He looked at my tears and I could see a longing in his eyes. I could see he wanted to comfort me, but he kept the space between us. I felt a part of me twinge as I realized I wanted him to comfort me too.
“Alex,” he said, finally breaking my gaze and looking down, “I’m the same person. I’m still human. I just have had a lot of time being one. You don’t hate Nic, do you?”
I shook my head, unsure of what Nic had to do with this.
“Nic has mastered alchemy. He can do extraordinary things. You could say he has powers of his own, but he is still human.”
“I don’t care about him like I care about you!” I shouted, surprised at my sudden outburst.
Connor seemed shocked too. He smiled softly, and in one swift move was at my side, taking one finger to lift my chin to look up at him. I didn’t make eye contact, realizing the ramifications of what I had said.
“Alex, please look at me,” he whispered. I really didn’t want to, but I couldn’t resist.
“Is this some magical trick?” I hissed. “Am I under your spell?”
His brow furrowed at my words. His response was serene, one hand gently brushing away the last of my tears as he spoke. “Alex, you are under no spell, and I promise to you right now that I will never use magic on you in any way.”
There was something in his voice that calmed me, and I felt myself nod at what he said, though I hadn’t meant to. He smiled, taking my face in both his hands. “You look absolutely radiant, you know.”
My face burned under his hands as I flushed. “I just had a shower. I haven’t even brushed my hair.”
“You’re glowing,” he said, and before I could respond his lips found mine, crushing them with an intense passion. He did not let go of my face, and I could feel the intensity behind his grasp. For a brief instant I could feel the fear he had felt all day, the fear that he had lost me, and as I felt it I knew I couldn’t lose him too. I reached up to his face, pulling it harder into mine as I kissed him back. I couldn’t let him go, and I knew he felt the same. Our hands stayed there for a few minutes, pressing into each other furiously. I opened my eyes, wanting to see his expression; as I did, I saw him open his eyes too, and I was once again lost in the deep pools. I felt my body waiver, no longer having the strength to support my weight. Without breaking his hold on my lips he held my waist, keeping me from falling. Once his hands found my waist, they did not stay there. His fingers gently found the edge of my shirt, carefully navigating beneath it. He never stopped kissing me, and I shivered as I felt him trace his soft fingertips up my spine. The shiver seemed to cause a reaction in him, because he lifted me up from under my shirt, tossing me onto the bed with amusement.
The kiss was broken, and in the brief second I lay on the bed I longed for his lips to return. I reached out, my hands clutching his shirt as I pulled him on top of me, and briefly caught him raise one eyebrow at me, smiling before I had his lips on mine again.
Chapter Twenty-One
When I woke in the morning, Connor was gone. For a panicked minute, I went through all irrational scenarios of where he could be, until I smelled a very distinct bacon smell. Seconds later, the door opened and Connor came in with a tray of breakfast. He was shirtless, and I felt a small flutter in my stomach as my eyes roved over his body. Then I remembered my own self, and reflexively pulled the sheet up to my neck, unable to stop my face from turning red.
“You’re adorable,” he said, clearly having already taken in the show. “It’s not like I haven’t see that already,” he added. I made a face at him, unable to explain my self-consciousness. He ignored it, placing the tray on my lap and leaning forward to kiss my forehead. “I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he said, and I detected a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
I looked down at the tray and gasped. “Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes, a bagel and a muffin?”
“And orange juice. Oh, and I can make coffee if you like.”
I laughed, “Orange juice is fine.” Looking again at the tray, I added, “I’m sorry, but I can’t eat all this.”
“I didn’t expect you to! I’ll eat whatever you don’t want.”
I reached for the bagel. “You’ve got a lot of work then,” I smirked, motioning to the rest of the plate. I felt a bit bad not eating more, but I’ve never really liked eating a big breakfast.
“I’ll manage,” he said as he bit into a piece of toast.
We ate in silence, though the communication never stopped. It hadn’t taken me long to eat my bagel, and when I popped the last piece into my mouth he took my hand in his, never looking up from the massive tray of food. He made little circles with his thumb into my palm, changing direction every now and then.
Occasionally, our eyes would meet, and I would feel myself lean back into the headboard as I got lost in his eyes. I think he found this amusing, because after the second time this happened, he looked up more frequently, as if trying to see if it would happen each time. It did, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
When he finished eating, leaving the muffin behind, he leaned forward again. I closed my eyes, waiting for his lips to find mine, but they did not. Instead I felt his forehead against mine, pausing for a moment before he spoke.
“I have to go to work,” he said, defeated, and it brought back all the stress of the situation we were in.
“Don’t go,” I whispered, “I’ll call your boss and tell him you’re sick.”
He laughed. “I have to go train. There’s no time.”
“Stay,” I tried, knowing that I wasn’t going to win this one.
He looked up, kissing my forehead, before getting up. He grabbed a t-shirt from his suitcase, tugging it over his head. It was just a hint too small, and I loved it.
He saw my look and smiled. “Don’t do that! You’re making it harder to leave!”
“Well you could always stay,” I said, letting the sheet fall from my hands. I felt devious, and I liked it.
He shielded his eyes, laughing. “And you were worried about my power! I should be worried about yours! I could get trapped in here if I’m not careful!”
“Nothing wrong with that,” I winked.
Something rang then, interrupting our charade. Connor searched for the source frantically, and I pointed at his pants from yesterday, lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. It was his turn to blush as he dug the phone out from his pocket.
“I’m on my way!” he said into the phone, not bothering to greet whoever was on the other line. This seemed to satisfy the caller as Connor snapped the phone shut. He looked longingly back at me as he headed to the door. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said wistfully.
I flopped back down into the pillows and I couldn’t help but smile. It felt like I had found a piece of my life I hadn’t realized I was missing. Despite my whole view of the world being completely rewritten, there was this one thing that made sense. I just wish he hadn’t had to go to work. What had he said? To train?
My smile faded as I realized what that meant. There was still going to be a fight. Connor was going to be leading that fight. My heart raced with anxiety. I leaped out of bed, showering in record time. As I hastily got dressed my mind raced with every possible thing I could say to him to make him stay behind. I flew out of the room, mashing the down button on the elevator multiple times, as if by pressing it more than once it would make it come faster. Finally the doors opened, and I bounced anxiously in stocking feet while the elevator took me down to the next floor.
When the doors opened I found myself wondering if I had gone to the right place. I checked the little LED screen. Nope, this was the right floor. It was empty though. I tiptoed around cautiously, looking for any sign of movement, but no one was to be found. I looped around the floor, feeling an eerie silence at the lack of anything, and then finally spotted a lone pixie flitting around about 10 feet away from me.
“Hey!” I called, not sure how to address a pixie. It stopped, hovering in midair for a second before tak
ing off again. “Hey!” I called again, “Where is everybody?”
It darted back to me stopping less than an inch from my face. “Such a sweet girl you be. If you go down there you’ll be unwelcome. Stay up here, with me!”
The pixies voice sounded unfriendly, despite the invitation to stay with him. “Um, no thanks. I need to find someone. Go down where?”
He huffed at my rejection, then, pointing down, said, “Basement,” and flew off. It was going to take me a while before I got used to dealing with all these creatures.
I went back into the elevator, pushing the “B” button. I hadn’t seen the basement on my initial tour of the building, and come to think of it, I didn’t even realize there was one. From the way the buttons were laid out, it seemed as though the basement was below the three levels of parking. I watched anxiously as the numbers blinked down. It seemed to take a long time for P3 to finally change to a B. How deep underground was I?
The doors opened to a long concrete hallway. It was very cold down here, and I regretted not putting on shoes. At the time, I had been in too much of a hurry to fidget with my shoelaces, now my feet cursed me as the cold stone shivered through my socks.
At the end of the hallway was a large metal door. It looked like a fire door, except that the push bar must have been on the other side. There was a small, rectangular window above the door handle, and I could see bright flashes through it as I approached. Reluctantly, I tested the handle. It opened easily, and I stepped into the massive room.
There was so much activity in this room that it was no surprise that no one saw me enter. I let the door click shut softly behind me as I surveyed the scene. There was one thick force line bisecting the room, and I could see it waver as its power was tapped from the people in the room. There were a lot of people, most of them off to the sides of the room, observing, but they weren’t what had caught my eye.
Directly in front of me a large cheetah slinked around a tall robed figured. His hands wringed together for a moment, and then a large ball of fire shot out of one palm at the cat. The cat dodged it easily, and began circling him again. The fireball seemed to hit an unseen wall behind the cat, and blinked out of existence. To my left, similar confrontations were taking place. A group of three women were moving in synchronized motions, as two dwarf-like men ran at them with axes. About two feet before they reached the women, both dwarves fell to the ground, twitching for a few seconds before one woman reached down to help them both up.
“Jolly good show!” one dwarf said, seemingly pleased at his defeat. The woman nodded, and they both turned, walking back to reset.
Beside them was a physical battle. Three tall women, reminding me of Amazons, were clashing swords against each other. The smaller of the three women fought two handed, easily parrying the blows from the other two. She looked invigorated at the challenge.
Above them, several faeries, including one faerie that I recognized from yesterday, were darting around, shooting sparks at another winged beast, which I couldn’t quite make out. The faeries looked tiny next to it. It appeared to be large bird, but I could see it had a woman’s head. A harpy, perhaps? It shrieked loudly, piercing my ears, and I assumed I was right. The faeries faltered at the shriek, and as the harpy dove down to finish the fight, a flash of movement caught my eye. Morgan was standing on a platform, level with the battle. She made several gestures with her hand, speaking quickly, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying over the noise that echoed through the arena. The harpy reeled back to her, leaving the faeries. She held something for it in her hand, which it took, and then patted it on the head. It soared high up into the rafters, where I could make out at least 6 other harpies waiting anxiously for their turn.
A loud growl brought my eyes back down to eye level. The cat had pinned the robed figure and now had its mouth open, hovering over his throat, snarling. I opened my mouth to scream in shock, but before I could make a noise, the cat backed down. A tremble rippled through its fur and in less than a second, Hester was standing over him, her hands on his hips.
“You’ve got to work harder than that, old man!” she challenged, as he rose to his feet.
The figure removed his hood, and then held out his hand to shake hers. I recognized Connor immediately.
“Connor,” I shouted, not sure if he would hear me over the fighting. He turned, his eyes widening when he saw me. He looked back at Hester, who nodded, and glided quickly over to me.
“Alexis,” he snapped, “you shouldn’t be here.”
His tone stung. “I need to talk to you. Now.” I met his gaze, feeling ferocity in my own eyes. His eyes were dark, almost black, and I felt a slight pang of fear as I forced myself to keep his gaze.
He grabbed my arm roughly, turning me around and leading me out into the hallway. “What?” he hissed.
“What’s your problem?” I said, ripping my arm from his grasp. This was not how this conversation was supposed to begin.
“My problem? You! You think you can just wander in here? Do you realize how dangerous it is in there? One wrong step and you’d be directly in the path of a fireball!”
“That’s why I’m here,” I said quietly, looking down as I spoke. I blinked hard, trying to get the thought of Hester’s snarling jaw hovering over his neck out of my mind. “I don’t want you to fight tomorrow.”
He was silent, and I did not look up to see his expression.
Finally he spoke, his voice quiet and calm. “You can’t ask me to do that.”
I looked up at him, feeling pricks behind my eyes. “Why not? Just now, even Hester took you down. Don’t you think it’ll be even harder tomorrow?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said, trying to reassure me, but his body language told me he didn’t believe his words.
“You’re not invincible!” I shouted, angry at his lack of common sense.
“Alex, please. I have to fight.” He motioned towards the door. “We all do. There’s too much at stake if we let them win.”
“I’ll fight too, then,” I said, feeling more conviction in my voice than I felt in my head.
His reply was quick, and snappish. “Like hell.”
“I want to fight. I’m the reason this is all happening. Show me what to do.”
“Alex, I don’t ever want to see you in that arena again. Besides, what do you possibly think you could add to the battle? You’d just be another target. I won’t put you in danger like that.” He looked at my defiant face, and seemed unsatisfied. “Alex, tell me you won’t come down here again.”
I said nothing.
“Ugh! You stupid little girl! Don’t you understand how hard this is for me? I can’t keep an eye on you in there! There’s too much experimental magic going on!”
I wasn’t listening anymore. I felt furious. I was going to fight, even if it meant using my fists. I turned on my heel, not responding to his words and headed back to the elevator. He did not try to stop me. I was grateful when it opened right away, and I pushed 14, determined to speak to Nic. I caught him looking at me as the door closed, but I couldn’t read his expression. The doors shut, and I sucked in a deep breath, forcing the tears back. I had cried so much recently I couldn’t believe there were still some tears left.
I stormed out of the elevator in my stocking feet and made a beeline for Nic’s office. Peri was at her desk, staring at me in shock. Clearly I was not expected.
“I need to see Nic,” I said in a low voice.
She waved a hand to the door, indicating I should go in, never losing the look of shock from her face.
Nic was on the phone when I arrived. He was speaking quickly, possibly in Greek, maybe Italian? I couldn’t be sure. He nodded at me to sit, but I couldn’t. I was antsy. I paced back and forth in his office, painfully aware of my rudeness but unable to sit still. It was another minute before Nic hung up the phone.
“Alex? Is everything alright?”
“No.” My voice was determined. “I want to fight tomorrow.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You-”
“Please,” I said through gritted teeth, “don’t say I can’t. I can fight. Give me a weapon. Give me something. I’m strong enough. I can’t sit here while people I know are getting hurt.”
“Alex, I wasn’t going to say you can’t. I was going to say that you won’t be able to.”
“Why?”
“Have I not explained this to you? Tomorrow, you will absorb a ton of energy, more that you ever have before. You will be in no condition to fight. You will have to release that energy somehow, and hopefully I will have gotten out of the way before you do to me what you did to the car. Then, even if you do safely ground yourself out, you will probably be too weak to move.”
“So I just sit here with you until the battle is over?”
“Actually, once I get the stone, I will have to run. Once outside of the dragon, its power signature will draw our enemies here. I won’t have much time.”
“So is that why Morgan saw Botanical Beach? Because you’re taking the stone there to draw the fight out of town?”
“See, that’s what I can’t understand. Knowing where the fight is only ensures me that I would never willingly take the stone there. I just made arrangements with Paul’s half-brother. Apollo is coming to take me and the stone away. It’s the fastest way to get out of here, and I don’t think we will be able to be tracked. We hope to find another way to hide the stone before anyone knows any differently.”
“So, what about me?”
“You will be protected. You’re still a target too don’t forget, but luckily the wards around the building are preventing anyone from knowing you’re here. Once the stone is safe, and Casper taken care of, things should return to normal.”
I tried not to focus on the word “should” and instead told myself he said “will”. I stood there for a minute, unsure of what to say next.
“You don’t have to do this,” he reminded me.
“I do. Thanks for the talk. I feel better now,” I lied. I turned without another word and went back to the elevator. Peri said nothing, but I knew from her look she had heard the whole conversation. I didn’t know where to go. There was too much to process. I found myself returning to the vacant lobby. I stared out the glass doors, pretending I could smell the fresh air. I missed it. It was sunny outside, and the sun was at just the right angle that part of the lobby was draped in a sunbeam. I stood in it, looking upward, trying to catch as much of the light as I could. I longed for the outdoors. It was funny to me to watch the people walking by. No one even cast a glance at Mobius. It was like the building wasn’t even there. A few people took note of the bronze sculpture out front, but that was as close as they came to the building. The doors never opened when someone walked across the invisible sensor, though anyone who stepped on it didn’t even notice there were doors there at all.
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