by Dyan Chick
"You don't think that's a possibility, do you?" McKenzie asked. "There are few seers in the world who can predict with that much accuracy."
I shuddered, recalling the seer I'd encountered as a child. He'd used me as a test subject to see how far he could push his powers, calling me his ladybug. My skin crawled recalling those days.
Pushing the memory away, I focused on the matter at hand. Dr. Byers had left Realm's Gate when he was caught experimenting on children and I hadn't heard of him since. I liked to imagine that he'd been eaten by something terrible.
"The future is always changing," I said. "But there are variations of it. If they have a seer, we have to start choosing the variation that is the last one they'll expect from us."
"Like us working with Tavas?" Alec said.
"Even if we wanted to find him, we don't even know where to start," I said. "And the dragon mages are running out of time."
"It is the last thing anyone would guess you'd do," Dima said. "Especially if their seer saw you forgo it even after you were told to do it."
"Like I said, how would we even find him?" I asked.
"There's an underground supernatural casino in downtown LA," Alec said.
"You're kidding, right?" I said.
"I have no idea where Tavas hangs out, but it seems like as good a place as any to start," Alec said.
"What makes you think Tavas would be at a casino?" I asked.
Alec shrugged. "I've seen other Fae there. Maybe it's a Fae hangout."
"Aren't Fae illegal?" Dima asked.
"Technically, only dark Fae are illegal," I said, then instantly felt dirty. It was almost like I was defending Tavas, which was the last thing I wanted to do.
"There's all kinds of Fae at this place. You might not want to go around asking them if they are there legally," Alec said. "In fact, maybe you should stay in the car."
"Hey, I can handle myself," Dima said.
"That's clear from the spider web we had to cut off of you," Alec said.
"Enough," McKenzie said. "I know none of you want me here, but it's not a half bad idea."
"We're hours away from there, and the clock is ticking." Seeing Tavas was still not high on my list of priorities, even if the idea was starting to make sense. And I really didn't want to agree with McKenzie.
"It's on the way to the factory," Dima said, waving a large folding map from the back seat.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked.
"Shoved it in my back pocket right before I went down," she said.
If it wasn't out of the way, there wasn't much I could do to argue against at least looking. "Okay, we'll go in and see if he's there. If he's not there, we leave right away. No hanging around to wait for him."
I glanced up at the mirror and looked at Dima and McKenzie in the back seat. "And you two stay in the car."
"Hey, I'm supposed to be here to help keep you safe," McKenzie said.
"Right, spider, remember?" I said.
"That was a fluke," she said. "I can almost guarantee we won't run into a monster like that again."
"Do you even know what that thing was?" I asked.
"No, do you?" McKenzie asked with a defensive tone in her voice.
"No, but we don't know what the long term effects of that will be. We don't know if you've been weakened, or..."
"I get it," McKenzie snapped. "But if we wait in the car, you leave us the keys. At least I can pretend I'm the getaway driver in case the shit hits the fan."
"That's not a half bad idea with the crowd we'll see in there," Alec said.
I looked over at him. "Is it going to be a problem having you in there? How did you leave these people?"
I'd worked for Jimmy long enough to learn that once you joined a criminal organization like his, you didn't leave alive. What had Alec done before he joined Jimmy? Whatever it was, he'd probably been in a similar line of work and he'd managed to impress a very hard to impress ancient vampire.
"I'll be fine," Alec said.
I waited for him to elaborate, but he kept quiet.
We drove for another half-hour or so before I noticed my eyelids getting heavy. Fighting against a yawn, I finally lost, opening my mouth wide.
"You need to sleep," Alec said. "How long has it been?"
I thought back over the whirlwind of the last few days. Everything seemed to blend together. I wasn't even sure what day it was or how long we'd been gone.
The car was quiet as I blinked back the exhaustion. That's when I realized the back seat was silent. "They asleep?"
"Have been for a while," Alec said. "You should be, too."
"It's not like we just go to a hotel," I said. "We've lost too much time already."
"That's the perk of having a vampire on your road trip," he said. "Pull over, I'll drive, you sleep."
Knowing that my driving was going to get dangerous soon, I agreed, and pulled the car into the shoulder. It was around midnight, so the roads were practically empty. I waited as a semi-truck passed, then opened the car door and walked around the back of the car.
Alec held the passenger door open for me. "It's going to be okay, you know that, right?"
"No, I don't know that," I said. "But I want it to be."
"I know," he said. "We're going to find him. And your friend."
I didn't say anything this time, I just nodded and moved around Alec and ducked into the car. Alec closed the door behind me, then a moment later, he was in the driver seat.
"Los Angeles, here we come," he said as he clicked his seat belt in place.
I fastened my own seat belt and locked the door before leaning back in the chair. Closing my eyes, I focused on slowing my breathing. If I was going to sleep, I might as well help it get to me faster.
Trying to shut out everything, I pushed the swirling thoughts from my mind. Visions of Lyla and James tied up or bleeding out kept punctuating my attempts at stillness. Then, it was the blinking eyes of the spider and the sound of its legs clicking across the tile.
I shivered and repositioned myself. For a moment, I found myself recalling my mom's funeral. That was the last place I wanted to go in my head. Things hadn't been the same since she died. I'd been so upset, so sure the Order had let us down, that I skipped town. It was surprisingly easy to get a fake ID and a job in the human world if you can use magic.
I'd worked for a few months in a coffee shop, then moved on to a receptionist job, before finally working as a front desk attendant for the dorms at an art college. I sat there and doodled or surfed the web with the occasional interruption of scanning in a student ID card. It was mind-numbing and boring. Then one day, I got a read off of a student entering the building that I hadn't felt in a while. It was genuine magic. That student, and the unhealthy relationship he brought me, had been the catalyst that drove me back to Realm's Gate.
Frustrated that I'd let myself travel down memory lane, I tried burrowing deeper into the chair and let myself think about James. His smile, his bright blue eyes, that hair. That was a much better mental image to try to fall asleep to.
Suddenly, my memory of James vanished, as if pulled away from me and I was standing alone in the dark. There was an odd glowing quality to my skin when I looked down at my fingertips. I could still see my body, despite the darkness. My heart started pounding. This was the same thing that happened when I connected with James.
Hope rose inside me. He'd said we were connected through the favor, that he could communicate with me. I turned in a slow circle hoping I'd see him alive and well. There was nothing around me in the void. My shoulders sunk as I recalled our last meeting in this place. He said he could connect with me while I was performing magic. I wasn't performing magic. I must have fallen asleep. This was a dream. Or a nightmare.
Cautiously, I took a few steps ahead, wondering if I should try to make myself wake up, or if I should just lie down and sleep in here. It was the strangest dream for me, though I supposed that after my meeting with James it only made sense that I
'd hope to see him again. Why couldn't I dream about him? Why dream about being alone in the darkness? Even my dreams were depressing right now.
"Hello, little dragon," a smooth as silk voice came from behind me.
My insides prickled. I knew that voice. Slowly, I turned around to come face to face with Tavas.
17
How are you doing this?" I didn't owe a favor to Tavas. If anything, I owed him a punch in the gut for abandoning me after saying he'd help me, then later turning me in. "And why are you here?"
"You were looking for me, weren't you? I mean, at least that's what I thought I heard." He smiled, but there was something missing from his usual confident appearance.
I realized that he was wearing clothes that were wrinkled and dirty. His jeans were torn at the knee, and not in a fashionable, purposeful way. Green and brown stains covered his clothes. I squinted, then my eyes widened in disbelief as I realized he had twigs and grass or something in his hair.
I took a few steps closer to him and as I neared him, I noticed the scrapes on his chiseled cheekbones. "What happened to you?"
He rolled his eyes. "Just say it. You're happy to see me like this."
Forehead wrinkled, I stared at him. Wasn't I happy to see that he'd been struggling? Shouldn't I be happy that he was hurt and getting some kind of payback for what he did? My stomach twisted. As much as I wanted him to suffer, he was James's friend. And he might be my ticket to finding both James and the missing mages. "You don't even know me, how could you know what I'm thinking?"
"Fine, whatever, you're a saint who doesn't wish harm on anyone, can we move on now?" He glanced behind him, as if expecting someone to join us. Or attack him.
The hair on my arms rose as a sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Maybe something was after him. Had he brought it here? "What's going on, Tavas?"
"You're the one who called me. It's been rather annoying, honestly. I wouldn't have come, but frankly, I'm tired of ignoring you." He gestured to his chest and legs in a sweeping motion. "And if you can't tell by my wardrobe, I'm in a bit of a conundrum right now."
"What do you mean I called you?" I asked. Sure, the Oracle had told me to find Tavas, but I'd spent the last few days thinking of ways around it. Or trying not to think about Tavas.
"You and your mage friends. That whole spell you did. It opened a connection, one I might add I ignored. But since then, you keep showing up in my head, and I'm rather fond of being alone in my own head," he said. "By the way, impressive job of taking down the spider."
"You saw that?" My voice came out high-pitched and irritated. "What else have you seen? Are you watching me?"
Tavas let out a frustrated sigh, and looked behind him again. "Look, little dragon, I don't have time for this. Just tell me why you want to find me and get out of my head."
"First," I said. "I'm not in your head. And I honestly didn't want to find you, but the Oracle said I had to find you."
Tavas scoffed. "That old fraud, you believed him? Did he pull out his Tarot deck and read you a fortune?"
I knew Tavas wasn't really here, but even in whatever form this was, he was irritating. I rubbed my forehead, wondering how I was going to work with this Fae without wanting to kill him.
"Look, I've got to go, please stop trying to talk to me," Tavas said, turning away from me.
"Wait!" I ran up to him and grabbed hold of his upper arm.
Tavas turned and looked at me in disgust. "Seriously, I get it, I'm attractive. But I'm afraid it just isn't going to work."
"Get over yourself, you spoiled brat," I said. "James is in trouble. And I don't know who else can help."
"I'm sorry, love, but I have my own problems right now," Tavas said.
"You owe me," I said.
"I don't owe you shit." He pulled his arm from my grasp.
"Then you owe James. You know he saved us both." I watched as a flicker of conflict flashed in his green eyes. "I have a feeling you owe him for a lot more than saving us in that alleyway."
Tavas shook his head. "Fine, but you're going to have to help me first."
"We don't have time for that," I said. "Just tell me where you are and we'll pick you up."
"I'm in Cleveland," he took a few steps away from me. "But if you're not here soon, I won't be able to help you because I'll be dead."
"Cleveland? How the..." my words trailed off as Tavas vanished from sight.
Suddenly, a vision of a warehouse filled my mind. It was so real, like I was standing there in person. I could smell the factory smoke and feel the wind blowing past me. This wasn't a normal vision, this was a location. He was downloading it to my subconscious. Tavas expected me to teleport.
I woke with a start, feeling fully awake, and fully pissed off. Leave it to that Fae to be on the other side of the continent, needing help, when we needed him.
"Bad dream?" Alec asked.
"How do you feel about Cleveland?" I asked.
"What's in Cleveland?" he said.
"Tavas," I said.
"How do you know that?" Alec said.
"He found me in my dreams." The words sounded ridiculous as I said them, but I knew what I saw. It was real. "And he's in trouble. We're going to have to get there fast."
"We're probably not far from the airport," Alec said.
I shook my head. "No time for airports."
"Driving will take forever. You can't think that's faster."
"No, not driving." I looked behind me at the sleeping forms of my friends. "We're going to have to wake them. I'll need more magic than what I have."
"There's a magical way to get to Cleveland?" Alec said.
"Yep, and they're not going to be happy about it." Dread filled me as I considered how I was going to ask McKenzie and Dima to share their magic with me so we could teleport. Neither of them had been in the car with James when I helped him teleport. And to be honest, I wasn't sure how much of the magic had come from me, and how much had come from him. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to duplicate it again.
What I did know was that we were running out of time. And for some reason, we needed Tavas. Who, of course, happened to be nowhere near where we needed him. I hardly knew Tavas, but I should have expected that finding him wouldn't be convenient for us. And I should have known that it would come with strings. Whatever trouble he was in, we were going to have to walk right into it and bail him out. Why couldn't things just be normal in my life?
"Don't even say it," McKenzie said.
I pursed my lips. For someone who had been raised in the human world, she seemed quick to pick up on where I was going with this. Part of me was hoping that being the only mage in the car would be an advantage to convincing my friends.
"What are you thinking of doing?" Dima asked. "And why do I suddenly feel like I might agree with McKenzie for once?"
"Look, it might not be as dangerous as you think," I said.
"Can someone please explain what the hell you're talking about here?" Alec asked.
"Say it, Morgan. Just say the word." McKenzie made it sounds like a challenge, which fired me up a bit. She didn't know me. She didn't know what I was capable of. I'd already saved her life once and she didn't even have to be here. Nobody wanted her here.
"Teleportation, and before you get judgy, McKenzie, I've done it before. And I'm not dead."
"That doesn't mean anything," she said. "The history books are full of people who successfully teleported multiple times. It's the one time that it's not successful that kills you."
"Even I know how dangerous that is," Dima said. "Isn't there another way?"
"Wait, you can teleport?" Alec asked. "Why am I driving? Let's just get this over with and go save your friends."
"Because it's dangerous, you dumbass," McKenzie said.
"Hey, we can leave you right here if you don't want to go," I said to McKenzie. "In fact, anyone who is afraid can stay here. There's no reason to risk us all."
"Is it seriously that big of a deal
?" Alec asked. "I mean, I've seen you do some really amazing stuff over the last few days." He glanced over at me and smiled. "If she says she can do it, I believe her."
"Well, shit, make me look like the bad friend," Dima said.
"You're not a bad friend if you don't go," I said. "I get it, it's not something we're used to doing, and it's got a shaky outcome sometimes."
"When did you teleport?" McKenzie's words were quieter this time, almost reverent. Was it possible she believed me? That she was finally seeing that I was able to take care of myself?
"A couple of days ago, with James," I said.
"And James is?" McKenzie asked.
The car was silent. Neither of my friends spoke up. We hadn't told the Mage Order about James. Nobody knew about him yet. The last thing I wanted was power-hungry mages or who knew who else hunting down one of the only dragon shifters in our realm. "He's a friend of ours who lived outside of Realm's Gate."
"Did the Dragon-Bloods get him, too?" she asked.
I let out a small breath of relief. McKenzie assumed he was a mage, like me. "Yes, they got him too."
"I've never seen anyone teleport," McKenzie said. "Can you take us with you? How does that work?"
"Are you saying you'll go?" I was surprised that she was handling this so well. I knew she had orders to go with us, so I expected that she'd tag along unless the others refused to go with me. What I didn't expect was so little conversation around talking me out of it.
"Well, you said you need this Tavas, right? It's the only way?"
"Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, we need him." I tried to hide the disgust in my voice.
"How do we get there, then?" Dima asked this time. "Do you need us to hold hands or something?"
"Not exactly," I said. "Actually, I can teleport us in the car. But I'm going to need to borrow magic from all of you."
18
What do you mean by borrowing magic?" McKenzie sounded skeptical, the tone I expected her to use from the very beginning.
"Like you did to get into James's house?" Alec asked.
"Yes," I said, then turned to face the women in the back seat. "You can share your magic with me to make mine stronger, like a group mage spell."