I waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “The cards indicated a pending upheaval,” I said, thinking about the verbena card specifically.
“Change is always upon us.” Then without another word or any further clarification, Christopher started tidying the mugs and plates onto the tray.
Aiden opened the envelope, reading the note within. He glanced at me. “A dinner invitation.”
“He mentioned as much.”
“Not here,” the sorcerer said firmly, his gaze settling on Christopher’s bowed head as the clairvoyant reached for my mug.
“No,” I said.
“The diner? And you’ll come with me? So I don’t just murder Isa on the spot?”
I was surprised he thought I would stay his hand — then oddly pleased that he believed so. “Yes. Seven tonight?”
“They’ll be open? With the snow?”
“I’ll call. I’ll let you know if they’re not.”
Christopher straightened with the tray in hand. He crossed back to the kitchen without another word. Paisley followed on his heels, leaving the bone on the floor by the chair the clairvoyant had vacated.
Aiden’s gaze settled on the bone. “I’m triggering him.”
“It’s the nature of his magic.”
“That wasn’t his magic.”
“How do you know?”
Aiden glanced at me, his brow creasing questioningly.
“We aren’t like other clairvoyants and amplifiers,” I said.
“No. You aren’t.”
“Christopher would rather have you here, than not.”
Aiden’s gaze grew more pointed, as if he was homing in on prey. Specifically, me. “And you, Emma?”
I didn’t answer. Didn’t know how to articulate what I was feeling by just having him in the same room. Settled. Even hopeful. Apparently, even his brother and former lover on my doorstep weren’t enough to rattle me. But then, I’d been informed, time after time, that I didn’t process emotions the way everyone else did.
“I wasn’t in San Francisco long enough to adjust to the time change,” Aiden said, filling in the space I’d left open by not answering his question.
It took me a moment to navigate the change of subject. “Oh?”
“I should nap. Before I face my brother. And Ruwa.” Aiden spoke the female sorcerer’s name as if voicing it was a burden. But what kind of burden, I didn’t know.
“Plus, you’ll want to refuel the bat,” I said, trying to tease him. It came out flat.
Aiden flashed a grin as he stood. “Of course. I was planning on asking for your and Christopher’s help to fortify the perimeter spell. It will need to be tied to you both, if you wish to expand it.”
“And you,” I murmured, meeting his gaze as he stepped closer to stand over me. “Though I suppose it already is.”
He nodded curtly. “That can be altered, when you no longer wish to grant me entry.”
I couldn’t read him. And perhaps for the first time in my life, that bothered me — especially because it exposed a weakness in my own capabilities. I had magic with which to navigate the situation. An empathic ability triggered by skin-to-skin contact. It was cowardly not to use it. So, quelling my own concerns about my continual overreaction to the sorcerer, I lifted my hand, palm up, inviting him to touch me.
A smile flitted over his face, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. Then he brushed his fingers along mine — fingertips running to my palm, then to the heel of my hand. Barely touching me. The caress ignited a multitude of nerve endings, the sensation radiating across my wrist.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“For your brother?”
“Yes. And … for …” He sighed heavily. “Not completing my task in a timely manner.”
“Conquering your addiction, you mean?”
He laughed. His relief, paired with an exhaustion I hadn’t picked up on visually, trickled through the empathic connection made through our light physical contact. “I seem to have that under control, but it hasn’t been truly tested. I’ve been seeking a more permanent solution.” He tilted his head, stretching his neck to one side, then the other. Considering his words, perhaps. “I’ve never missed having access to my father’s library so acutely as I have the last few months. Libraries, I should say.”
“Truth,” I said, teasingly. Aiden had assumed my empathy was some sort of truth-telling ability when we’d first met. And it was that, except it came with an emotional connection. A side effect I’d never been entirely comfortable with. Not as Amp5, when I’d been forced to feel, to acknowledge the terror and pain I inflicted each time I drained an Adept of their magic. And not as Emma Johnson, who had foregone forming attachments other than those I’d taken with me. Attachments stolen from the Collective. Christopher and Paisley.
Aiden laughed quietly. “I must confess to being just a little glad that Isa showed up on your doorstep.”
“So you can finish what you started?”
“No.” He settled his hand fully on mine, fingertips at my wrist, warming my pulse points. “It gave me a reason to return. Without a solution, without an invitation.”
“I thought the invitation was implied.”
“When do you ever imply anything, Emma?”
I felt pinned to the couch, to the moment, by his sharp gaze. But oddly, I was comfortable within the feeling. I felt no need to struggle, to pull away, or to lash out. “I’m not entirely myself with you, Aiden.”
He frowned. Confusion, then some sort of disconcertion, filtered through our empathic connection.
I wasn’t sure what I’d said that was upsetting, but I tried again. “I mean … I don’t mean … I’m glad you’re here as well.”
Aiden smiled.
Then I ruined what might have been some sort of build-up to an intimate moment. “But I hope I don’t have to kill your brother.”
“Because that’s not who you want to be.”
“True. But also, I think it might upset you. And I would never intentionally hurt you.”
He hummed deep in his throat. Noncommittally, I thought. But I wasn’t entirely sure how to read what I was picking up from him, even through my empathy.
“I understand your priorities, Emma. Christopher. Paisley. Then the other three of the Five, I believe. If my brother … if I … put any of those in harm’s way …” Aiden shrugged. “I would expect you to deal death to the offender expediently.”
I blinked up at him. “This is an odd conversation, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “I apologize. I’m tired, and my brother puts me on edge. I haven’t slept since before I got your note.”
“Aiden … I had to destroy the rune on my bureau.”
His surprise filtered through our connection, followed by a grim understanding. “Of course. You thought Isa might use it against you.”
“Is it possible? I’ve had odd dreams. One odd dream. A recollection, really, of a contract job that went badly a couple of years ago.”
That piqued the sorcerer’s interest, but if I hadn’t been touching him, I wouldn’t have picked up the shift. “It’s possible. Of course, Isa would have had to know the rune was there. And he would have had to develop a new talent. Neither telepathy nor dream walking is an Azar trait. Or a sorcerer trait in general.”
Dream walking. I’d never heard the term. Bee could invade and manipulate dreams, of course. But she, as with all the Five, wasn’t a typical telepath. “I’d assumed it was a spell.”
“Did you feel magic?”
“I don’t know. The dream was so vivid, the magic I felt within it might have been part of the recollection.”
He hummed thoughtfully again. “I can look into it.”
“Is Isa sensitive enough to your magic to have picked up the presence of the rune? If he was in the house? In the kitchen, which is under my bedroom?”
Aiden exhaled in a hiss. “Possibly.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I blunder around
you like a teenager just coming into his magic.”
“There was no possible way for you to know that Isa would show up here.”
“Perhaps. But I knew of your connection to my father, didn’t I? And he would have felt that rune the moment he stepped onto the property. And in his hands …” He trailed off, shaking his head.
“You were going to nap.”
“I was.”
“Go, then. I’ll see you for dinner.”
Aiden nodded curtly, leaning down to brush a light kiss to the palm of my hand. His emotions were a confused tangle of self-incrimination and concern. He stepped away.
“I’ve missed you,” I whispered.
He paused, looking back at me. A warm smile chased away the tension etched across his face. “Every minute of every day. Crazy, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
His grin widened, displaying a flash of white teeth against his darker skin. My stomach flipped, fluttering. But Aiden turned and crossed back through to the kitchen without prolonging the conversation.
I tracked the hum of his magic as it thinned, fading as he exited the house. Then I ate a cookie. Christopher had stolen away the rest of the tea. I would give the clairvoyant time to sort himself out, so it didn’t seem as though I was checking up on him. Then I would call the Home Cafe about dinner.
Chapter 4
Enough snow had fallen that the tire tracks on the driveway and the footsteps marking Aiden’s passage between the barn and the house were almost completely obscured. But a phone call to the Home Cafe confirmed that the main streets were still being regularly plowed, and that Melissa and Brian were planning on staying open for as long as they could.
Leaving it to Aiden to contact his brother and Ruwa with a time and location for our dinner, I retreated into my bedroom and tried to find something to wear. The combination of a snowstorm and a dinner with Adepts I might have to drain and leave for dead created a quandary. Jeans, hiking boots, and my Gore-Tex jacket were appropriate for the snow. Some sort of dress, leaving my arms mostly bare, would be best for the other.
I actually considered borrowing Christopher’s phone to call Hannah Stewart, to see if she had anything new at the thrift shop — then remembered I had no idea what her number was, which I’d likely have to get from Jenni Raymond. That put the situation into perspective.
It didn’t matter what I wore.
I opted for a dark-navy dress with a large flower print, topped by a pink raincoat. I left my hair partly down. I knew I’d made the right decision for the look when I spotted Aiden wearing his suit. Though I didn’t doubt the suit was layered with sorcerer spells to repel dirt and whatnot.
Paisley grumbled, following me down the stairs, then pacing around me as I carried two sets of shoes to the front door. Boots to come and go from the house, and black flats for inside the diner. Movement through the glass of the door drew my attention outside. Aiden was in the process of pulling the SUV up against the front stairs. He’d already brushed off the snow that had accumulated on the vehicle.
Paisley sat in front of the door, glaring at me balefully.
I ignored her, feeling magic shift over the blood tattoo on my spine as Christopher stepped into the hall from the front sitting room. He was absentmindedly shuffling his oracle card deck, but his gaze was clear.
Paisley let out an undulating wail, designed to raise all the hair on the back of my neck. Also, to communicate her utter despair at being forced to stay behind.
“Your protest is noted,” I said mildly. “Had it anything to do with a concern for me or an instinctual sense of pending violence —”
Paisley opened her mouth to interrupt me.
I gave her a look.
She snapped her mouth closed, looking away as if I were beneath her notice. She didn’t, however, move from blocking the door.
Christopher stifled a laugh.
I gave him the same quelling look, then turned back to address the demon dog. “Christopher isn’t coming either.”
“I’d yowl my disappointment as well,” the clairvoyant muttered wryly. “Except I want to keep an eye on the incubator in case the power goes out. Plus, Isa Azar is a bore. And I have a feeling that with you and Aiden at the table, I won’t even rate Ruwa’s notice.”
“Any sorcerer would be interested in you,” I said. “Too interested.”
He laughed. “I’m talking about sex, Socks.”
“So was I.”
He snorted, shuffling the deck again. His magic welled, snapping to the cards moving through his fingers.
I waited.
Nothing more happened.
I turned to Paisley. “I’ll bring a treat back. Pasta?”
The demon dog grumbled, refusing to look at me. Or to move away from the door.
I sighed. “A turkey burger, then.”
Paisley’s ears flickered.
I grimaced. “Beef …”
She side-eyed me, a gleam of red highlighting her pupils.
“I’m not ordering bacon. Cheese, yes. I can even ask Brian to put a fried egg on it. But not bacon.”
Paisley flashed doubled rows of sharp teeth at me. Aiden stepped up onto the front patio, brushing snow from his suit and stomping his feet just beyond the doormat. He opened the door, almost hitting Paisley as she crossed by me and headed down the hall.
I ignored the urge to call her back, to give her a firm set of instructions. Contingency plans.
“Ready?” Aiden asked. His tone was as grim as I felt.
I glanced over at Christopher.
The clairvoyant shrugged, holding the cards loosely in one hand. “I see nothing that tells me you shouldn’t go.”
“If they’re at the diner with us, Emma,” Aiden said, “they can’t also be striking at Christopher and Paisley.”
The clairvoyant kept his gaze on me, speaking to the sorcerer. “Emma doesn’t like ‘ifs.’ Uncertainty is one thing. A fact of life, of magic. But making firm decisions based solely on possibilities is poor leadership.”
“Are you mocking me?” I asked in a whisper.
Christopher straightened, reaching for but not actually touching me. “You know I’m not.”
I glanced over at Aiden, then back at Christopher. “Neither sorcerer is a match for you,” I said. “Or for Paisley. You will not hesitate to act accordingly.” I didn’t bother mentioning any of the several contingency plans we’d already adapted to our current surroundings. Christopher would strike back at the sorcerers before abandoning the property.
The clairvoyant flicked his gaze to Aiden, then back to me, nodding. “I understand.”
“You will not come to the diner.”
“That, I won’t promise.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“You’ll hesitate. And not just because you don’t want to hurt Aiden, but because you’ll worry about hurting Melissa and Brian, of compromising our place in the town.”
I leaned closer. “Listen to me …” Magic rose, flicking across the blood tattoo on my T3 vertebra. “Nothing will stay my hand when it comes to your and Paisley’s safety. You know it.”
“I know it,” he murmured. “But the same goes for me. You don’t get to be the only fierce warrior under this roof, Socks.” He smiled, magic flickering across his eyes but not settling. “Besides, it won’t come to that.” He looked over at Aiden standing in the doorway. “For once, this isn’t about us. About the Five. Or the Collective.”
I followed his gaze.
Aiden let us look at him without reacting to our conversation.
“It isn’t about us,” I echoed agreeably. Then I looked at Christopher and spoke pointedly. “Not yet.” My distrust of any Adepts, and of Azar sorcerers specifically, I left unspoken. I never actually needed to voice my concerns with Christopher.
He nodded.
I stepped past Aiden in the doorway. He murmured a goodbye to Christopher, then made an attempt to open the passenger door of the SUV for me. I got there first. Hi
s fingers, cold from being outside, brushed over the back of my hand before he could pull away. Magic echoed in the wake of his touch.
I climbed into the vehicle, letting the inadvertent power transfer fade without trying to harness the sorcerer’s magic.
Aiden didn’t react. Though I had no doubt that he had felt the energy shift between us as well.
I needed to stay calm. Rational. The sorcerer stirred me up. And I recognized that I’d become oddly territorial, about the property, about our small town.
And that made me even more dangerous.
Christopher was correct. I would always do whatever I could to maintain our presence and our acceptance in Lake Cowichan. But I was becoming increasingly certain that ‘whatever I could’ now included fighting for it. Fighting for every stone and speck of dirt that belonged to me, and destroying anything that threatened that.
Aiden climbed into the driver’s seat, shutting his door as he started the vehicle. He glanced at me.
The sorcerer was also right. No matter how I felt about him, I wouldn’t lose everything to keep him. I’d never been the self-sacrificing type. ‘Kill or be killed’ was more my training. It just took a lot more to push me than it ever had before.
“Emma?” Aiden said.
I shook my head, denying whatever he wanted to say before he had a chance to articulate it.
He nodded stiffly, then shifted into gear. The SUV’s chained tires churned through the snow as we slowly pulled away from the house.
The evening was darkening as Aiden parked the SUV outside the Home Cafe. So much so that the glow from the wide windows of the diner cast a golden-tinted light over the snow-edged street. The sidewalk had been cleared and salted, but the snow was still trying to stick.
I climbed out of the warm vehicle, immediately opening my umbrella as I spotted Lani Zachary in conversation with Brian Martin and Jenni Raymond at the long counter that bisected the interior of the diner. The two sets of plates beside Lani’s elbow were empty, so she and the shifter had presumably eaten dinner together. The RCMP constable was out of uniform.
Bonds and Broken Dreams (Amplifier 2) Page 10