A Kind of Magic

by Donna Grant

  “You have no where to go,” Val said.

  Alex laughed. “If you want Elle to live, you will let us pass.”

  “Don’t,” Elle screamed. “He’s going to kill me anyway. You know that.”

  Roderick’s gut clenched. There was no way he was going to step aside and let them take Elle, but then again, he couldn’t chance her being killed either.

  “Roderick?” Val whispered.

  He glanced over at his friend. No words were need. They each knew what needed to be done. He turned back to Alex and waited.

  “So be it,” Alex said.

  At that moment, Kaleno threw back her arms and howled. Everyone covered their ears as the harpy continued her screaming. It seemed nearly an eternity before she stopped. Roderick lifted his head as Kaleno, with Alex in one arm and Elle in the other, flew out of the monastery from a hole in the roof.

  Roderick and Val ran from the monastery and watched as the harpy and her prey disappeared over the tops of the trees.

  Val cursed in Latin.

  Roderick closed his eyes and sighed. He had failed. Again.

  “Do not blame yourself,” Val said.

  “I should have been with her.”

  He felt Val’s hand on his shoulder. “You wouldn’t have been in the chamber with her. The plan was for her to go by herself.”

  Roderick raised his eyes to Val. “Someone should have been with her.”

  He didn’t know how long he stood staring at the last place he had seen Elle. It wasn’t until Hugh stood before him that he realized someone had spoken.

  “What happened?” Hugh asked again.

  Roderick let Val explain since he could barely look anyone in the eye. A soft hand touched his arm, making him ache for Elle. He looked down to find Mina beside him.

  “We will get her back.”

  He tried to smile but gave up. “I failed her.”

  “You’ll only fail her if you give up,” Hugh said. “Have you given up?”

  Roderick glared at his leader. “Nay.”

  “Good,” Hugh said with a smile. “We killed the second harpy. The odds are getting better.”

  Roderick spotted Mina’s crossbow and rushed back into the monastery. He found Elle’s bow in the chamber she was supposed to hide in. His fingers clasped around the small weapon and gently picked it up. He would keep it with him since he knew she would need it later.

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  He refused to think of any other possibility.

  * * * *

  Elle swallowed the bile that rose in her throat each time she looked at Alex. All she could see was Jennifer’s frightened expression as she called her name right before she died.

  The talon wrapped around her tightened, poking her sharply in the ribs. She didn’t utter a sound. The harpy was furious for losing two of her sisters, and Elle knew better than to bait the creature or give her any reason to cause her even more harm.

  “You’ll thank me later,” Alex yelled over the clanging of the harpy’s wings.

  Elle just glared at him. She might plunge a knife in his heart, but she would never thank him. She had no idea how long they flew. She lost track of time as she gazed down at the landscape and tried to figure out where she was, but she might as well have tried looking for a needle in a haystack.

  Inwardly, she groaned.

  She had always hated it when people had used that expression, but it fit so adequately she had no other choice but to use it. When the harpy suddenly dipped and Elle’s stomach flew to her throat much like it did when on a roller coaster, she gripped the harpy’s talon and braced herself for whatever might come next.

  Instead of death, she was gently placed on her feet and released. She raised her eyes to the harpy and saw the sadness reflected in her big, beautiful eyes.

  “I’m sorry you’ve lost your sisters,” Elle said, and then wondered why she even bothered. The harpy was out to kill her and would do whatever she had to do complete that assignment.

  “Are you?” the harpy asked. “I wonder.”

  Elle shrugged. “If there had been a way to stop y’all without the killing, we would have gladly done it. However, y’alls intention was to kill me, which left us with little choice in the matter.”

  “Enough,” Alex said and stepped between Elle and the harpy. He took hold of her arm and turned her away from the harpy. “We have things to talk about,” he told the harpy. “Keep watch.”

  Elle would have preferred to take her chances with the harpy rather than be with a snake like Alex. She let him lead her into a small cottage in the middle of nowhere. One glance out the crack in the shudders and she saw the open expanse of the hillside.

  Nothing to help hide her.

  “Now,” Alex said as he sat in a chair and looked at her. “Tell me how badly you want to live.”

  Elle slowly turned her head to look at her nemesis. Good looking he might be with his chiseled features and toned body, but his soul was as black as Satan’s. “Why do you want me to live?”

  “Its true I could kill you now, easily. As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m supposed to do. But, I find myself intrigued by you.”

  “It’ll wear off,” she said and turned her back to him. “If you’re orders were to kill me, then get it over with. I’d rather be dead than listen to you.”

  The scrape of the chair legs on the dirt floor let her know he had risen to his feet.

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  She tensed, waiting for him to come up behind her.

  Instead, he walked until he stood in front of her. The fury in his eyes caused her to step back. “That can be arranged.” He took a deep breath and eyed her. “What are the lives of your friend’s worth?”

  Elle closed her eyes to hide her tears. She had wondered if he would use that tactic, because he knew she would do whatever he wanted for their safety. She opened her eyes and sighed. “What do you want?”

  “You,” he said and stepped toward her. “I want you.”

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  Chapter Thirty-One

  Roderick clenched his jaw as he rode his stallion at a breakneck speed through the forest. He had to find Elle. Every time he thought about Alex’s hands on her, or what Alex might do to her, he went blind with fury. He managed to stop in time as Hugh and Val brought their horses around in front of him.

  “What are you doing?” he demanded of them. “We cannot waste time.”

  “We won’t,” Val said slowly. “You’ve been a Shield a long time. You know we cannot let emotion get in the way.”

  Roderick’s gaze shifted to Hugh. “Did you let emotion get in the way when the gargoyle took Mina?”

  Hugh sighed and nodded. “I did, but I pushed it aside. I had to, Roderick. If you want to save her, you have to think with your head, not your heart.”

  Roderick cursed and looked at the gray sky. He hated feeling powerless, and that’s exactly what he was. He lowered his head and regarded his friends.

  “What do you suggest?” he asked.

  “We wait,” Val said.

  That’s not what Roderick had in mind. “I don’t think I can. He came to kill her.”

  “They why didn’t he do it at the monastery?” Mina asked.

  Roderick had to admit she had a point. He turned his head and looked at her.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I saw the way he looked at her. He wants her.”

  Roderick fisted his hands, and it took all the control he had not to kick the stallion into a run and go looking for Elle and Alex.

  “Why?” he finally asked.

  Mina shrugged. “I don’t know. I think we should wait and see what he wants.”

  “I don’t have anything he wants,” Roderick said and looked at his hands. All he had, Alex now had.

  Hugh grunted. “I’m not so sure. Before, a
ll the creatures immediately began killing. Why didn’t the harpies.”

  “Power,” Val said.

  Every eye turned to him. Val lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Alex wants power, and he’s foolish enough to believe that since he controls the harpy, he has power.”

  Hugh laughed. “He has no idea someone has control of him.”

  “Oh, he will discover that soon enough,” Mina said.

  Roderick looked around at the people beside him. These people were family to him, and they were doing what they thought was best for Elle. He respected them for that and would go along for the time being.

  “All right,” Roderick agreed. “We wait.”

  For now.

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  * * * *

  Elle sat with her arms crossed at the table that had recently received a cleaning. It was evident by the still musty odor in the cottage that it hadn’t been used in quite awhile.

  “Just what kind of power do you have?” she asked Alex, hoping he would reveal something she could use against him.

  He glanced at her and smiled. “More than you could imagine.”

  “I’m not so sure. All but one of the harpies is dead now.”

  He laughed. “Ah, but one harpy can still wipe out an entire village in a day. And a city like Houston? That could be annihilated in less than a week.”

  Elle shuddered. “That’s supposed to impress me? What is power when everyone is dead?”

  “It’s what comes after.”

  Now she was confused. “These creatures are being brought here to destroy Earth.

  All of it. There won’t be an Earth to rule.”

  But Alex only laughed at her words. Either he was delusional, or he had been told something else entirely. And if that was the case, then who was telling the truth?

  “Who told you you would have that kind of power?”

  “I can’t tell,” he said and turned his back to her.

  “Why? Is he afraid of me?”

  Alex chuckled. “He isn’t afraid of anyone. He isn’t even from this realm.”

  Somehow that didn’t surprise her. “What’s his name. “

  Slowly, Alex turned around to face her. “That isn’t something you need to know.”

  “And what do I need to know?”

  “Just what I’ve told you. Nothing more.”

  Elle hated being treated like less than a human just because she was a woman.

  “So,” she said with a sigh. “What do we do now?”

  “That is what I would like to know,” the harpy said as she ducked and came into the cottage. “Why haven’t you killed her as you were ordered to do?”

  “I have my reasons, Kaleno,” Alex said between clenched teeth.

  “I do not think your master will be happy to hear you have disobeyed him.”

  Elle sat and listened with interest. Maybe she could turn Kaleno on her side and convince the harpy to help her.

  And pigs can fly, Elle.

  It was worth a shot though. She didn’t utter a sound as the two continued to bicker, though she noted that Kaleno never raised her voice or advanced on Alex. And the reason was the stone hanging around his neck. Elle’s eyes widened at seeing the stone. All she had to do was get the stone, and everything would end. Her mind began to form a plan.

  Two hours later she was looking for a way to put her plan in motion. Night had begun to fall, and anxiety had set in.

  “What are you doing?” she asked irritably.

  “Waiting.”

  She rolled her eyes. “For what?”

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  “A

  visitor.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes on the vermin before her. “Who? Your precious master?”

  This time Alex laughed, his eyes shining with an intense light that sent a warning down her spine. “Oh, not anyone as special as that,” he said.

  With that, Alex turned and motioned to Kaleno who ducked out of the cottage and flew away.

  Elle rushed to the window and threw open the shutters to see where the harpy was headed. Cold air rushed at her like a freight train, but she ignored it. “Where is she going?”

  “On an errand,” Alex said as he pulled her away from the window and closed the shutters. He turned her toward the roaring fire. “Warm yourself.”

  But there would be no warmth for her ever again.

  * * * *

  Roderick stared at his feet. His hands itched to feel his weapons and attack Alex and the last remaining harpy. He seethed as he waited, yearning to find Elle. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Elle’s bow.

  His heart constricted, and the dull ache that had plagued him since she had been taken grew tenfold. He hadn’t realized until she was gone just how much he cared for her.

  Hugh had asked him if it was love. At the time, Roderick hadn’t known the answer. He did now. He loved Elle Blanchard, loved her so much that he knew he would never be whole again if he didn’t save her. Even the guilt he had carried with him for decades didn’t amount to a thimble full of what he felt for his woman.

  His woman.

  Aye, she was his. And he would tell her just as soon as he saw her.

  Roderick sat back and took a deep breath, the fire’s heat burning his cheeks. He wondered where Elle was and hoped she stayed warm.

  He looked around the hall and found men inspecting weapons and readying themselves. As soon as their small group had arrived at Stone Crest, Hugh and Mina had seen to it that everyone was safe in case they were attacked.

  “Not much longer I suspect,” Val said as he sharpened the blade on his halberd.

  Roderick moved his gaze to Hugh who sat cleaning his crossbow.

  “Aye. Anytime now,” Hugh said, never taking his eyes from his weapon.

  It was nearly too much for Roderick. Never had he been so anxious for a battle, so ready to kill. But then again, no one had ever taken his woman.

  Mina walked into his line of vision and regarded him. “Will you tell Elle?” she asked softly.

  “Tell her what?”

  “How you feel?”

  He noticed Val and Hugh stop their work and look up. Roderick had never liked being the center of attention. He preferred to stay in the background.

  “Aye,” he said, not recognizing the hoarseness of his voice.

  “Good,” Mina said and smiled. “She deserves to know.”

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  “Did you see your father?” Hugh asked.

  Roderick shook his head and pushed back the grief that threatened to overwhelm him. “There wasn’t a chance. Aimery promised to talk to him for me. I only left because I thought there was time.”

  Val held up his hand. “There’s no need to explain. We know. None of us expected the harpies to attack so soon.”

  “I swore to her I wouldn’t leave.” Even now Roderick could see the disbelief in her eyes.

  “She’ll understand once you explain,” Mina said.

  Roderick opened his mouth to respond when they heard the harpy scream. Each of them surged to their feet and grabbed their weapons.

  “Knights. Take your places,” Hugh bellowed as they rushed from the castle.

  By the time they reached the bailey, the harpy had knocked down part of a wall and one tower of the gatehouse. Without thought, each raced to their places and waited.

  Roderick knew it was only a matter of time before Kaleno grew tired of knocking at stones. She wanted humans to kill, and he realized there was only one way to achieve what they all wanted faster.

  He stepped out from his hiding spot and slowly walked to the middle of the bailey. He didn’t try and shout to Kaleno. She would never hear him over her screams and the noise of her wings. But it didn’t take her long to spot him. She dove down and landed on her feet several feet in f
ront of him.

  “What have we here?” she asked as she looked around her. “Where did everyone go?”