And it was home. She didn’t feel attached to Dallas anymore. She knew she’d never return there again, except maybe to see her brothers occasionally.
Tiffany and Dad had disappeared. No one had heard from them since before the link opened, and Paul, Nicole’s brother, and his wife, Julia, were the only ones who seemed terribly upset about it. Chase and Derek actually admitted that they’d been able to breathe better.
Nicole figured she’d eventually miss her dad, but Tiffany . . . She shook her head as she put her things in her bedroom. Tiffany was someone she’d love to avoid for the rest of her life.
Nicole returned to the kitchen, where Austin stood next to the counter, hands in his jeans pockets, dark-and-silver hair tousled, warmly smiling. He stared at Nicole, not even seeming to notice that Lizzie was still there.
Lizzie grinned at Nicole and Austin, then excused herself, a mischievous expression on her face.
Nicole stepped into Austin’s embrace, sighing contentedly. His arms enveloped her, held her tightly. He nibbled her jaw. “I love you,” he said, his voice husky.
Nicole tilted her head, enjoying the feel of his lips on her face. She relaxed in his arms, putting hers around his neck.
Austin’s kisses cascaded over her cheeks, forehead, jaw. His hands roamed into her hair.
Nicole smiled, realizing he was teasing her by avoiding her mouth. Well, she’d take things into her own hands. She grabbed his face, holding his head in place. “I love you too,” she whispered back, looking into his warm brown eyes. Then she kissed him.
He responded eagerly. That kiss was the sweetest, best she’d ever experienced. It had no strings attached. No guilt behind it. No pain or misery or suffering. The hunger she’d experienced last time in this apartment, when they’d shared that forbidden kiss, was gone now.
He was hers forever.
Their time together that evening ended far too early, and soon, Nicole was saying goodbye. He promised to come by the next morning. She wished he didn’t have to leave at all, but they both desperately needed a good night’s sleep. Neither had slept more than four hours a night over the past month.
Nicole took her time getting ready for bed. It was well past midnight when she finally relaxed between the sheets, gingerly pulling her covers up and over her wounded body.
She was just slipping away when she heard something at her window. A tap-tapping.
Nicole’s eyes fled open. She stared outside, her heart racing. Had the vines returned? Was Rebecca back to torture her?
Nothing was there.
But someone was in the apartment—she heard a whispered voice, a creak in the hallway.
More on edge now than ever, Nicole wished for one of Dad’s guns. Then she rolled her eyes—she was an Arete. She had powers at her disposal, even if they were slightly less strong now that the elixir was gone. But they were there, they were hers, and she sensed them now, ready and willing.
It suddenly occurred to her that the nighttime visitors might actually be friends, wanting to play a prank on her. She’d seen Denise, her upstairs neighbor, in the lobby of the building briefly. She’d mentioned wanting to welcome Nicole and Lizzie back “Denise-style,” whatever that meant.
Not knowing what else to do, Nicole pretended to be asleep. Her door creaked open. She struggled with keeping her body relaxed. Just in case, she reached out magically for the chair at her desk, ready to use it if needed.
What she didn’t expect was the sound of a gun cocking.
“Keep it on her,” a man whispered. “But you promised I could have my fun—give her what she deserves—before you shoot.”
Nicole’s floor creaked a split second before someone landed on top of her.
She gasped, struggling to get out from under whoever it was.
Moonlight glinted on bright blond hair and a pair of brown eyes. Greg.
“Get off me!” Nicole struggled, trying to push him away.
“Stop fighting, Nicole!” Tiffany shouted.
Nicole froze. Her mother stood in the doorway, a large .45 revolver trained on her daughter.
Greg laughed. “Thanks, Tiff,” he said. He yanked on Nicole’s pajama top, trying to rip it off of her. She gasped at the pain of the fabric digging into the bruises on her back.
“Lizzie!” Nicole screamed. Her mind was too panicked—she couldn’t reach her magic anymore.
“I took care of her,” Tiffany said. “She won’t be waking up for several hours.”
Greg groaned, giving up on Nicole’s shirt. Instead, he pulled the blankets away from her and started undoing his belt.
Realizing she was truly on her own, that ugly things were about to happen, that she’d rather get shot than allow Greg to molest her, Nicole forced herself to find her magic. She reached for the chair. Controlling the wood particles, she easily hefted it into the air, slamming it against the man kneeling on top of her.
Greg fell off the bed and sprawled across the floor. Tiffany screamed, lunging for Nicole—obviously forgetting to use the most obvious weapon at her disposal.
Nicole jerked toward the wall and away from her mother, jumping to a standing position. She wrestled Tiffany, finally knocking the woman off the bed.
Tiffany fell to the floor, but Greg had gotten up. He grabbed Nicole by the ankles, yanking her feet out from under her.
She fell on the mattress, hitting her head on the wall above her bed. Lights erupted in her sight. For a moment, she was too dazed to comprehend what was going on.
When her vision cleared, she saw that Tiffany had the gun trained on her again and Greg had torn the blankets off the bed and was grabbing at the ankles of her pajama bottoms. Nicole forced herself to think through the pain. She needed something else. But what? The windows weren’t open.
She could open them.
Nicole called to her powers again. Wind rattled the pane. She urged the wind to build stronger.
Suddenly, with an explosion, glass shards sprayed into the room, striking all three people.
Greg howled in pain.
The gun went off once. Twice. Three times.
The third bullet hit Nicole in the leg. She screamed, holding her thigh.
Greg slumped to the floor, blood soaking the shirt on his chest.
Tiffany gasped, looking down at Greg. She dropped the gun.
Dad casually stepped into the room. His eyes widened when he took everything in.
It was obvious he’d been expecting a completely different scene.
Nicole’s thigh was bleeding—her poor, poor leg! How much more did it need to experience?
Realizing she wasn’t out of danger yet, she dropped to the floor next to Greg and picked up the gun where it had fallen. She turned it around, pointing it toward Dad and Tiffany. She didn’t worry about Greg—he wouldn’t be getting up again.
“Both of you, against the wall,” she said.
Dad frowned, though he did what she said. “Don’t be mad with me, Cole. I tried to warn you—I threw rocks at your window.”
Nicole scowled at him. “Gee, thanks for the help, Dad.”
Tiffany turned an ugly expression to her husband. “How dare you?”
Dad shrugged. “She may not have fulfilled her purpose, but I really wasn’t sure I wanted her dead just yet.”
So much for fatherly affection.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Nicole grabbed her phone and dialed 9-1-1, then placed it on her nightstand, pushing the “speakerphone” button. She kept her eyes on her parents while reporting what had happened.
The operator had her stay on the line until the cops burst into the apartment and found them in the bedroom.
Nicole handed the gun over, then slumped onto her mattress, watching as her parents were handcuffed and carted from the room. More cops marked where Greg had fallen, then covered him with a sheet. An ambulance soon arrived, and paramedics rushed into the room, helping Nicole onto a stretcher.
“Lizzie,” Nicole said. “My best friend—she�
��s in the other room. They did something to her.”
Now that the adrenaline had left her system, she could barely move. Her leg throbbed so badly, it made her teeth chatter. Her breathing was shallow—she couldn’t seem to force herself to calm down, and the blood loss made her lightheaded and nauseated.
The paramedics promised they’d take care of Lizzie as they hooked Nicole up to an IV and wheeled her from the room. She still clutched her cell phone in her hand.
“Can I call my boyfriend?”
The paramedics didn’t respond, and Nicole dialed Austin’s number. She didn’t wait for him to say hello before blurting out, “My parents attacked me. Greg tried to rape me. Call Coolidge. Get to my apartment and make sure Lizzie is okay. I’m heading to the nearest hospital.”
“What?” Austin said. “I am so never leaving your side again.”
“Sounds good.” Nicole smiled through the grogginess that hit her. The pain killers must have started working.
***
Nicole woke up in a sterile hospital room. Austin sat next to her, holding her hand.
“Déjà vu,” Nicole murmured. She’d woken up like this before . . . several months ago.
“What was that?” Austin leaned closer, a smile on his beautiful lips.
Oh, those lips. She wanted to kiss them now. She sighed, realizing her warm fuzzies were a result of the pain meds that made her feel content, happy. Safe.
Nicole blinked, trying to think through the blissful fog. “Lizzie?”
Austin didn’t answer. He turned and called out, “She’s awake!”
Lizzie and Coolidge stepped into the room, Lizzie rushing to Nicole’s side. “Oh, my gosh, I’ve been freaking out!”
“I had surgery again, didn’t I?”
Lizzie nodded. “They had to remove the bullet. It got stuck in your femur.”
“My parents? Greg?”
“Greg is dead,” Austin said, a happy and somewhat evil gleam in his eyes.
He was glad Greg was gone. She didn’t blame him.
“And your parents are in jail,” Coolidge said. “The police want to ask you a few questions.”
Nicole sighed. She’d expected as much. “Let them in.”
While waiting, Nicole found out that Lizzie hadn’t really been drugged—Tiffany and Greg had bound and gagged her. Then Dad had stood guard while Tiffany and Greg went to Nicole’s room.
“I’m so sorry,” Nicole said to her best friend.
“It’s fine, girl,” Lizzie said, patting Nicole’s hand. “Life will probably calm down considerably now.”
Austin grunted. “It had better.” His eyes didn’t leave Nicole’s. “I’d love to date my girlfriend and go to college without worrying that one of us will be killed any moment.”
The cops entered the room just then, and Austin and Lizzie backed up, giving Nicole some space to answer the billions of questions that followed.
Nicole didn’t mind—she had all the time in the world to sort through things. She relaxed into her bed, realizing the biggest deadline she’d ever dealt with—that of all Aretes possibly being destroyed—was behind her.
And she’d never have to face Rebecca again.
Epilogue
Nicole decided not to press charges. Tiffany was already going to be convicted of murder, along with illegal possession of a gun—instead of trying to get one of Dad’s into the state, she’d borrowed Andrew and Shana’s. She would be carted away for several years. Dad would be charged as an accomplice, even though he’d “tried” to warn Nicole before they broke into the apartment.
Nicole was discharged from the hospital and given strict instructions to be careful and take it easy. With Lizzie and Austin, Nicole would be perfectly fine. Coolidge and his wife, Hayla, were frequent visitors.
It was during one of these visits when Coolidge finally broke the news concerning what he and Robert had hinted about while they’d been in Anna Morse’s dimension.
“I’ve been doing some traveling,” Coolidge said. He paused, making sure Austin and Lizzie were also paying attention. “And . . . I’ve made frequent visits to another dimension of earth where Aretes don’t exist. In fact, there aren’t any magical people there at all.”
“So?” Lizzie said, voicing Nicole’s feelings. “What’s special about that?”
“A teenage boy who is the only one on the entire planet with magical powers. He’s quite remarkable, actually. I met him a few years ago, by accident, while on break from Katon University.” Coolidge glanced at Austin. “The boy is how I got those keys you had to put in order the very first day of class.”
Austin nodded. “The ones that were the same in magical power.”
“Yes. The Key of Kilenya and the Key of Ayunli.” Coolidge leaned forward. “I’d be very interested in having the two of you meet him,” he said to Nicole and Austin. “The boy isn’t aware of our dimension, nor is he aware that when someone dies, they’re not gone forever. A certain . . . enemy . . . of his has been up to no good in other dimensions and plans to visit this one soon.”
Nicole grinned. “Let us know what you want us to do.”
She knew that as long as she was friends with Coolidge, he’d always have missions like these to carry out. And even though the last one—the hardest of her life—had just barely ended, she found herself excited to go on more expeditions, to learn more about her powers.
Nicole took Austin’s hand, clasping it tightly. This was only the beginning of her life as an Arete.
Good thing she would always be in great company.
THE END
Would you like to know what was on Austin’s mind when he first met Nicole—why he was so upset when she talked to him? Austin’s Perception, a short story, is available only to members of Andrea’s readers group. Receive it for free when you join. Enjoy!
http://katonuniversity.blogspot.com/
Note from the author:
I hope you enjoyed Reclaim, Mosaic Chronicles Book Five! I’ve included a sneak peek at Conceal, the next book in the series, at the bottom of this book. Enjoy. ☺
If you’d like to receive lots of exclusive content, free books, and free stories from me, including the first two books in my Kilenya series, then click here and sign up for my readers group. I’ll send a couple of free books each month. I look forward to getting to know you. ☺
Have a great day!
- Andrea
Books by Andrea Pearson
The Kilenya Series:
The Key of Kilenya
The Ember Gods, Kilenya Series Book Two
August Fortress, Kilenya Series Book Three
Rise of Keitus, Kilenya Series Book Four
Eyes of the Sun, Kilenya Series Book Five
The Golden Symbol, Kilenya Series Book Six
The Key of Kilenya: Special Edition with Illustrations
Grail Bestiary Volume I: Creatures of Grail and Kilenya
Kilenya Romances:
Samara, A Kilenya Romance
Midian, A Kilenya Romance
Shirley, A Kilenya Romance (coming soon)
Kilenya Adventures:
Dmitri, A Kilenya Adventure
Mosaic Chronicles:
Discern, Mosaic Chronicles Book One
Praxis Novellas, Mosaic Chronicles Book Two
Perceive, Mosaic Chronicles Book Two
Observe, Mosaic Chronicles Book Three
Reclaim, Mosaic Chronicles Book Four
Ranch City Academy:
Bezza’s Book of Enchantments
About the Author
Andrea Pearson, author of several series including the Kilenya Series, Kilenya Romances, and the Mosaic Chronicles, lives with her husband and daughter in a small valley framed with hills. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor of science degree in Communications Disorders.
Andrea spends as much time with her husband and daughter as possible. Favorite activities include painting, watching movies, collecting and listening to music, and
discussing books and authors. She and her husband are expecting their second child in the fall of 2015.
Connect with her Online:
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Facebook Fan Page
Twitter
Blog
Website
Join her email mailing list for news on upcoming releases
(She values your privacy and doesn’t sell or misuse email addresses)
Sneak Peek at Conceal, Mosaic Chronicles Book Six
Chapter One
Nicole tucked a wayward strand of blond hair behind her ear for the umpteenth time, then wrapped her arms around herself. She’d learned over the last year that Seattle tended to be chilly a lot—even in August. Today was extra cold and extra windy. She should have brought a back-up bobby pin, but had forgotten in her hurry to get to class this morning.
She raised her eyebrow, staring at her boyfriend as they walked across the campus of Katon University. “You’re serious? This kid can see other people’s emotions?”
Austin nodded, smiling at her disbelief. “Yes. Basically, he can see anything someone is feeling at any given point. You can’t hide it from Jacob.”
They were headed to an appointment with one of their instructors, Professor Coolidge, and were discussing a young man they’d be meeting. Apparently, Jacob was from a different dimension of earth—one without any magic, except for his own. Nicole still had a hard time envisioning a world like that. It would be so boring.
“What else did Coolidge say about him?” She blinked when that strand of hair blew in her face again. “The only thing he told me was that the kid uses his eyes for his powers. And how does he see emotions? I can’t even picture that.”
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