Highland Son (Highland Sorcery: A New Dawn)

by Clover Autrey

  “Jewel, why are you keeping what you can do from everyone?”

  “It’s complicated.” Her gaze kept tracking toward the door. “Please, can you just leave it alone? And please don’t say anything.” Her eyes snapped to his. “Please.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  He sank down to sit beside her on the edge of the bed. Maybe there was a way to ease her mind of having magic. It could be a frightening thing. “I sometimes got nosebleeds too. At first.”

  She looked down at her lap. “You did?”

  “Sure.” But he’d had his mother and father around to help him learn how to find the core of his magic to better focus its power. “Next time when you release your magic, come at it from a different direction. It will help reduce the nosebleeds.”

  “What do you mean, come at it from a different direction?” Her fingers worked at a wrinkle in her trousers.

  “Find that place deep within your belly…” He took her hand and pressed it to her abdomen. “Right around here where everything is still and quiet…and waiting.”

  “Waiting?” She glanced up at him.

  He nodded his head. “Waiting for you to open it.”

  “Sounds vague.”

  He smiled. “You’ll know it when you first touch it and then it’s smooth sailing from there.”

  “Okay.”

  “Before you let your magic just go, reach deep within for it first, that place, where your essence resides, and then use it to focus and sharpen what you want to do. It makes things a lot easier, and a lot less painful.”

  She smiled sadly. “Did your mother teach you this?”

  “She did.”

  “So…you’re kind of a healer yourself?”

  His smiled deepened. “No. I take more after my father.”

  “Which is what?”

  Alexander frowned. It’s not that he didn’t want to tell her, but saying he was a bluidy sorcerer, last of the line of High Sorcerers came off a tad bit as boastful. “I have a lot of unique abilities.”

  She didn’t pry, but instead squeezed his hand still in hers and brought it from her belly to rest on her thigh, still entwined with his. “You’re fortunate to have had parents to teach you.”

  “I’m sorry you didn’t, Jewel.” Because of his family. They brought the Sifts into being. But they were also working to rid the world of them.

  She shrugged with one shoulder. “I didn’t even know my mother had magic until she was gone. My brother and I…she kept that from us. I guess she hoped we wouldn’t take after her. But apparently we did. Guess it was latent. My brother figured out what he could do long before I did…”

  “You have a brother?”

  He felt her stiffen beside her. “He’s gone.”

  “I am so sorry.” He felt like a heel for bringing it up.

  She brushed it aside, clearly not wanting to talk about it. Who could blame her? “What about your parents? Are they at your lighthouse?”

  “No. They’re…not with me.” Because he’d left them forty years in the past. Them, and all his aunts and uncles who had come to the future to help him. He’d sent them all back to Scotland where they’d be safe from this timeline. It had been a selfish move, yet he’d also remembered his childhood, waking that Christmas from a horrific ordeal of monsters coming for him, and his aunts and uncles being there…and for several years after. Had he allowed them to remain in this timeline with him, his entire childhood would have been altered. He didn’t understand how. He just felt it in his bones.

  His uncles and aunts time in this future had come to fruition. But déithe, he missed them.

  Yet he’d often wondered what happened to his parents and his aunts and uncles and young cousins when he’d jumped ahead through time from the year twenty thirty-five to twenty eighty-two. Had they survived the past decades on the Scottish coast while the Sifts ravaged the world? If they had, his parents would be in their eighties on a different continent. So many times he’d yearned to create a rift in space and go there to find out for himself. Just to know what became of them. Yet creating any rift was dangerous. The Sift could feel the telltale vibrations of the puncture within the rifts and follow the signature straight back to his parents. If they were still alive in this time…

  Jewel nudged the side of his arm with her shoulder. “Guess we’re both kind of alone.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jewel.” A slender woman flew into the room, causing them both to flinch. Jewel let go of his hand.

  The woman looked from Jewel to Alexander, wariness crossing her features. “They’re taking a headcount. Come. Both of you, quickly.”

  Jewel nodded, casting an imploring glance toward Alexander before running out of the room ahead of him.

  Chapter Four

  Jewel slept hard through the night, a dreamless sleep, exhausted from the events of the past evening. The Sifts showing up hadn’t rattled her nearly as much as Alexander had, sitting so close beside her on her bed, her belly knotted with uncertainty.

  He spoke of magic. His mother was a healer and she’d bet her last beloved tube of hand lotion that he had more than just some small bit of magic as well, though he wasn’t any more eager than she was to share what he could do.

  She felt the strength of his—what had he called it? essence—ripple off him like a shrouded mist. Lance had given off a similar feeling when he was near.

  Or maybe it was just her nerves. He was too smart. Intelligence played behind his eyes like a ray of light seeping in between the slats of a fence. He knew things, she was sure of it. Things no one else understood. Or even bothered to think about.

  And he’d looked at her as though he could see her inner-most secrets.

  Which made him dangerous.

  Yet he might also be her salvation. The one who could help her put her plan into motion.

  He had magic. Like her.

  She shouldn’t have run from him like a coward last evening. She’d find him first thing this morning.

  The door to her room opened and closed and Mae slipped inside, looking for something in their shared chest of drawers.

  Rolling over, Jewel pushed up to a sitting position and stretched. “Aw, Mae, I’m sorry. I’m still on kitchen duty. You should have shoved my lazy rump out of bed.”

  Mae smiled. “It’s okay. You looked like you needed the rest. You tossed and turned throughout the night.”

  Jewel winced. “That bad? I kept you up?” She pushed back her thin blanket. A quick sponge bath and then she’d figure out some excuse to talk with the three strangers. She’d dig deep to find the courage to ask for their help, confide in them. Her biggest fear was that it wasn’t just herself alone that she’d be risking by trusting them.

  Her stomach churned thinking about it. What if she was wrong?

  “Has anyone taken the strangers their breakfast yet? That would be enough of an excuse to be speaking with them.

  Mae found her clean pair of socks and sat on her own bed, bending her leg up. “They’ll probably be given some of the rations Sheppard had me pack earlier for them.” She pulled the sock—one of the pairs Jewel had brought back for her from her latest scavenging foray—onto her foot.

  Every nerve in Jewel’s body came alive. “What?”

  Mae shrugged, oblivious to the tension pulling Jewel’s spine tight. “Sheppard took them out this morning.”

  Jewel shoved off of the bed, grabbing up her pants from the end of the mattress. “How long ago?”

  “Not that long. Jewel, what’s going on?” Mae stood.

  Jewel shoved her feet into her worn boots. “Nothing. It’s only that…there’s a lot of Sifts out there right now.”

  “Which is probably why they went. You know Sheppard. He’ll want to test those canisters the strangers put so much store into, see for himself…don’t worry.” Mae’s tone softened, undoubtedly believing Jewel was thinking that the tragedy that took Lance and so many others would befall Sheppard as well.

  J
ewel’s pulse pounded in her throat. She latched onto her friend’s arms. “Who went with them?” Please let it be Miles or Tapper.

  “Hank and Richards. Trevor too, I think. Why?”

  Her heart thudded to the floor. There was only one reason Sheppard would take those guys, instead of Tapper or some of the others.

  A low tremor rolled through her.

  Mae turned her arms in Jewel’s grasp, grabbing on her. “You’re shaking. What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Mae.” Jewel shook her head, scared out of her mind for the strangers, afraid of her own reaction to what she suspected Sheppard was up to. “Please don’t ask me. I can’t tell you. Not yet.”

  “Okay. You’re scaring me a bit. What are you up to?”

  “Can you cover for me? Tell anyone who asks that I’m sick and staying in here?”

  “Yeah, sure. Okay.” Mae’s grip tightened on her. “You’re not going after them? Not on your own.”

  “Just…cover for me, okay?”

  Mae stared at her, creases of worry bracketing her mouth.

  “Mae…”

  “All right. Just be careful.”

  Jewel didn’t feel the half-hearted smile she tried to assure Mae with, and shrugged. “You know me.”

  Not giving Mae another moment to protest, she dashed out of the room, ran down the stairwell and toward the rear exit. She knew what she had to do although a spike of fear lodged in her lungs, making it hard to breathe.

  She couldn’t be too late.

  Miles and Carl were on guard. Without Sheppard’s say so, they wouldn’t allow anyone past them, not without a good reason.

  But Jewel wasn’t just anyone.

  ~~~

  They came to an old park at the edge of the small town and filed between a raggedy chain link fence to what was once a baseball field, overgrown with weeds. The tall rusted backstop fence behind the home plate area held remnants of tattered ropes hanging from the links.

  “What’s going on?” Alexander turned to Sheppard. “This doesn’t look like a place Sifts would gather.”

  The smile on Sheppard’s face turned hard. “Wait. They’ll be here.”

  “Flubbies don’t run on a schedule,” Ethan drawled. “If they’re not here—“ He cut off at the muzzle of Hank’s Taurus suddenly shoved hard under his chin.

  “The hell?” Dez lunged at Hank but went down beneath the butt of Sheppard’s rifle clocking him in the temple. The same rifle that instantly swung up to point at Alexander’s chest as he moved forward. Ethan growled and two more of the men grabbed his arms from behind to hold him back as though the gun wasn’t deterrent enough. By the scowl on his face, maybe it wasn’t.

  “Stop,” Sheppard growled at Alexander. “Stop now or Hank blows a hole through his jaw.”

  Alexander stopped, anger churning through his belly. “What do you want?”

  “World peace,” Sheppard snapped. “What do you think I want? A world where your kind doesn’t exist.”

  “My kind?” Alexander flicked his gaze at Dez, down for the count in the flattened weeds. He didn’t see any blood from where he was at, but that didn’t mean anything They’d hit him in the head. Angry, he reached deep into his core, drawing forth the magic within him.

  “Abominations. The way I see it, magic brought the creatures to our world, destroyed it.”

  “He’s human, asshole,” Ethan ground out and Hank shoved the muzzle harder into his flesh. He bristled further when Hank took his prized unloaded Jericho from his holster and shoved in his own inside jacket pocket.

  Sheppard shook his head, his eyes never leaving Alexander. “You think I didn’t notice the way these guys protected you? You’re their ace in the hole. Who needs firepower with what you have inside of you? Correct? Their own magical little arsenal. What can you do?”

  “I’ll be happy to show you.” His jaw clenched so tightly the words grinded through his teeth.

  “Don’t as much as think about it. I’ll have your men cut down before you can bat your pretty little eyelashes. We didn’t ask for your kind to destroy our world. Magic is an abomination. You…are an abomination. It’s time the world is rid of you. Ashes to ashes. Leave monsters to the monsters.”

  Alexander drew his magic along his veins, his fingertips tingled with power.

  “Ut-ut.” Sheppard’s gaze flicked to Alexander’s hands, apparently seeing the misty waver distorting the air around him. Somehow Sheppard knew the telltale signs of magic being unleashed. “Think you can release your evil taint faster than Hank can exhaust a round in your friend’s here head?”

  “Go,” Ethan shouted, struggling against the men holding him. “Don’t listen to him and go. Get out of here.”

  As fast as a coiled snake, Sheppard pulled his blade and slammed it into Ethan’s thigh.

  Alexander’s “no!” rolled over Ethan’s cry as his friend sank to his knees where the men held him up by his arms and Hank repositioned his gun’s muzzle against Ethan’s temple.

  “Pull your magic back or he dies right here right now,” Sheppard ordered.

  Chest heaving, Alexander let his magic recede back into his core. Features gray with pain, Ethan looked up at him and shook his head.

  Alexander swallowed. “I can’t.”

  “That’s right.” Sheppard yanked his knife out of Ethan’s leg and the young man cried out again, wobbling in the men’s grasp.

  “Stop it!” Alexander cried. “I’ve done what you want.”

  “Hold your hands out front.” Sheppard canted his head and the guy covering an unconscious Dez stepped over him with a length of rope that he quickly bound Alexander’s wrists together with. He patted him down, talking his empty pistol and pulling out the length of electrical wire he had coiled in his pocket. He gave Alexander a wary look.

  Satisfied Alexander was secure, the guy reached in his pocket and pulled out a syringe.

  Alexander’s eyes widened. “Wh-what’s that?” He inched back, the tall grass sweeping at the backs of his legs.

  “Insurance.” Sheppard smiled. He had all the winning cards in his hands. “Don’t worry, it won’t kill you. It’s just a sedative. Mild, but fast acting. You creatures aren’t too keen on using your magic when you can’t think straight. That’s dangerous for you, right?”

  Alexander didn’t answer. His heart pounded hard. Ethan’s eyes were huge. Furious. He shook his head, whispering, “No, don’t. Alexander…” Blood trickled down his leg.

  The guy grabbed Alexander’s bound hands and shoved his sleeve up. The tiny prick was followed by a hot white burn moving through his arm.

  “Take him back,” Sheppard ordered, calm as a crocodile waiting just beneath the river’s surface.

  The guard pulled Alexander back to the backstop, lifted his arms high, and used the rest of the rope to secure him to the chain links. And he was letting him do it. But he couldn’t do otherwise, not with Dez down and defenseless, and that muzzle against Ethan’s head.

  The metal of the backstop felt sticky. Turning his head to the side, he realized what he’d thought was rust was in actuality dried blood. Lots of it. He wasn’t the first person that had been brought here.

  His kind. An abomination. Jewel…the fear in her eyes. Did she know about this? What Sheppard and Hank had been doing to any magical wielders they came upon?

  The man trudged back across the field to the others, leaving Alexander bound to the fence alone and vulnerable.

  His vision went in and out, his focus hazy. He felt weird, his stomach started cramping. The sedative. What were they going to do now? Shoot him like a firing squad? His legs suddenly went out from under him, the tranquilizer messing with his strength, leaving him hanging by his wrists. On instinct, he clawed for his magic. It was a slippery flowing stream he couldn’t grab a hold of.

  “Do the others know what you are doing?” he shouted. Suddenly it was very important that he know. Did Jewel take part in this? He had to know, dreading the answer. She couldn’t. He woul
dn’t believe that of her. If he was going to die, fine, but he had to know he could believe in her.

  Sheppard’s dry chuckle reached him. “Just these few. The others don’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done to ensure their own survival.”

  Relief flooded through him. Along with a cold sweat and then intense prickling heat, one sensation after the other. He shivered. His head sank to his chest. It was getting harder to breathe, harder to stay awake and focused.

  “L-let my f-friends go.” His words were slurred and so soft he wasn’t sure anyone heard him.

  The ground began to spin. Alexander blinked. He heard Ethan screaming. That was unusual. Ethan didn’t scream like that. Not in that pitch. The chain link backstop shook, reverberating behind Alexander’s back, shaking his arms. Painstakingly, he lifted his heavy head and flinched so hard last night’s meal threatened to come up.

  He started tugging at the ropes in earnest. The backstop rattled more forcefully as the Sift above him climbed down the chain links like a spider, closer and closer.

  Oh he was pished. That’s what Sheppard meant. Leave monsters to the monsters. It all became crystal clear. Sheppard had fed him to the Sifts.

  Chapter Five

  Dez awoke to Ethan screaming, his voice hoarse with emotion. “You sonsofbitches, let him go! I’m going to rip your throats out! Let him go! Help him!”

  Cheek against scratchy weeds, dirt scraped around him, the noise of a scuffle going on. Dez managed to pry his eyes open. Immediately a spike drilled through his scalp and his vision blurred. He could make out Ethan on his back in the dirt, pinned by three men, but fighting with everything he had in him. Sheppard stood there, unperturbed by the disturbance Ethan and the men were making, his focus straight ahead.

  An icy chill rode down Dez’s spine.

  Planting his palms, he pushed up on his hands, and his head exploded in pain, darkening his vision. He hadn’t gotten more than inches off the ground. He swayed, shaky, yet determined to get these guys off Ethan. His jaw clenched in anger at the distraught curses.