Dominion 4 - Ascendance

by Lissa Kasey

  “You know my parents will demand I abort when they find out it’s a boy.”

  “I do. I also know that you’ll protect him and give him life.”

  “I hate you.”

  He sighed. “If you need to.”

  Her eyes shone with tears. “Please don’t do this.”

  A ghostly sound of the doorbell rang from below. They both turned. My mother gripped his shirt like she was trying to keep from falling to the floor. He gently pried her hands loose and kissed her on the forehead. He brushed the tiny bump of her belly and smiled sadly. “It’s hard for me too. I want to see him grow up. Help him control his power. Teach him how to be strong and soft all at once.”

  “Then let’s run away. Leave Charles to sleep in the bed he’s made,” she pleaded with him. “This isn’t just for Charles, Tanaka. Please don’t watch. Go to Lily; she’ll protect you.” He left then as the ringing from the door became more persistent.

  My mother collapsed to her knees, sobbing into the floor and holding her stomach. The image faded and I shook myself, feeling a little overwhelmed with emotion. My mother had really loved my father. I wondered why over the years she began to treat me worse and worse. It made sense that she would grow to hate Dorien for leaving her with child, with a male child even, in the Dominion-ruled world.

  I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, glaring at myself. With my hair long again, I looked more like my father, despite the almond edge to my eyes and the pitchblack color. Did she see the man who left her each time she looked at me? Why did it make me feel so awful that my existence tortured her? Would I feel the same if I lost Gabe and was left with a child who looked like him?

  No. I didn’t think I would, but love was a powerful thing. It hurt like nothing else could and made the world seem both brighter and darker all at once. Would Gabe hate my children if something happened to me? I hoped, instead, that he would show them how much I would have loved them.

  I sat down on the bed, and before I even knew it, I’d punched a number into my phone, not realizing how late it was. My mother picked up on the fourth ring. She sounded tired, but not as though she’d just woken up.

  “Hi, Mom,” I whispered.

  “Seiran, how are you?” She didn’t even ask about the time or why I’d call her just after 3:00 a.m. her time.

  “I’m good. You?”

  “I’m well.” The tone of her voice changed to something lighter than I’d heard most of my life. “I have framed pictures of the babies. Just the ultrasound, but I can make copies. Would you like me to send you some for Solstice?”

  She was offering to send me a gift? “That would be great. I’d love pictures of them.”

  “I found a lovely double frame to display them side-byside. Do you need one for your apartment and for Gabe’s?”

  I was more than a little surprised. She’d never approved of Gabe. I think it was mostly because he couldn’t bear my children. “Both would be good.” Maybe it was time for Gabe and me to find someplace where we could stay together. The house here in California was nice, but I really loved Minnesota, harsh winters and all. Out of the blue, I said, “I’m going to apply for the Magic Investigations job.” I really hadn’t made the decision before that moment.

  “You’ll do very well. The head of the department is Lily Castage. She’s very forward-thinking and will train you to do field work.”

  Lily? The same Lily who was my father’s sister, my aunt? Why had I never heard of her before? “She won’t treat me like the other witches treat me, will she?”

  “She’ll expect you to work hard, but she won’t look down on you for being male.”

  I wanted to ask the question but couldn’t get the words to come out. I suppose if I got the job I could ask Lily myself if she was my aunt. Obviously my mother never did go to her for help after I was born, since I didn’t remember anyone named Lily. “I’ll send her my resume in the morning. Thanks, Mom.”

  “You’re welcome, Seiran. Get some sleep.” She hung up the phone before I could ask why she hadn’t been sleeping herself. I’d always been a night owl; dating a vampire sort of did that to a person. She had often disappeared after 8:00 p.m. not to be heard from until the next morning.

  I sighed and put the phone away, the spell/haiku on my mind. What else could it show me? In school I’d read briefly about imprint magic, memories that could be replayed from the energy left in objects. However, the topic was something all my professors glossed over. Most of what they taught was law and Dominion Code. Perhaps they didn’t see the value of learning from the past. Looking around now, I could almost see the glimmer of the lingering memories waiting to be replayed. This house was so full of imprint magic, I didn’t know where to begin.

  My father had given up his life to save Charles, but it appeared as though my uncle continued his evil works. Would there be some sort of imprint that would tell me how to stop the pulse of death magic the fairy ring produced? All I could do was begin searching for the answers.

  Chapter 14

  I MADE my way slowly through the house, watching small replays of my dad. I skipped the study simply because I could feel multiple imprints and didn’t know where to begin. My father’s normal room held little of him. He used the room only when people visited and expected to see him.

  The kitchen was home to several memories of him and my mother together. He had made her breakfast while she studied, occasionally glancing up to watch her. She had smiled secretly, probably feeling his eyes on her, and returned his gaze when she thought he wasn’t watching.

  The tree in the foyer pulsed with a faded bit of imprinting. I sat down on the last step, chanted my dad’s spell, and touched the trunk. A young man threw open the main door, slammed it shut, and stomped toward the tree. His long hair hung in his face, but he appeared to be in his early teens, lanky, and not quite developed completely. He grabbed a limb and swung himself up into the tree. Through semi-transparent leaves, I could see him huddling against a large Y of the inside branches.

  “Leave me alone.” He scrambled up higher. I expected to see someone following him, maybe open the door again, but everything remained still. Then the sound of twigs snapping broke the silence. Leaves fluttered to the floor.

  I had to climb the stairs to keep up with the imprint. The boy had to be my father, much younger. He swatted at something a few times, and then a blur of color raced around him. I grinned. The same annoying fairy flew at him, just as it had at me. So he had seen them, knew about them. Which meant he’d probably written about them in his journals too. I just had to find the information.

  Finally Dorien paused, looking up, almost staring right at me. His eyes flashed with anger. “Lyden?”

  The door opened, startling me out of the vision, and had me nearly jumping off the stairs and into the tree. “You okay?” Gabe stood at the bottom of the stairs, glancing from me to the tree and back. Sam leaned against the wall beside the door, looking tired but mostly human.

  I sucked in a few deep breaths and willed my heart to beat normally. “You scared the crap out of me.” “It looked like you were in some sort of trance. I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.”

  The memories of all that had happened in the past few hours rushed back through my head. “Holy crap! There are fairies. Fairies are real. I saw one. Wait… what happened to you earlier? You got all scary and undead-like.”

  “Yes, there are fairies.” He handed me a small potted plant that smelled strongly of mint. The bushy greenery flowed from the bucket, more like ivy than any mint I’d ever seen. “This should attract and relax any fairies we have in the area. We can probably get some information from them about the ring.”

  I took the plant and wondered how he knew so much about fairies, but before I could ask, he was bounding up the stairs and answering my other question.

  “The ring brought on bloodlust.” He tugged me up the stairs. Sam followed, several steps behind. “Overwhelming bloodlust. That ring
needs to be destroyed. I filed a report with the TriMega. You should let the Dominion know. They may have to null-bomb the area.”

  Sam shivered, probably thinking of Matthew, who had been a psychopath and a null, just as I did in that moment. He shrugged past us and disappeared into the bathroom instead of coming with us to the secret room. The scent of musk and man caught my nose. Had Sam gotten some play? And why did that smell so familiar? Like tree and motor oil.

  I let Gabe lead me through the hall and up to our private room. Once I set the plant down and began stripping out of my clothes in the dark, it hit me. “Sam fed on Caleb?”

  “We ran into him at the club. I don’t know if he fed or just satisfied other needs. Leave it to you to find the hottest gay gardener in the city. Which reminds me. You may want to call him back. Your fairies have made a jungle out of your yard again.”

  “What? No way.” I kicked out of the rest of my things, leaving just my bright-purple euro-briefs, and climbed across the bed to peel back the heavy coating over the window. Far down below, I could see the mass of weeds and wild grass twisting across the side of the yard that only a few hours ago had been perfectly trimmed. “That’s so unfair.”

  Gabe pushed the window covering back, grabbed me around the waist, and pulled me down beside him for a snuggle. He even wrapped the blanket around us. “They are probably thinking the same thing about you. Cutting down their hiding places. I bet that’s why there were so many gardens. You’ll need to replant those right away if you want to keep the paths clear.”

  I sighed. “How do you know so much about them, anyway?” “They were all over Europe. Couldn’t go anywhere without tangling with a mass of them. Sadly, a lot of them were wiped out during the industrial revolution. Occasionally you’ll find patches of them now in protected areas, parks, forests, that sort of thing.”

  “Are they good or bad?” He shrugged, his body hair tickling me, legs scratching against mine before settling, one between my knees and the other on top. Gabe always liked to sleep tangled up, his limbs curled around mine. He slept a bit like a shield, wrapping me up in warmth and protection I couldn’t get from any ward. “They are a lot like humans, I suppose. Some good, some bad.”

  “Hmm,” I said to him, feeling sleep weigh me down. Before I could ask more, dreams overtook me. In Gabe’s arms, all I hoped to dream of was his happy smile.

  The bright illumination of the overgrown flowers startled me out of a dead sleep. A flurry of activity filled the place, bugs moving back and forth. Roots and vines wove through the ground. I tried to keep out of the way while I watched them all work. My red-haired friend helped guide a thick stalk of green into the ground. Others rose up out of the dirt like some crazy, thorny spider legs ready to spear the ground. One pointy end headed right for Red’s back. I darted around the masses, touched the dangerous growth, and directed it away. The vine pierced the ground, making an eruption of dirt and the sound of a sonic boom. My ears stung.

  Everything suddenly stopped. Not frozen in place, just halting, everyone turned toward me. Red’s eyes widened. His eyes seemed to be swollen. Had he been crying?

  He sucked in heavy breaths but kept his hands on the thorny vine. Blood stained his soft pants, chest, and hands. I crossed the distance to him without remembering moving and ripped him away from the harmful plant. He deflated in my arms, letting himself fall into my embrace, and sobbed. His tears smelled like a spring rain, blood like new soil. I let my instincts take over and pressed my luminescent skin to his and willed him to heal. The very core of me nearly screamed a possessive “mine” while holding him.

  All remained still around us. The dangerous plant made more sense from this angle. It was a briar bush, nature’s protection and punishment all wrapped in one. Only this shoot of prickly branches rose from the base of a stone that towered into the darkness.

  Flashes of people speared on that bush trembled through my head. Not people, fairies, but still wickedly slaughtered. The vines glistened with blood, dripping the fluid from the highest tips like a cut jugular to fuel the ground, and rippled with magic. I dragged Red with me away from the stone. The sticky dirt clung to my pants and bare feet, bloody mud. Tears blurred my vision. Gone was the perfection I’d felt here before. Red pushed me away and turned back to the nasty plant that surely meant his death.

  “No!” I screamed to him.

  He stopped, twitching like his body fought the pause in movement. “Tell me how to stop this,” I demanded. The green glow of my skin brightened blindingly. His flaming hair faded under the light’s assault. “No, don’t go! I want to protect you. Please!” But the early rise of the sun drove me out of the dream and into the morning.

  Chapter 15

  THE nightmares had me out of bed early. By a quarter after eight I’d done more than most people probably do all day. I’d called Caleb about the lawn and found a nursery that specialized in the slew of plants fairies liked, according to Gabe. They would deliver just after nine, and Caleb had already arrived to trim back the side yard and stir up the dirt in preparation for them. I also read through the paperwork for the house, called Jamie with questions, and signed it. Hanna had taken my report about the ring over the phone and would be poring over Dominion texts with Ally most of the day. And Timothy would cross the yard anytime, since we would be going to the will reading today.

  The journal my father had kept in the hidden drawer beneath his dresser was gone. In fact, nothing was left in the drawer but some photographs of him and my mother together. I decided to scan them and put together a scrapbook for her for Solstice, choosing one of the bunch to enlarge and frame—a picture of my father, his arms wrapped around my mother, who looked very young, with them both smiling. I planned on keeping a copy for myself for those times when my mom did something mean, so I could remember she hadn’t always been that way.

  A replay I’d somehow missed yesterday beckoned from the dresser. My father’s hairbrush glistened with a faint pulse of power. I picked it up and quietly chanted the spell.

  “Seiran,” my father’s voice called, deep, warm, and strong. I turned to see the ghostly image of him sitting on the edge of the bed. He appeared to stare right at me, smiling, eyes bright. “I hoped you’d find the spell. I hope that you have forgiven me.”

  Forgiven him for what? Dying? “I never wanted to leave you. I suspect if you’re viewing this, it’s because I’m dead. Please forgive me for not being there, and take care of your mother. She’s more fragile than she seems.”

  Tears flowed in the corners of my eyes and a lump formed in my throat.

  My father seemed to be fighting tears too. “I bet you’re strong and smart, handsome and good. Your momma wouldn’t let you be any other way. I hope the world isn’t so hard on you. Maybe there have been changes since I died. Perhaps the Dominion is more forgiving, or have even merged with the Ascendance to create an equal governing body.” He laughed lightly. “Yeah, that sounds like a crazy dream, right?”

  He sighed heavily and stared off into the distance. “I’ve left you the house. I know you will bond with it just as I did. Even when you were in your mother’s womb, I could feel your power and how the earth wanted to claim you.” He shook his head and threw me another soft smile. “Don’t be afraid.”

  Easy for him to say.

  “It’s never easy letting go of control. We as human beings are inherently bad at that. But the real truth lies within ourselves. Only when we truly let go of everything can we really experience all we are.” He waved his hand at me. “And no, I’m not going to my execution with the idea that I will obtain some higher being. My power is going to Jamie so he can be strong enough to protect himself and you. My death will set back the Ascendance, perhaps push them in the right direction. My spirit will return to the earth. Here, in fact.” He looked around the room. “The tree in particular, which is really just another kind of control. Apex of power and all that, or so my father claimed.”

  He looked skeptical. I wished he were
really here so I could ask him questions. “In truth, Seiran, the only one you need to believe in is yourself. Everyone else of worth will prove themselves. Trust your instincts. Love with your whole being. And find peace in the earth.” His image faded and I crumpled to my knees, overwhelmed with grief over losing a man I’d never met. My father had loved me. I took his advice and let go of all control, releasing all the tears.

  I had cleaned up and was pulling the breakfast casserole from the oven when someone knocked on the backdoor. Timothy. He looked refreshed, like he’d slept, eaten, and could finally be normal and happy again. I searched his face for any sign of drugs, but found none. Maybe being welcomed back on the property helped. Having a place to belong had always helped me.

  “Morning,” he said, plopping down on one of the breakfast bar stools. “Still going to the meeting today?” “Yes. I’m ready for it. Are you?” What would his father have left him? The Charles I’d been hearing about the past few days cared for no one but himself. My mother could have won Parent of the Year in comparison to him, which was saying a lot.

  “As ready as ever. I don’t suspect he’ll have left me anything.” I didn’t point out he wouldn’t have been asked to come if he hadn’t been left something. He stared at me for a little while. “What?” I finally asked, wondering if my eyes were still puffy. Gabe had held me for a while and kissed away the tears before I finally crawled out of his arms to face the rest of the day and let him sleep.

  “The hair. Wow.” Heat flooded my cheeks. “Not quite sure how that happened, but I like it long. Gabe likes it long.” I had spent some time trying to mimic the style I’d seen Red wear many times. To take the attention off of me, I motioned to the casserole. “Hungry?”

  His eyes widened as I scooped up a large chunk of French toast cinnamon egg casserole. The bottom was lined with thick slices of cinnamon-soaked toast, eggs, apple slices, and sausage crumbles. It smelled so wonderful I couldn’t wait to dig in. This recipe was actually Jamie’s, heavy on protein, but with a mix of fruit and starch to balance it out. No syrup needed, since I couldn’t stand the stuff.