by Kristie Cook
“Come after us and kill us!”
I shrugged. Maybe not if we give them an ultimatum. Return their hostages and we stop. Easy as that. Then we can focus on the business of building our army as they return to theirs.
Blossom stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. “But Alexis—”
Can you do it or not? That’s all I’m asking.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t ever considered it.”
So let’s try. There’s a huge nest in Fort Myers still. Can you do it from here, or do we need to do a quick flash-trip?
Her already big eyes widened. “Alexis, you’re talking dark magic! I . . . I can’t—”
You said you’d do anything, I reminded her.
“But that’s . . .” She shook her head again. “I’m Amadis. I don’t have that kind of dark power.”
I rose to my feet, leaned toward her, and looked her directly in the eye. “That’s exactly why you can’t go. We’re all Amadis, but there’s darkness in us, too. Enough to do what needs to be done. You haven’t gone there yet, and I won’t be the one to take you.”
I turned my back on her and headed for the door.
“Wait!”
Chapter 4
I paused but didn’t turn back to the witch. To my friend.
“I can’t stay here,” she said. “I can’t be here. Please let me go with you. Please let me choose. It’s all on me, okay? Not on you at all. Everything I do will be my choice, and I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?” I asked.
“Yes. I’ll try, anyway. I don’t know if I can, but I’ll give it my best. I just can’t stay here where everything went bad. I can’t go into the common room without seeing the blood. Standing in this suite where Sasha and Dorian were . . . even walking by the door . . . please, Alexis. I have to do something!”
I’d originally asked her as a simple test—a way to prove to her that she didn’t have the makeup of a soldier. But the idea was making more and more sense to me. I hated myself for seriously considering it now, but I would try anything to save my son, and we’d be saving human souls at the same time. It was all for the greater good. If Blossom was willing, it couldn’t be too bad. Right?
I turned back to her.
“So you’ll try it?”
She bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah, I will. I need to do a little research first, though. I’ve never studied dark magic before, but I’m sure there’s some kind of spell that will—”
The front door to the suite opened with a crash, and Tristan tore into the room. Not stopping, he grabbed me by the shoulders and pinned me to the wall.
“Blossom, leave,” he ordered, sparks in his eyes as he glared down at me. Blood rushed in my ears, so I didn’t hear her go, but she must have. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I glared back at him in shock. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you think I already thought of that solution?” he asked. Of course he had. He must have heard Blossom’s mention of dark magic and known my plan. “You can’t ask that of her, Alexis.”
“Why not? It’s the fastest way to get Dorian. With probably the fewest fatalities, especially human fatalities.”
“It’s dark magic, Alexis,” he barked. “Do you have any idea what that means?”
I blinked at him. No, not really, but I didn’t say so.
“Do you know what that would do to her?”
“No, but she does, and she made the choice.”
“Alexis!” he nearly yelled. He stopped and inhaled through flared nostrils, then blew the breath out. When he spoke again, his voice came low, barely controlled. “She is sworn to the Amadis way. Dark magic breaks that vow, putting her soul at risk. It could kill her. And if not, it could kill her soul. In most dark magic, that’s exactly what must be sacrificed. Her soul, and others’ as well.”
I gasped. My eyes stung, and I struggled to draw a normal breath into my tight lungs.
“I . . . I had no idea,” I whispered.
“Which is why you don’t go around asking people to do such things.” He released my shoulders and took a step back. “You and I will do anything for Dorian. I would sacrifice my life. My soul, too, if it would save his, even after everything I’ve been through. But we can’t ask that of anyone else. He’s our son. Not theirs. People, especially Blossom, will do what you want them to, Alexis. You’re their future leader. You have to be careful what you ask.”
I tried to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat, but it remained as tears threatened to spill. Future leader—good thing that’s a very far-off future. I obviously had no right to be leading anyone right now. As Mom had said—thank God for Tristan’s level head.
“I really didn’t know. She said she’d do anything . . . she didn’t say . . .” A breath shuddered out of me. “I know they’ll lay down their lives for me, for us. For the Amadis . . .”
“But we can’t ask anyone to risk their souls,” Tristan said, his voice softer now.
I sniffed, still blinking against the burn in my eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just . . . all I can think about is how to get Dorian. Everything else is secondary.”
“I know, my love.” He pulled me into his arms. “I know.”
As I rested my head against his chest, I sensed Blossom in the other room—she hadn’t left the suite entirely. I felt so bad for my behavior toward her that I wanted to crawl under the bed and hide in shame. Instead, I called out to her. “Blossom, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”
She stepped into the bedroom, and I reached my arm out for her. When she moved close enough, I pulled her into a one-armed hug.
“I really am sorry. I just—”
“You’re just a mom who’s worried about her son.”
I sniffled again and nodded. “Still. It was inexcusable.”
She gave me a squeeze and pulled back. “It’s not your fault. I said I’d do anything. It’s my choice.”
“I know, and I’m sure you will,” I said with a sigh as I pulled away from Tristan’s comforting arms. “But you have to tell me what exactly is at risk. I’m still pretty ignorant when it comes to all your magic stuff.”
“Well, there is something I can do that’s not risky at all. I can’t guarantee anything, especially if he’s really far away or if there’s a strong shield around him, which there might be, but maybe we’ll get lucky, so I can always try—”
“Blossom,” Tristan interrupted. She stopped her rambling and looked up at him. “What is it?”
“I can do a tracking spell,” she said.
My mouth dropped open, and my eyes dried as hope lifted my spirits. “Why didn’t you say so sooner?”
“You were . . . well . . .” She scrunched her lips, trying not to say what I’d so horribly done to her—the position I’d put her in. “Anyway, um, like I said, I can’t guarantee anything. I’ve already tried a few times with no luck, but I want to keep pushing myself further. And maybe between the two of us—with you searching for his mind at the same time—maybe we can find Dorian.”
Tristan and I exchanged a look of hope.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“Well . . . before we cleaned up the blood in here, I took a sample to see if any of it was his—” She paused, her eyes wide at my reaction as the blood rushed out of my head, then she hurried on. “No, no, it wasn’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but none of it belonged to him from what I could determine.”
I exhaled sharply. “Maybe Victor’s. Or even Lucas’s.” I wasn’t entirely convinced he hadn’t taken Dorian himself. “If so, I hope Sasha got him good.”
She nodded. “Yeah, probably, but anyway, it would have been helpful for the spell, but hopefully that means Dorian wasn’t hurt. I needed something of his, though, and the closer the better, but Sasha doesn’t work, which I don’t know if it’s because she’s a living being or what, so I tried one of his game controllers, but it’s still not enough.”
&
nbsp; Tristan held his hand up, again making her stop to take a breath. “What will help?”
“Maybe if I’m in his room? I didn’t want to leave on my own, with everything going on, but maybe sitting in his room, surrounded by all of his things . . .”
“Let’s go,” I said, preparing to flash.
“I don’t like you going alone,” Tristan said. “Not after what happened.”
“I’ve been keeping my mind open, but there aren’t any Daemoni signatures for miles.”
“You never know when they’ll pop in, though.”
“Then come with us and keep watch.” I didn’t understand the problem. “Have you talked to Sheree and Vanessa?”
“I was sort of interrupted,” he said with a pointed look.
Guilt tightened my shoulder muscles. “Fine. I’ll call them.”
A minute later, Sheree and Vanessa entered the suite, and through mind-talk, I told them about our plan. All of it. They both volunteered immediately. Problem solved.
“Charlotte’s working on securing the safe house and the colony,” I told them. “As soon as it’s ready, we’re leaving. So be prepared.”
They nodded and took off to help.
“Now we can go.” I flashed to our home, more determined than ever to try anything that would lead us to my son.
Going into his bedroom proved to be a lot harder than I expected, though. As soon as I crossed the threshold, my lungs seized up. Tears filled my eyes as they took in the mess—his typical mess showing that he’d been here recently, having fun, being himself. His natural scent of oranges and grass, mixed with a hint of Sasha’s baby-powder fragrance, lingered on the air. I strode over to his bed, sat down at the head of it, and pulled his pillow to my chest. I buried my face in it and inhaled. We’re coming, baby. Mom and Dad are coming for you.
A weight settled on the bed with me, and I opened my eyes to find Blossom crossing her legs and fisting her hands into Dorian’s blankets.
“His presence is so strong here,” she said. “Open your mind with me, and let’s search.”
She closed her eyes and began chanting something under her breath. I closed my eyes, too, and opened my mind to her as well as to the area around us, scanning the mind signatures. I broadened the area in my mind, going east to the mainland, as I’d already done before, and still no Dorian signature. Blossom’s chant became more urgent, and I pushed harder, reaching out as far as I could go.
Something suddenly nudged my mind north. Pushed it farther than I’d been able to go on my own. I continued scanning the tens of thousands of mind signatures, looking for the only one that mattered right now, until my head felt as though it were imploding. Another nudge north, but my mind couldn’t follow. Ignoring the pressure, I tried with all of my ability anyway, pushing, pushing, pushing—
But I was jerked out of it.
Panting, I opened my eyes to find Blossom staring at me with a frown.
“North,” I mumbled. I tried to stand up, to get moving, but my head pounded a strong protest, keeping me seated. “We need to go north, right?”
Blossom nodded, but her frown remained. “Are you going to answer that?”
Her eyes glanced at my hip. I didn’t realize my phone had been buzzing in my pocket. The annoying sound stopped before I could answer it, but my screen showed Mom had called. Apparently a couple of times. Blossom and I must have been too out of it to notice.
“We might have been able to go farther, if you want to try again,” Blossom said.
I lay back on Dorian’s pillow and rubbed my temple. “I don’t think I can. I guess I’m the one not strong enough.”
“Rest a moment and maybe—”
My phone rang again. Mom wasn’t letting up. But I wasn’t in a good state of mind to talk to her, so my fingers fumbled until they found the ignore button.
“I’ve never been able to go so far before,” I said. “Not even close. I can work on it, but I don’t want to sit here forever trying. At least we have a direction to head.”
I sat up when Tristan entered the room with an obvious purpose to his stride, but when he looked around, he stopped in his tracks. His chest rose as he drew in a deep breath. He picked up a picture of the three of us on Dorian’s dresser, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he worked to swallow. He put it down and looked at me, and his hazel eyes focused, as though he finally remembered why he came in.
“North’s going to be a problem,” he said, his voice thick. He cleared his throat. “Charlotte won’t buy into it.”
“Why not? We’re about as far south as we can be, so going north means more souls to help.” I thought it made perfect sense.
“Not when there are three Daemoni clusters in our backyard. Fort Myers Beach, South Beach, and Key West are all minor now, but they can easily become one large Major Cluster. She’ll want to go there first.”
Blossom’s shoulders sank. “He’s right.”
“Well, then we need to think of something to make her want to go north,” I said. “And we need to leave soon.”
“Alexis,” Tristan said, “that’s a lot of souls to abandon down there.”
“We have to find our son,” I insisted.
“I know, ma lykita, but—”
“We can still look for him.” Blossom reached over and put her hand over mine. “If we’re converting close to home, we can come back here and keep trying. It might be better than hitting the road for a physical search when we’re not sure exactly how far north we need to go.”
“It’ll take forever to get through those clusters, though.” I pressed my palm against my forehead and thought for a moment. “Maybe we don’t take Char. She can go south with a team, and we’ll take our own team north.”
“We need her. She’s the only warlock we have,” Tristan reminded me.
I pushed to my feet with a sudden need to punch something. My phone buzzed again, and I whipped it out of my pocket.
“What?” I barked.
“Alexis?” came a girl’s voice, sounding small and scared.
My breath caught in my lungs.
“Heather?” I practically shrieked into the phone. Both Tristan’s and Blossom’s heads snapped toward me. “Oh, my God, are you okay? Where are you? Is Dorian with you? Tell me where you are, and we’ll come get you. You’re okay, right?”
“I’m . . . uh, yeah, I’m fine.” Her voice sounded a little better than I’d thought at first. I let out a breath of relief.
“And Dorian? Please say he’s with you. Please say he’s fine, too. Please tell me you two got away.” The pitch of my voice raised a couple of octaves as I spoke.
“I’m . . . I’m with friends. I’m fine. I had to check in with my mom, let her know I was okay, and she said you guys were probably worried about me because she’d called Blossom—”
“Is Dorian with you?” I practically screamed, unable to listen to her nervous babbling a moment longer.
“No,” she whispered. “He never was. Is he . . . he’s gone?”
I closed my eyes and swallowed, my throat tight.
“Oh, my God. I should have known something was wrong,” she continued, though her words were distant in my mind as I tried to recover myself. How had I let my hopes soar so high so quickly? “Sonya warned me to get far away. She called me the other night and said to run as far and as fast as I could. To hide. So I . . . I came to some friends up at FSU in Tallahassee. I thought Dorian was at the safe house. I thought he’d be okay.”
“He was,” I managed to say through clenched teeth. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her exactly what Sonya had done. Heather had tried so hard to make sure her sister never hurt anyone again, and how did Sonya repay her? Us? She turned on all of us and massacred my mages. Allowed my son to be taken. “Something happened, though. We’re still figuring it out, but I need you to stay away from Sonya, okay? Hopefully, she’ll stay away from you, too, but . . . I don’t know. I just need to know that you’re safe, and it’s not safe with her. You’re with y
our friends now?”
“Um, yeah. I’m going to hang out here for a while, probably all of my spring break.” She paused for a long moment. “We’re watching movies. You know, the ones with the hot werewolf and the vampire that looks like a drug addict.”
“Good,” I breathed. But relief only lasted a moment as realization set in.
“I’m so sorry, Alexis,” she said, her voice small again and full of sorrow.
“Stay safe, okay?” We’ll be there soon, I didn’t tell her.
“Please don’t worry about me. Just . . . find Dorian.”
Yeah, right. I felt nothing but worry about her as I pressed END on my phone’s screen.
“Sonya has her,” I told Tristan and Blossom. Heather’s sister had used the exact same words to describe a movie once. She’d been giving me a message.
“We need to go!” Blossom shrieked, jumping to her feet.
Tristan and I agreed without hesitation, and I called Charlotte to let her know where we’d be going. I wouldn’t call Mom, though. I didn’t have time to argue with her.
“I don’t like it,” Char said.
“She’s a baby vamp, and it’s daytime. Tristan and I can handle it.”
A pop outside had me peeking through the curtains to see Vanessa. She blurred into the house. “I’m going.”
I cocked my head.
“She’s a vampire,” Vanessa explained. “I can help. And it’s better than hanging out here where no one wants anything to do with me.”
“Vanessa’s going, too,” I told Charlotte.
“And me,” Blossom said. “That’s my girl we’re saving.”
Of course she’d want to go.
“Sheree wants to go,” Char said through the phone.
“I was close to Sonya,” Sheree said from the other end of the line, though her voice came from farther away than Char’s. She knew I’d hear her, though. “Maybe I can talk her down.”
With the image I had in my head of what I wanted to do to Sonya, I didn’t think it would be good for Sheree to be there.