Enemies Allied

by Serena Lindahl

"Get in here," she commanded tightly, still pacing. Lightning watched them, his expression indifferent.

  Eli crept inside and shut the door behind him. He leaned against the wall next to the door, his arms crossed over his chest.

  "Tell me what the fuck you did." It required effort for her not to focus on the exhaustion and ever-present pain twisting through his aura.

  He shrugged nonchalantly. "I did what I had to do."

  Her eyes flashed as she approached him. "What does that mean?"

  "You were going to die, wildcat," he rasped. "The locket you smashed was modifying your cells. It had special precautions to fight your kind of magic. Rock's brutish strength and the amount of magic you exerted only added to the effect. I couldn't let you die."

  Mac swallowed hard. "But it was bad for you." She stopped in front of him.

  He shrugged again. "All my magic is bad for me." His tone was more appropriate for discussing the weather than potential life-threatening magic. "Every spell I perform has a consequence. Saving you was necessary."

  "How can you know that?" she wailed. She was happy to be alive, but she didn't like feeling beholden to him. She didn't like what he'd done.

  He trailed a scarred finger down her jaw; her skin shivered in its wake. "You are our most powerful weapon against Mather - not any creation of our techies. You've encountered him firsthand now, albeit through a mediator. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He’s probably torturing others like you as we speak. He’s scared of you, and he should be. You and Eden together are the most important weapons against him in this battle."

  Mac's jaw tightened. She hated his words and didn't want to believe them. How could she be so important? She was nothing. Her eyes searched his hazel gaze. "How much did it hurt you?"

  "I will die a young man, wildcat. That has always been the case, and nothing will change that - not any spell or twist of any future path. It’s the fate of all blood mages." His voice echoed with resignation.

  Mac licked her lips, still standing close to him. She sensed his magic now, just a shiver of latent energy. There was something more... She could hear his heart beating, and it matched hers, beat for beat. The power thrumming through his veins pulsed with every beat of his heart. Magic in another being was usually contained in the air particles around or inside them. The magic and power within Eli concentrated thickly in his blood.

  "And the connection between us?"

  The prophet's eyes sparkled as he stepped closer. Mac forced her muscles to stay when they wanted to retreat. "No more than existed before."

  She wasn't sure she believed him. She'd been interested in him since her dreamwalk, but connection was taking it a little too far. Also, she'd never heard his heartbeat or sensed the power thrumming through his veins.

  He leaned closer to her, his eyes darkening. Mac's mind stuttered as her body froze. His gaze flashed to her lips. Was he going to kiss her? Did she want him to?

  His lips paused a hairsbreadth from hers. Warmth tingled through her body. “The next time you call me to your bedroom wearing nothing but a t-shirt and panties, I will kiss you," he warned.

  Mac snapped back from him in surprise, her cheeks flaring red as she looked down. She'd been so focused on the weird blood magic, she hadn't considered her clothing. Her t-shirt just barely grazed the tops of her thighs; her black lace panties peeked out underneath. Her mouth dried.

  Eli grinned in amusement as his gaze leisurely traveled the length of her lean legs. Her heart increased its pace. He winked and slid out the door, his power and intoxicating magic leaving with him.

  Mac groaned, part in utter mortification and part in exasperation and indecision. He irritated her and turned her on in equal measure even though she knew she shouldn't consider getting closer to him than she already was.

  Lightning watched her with feline amusement. "What are you looking at?" she grumbled. He yawned, his lips curling into something that might have been a smile. Mac sighed and slipped back under the blankets. For now, she would just enjoy being alive. No more thinking.

  Chapter Eleven

  Eden

  Eden woke from her afternoon nap with a gasp, her breath sawing through her chest. The images of her dream followed her into wakefulness. She sat for a moment in the center of her bed with her head in her hand, inky curls dripping over her face. She released an abrupt wail, the pain evident in her voice.

  He had his reasons. Gideon's soft tone entered her mind, and her gaze flew to the end of the bed where the owl perched on the footboard. His round eyes glowed in the dim light of the bedroom.

  Eden made a fist and slammed it down on the coverlet, disappointed with the soft give that did nothing to quell her anger. "Where is he?" she hissed, rising out of bed. She'd fallen into a nice nap after spending most of the morning training with Alena and taking a nice walk with Alec around the building. When she went to sleep, she'd had a smile on her face. Now, she felt betrayed.

  A knock at the door announced Alena's presence. She stomped over to the door and flung it open, mumbling an apology when Alena's jade green eyes widened with surprise.

  "Are you okay?" Alena asked, concern threading her voice.

  "Eli. I need to see Eli." Pain coated her words.

  "I'm here." The raspy voice announced the blood prophet as he glided toward them with his usual grace.

  Eden stared. Under the scars were the same high cheekbones and full lips that they shared. The shape of their eyes and the shade of their hair were similar. How could her brother have done this to her?

  "Why?" she cried, trying to keep the sob from her voice.

  Her brother sighed and looked down at the floor, his shoulders bowing under tremendous weight. "We should talk - about everything." His eyes were sorrowful.

  Eden nodded, trying to reel in her anger, which tied her magic into knots.

  "Eden, what's going on? Are you okay to be alone with him?"

  Eden's half arm tingled. More than anything, she wanted her new friends with her, but she hated asking. She felt weak, but she didn't want to face her dream demons alone.

  Eli cocked his head. "Are you and Alec busy?" Alena shook her head just as Alec emerged from his room. He might have been listening at the doorway the whole time. "Come along, then, all of you. We need to make sure my sister doesn't level the castle with her anger."

  Eden snorted indelicately. "As if my magic could do that," she grumbled. The look Eli sent her suggested she was underestimating her abilities. The trio followed Eli down the hall and the stairs toward the sitting room.

  I will join you, Gideon said. He'd been gone for days, but Eden was glad he'd shown up when she needed him most.

  The sitting room was empty when they entered, and for the first time, she noted that Alec’s and Alena's bodies vibrated with tension. She attempted to relax, but her muscles didn't obey. The dream hovered in the cobwebs of her mind, burned upon her eyelids.

  After Eli closed the door, the table in the middle of the room glowed briefly before showcasing beverages and food. Eden poured herself a cup of coffee. She didn't usually drink coffee in the afternoon, but she needed something hot and comforting at the moment, something to drive away the dreams. Eli grabbed a beer, savagely twisting the top off and immediately gulping half of it.

  Alena and Alec bracketed Eden's position on the couch, both of them resting their thighs against hers. She reveled in their touch and accepted comfort from their energy. Gideon appeared, resting on a perch that seemed to be made especially for him near one of the large windows.

  Eli paced back and forth across the red and gold rug, his eyes dark.

  "Explain yourself," Eden demanded.

  Her brother grinned crookedly, but it didn't meet his eyes. "Explain what, darling sister? There is so much I have done."

  Eden thrust her arm forward, just the stub. "Explain this, Eli," she cried, slamming her coffee cup down with such force that dark liquid spilled over the side. Her eyes spat fire. She didn’t anger ea
sily, but her temper was fierce when engaged. Alec's body became a corded mass of tension beside her.

  The blood prophet sighed, his shoulders hunching. "Let me start at the beginning, please." He paused to glare at the people on either side of her. "The secrets divulged in this room are for us alone. I include you because you need to be Eden's anchors in the storm and therefore need to know. But do not tell our secrets to anyone else."

  Eden considered objecting to his tone but decided against it. He possessed the right to request their silence, and she needed them there. Their presence was already soothing her anger and pain. Alec's soft gray tech relaxed her tense muscles and Alena's fierce, loyal magic wrapped her in a protective cocoon. They nodded in agreement. Their answer must have pleased Eli because he continued.

  "I am ten years older than you, Eden. We share the same mother and father. As you know, dear old Dad is Magitech. Mom was a mage, a dreamwalker as well. He picked her specifically." His voice rang with anger. "Although she was powerful, she couldn't control her visions or dreams, and dreamwalking was her only ability. She might have been strong once, but Mather tore her down into a scared, weak woman."

  Eden fought the desire to skip straight to the dream that tore her heart in two, but she also wanted to know more about her upbringing and the parents she never knew. She grasped Alec's hand, needing his soothing energy to calm her and give her patience. His thumb gently caressed the tender flesh of her palm in a rhythmic pattern that soothed both of them. Alena leaned closer, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders. Eden gritted her teeth. If it wasn't for her brother, she could hold both their hands.

  "Our father's main priority has been, and always will be, power. He never loved us; he never loved Mom. He impregnated other women hoping to breed Magitechs. He tried techs, mages, and the occasional Magitech he managed to find. He kept our mom close because of her dreamwalker abilities, but we have step-siblings somewhere. I imagine some are good people; some I would never care to meet. One or two are assisting him with his power trip." Eli paused to take another long pull on the beer. He continued to pace, his dark hair swishing like a curtain around his face. He put down the beer to take off his ever-present hoodie, and Eden withheld a gasp. His arms were a map of scars; hardly any bare skin remained. His lean form was tense beneath the thin t-shirt.

  "Mather wasn't happy that I wasn't born a Magitech. I was one of his first, and he'd hoped every one of his progeny would be Magitech. And then, he found out I was a blood mage." Eli took a deep, shuddering breath. Despite her earlier anger, Eden forced herself to think of her brother as a young boy. His pain echoed hers. "He used me for lots of things. With blood mages, anyone can cut them. It doesn't have to be the mage himself. The person that makes the cut owns the power to shape the magic."

  Eden gasped, her eyes wide with the implications in his words. Her hand tightened around Alec's.

  "He cut me over and over, forcing me to tell the future and perform other spells.” Eli paused, running a bare hand over all the scars on his face.

  "He especially liked to slice open my face. I don't think he cared whether I lived or not. Mom had two miscarriages between you and me which is why there's such a large age difference. Mather hated her inability to dreamwalk on demand and was considering just killing her when she got pregnant with you. Of course, he debated killing her anyway because of the previous miscarriages. First, though, he cut me and forced a prophecy on me about the child." He turned his face, one finger trailing down a particularly long scar that stretched from his right brow to the right corner of his mouth. "This one, Eden; this one is you." Eli's eyes met hers momentarily. Eden slumped, her righteous anger of a moment ago almost forgotten.

  "I told him you would be a powerful Magitech. What I didn't tell him was that you might have the potential to aid in his destruction. Until that point, Mom and I were kept in a small tower room. They rarely let us out, and we were only fed when the servants could sneak enough food to feed us. But during Mom's pregnancy, we were treated like royalty. We got a better room and better food. Mom said she wouldn't eat unless I was taken care of as well, so Mather indulged her.

  “You were a beautiful baby full of power and strength. The first year of your life passed much the same way; we were cared for because Mather wanted you breastfed. It's a known theory that mother's milk helps stabilize magic. But, I was planning revenge. I cut myself for the first time, seeking answers. I wanted to reach the destination I saw for you - the one where you bring him down. Mom feared she would die the moment you were weaned, and I knew it was true. Your birth would be her last. She couldn't bear any more children, and Mather had what he wanted.

  "Mom dreamwalked one night. She saw what we had to do, and we planned the escape. You were thirteen months old. What neither of us saw was the locket. The night before we planned to leave, Mather came in and placed the locket on you. He wanted your powers to grow only with his training. He spelled it so that you couldn't access your tech or magic unless he removed it, thinking only he would be able to remove it. Mom and I tried. I even used my blood - but nothing we did affected it. We decided to leave anyway."

  Eli stopped pacing and sunk into one of the armchairs. His head hung in his hands; his sleek dark hair made a waterfall. His voice sounded as if it came from far away. "Getting out of the fortress was nearly impossible. I used so many spells. When we finally escaped, I was weak with blood loss and delirious. Mom and I went to the place shown in her dreamwalk, but she was hurt by one of the wards while we were escaping. Luckily, the mage Mom had seen in her dreamwalk knew to expect us. She hid us." Eli's voice cracked.

  "We got away, but at what cost? Mom was dying and the spell on the locket was keyed to Mather's blood. He could track the locket, and he would come for us. The mage altered the spell on the necklace into one that would make you unapproachable and undetectable by Mather's blood. Unfortunately, that blood ran in me as well. I couldn't get near you after that; I couldn't hold you."

  Alec, Alena, and Eden remained as still as statues; barely anything moved in the quiet room. Eli's sad eyes looked up at Eden, and he took a heaving breath before continuing. "We needed to move on, but I could only follow at a distance. Mom died halfway through the journey, and her death almost killed me. I didn't want to go on when she was dead. I couldn't even get close to my baby sister - to you. But the mage slapped sense into me, literally. She told me it was my duty to keep you safe, even if I couldn't touch you. She found a mundane couple to take you in and performed another spell, one that would urge them to move on if you were in danger.

  “Your adoptive parents loved you like their own. I watched from a distance. Anytime Mather or his minions ventured close, we worked together to get you away. Unfortunately, it didn't always work. The adoptive couple each died, both at the hands of one of the minions, three years apart. Then you went to live with the man who would watch over you for the rest of your life. I performed a spell on him and his house to make you harder to detect. Years and practice honed my magic to the point where I could at least do that." He paused, opening another beer.

  "So the face I remember? The woman?" Eden described the woman she'd seen in her memories.

  "That was Clarissa, the mother who first adopted you. She loved you a lot."

  Eden nodded, her eyes brimming with tears for the mother she barely remembered and the mother she didn't remember - the one who had given her life to get her away from Mather. She could feel her friends' sadness, anger, and pain. Alec released her hand to drape an arm over her shoulders, interlocking with Alena's behind her head. She snuggled into them, her hand resting on Alena's warm leg. Eden inhaled deeply. "And then?"

  Eli started pacing anew. His eyes were dark with pain. "A prophecy revealed itself to me. Mather was coming. I needed a way to save you. The possible future I saw said that I might be able to break you of the locket for good. There was a chance it would break and your magic would be released..."

  Eden closed her eyes, the images of he
r dream blurred on her eyelids. The moment right before Jon had veered off the road; she'd seen her brother's form as a younger man. He'd been standing in the middle of the highway. "You were there," she whispered. "You were there; it was you that made Jon drive off the cliff. And then I saw you in the trees at the bottom of the ravine."

  Alena hissed next to her and Alec tensed again.

  Eli nodded slowly. "The locket didn't break. Your magic flared briefly when you pulled Jon from the car, but the locket remained intact. The burst of power did something, though - it threw Mather off the trail again."

  "And Eden lost her arm," Alena snapped.

  "I'm sorry, Eden," her brother pleaded sincerely. "I haven't made the best decisions. I wanted to keep you safe."

  His plea was so heartfelt that her anger faded. Losing her arm was better than being caught by the insane Magitech who claimed to be her father. Any man who could torture a child was not someone she ever wanted to meet. As for her brother, it would be a while before she trusted him again. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? And the apartment - that was you, right? Did you push me towards Alena?"

  Eli nodded. "Yes. Mather was closing in again. I figured the only chance to remove the locket was to get you in a safe place surrounded by mages. I hoped one of them would be strong enough to break it. Luckily, your spirit guide showed up and did the job." Eli tipped his head toward Gideon, and the owl's huge eyes blinked in response. "I didn't torch the apartment, though. One of Mather's minions did it after he discovered you weren't there anymore."

  "The sketchbook? My dreamcatcher?"

  Eli looked sheepish. "I have your sketchbook. You may not realize it, but there are dreamwalks in there. Images must have filtered past the locket into your sleep and actual dreams. The dreamcatcher is in my room. It belonged to Mom."

  "I figured," she replied quietly. Her anger had faded, leaving bone-dead exhaustion in its wake. Eli did what he thought was best. She hated the thought that losing her arm could have been avoided, but...her head snapped up. "Did you know I would lose my arm?"