The barn door on the left was open, and that sight was uncomfortable somehow. If Christopher, Aiden, or I opened only one of the doors, we always opened the right. The gaping dark hole where the left door should have been chafed me almost as badly as the kitchen table being modified and moved into the dining room without my permission.
I didn’t like stumbling over my own weaknesses. Needing to be in such tight control of my environment was completely exploitable. Though of course, someone else would have to figure out that weakness first.
I was a few meters away when I spotted Khalid leaning back against the barn, next to the open door. Even in the relatively bright moonlight, the sorcerer blended into the shadows with his dark suit, hair, and features.
I had no doubt that he’d seen me crossing through the property from the moment I cut north through the grass. Daniel had once admitted that I glowed to his magic-sensitive eyes, and the same was likely true for Khalid. Fish had told me I looked like a fallen star, but the sorcerer now stepping between me and the open door had a much different perspective.
“No,” he said. Power rode the command, though I wasn’t sure it was intentional. If it was, it didn’t affect me in the least. “You’ve waited this long, you can wait a little longer.”
He thought I was there to kill Kader. I wasn’t. But the accusation rankled, so I didn’t bother clarifying. “Who are you to tell me what I will and won’t do, sorcerer?”
Khalid’s shoulders stiffened. “I know you’re powerful, amplifier. I’ve pieced together all the hints of the last few days, and I’ve felt your touch.” He held his hands out slightly to the sides, magic shifting in his palms. “But I’ve also been working on a side project myself.”
I smiled. “A way to bind me? So I can’t touch you?”
Disconcertion flickered across his face.
I lowered my voice. “Think about what it was like to be reared by Kader Azar. Now think about being raised and trained without any family. Not a single relative. Just a series of Kader Azars overseeing every moment of every day of your life.” I paused, allowing him to process what I was telling him.
Incapacitating Khalid before Cerise triggered her ultimate plan was a bad idea. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t do it.
The sorcerer nodded once. The power in his hands continued to fold in on itself, over and over. A characteristic of binding spells. I knew that because of how many had been used against me.
“Now,” I continued, “think about how an amplifier like me might be trained by a dozen Adepts like your father, all equal in power and drive.”
“You think that you can survive anything I can throw at you,” Khalid said calmly. “Because you can keep the magic you steal from others, right? But I wasn’t only trained by my father.”
A voice filtered down from the loft — but carried by magic, not on the air. “Let her pass.”
Kader.
“I won’t.” Khalid didn’t bother raising his voice to address his father. It was obvious that the elder sorcerer was monitoring the conversation by magical means as well. We were too far away to have been heard clearly otherwise.
Out of sight, Kader sighed. “If your concern for me was born out of some affection, I might be moved, Khalid. You always were so transparent.”
Khalid’s shoulders stiffened. Then the magic snuffed out in his hands. He walked toward the house without another word.
I crossed into the barn, noting that someone had left a light on over the workbench. I’d turn it off before I locked up.
I traversed the wooden interior steps up to the loft. My feet were grass stained. The bright-green nail polish Opal had applied had partially chipped off from all my fingernails now, except for one little finger.
The top of the stairs, then Kader Azar himself, came into view.
The elder sorcerer was situated behind a blazing wall of energy, shot through with five shades of blue varying in both depth and darkness. Sorcerer power from all five Azars, combined into one powerful stasis spell.
His eyes were closed. He had removed his suit jacket, shoes, and socks, as well as partially unbuttoned his white dress shirt. He sat cross-legged, hands on his knees, palms up.
He had easily aged another five years since dinner.
“If you can hold the spell at bay in the pentagram, why come into the house to play cards or eat dinner?” The too-personal question slipped out before I could retract it.
Kader smiled smugly, not bothering to look at me. “Why have you let all of us into your life when you’d rather have ignored us? Or, in some cases, would rather have drained us dry and sent us packing?”
I didn’t truly believe that Kader Azar loved his children as much as I loved Aiden. But I didn’t answer what felt like a rhetorical question. I sat across from the elder sorcerer, folding my legs between two points of the massively fortified pentagram.
The magic between us felt viscous, vibrating with energy.
“I can’t,” Kader said, finally opening his eyes. Their whites had yellowed further. “Hold it at bay. Not since Cerise arrived. But I can ease its effects.”
“Are you in pain?”
“Do you care?”
“No. I’m just trying to figure out how a witch, reputedly walking the light side of the path —”
Kader snorted.
I had to suppress a smile myself. “How can she foil not just you, but all the others? Including Aiden?”
“You have made him powerful,” Kader whispered.
My back stiffened. “He is powerful.”
“Yes.” Kader shrugged one shoulder. “Will against will. Perhaps Cerise’s will to kill me outmatches my will to live.”
“Doubtful,” I said.
He huffed a quiet laugh. “Indeed.”
“And when she tries to kill you tomorrow?” I asked him just as quietly. “Perhaps through another miscommunication? Though hopefully after untangling Aiden from whatever she did to get to you through him. What would you have me do?”
“You aren’t looking for orders, are you, Amp5?” There was no malice in his tone. Only darkly tinted amusement.
I just looked at him, not at all ruffled by him using a designation to claim me rather than my name. I had told him to do so. Twice now. And I knew who I was. Emma. Not Amp5.
He sighed quietly. “Protect my sons.”
“Protect them? Not you?”
He grimaced. “I’ve been stuck in this pentagram wondering exactly how I came to this … begging a Myers witch for my life, loathed by my only three living children.” He swept his gaze over me. “One-fifth of my life’s work seated before me. A glorious achievement. The ultimate testament of my abilities. And you would rather kill me than shelter me.”
I had no response to that. It was a fair assessment.
He chuckled darkly, then scrubbed his hand over his face. The gesture made my chest ache. I’d seen Aiden do that far too many times over the last few days as well.
“What has it all been for?” he whispered. “To have every word I speak questioned by those most likely to care for me? To care whether I die? And not just for the power that death might bequeath?”
“That’s an excellent speech,” I said. “Shall we talk in actual truths now?”
Kader’s eyes went hard. The intense expression pulled forth some emotion from me, which I quickly cast aside.
Recognition, perhaps. Not in the sorcerer, but in myself.
I had pushed him to the edge. Which was perfectly fine, because I’d been teetering on that edge myself for days. My footing was firm only when Aiden was anchoring me. Literally.
“Aiden isn’t here now,” I said, more to myself than Kader.
His eyes narrowed for a moment. Then he reached one hand toward me, slipping through the magic that otherwise sealed the pentagram.
I grasped his wrist rather than his fingers.
“Truth to truth,” he murmured.
Dark-blue energy spiraled around our wrists, settling onto my
skin but not digging in.
“How long will that last on you?” Kader asked casually.
“A few minutes,” I said with complete honesty, though the sorcerer hadn’t actually triggered the spell yet. “If I don’t fight it.”
“And the empathy? Can you control it yet?”
I couldn’t, not the way he meant. But I just looked at him, not picking up much emotion at all from the sorcerer. The pentagram was no doubt impeding the innate ability, and I didn’t bother trying to penetrate the barrier.
“Ask your questions then, Emma Johnson,” Kader intoned, speaking to the truth spell he’d wound around our clasped arms. “I will answer to the best of my knowledge.”
“And truthfully?” I said with a knowing sneer. “Because Kader Azar can’t sidestep a truth spell of his own casting?”
“Shall I call Aiden to verify the spell?” he asked.
“You won’t summon Aiden at all,” I said. “Not ever again.”
He just looked at me with that same hard flicker in the back of his eyes. A wounded predator.
“Are you going to try to take all of us with you tomorrow?” I asked. “When Cerise finally succeeds in killing you?”
“I’ve thought about it,” he said. “Go out in a blaze of glory, wondering how much of this tiny town I could take with me and what the powers-that-be would do about it in the aftermath.”
There it was. The attitude and the belief system that had led to my creation. The creation of the Five.
“And wouldn’t those powers-that-be stop you before you could do such damage?” I asked.
“Did they stop you in Peru?”
I smiled nastily. “Why would they have? I was doing their work for them.”
Kader snorted. “You have an interesting view of yourself, Emma. Are you above the laws of the guardians? Is your soul untouched because you can lay all the death you’ve wrought at my feet?”
I had no idea who exactly he was naming as guardians. The mythical powers-that-be, presumably. “I lay nothing at your feet, sorcerer. I’m not your well-trained retriever.”
He inhaled, composing himself. “It is impossible to converse with you civilly.”
“Impossible for you.”
He tilted his head. “I speak only for myself.” He paused, sweeping his gaze over me. “Tell me … do the other four still survive?”
I didn’t bother trying to lie. It was possible that trying to lie would dissolve the spell between us, and I wanted it in place a little while longer. “They do.”
“And do you speak for them as well?”
“I try not to.”
He made an agreeable noise in the back of his throat. “Ask me what you need to know to move on with the events that shall unfold tomorrow, Emma. The spell is thinning.”
I locked my gaze to the elder sorcerer’s. “Aiden. Above all the others. Above yourself. Aiden walks away tomorrow.”
Kader’s grip tightened on my forearm. “To the best of my ability.”
“Beyond your ability,” I said steadily.
“Will you sacrifice yourself for him?” Kader asked thoughtfully.
“There will be no need for me to do so.”
“But would you?”
I curled my lip, not bothering to answer. Then the spell clamped down on my arm, reminding me of exactly how powerful Kader Azar was. My mouth opened of its own accord. “No. I cannot. I owe too many others my protection. Either Aiden or I must survive tomorrow.”
“For the child witch you’ve adopted.”
“Yes.”
“It’s possible that Cerise has bound Aiden in such a way that I cannot untangle him without killing her,” Kader said, carefully measuring his words. “My son would not be pleased if I killed his mother over allowing him to sacrifice himself.”
“That’s the price you’ll have to pay.”
Kader smirked at me, as if I’d revealed a great truth to him. “Aiden, above all others. To the best of my ability.” He leaned forward slightly. “With your help, of course.”
I nodded.
For Aiden, I would deal with any devil or demon. “As long as you understand what my help might entail.”
The elder sorcerer threw his head back and laughed. Then he sobered quickly, outwardly tired. “I’m looking forward to it. But I fear it will not measure up to my expectations. I doubt anything could match the glimpse I got of you before you destroyed every recording device, magical or otherwise, in the compound.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, or how to ignore the revulsion that rose in response to his pride. “Aiden over everyone else,” I repeated. Then I peeled my fingers from Kader’s arm, effortlessly snapping the truth spell.
Kader withdrew his arm as well, flexing his fingers. “And when Aiden tries to sacrifice himself for one of the others? For you, perhaps? It’s up to us to save him from himself?”
“He doesn’t deserve to be destroyed in a battle that should be solely between you and Cerise.”
“I didn’t bring him into it.”
“The circumstances of his birth make you a liar.”
Kader huffed. “Yes, I used magic to turn Cerise’s attention my way. She is a beautiful woman with beguiling, gentle …” He trailed off thoughtfully.
“Magic?” I finished his sentence for him.
He nodded.
“But there’s nothing beguiling about her power now?” I already knew the answer. For myself and my senses, at least.
“No, there isn’t.”
That was what I’d thought. “Did you just figure that out now? Why wouldn’t Aiden have noticed the change?”
“He doesn’t know Cerise well.”
“Or being in the pentagram eases more than just the spell that’s draining you …” Isa Azar had speculated about Cerise stealing a forbidden spellbook from the Myers archives. But what if something else had been locked away there by her coven? “I’ve felt something. And I have an adaptive immunity …”
Kader narrowed his eyes doubtfully. “Cerise Myers is not capable of a mass enchantment. Especially not when so many different Adepts are involved.”
“If it was an outright enchantment, it never would have worked on me. Or I would have felt it right away …” I thought about the moment Cerise had set foot on the property. The recollection felt thin. Dulled, somehow. But I had picked up something from the witch in that moment. “Maybe she isn’t controlling it, isn’t actively wielding it. You’ve seen the third eye that appears on her forehead, haven’t you?”
Kader waved his fingers offishly. “Of course, a simple manifestation of her witch magic …” He frowned. “You think she is being directed?”
“You yourself can attest to how susceptible she is to having her ‘attention turned’ …” I sneered as I repeated his own phrase back to him.
Kader shook his head. “No. It would have to be one of the others currently on the property. No one else could be consistently penetrating Aiden’s wards. Plus, both Isa and Khalid conduct daily sweeps. They’ve all added protections to the property wards.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“Then how do you account for the change you feel in Cerise’s magic?”
He smirked at me. “How do I account for the change in Aiden’s?”
I frowned. “Does the Myers coven contain an amplifier?”
“Two.” The elder sorcerer laughed quietly. “None like you, of course. But I meant that Aiden’s reach has grown because of those he trains with, learns from, and the situations that he … survives.” He smirked at me, as if to imply that I was one of the things Aiden had survived.
I didn’t bother to dispute it. It was true.
Kader sighed, closing his eyes.
I watched him for a moment. The power emanating from the pentagram thrummed between us. I knew that if I reached toward the orchard, I would feel the witch magic being ignited there as well.
“Shall I ask your forgiveness?” Kader whispered.
He laughed sadly. “No. But would you accept?”
“No.”
He snorted. “As expected.”
“Yes.”
Then I stood and walked away. The memory of the words between us was already a dryness in my mouth. Ashy. The deal I’d made with him.
Aiden above all others.
I shoved the idiotic notion away. Words didn’t come with their own taste.
I remembered to turn off the light over the workbench before heading back to the orchard, where Aiden and his sisters were still helping Cerise.
Paisley was prowling through the immature apple trees. I could feel the demon dog by her magic more than see her. And although Cerise appeared to be trying to meditate in the center of the circle that had been stamped into my orchard grass, she kept glancing behind herself nervously.
Aiden reached for me, and I took his offered hand. His touch was warm. The energy he was holding tingled across my palm and up my arm. I shivered.
“We’re going to be a couple more hours,” he murmured. “But you should get some sleep.”
I glanced at Cerise. She had her eyes closed, legs crossed. Her hands were on her knees, palms facing up. The pose was strikingly similar to how Kader was currently situated in the pentagram. But instead of rune-etched copper, unlit candles of various colors and sizes were set at intervals around the outer edge of the large circle that surrounded her.
I could feel the slow drip of Cerise’s witch magic. But if any foreign magic or power was being activated by her, or directing her, I couldn’t sense it. Perhaps Kader was right. The spell was of Cerise’s creation alone.
“Moon fueled?” I asked.
Aiden nodded. His attention was trained on his mother, and he didn’t offer any clarification. “I’ll keep Cerise company. Ocean and Sky are drained, and not just magically.” He smiled sadly, his sorrow brushing through the empathic bond that formed effortlessly every time we touched.
Not caring that we were in full view of his mother, I leaned in and brushed a kiss across Aiden’s lips. Then I just hovered there, breathing him in.
“Emma.” He whispered my name so quietly that I almost didn’t hear it. Then he touched his lips to mine, epically gently. “Emma. Get some rest, my love. I’ll see you at dawn.”
Idols and Enemies (Amplifier 4) Page 25