped for a moment and I saw a person worried—concerned about magic, a victim of it. I knew it had to bother him. Someone had snatched away his volitions and not only forced him into changing but controlled and incited enough anger and violence in him that he’d almost injured his nephew. I wasn’t the only person who wanted to kick Conner’s ass. The belief that magic could be evil probably lurked in the minds of everyone who’d been in Devour, and for the moment Gareth seemed to be consumed by that thought as well.
“It’s not all bad,” I said softly. I held the knife and magic wrapped around it. It drifted slowly from me to him, and he plucked it from the air. I made the dirt kick up small pebbles and then moved around the dirt rhythmically as I created a small vortex. He watched it with amused interest and as it died down his attention moved to me.
My life had been spent seeing and knowing about the darker side of magic. I guessed most people’s were. They only knew of vampires compelling people to become their food, or faes using cognitive manipulation or changing their appearance for nefarious purposes. And mages and witches casting spells and curses. Besides the love spells, the escape spells—effugium—and witch weed, there was a lot of ugliness to their magic, too. Although curses were technically illegal, they managed to find loopholes.
The dancing dirt vortex had completely died by the time Gareth inched his way into my private space. He was close. Really close, and when I spoke, our lips brushed lightly. “See, magic’s not that bad.”
“Not bad at all,” he whispered. He leaned in and kissed me. He didn’t move when he finished. Instead he kept his lips gently against mine. A few moments passed before he kissed me again, more commanding, hungry, urging a response that I freely gave in to. His hands pressed into my lower back as he pulled me closer. The kiss became more fervent as he walked me back until I was pressed against the dirt wall of the pit cave. His fingers roved slowly over me and I clawed at his shirt, a fistful of it enclosed in my hand as I urged him closer to me. His beeping phone forced us to pull away. He was panting softly as he turned on the speaker.
It was someone from the SG, telling him that they had a visual on the Maxwells. He held my gaze for a moment, and I could still feel the warmth of his lips on mine. I didn’t think I would ever have a reason to thank the terrible triplets, but this was one. I couldn’t have anything with Gareth. There was a fragility to our interaction that would only make things worse. He was the head of the SG, and on the Magic Council, his responsibilities were to maintain the tenebrous alliance between humans and to protect and govern the supernaturals. I was a threat to both groups, and I wasn’t absolutely confident that, if he ever considered me an immediate one, he wouldn’t deal with me as he would any threat.
We hurried out of the cave and I was halfway to my car when he called my name. “Don’t confront him without me,” he ordered.
That was what I had decided to do even while in the cave. I wanted to bring unspeakable pain to Conner, but there was a part of me that hoped he could be reasoned with. My position as his potential—albeit unwilling—consort might work to my advantage. It would definitely be hard to be reasonable while watching Conner and Gareth see who got the trophy for being the most narcissistic, arrogant alpha-hole. I didn’t have the time.
I shook my head.
His voice became low and commanding.
Oh, there he is. Here I thought he might have turned over a new leaf.
“Ms. Michaels, this matter needs to be handled more strategically. You will stand down and let it be handled by us.”
I just didn’t have it in me to argue with him. If I used all my patience and diplomacy with him, what was I going to use with Conner? My well was quite shallow in dealing with these matters. Nope, I just couldn’t adult with him today. I just couldn’t.
“Mr. Reynolds”—two can play this game—“which would you prefer: for me to tell you I’m not going and go anyway, or for me to tell you the truth—I’m going.”
Having a cardiac event wasn’t either of the options, yet that was what he seemed to have chosen. His eyes narrowed to slits until all I could see was just a hint of his icy blue eyes and the indigo shifter ring that glowed around it. His lips pulled taut into a frown that was cemented on his face. I slowly walked backward to my car, not feeling fully confident he wouldn’t grab me and take me with him. After a few more seconds, he got into his car and sped off.
CHAPTER 5
The large stretch of trees that surrounded the
area where the locator spell had led me made it difficult to negotiate around it. I could feel the magic and its strange draw. It was so similar to mine. It overshadowed everything—oak, flowers, dirt—surrounding it all and draping over the air. The stronger the magic became, the more my heart started to pound.
I’d gone over my rousing spiel a hundred times, making all the points that would work on anyone, but I wasn’t dealing with anyone—I was dealing with the self-proclaimed liberator of our race. A person who felt that he could restore us to what we once were—magical royalty. But his memory was very short, because in order to claim the position, he was going to have to do the very thing that made people loathe us. The Cleanse was our downfall, after which we were reduced to nothing more than the hunted and the loathed. And our name became synonymous with great wards, mass murder, and draconian magic.
Sai in hand, I approached the area, slowly trying to find the veil, which I found I didn’t need to do—the translucent barrier rippled, then bulged out, creating an opening for me. As soon as I planted my other foot on the new soil it snapped closed.
Deeper into the foreign territory, I looked around. This was their new home, nothing like the first one I’d seen—fallow land, bare trees, and small unimpressive houses. This was very different, created for a long stay. Lush green neatly manicured grass extended throughout the massive space. Flowering trees were interwoven between the oaks and poplars. Redolence of the exotic plants that my mother had spoken of lingered in the air. A small pond to my right had decorative flowers scattered around it and neatly placed stones in earth tones of brown, blue, and green. Each home was impressive, palatial: decorative pillars at the entrances, trimmed bushes that surrounded them, and flowers that led to the front doors. Instead of three homes as he’d had before, there were nine. I assumed he had at least nine Legacy or Vertu that had joined him. This was going to be harder than I’d thought.
Conner waited for me, several feet away. After several roving looks over me and my weapons, he dismissed both. I was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans that were just one rough fight or stain away from being tossed in the garbage; I was very underdressed compared to Conner. He wore his customary light shirt, this time a pastel green, with complementary tan slacks.
His broad features and narrow aquiline nose contributed to his aristocratic features. His haughtiness and air of arrogance were so poorly veiled he might as well have held up a sign telling the world he thought he was better than them. Even the sword, worn at his hip, was held in an ostentatious ornate sheath.
Touching his weapon, he gave my sai another look. “Here I thought my invitation would be met with less violence than before. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from my consort. Please put up your weapons. I invited you here to talk, and although I enjoy seeing my warrior consort in action, this isn’t the time.”
This again. Apparently my trying to kill him the last few times we’d encountered each other was his version of foreplay and the beginning of some sordid mating ritual. He’d claimed me as his partner and wanted to use me as a broodmare to create what he considered magical royal children. I guessed we dreamed differently, because my only goal was to stop him by any means necessary even if it meant killing him.
I sheathed my weapons; this didn’t have to be violent. But as he stood wrapped in his brand of insolence, punching the haughty look off his face was looking a little more appealing than diplomacy.
“I’m so glad you accepted my invitation.”
“Which one: the chaos, bloodshed, and violence in the Square, or the chaos, bloodshed, and violence at Devour? Please put your rabid mages back in their cages where they belong.”
With slow, measured steps, he approached in silence until he was just inches from me. “Well, Anya, that is up to you. You want them caged, then you stay here. That is my offer. If not, there are two more wards I will break, and before long the humans will be begging for me to put a stop to the chaos.”
“This isn’t a win for you. Do you think anything that can be done will overshadow the fact that our forebearers killed a huge part of the world’s population? This small tantrum you are throwing is just proving you can’t be trusted. You think the humans will forget that if it weren’t for their alliance with the supernaturals they wouldn’t have won? Together they kicked our asses. Make no mistake about it: they will weather this little storm you put out, and in the end you will be no better off.”
“You’re so pessimistic.”
There wasn’t going to be any diplomacy with him. I wasn’t going to change his mind, and out of my peripheral vision I saw the new addition to his plan. There were eight homes, but twelve people now surrounded me. Most of them younger, close to my age, and four older people who I assumed had been there for the first Cleanse. I looked out at the small group of people with persimmon red hair, the mark of our people now synonymous with betrayal.
I turned to the group. “He’s going to get us all killed.” Then I addressed the older ones. “You were there, do you really want to go through this again? It’s been over thirty years. I believe we can work things out, stop hiding. Perhaps discuss it with the Magic Council and have normal lives. But if you all try this again and fail—then …”
I was met with various looks of disinterest. “That’s what you want—not us. We want the life we had before and we will get one even better,” one of the older recruits responded.
Damn. For a moment I did feel like a unicorn—different from my own kind. But I couldn’t believe that we were all like this. I realized that the only way to stop the body was to take off the head. I grabbed my sai in one swift move and lunged at Conner, grazing his side with the tip of one and then puncturing through his arm. I made a quarter spin in the opposite direction and embedded the other sai deep in him. I dropped my remaining sai, snatched his sword out of the sheath, and was about to angle it in an arc to strike when I was hit hard. What felt like a lightning bolt that exploded in me threw me back and sent me smashing into a tree. I choked on a gasp of pain when my rib cracked. Another jolt of magic seized my body, singeing like hellfire. Magic was so interwoven in us and our bodies that when I launched the same ball of magic back at the advancing woman, I felt it in my ribs.
Fighting through the pain, I lobbed another one at the others. There wasn’t any way I was going to win against twelve Legacy and Vertu. A ball of magic rested in one of their hands, ready to be expelled in my direction. I sucked in a breath, closed my eyes, and prepared for the pain—nothing. Standing between them and me was Conner. He raised his hand. “That’s enough.”
I rolled to my side, propped myself up with my arms, and surveyed the area. As they stepped back, a slender woman stepped back a little farther, but sparks of magic, in hazy colors of teal, yellow, and peach, flicked from her fingers, not as easily extinguished as the others’, which led me to believe that she had more power than control. But the rest seemed skilled in their execution of magic. I wondered if they were as skilled with doing spells, which was where I fell short. My parents knew that spells could always be traced back to the creator, so they’d taught me only the ones that I needed to survive. Magic was often defensive in nature, and although it could be traced it was a lot harder to follow than offensive action. Most just felt the magic that lingered in the air, coated their tongues, or singed their noses, but all magic had a fingerprint that could ultimately be linked back to the user. If the supernatural had been exposed to the purveyor of the magic, then they could identify it.
Conner’s shirt was as it had been before I’d attacked him, crisp and clean, without any signs that I had attempted to behead him. He knelt next to me and reached out to touch me; I knocked his hand away, and when he attempted to touch me a second time, I did it again. Distracted by his unwanted touch, I went to block him again at his third attempt. His other arm swiped the arm that was propping my body up and I collapsed to the ground. He hovered over me, his hand running over the crown of my head, over the top and down the length of the pon
ytail. And when he spoke, his voice was a genteel whisper with a melodic cadence that might cause a weaker mind to forget he was batshit crazy.
“They will protect me because I’ve earned their loyalty. What do I need to do to earn yours?”
“You can’t work with Humans First. They can’t be trusted. People like them should not have access to our magic,” I said, my cadence and tone matching his. I wasn’t sure who I wanted to have the Necro-spears the least: HF or Conner. I had to pick the lesser of two evils, but they both were pretty high on the scale of bad choices. Conner had a larger plan, so he wouldn’t behave irrationally; I wasn’t that confident about HF.
“For you, done.” He stood and extended his hand to help me up, and everyone around him watched with interest. I took it. I hated every second of being reduced to a distressed damsel who needed the narcissistic knight to assist her. But I also didn’t want to fight twelve Legacy and Vertu.
The easy smile remained on his lips as he stepped back. I watched him and the others closely waiting on their response as I took a couple of steps away from him to pick up my discarded sai. His smile didn’t waver as I picked them up.
“I’m leaving.”
“As you should.”
What is his deal? I preferred my demagogues to be blathering nutjobs who couldn’t shut up about their plans for world domination. The charismatic, calm, attractive gentleman before me definitely wasn’t what I needed. But he was what his cause needed. The twelve people ready to destroy the world for him were a testament to the effectiveness of his charisma. I didn’t have a chance of talking them out of following him. And I’d probably just helped his cause. I’d attacked, and he was going to let me walk out alive and unscathed. He’d stopped them from retaliating. Looking over their longing gazes that they kept on him, I realized he’d won them over and I’d just made lifelong enemies.
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