by Helen Scott
In the image, her father was the only one present. He gingerly picked up a set of keys and his jacket, glancing over his shoulder as he moved, as though he was worried he would wake someone. Then he left. Moving faster again, the only reason Robin could tell time was passing was from the way the light in the room changed. What had been the dark of night became the bright light of day, complete with her mother and sister both pacing and wearing worried expressions.
Her heart pounded at the sight of them.
She hadn’t seen them in so long. Caitlyn was so grown up now, instead of the little wild thing who would run after her, curls bouncing behind her. Her throat tightened with tears as the reality of the time she’d missed with her family hit her. It was almost too much. She wanted to turn away, to not let her heart break anymore, but then her father returned home.
The regular screaming match occurred. Robin could guess where he’d been from his appearance, and it pissed her off. He had basically sold her to pay off his gambling debts, but it hadn’t changed a single damn thing. He was still going out and risking everything he could. She knew his addiction would one day destroy their family, and if she was honest with herself, she was surprised it hadn’t happened already.
While the images of her mother and father still yelled at each other, her little sister got up and opened the door. Robin’s blood ran cold at the sight.
Randall stood there, filling the doorway, with two security guards behind him.
“How did he find them?” she gasped.
Robin’s heart broke as she watched her mother pull at Caitlyn’s arm, trying to shield her remaining daughter with her body. Her father shook his head, his eyes wide with terror as Randall walked into the apartment. His long nimble fingers picked up pictures and ornaments, examining them with disgust as he spoke.
She wished she could hear what he was saying, but she had a pretty good guess what it was, anyway. How did they get away? Where was Robin? Did they have any contact with her? The list of questions he would be demanding answers for went on and on. The security guards had closed the door behind them, blocking, from what Robin could tell, the only entry and exit point.
The two men were in black T-shirts and cargo pants, standard Eclipse issue for people going out into the field on missions, whether it be to secure a package or track down someone like Aster. She knew they had guns on them somewhere, probably holstered on their lower backs so they didn’t cause immediate alarm.
Randall was still talking, like the narcissist he was, but when his eyes landed on Caitlyn, Robin wanted to scream. Everything she had been trying to avoid was now happening. Her sister was exactly where she shouldn’t be, in Randall Fields’ sights. Her father may have given her to the man he owed, but she had stayed to prevent her little sister from taking her place.
Hal’s arm wrapped around her shoulders as they watched Randall tug her sister out from behind her mother, evaluating her in front of her parents. It made her stomach turn.
Finally, the security guards opened the door. One left first, followed by the procession of Randall and her family, with the other guard bringing up the rear.
She stood staring at the door, as though waiting for them to come back, but she knew they were gone for good. Randall wasn’t about to give up something that would bring her back into the fold. Unless he kept her little sister. Her blood ran cold. What if she couldn’t rescue them, couldn’t offer herself up in Caitlyn’s place? What then? There was no way she would be able to let it go, but how could she fight a multinational corporation with the power to destroy what little life she had?
“What the hell happened?” Hal’s voice shocked her out of the pit of despair and self-loathing she was about to fall into.
“Near as we can tell, wherever James went, Eclipse was able to track him down and followed him back here.” Thad voiced the sequence of events that Robin had guessed at herself.
“James?”
“My dad.” She looked over at Hal as she answered his question. He knew exactly what had happened the last time she’d seen her dad, so she wasn’t surprised when his face went carefully neutral. Looking back at Thad, she said, “I can tell you where he was.” The three of them looked at her, the family resemblance almost making her smile. “He was out gambling somewhere, probably drunk when he came home, too.”
“There are a couple spots he could have gone to around here that are within walking distance. If he took a cab, there are a few more, but it seems unlikely given the time he left. Dem, why don’t you and I split up to cover those, see if we can trace his movements. Maybe there’s a bookie somewhere who can tell us who was following him. It would at least give us a place to start, someone to lean on. Hal, you going to take Robin back to the island?”
“Actually, we have somewhere we have to check out as well.” Hal’s voice was velvet over her skin, soothing her, softening the edges of the raw, panicked mess inside her.
“Oh?” Thad raised his eyebrows.
“Randall had Nimue mark Robin. It’s causing some . . . problems.” He self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “We are going to see if we can get Nimue out of there and have her get the mark off Robin.”
“Fair enough. Be careful, Brother. Remember what happened the last time you faced him,” Thad said, while Dem stood stoically behind him.
“If we encounter Randall, then we are jumping straight back to the island. No fighting.”
Thad nodded. “Give her a cell, in case you get separated.”
“Got it right here.” Hal reached into his pocket, withdrawing the cell phone she had used earlier and waggling it between his finger and thumb before handing it to Robin.
The brothers smiled at each other—well, at least Thad and Hal did—before they left.
She couldn’t stop the question that had been bubbling inside her since the magic show. “So is that Thad’s power?”
“Part of it, yes. He can use water to create, and it allows him to see the shadows of what has happened in a specific place. It takes a lot out of him, though.” Hal shot a worried glance toward the door.
“That’s incredible!”
“Are you okay trying to get Nimue while they figure out where your dad was?”
“I think it’s the best use of our time.” She nodded.
Sure, they could try to figure out where Randall had taken her family, but in all likelihood, they were in Boston at the Eclipse building, and there was no getting in there without setting off a myriad of alarms and wards. A wisp of a thought crossed Robin’s mind. Maybe Nimue could help them with that. If the Lady of the Lake was as powerful as Robin suspected, then the woman might be able to blow the wards, making the alarms and security the only problems they had to deal with, and she was betting that she could distract security.
Her mind was going a mile a minute, flipping into planning mode, trying to figure out the weaknesses and where they could penetrate the Eclipse building for the most effective retrieval plan, when Hal cleared his throat next to her.
“Sorry, I was trying to think of how to get to my family.”
“No worries. I figured as much.” He smiled at her, his dimples peeking out slightly, turning her insides to jelly. “Fancy a trip to England?”
“Do you remember where the estate is?”
“Yep.”
“Then let’s go.” She placed her hand in his, and the world around them disappeared.
When Robin could breathe again, she pulled in such a big breath of air that it made her cough. The smell of the country filled her lungs. It smelled of green—that was the only way she could think of putting it. It was a lush scent that she had only encountered at The Farm, at Hal’s place, and here. Earthy and natural, it made her want to go hiking or camping or do some similar activity.
“This way.” Hal tugged on her hand and walked them around the corner from the tiny alley they had appeared in. The wrought iron gates of the estate appeared just up the road, and Robin’s mind tried to wrap a
round the thought of how they had just traveled across an ocean in the blink of an eye. Failing, she simply accepted it for what it was—magic.
The iron gates were locked tight. She didn’t need to touch them to tell she couldn’t open them. The chain with a padlock on it spoke loudly enough, and when combined with the partial wall and fence, the keep-out vibe almost overwhelmed her.
“How are we going to get through?”
“I just need to find a secret spot we can jump to around the house. I wasn’t sure what would be visible from the road; otherwise, I would have jumped straight there,” he said in a hushed voice, making sure the sound didn’t carry to the people they passed on the street. “Ah, there we go.” Hal furtively glanced around.
Without any warning, the world disappeared and reappeared just as quickly all over again, but now they were up by the house, next to a tower that jutted out to the side. They quickly walked around to the door. The place was even more massive than she could have imagined. Though they had followed the curve of the tower, they still had to walk in front of bays upon bays of windows to get to the oversized, aged wooden door. Thankfully the curtains were closed on all the windows, but that didn’t mean that their shadows weren’t alerting those inside to their presence.
Nerves battered at her, wanting her to cower under the weight of the task ahead of them. Robin couldn’t do that, though. They needed Nimue for more than just selfish reasons now, and she wasn’t about to let her family remain in the tender care of Randall Fields because of her own fear.
Hal pushed the door open, and they both breathed a sigh of relief when it swung silently away from them. Robin sent a quick thank you to whoever kept the hinges oiled. The inside was just like she remembered it—all giant paintings, marble busts, and intricate woodwork.
Everything practically screamed money. It repulsed her. She wanted to go back to Hal’s cabin more than anything at that moment. Shoving the fear aside, she led them through to what looked like a familiar area. The ceiling that she could see as they approached was molded in the same way as the ceiling she remembered from the staircase. The walls were paneled with wood to about chest height, and above that, more paintings. They passed a fireplace bigger than any she’d ever seen before. It could have housed a small car.
Voices sounded from around the corner, and they froze.
“I don’t know. Some assistant called and said he was on his way here. I’m just saying we should ready the place as though he were staying. You know what he’s like when he doesn’t get his way!” The woman’s voice became more high-pitched as she spoke, a thread of fear underlying her words that Robin recognized all too well.
Hal pulled them back against the wall as the voices got louder.
“He hasn’t told us he’s comin’, though. I don’t want to waste time with this if it don’t matter.” The male voice was heavily accented but articulate, the vowel sounds being drawn out considerably, making his words sound rounded.
The man and the woman passed by the doorway to the room they stood in, and Robin held her breath. If they noticed either her or Hal, then they were up a creek, although Hal could probably charm them into forgetting they were there.
Once the voices had faded out of earshot, they silently moved to the hallway, edging out to make sure they would notice anyone around before whomever it was could see them. She darted across the open space into the next room over, and her breath caught in her throat at the beauty of it. The afternoon sun filled the room with a golden light that bounced off the cream walls and reflected again off the cream-and-brown tile floor. Golden wood covered the ceiling, with a large wooden beam running down the center and smaller wood ribs coming off at even intervals. The huge table was the centerpiece of the room that echoed the color of the ceiling.
As they moved around the table, she saw the stairway that she had been standing in front of the last time she was here. The dark-velvet-covered stairs descending to what Robin knew was a dank hole in the ground. She nodded toward the stairs so Hal knew which direction they were heading. His whole body was on high alert. She could see the strain in the taut lines of his shoulders and the way his eyes never stayed in one spot for too long.
They began to descend, and after a few steps, the velvet vanished, leaving just the stone blocks. She could feel the concern radiating off Hal as they kept moving downward. She remembered the same feeling when Randall had brought her here. At least she was in reasonable shoes this time. The smell of moss permeated the air, and Robin knew they were almost to the bottom. As they rounded the final corner, the sound of waves became noticeable.
“Underground lake?” Hal guessed.
She nodded. “I’m not one-hundred-percent sure this will work, but Nimue implied the mark would let me through the barrier the next time I was here. If I’m not able to get through, we’re screwed.”
The stone archway appeared in front of them sooner than she’d expected.
“Unless you can undo the wards that seal the doorway, I suggest waiting here. Smacking into the barrier isn’t pleasant.” She tried a smile, but her skin felt too tight.
“I’ll take a look at it, but you go on ahead.”
She nodded. “Watch the mist.”
Picking her way over the rocky shore, she called out to Nimue.
The fog over the water coalesced into the solid form of one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen. She heard the sharp intake of breath from Hal behind her. Nimue walked forward, the water freezing under each step just as before. The power hit Robin like a brick wall. Suddenly there was too much oxygen in the air, making her dizzy.
“Robin, you risk much returning here, especially with your companion.” Nimue’s violet eyes flashed over Robin’s shoulder.
“I need your help, and I have a couple questions for you. If we can figure out how to let my friend in, then he can help get the bands off. We can free you.” Her throat closed up at the thought of being able to grant this amazing woman the freedom she’d lacked for centuries.
“If you can grant me my freedom, I will happily help with whatever you need and answer any questions I am able.” Nimue’s voice was soft, and her eyes shuttered. Hope could be such a fragile, painful thing.
“My lady.” Hal’s voice came from much too close behind her.
Turning, she was surprised to see him inside the cavern. “How did you—?”
“I have my own magic.” He grinned at Robin.
“Nimue, this is Hal. Hal, this is Nimue, the Lady of the Lake.”
“Ah, you understand who I am, as well. You are full of surprises, my dear.” She smiled, and it was like standing in front of an open oven—a wave of warmth crashed against Robin’s skin. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, siren.”
“Yours as well.” He nodded.
“Can you get the bands and chains off her?”
“Probably.”
“They are enchanted. Be careful.” Nimue’s voice was low with warning.
“I see it,” Hal said, nodding again as he stared at the band that circled her upper arm nearest him.
“You see it?” Robin asked in surprise.
“I can see waves of energy, magic, things like that. It’s how I can see what to heal, like with your ankle. A handy skill to have, especially at times like these.”
“Yeah, I would say so.” She stepped back as she watched Hal circle his project, examining each band in turn.
“Removing them . . .” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I can do it, but Fields will most likely feel the drain on his power.”
Robin’s eyebrows pinched together in concern.
“Think of it like this. He’s been sitting under a row of lamps, and as I remove each band and each chain, each lamp associated with that band or chain will turn off one by one. I’m sure once he senses it, he will make his way here as fast as he can.”
“Will you have enough time to get them all off before he gets here?”
“I don’t know.” Ha
l shoved a hand through his hair again. He was getting frustrated. “My lady, can you hold any power back from him?”
Nimue shook her head, blanching at the idea of trying to resist. If Robin’s understanding was right, then it would be physically painful for her to try, and she wouldn’t be able to withhold any helpful amount of power, either. Lots of pain, but no gain.
“Can you partially undo the enchantment? Set it up so it’s like a chain of dominoes, or something like that. If you can, and I have no idea how you would do this, but if you could rig it so all you had to do was tap one domino and then all the others would fall quickly after that, getting us out of here would happen much faster.”
Hal’s brow furrowed in concentration as he paced around Nimue again. “I hadn’t thought of it like that”—he glanced at Robin, the intensity in his eyes searing her own—“but I think it will work.”
Nimue gasped, her eyelids fluttering, as he began focusing on the first band, little sparks of light flying from it every once in a while as moisture dripped from the bottom edge. The process took several minutes before he could move on to the next band and repeat whatever it was he was doing, which was beyond Robin’s ability to see. She waited and watched, her chest feeling ever tighter as the time passed, expecting someone to come down and disturb them and everything to be ruined.
“Okay, I think that should be good. I—” His whole body seemed to vibrate, like he was being pulled in one hundred different directions all at once. “Something’s wrong. Robin, call Thad. I’m almost ready to set this off.”
She whipped the phone out of her pocket and scrolled through the contacts, tapping on Thad’s name. A green phone symbol in the center of the screen pulsed before the call connected.
“Thad?” Robin’s voice was tight with fear as another set of vibrations shook Hal.
“Robin? What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure. Hal’s . . . vibrating?”
Before Thad could speak, Hal’s eyes met her own, terror filling them as the bands fell away from Nimue’s arms and legs. Then he popped out of existence.