by K. F. Breene
“It wasn’t luck with the giant,” Alexis said, slipping her small hand into his much larger one. “It was compassion. It was offering him a second chance at a good life.”
“This guy has already granted himself a second chance,” Kieran said, turning away from his advisors so he could focus on her. “He’s walked away from the magical world to give himself that chance.”
“And we will offer him a way to have his cake and eat it, too.”
“We can build an amazing team without him, love.” Kieran kissed her forehead. “We don’t need to put ourselves in this kind of danger.”
“Yes, we do,” she said sadly. “If we’re going to play in the Demigod viper pit, we’ll always be in danger. Even your dad had assassins coming for him, and he was at the pinnacle of power and influence. At least in this situation, we know what to expect.”
Kieran sighed, but even as he nodded at Henry and Amber, giving his approval, he wondered if they actually did know what to expect, or if this Lightning Rod would blindside them all.
11
Alexis
“This town is a hundred miles from the nearest magical area,” Amber said as we sat in Kieran’s private jet two weeks after deciding to go after the Lightning Rod.
The plush surroundings did nothing to soften my fear of what was to come. Despite Amber’s grim confidence and Henry’s assurances that this was within our wheelhouse, I had very little faith things would go smoothly. While Jerry had picked a hideout within a magical area, and had met with his trespassers before disbanding them, the Lightning Rod had completely cut himself off from the magical world. This guy did not want to be found.
Daisy and Mordecai sat behind me on a cream leather couch, sipping non-alcoholic cocktails and wearing the smug looks of previously dirt-poor kids in the lap of luxury. I wished I could’ve worn that same look, but I couldn’t be smug about anything when I knew I was putting my kids in danger.
Harding had visited me again, remarking fondly on the (enormous) white kittens, and warned me that if I didn’t bring all of my people when going after the Lightning Rod, they’d likely never see me in the flesh again.
He’d meant the kids, and because his customary smirks and eye twinkles had been notably absent, I’d taken him at his word. He’d never led me astray. Besides, the one time I’d tried to keep them out of the fighting, they’d both nearly ended up dead.
I hated that they loved being included.
“This is good and bad,” Amber said, sitting forward on the chair across from the small table where Kieran and I sat, fancy finger foods arrayed on a silver tray between us, untouched. “Good, because it’s doubtful the people that live there will be able to identify magical people from sight. From my research, it seems many were born and bred in that small town. The town generates income from tourists who wish to hike, camp, or otherwise use the resources of the mountain. There are a lot of rock climbers at this time of year, for example. Properly dressed strangers won’t stick out. Unfortunately, our guy will be able to identify magical people on sight. To him, we will stick out. Most of us, anyway.”
I couldn’t tell who she thought would stick out. Kieran hadn’t brought any of the new people except for Jerry, who would be useful because of his lightning-resistant skin and affinity for rock.
“We have about an hour till touchdown,” Henry said, sitting up close to the cockpit with his computer.
Amber nodded at him and then refocused on Kieran. “The original plans still stand, for the most part. You and Jerry will lead most of the team through the mountains, coming in the back way. The few we talked about will enter the town the traditional way. Our aim is to raise his suspicion. Make him jump at shadows.”
“Wait…” I put out a hand. “We’re basically going to alert him we’re there? When was that decided?” I’d been left out of a few discussions, but this seemed like something I should’ve been let in on.
“If we come at him completely by surprise, he’ll likely react on impulse,” Kieran said, “in a way that relies on muscle memory and training.”
“It’ll turn violent, basically,” Amber said.
“But if he suspects there is danger,” Kieran went on, “he’ll probably think things through. He might even set up a place for us to meet. Only Jerry will be able to meet him in that place, but it’ll make him more rational. Less trigger-happy.”
“It sounds like it’ll make him more dangerous,” Mordecai said.
“Only if he’s smarter or more prepared than us,” Amber said, and amazingly, despite how highly I knew she thought of her abilities, she didn’t sound overconfident. Her voice held a bit of gravity, suggesting she would be on her toes with this one.
My stomach churned. That wasn’t good news.
“Did you guys come up with some ideas for recruiting him over to the dark side?” I asked, eyeing the champagne chilling in the silver bucket at the edge of the table. No one had touched it, but now I wondered if I shouldn’t just glug some for courage.
Amber leaned back, looking to Kieran.
“Harding is under the impression you should handle that,” Kieran said with a grim expression. “You and the kids.”
The blood left my face—I could feel it. “Harding is… Me…and the kids? Why was he talking to you? He never talks to you.”
“He figured you’d kick him out of the house for suggesting it. He thinks it’s the safest approach.”
“I would agree,” Amber said. “You don’t have the ability to blend in. That mark, for starters. The Lightning Rod wore a mark when his mistress was alive, although not by choice. He’ll recognize it immediately. Soon after, he’ll figure out who you are. The kids will be with you, so he might think you’re on the run. Or, if he’s smart, he’ll realize the coincidence is too extreme but assume you’re there to speak with him in a non-threatening way. People don’t bring their kids when they think a meeting will turn violent. If he’s very smart, he’ll know it wasn’t your idea to meet with him. Maybe he’ll take pity on you, or at least try not to make you a target. As soon as I know which way he’s leaning, I can work on the next steps.”
“Wait.” I stood up in a rush. “You don’t even know the next steps? You’re going to send us into incredible danger—you’re going to send my children into incredible danger—and you don’t even know what comes next?”
“We’re your wards, and we’re almost adults—”
“You speak again and I will make you wish you hadn’t,” I said to Daisy, who’d turned fifteen not that long ago and acted like she’d turned twenty. Her teeth clicked shut. “Kieran, what are you thinking?”
He shook his head slowly. “We can pull out right now if you can’t resign yourself to this idea. We do not need to go through with it. But I’ve heard all the details about how you handled the situation with Jerry. The things you said. The way you approached it. You never think about trying to get something for yourself, and it shows. You’re the best chance we have. I told you that before we left.”
I bit my lip, knowing he might well be right. But the kids—I couldn’t put them into danger like this. I couldn’t cart them right up to the front line and shove them forward. I said as much.
“There’s something else Harding said…something we haven’t been able to verify,” Kieran said. He was not taking this lightly. “He thinks Zeus himself must know about the Lightning Rod. That maybe Zeus had a hand in the Lightning Rod’s escape. Gods aren’t supposed to interfere in the lives of humans, but it’s always been said that some gods develop favorites. A person with a rare magical ability, treated unjustly, would certainly draw the eye of their god. Now, this next part is just speculation, but Harding suspects Zeus would be pleased if the Thunderstroke were better able to show off his mighty magic. It is not a bad thing to please a god.”
“That…” I balled my fists. “That sounds crazy. Zeus knows of this dude? Zeus. The god?” I rolled my eyes. “The gods haven’t walked the earth in…forever. And even if they had,
Zeus wouldn’t leave one of his favorites to flounder.”
“The Thunderstroke’s not floundering,” Bria said before popping a grape into her mouth. She was just as calm as she always was before an extreme clusterfuck. “He has been given a second chance. Look at the facts—not even Amber knew about him. No one does, despite the fact that he has used his magic in a Chester town. He was once high-profile, and he’s got a rare, eye-opening kind of magic. Guys like him don’t get confused for being dead. An expert would’ve checked to make sure the poison had done its job.”
“Maybe the guy who reported his death was in on the escape,” I said. “The Thunderstroke had to have some friends.”
“Maybe, but secrets that big have a habit of coming out. The Thunderstroke’s body would’ve passed under a great many eyes as he was transported around the palace. Only after he was declared dead would he have been left alone. If anything was amiss, it would’ve been talked about.”
“Maybe he killed the person that helped him,” I reasoned.
“Maybe so, but no other deaths except his and the Demigod’s went on record. It’s just…too clean for a high-powered magical type,” Bria finished. Red nodded, which was annoying, because they hardly ever agreed on anything.
“Fine. Assuming that ridiculous notion is true, do you guys really think it’s a great idea to mess with divine intervention? You’d be pissing off Zeus. You would literally be pissing off the king of the gods. Besides, what does Harding know? Even though he had a rare and interesting magic, Hades didn’t do a damn thing for him. He’s nothing but a nosey ex-Spirit Walker. I’ll bet he only went to you guys because you’re gullible. He knows I’d see sense.”
“Probably, yeah,” Bria said. “You’re so rational when it comes to your kids.”
“I’m allowed to be in that town,” Daisy said, crossing one leg over the other. She wore plain jeans, a cropped black T-shirt that let her midriff peek out, and her hair in a ponytail. She looked cute, her age, and dressed down to blend in, as though she’d known about the plan in advance. “I’m a Chester.”
“A Chester is a close-minded moron who either doesn’t believe in magic or hates all things magical. You are not a Chester,” I snapped. “And I don’t think Chesters would be thrilled to have a Demigod’s ward in their town.”
“To put you at ease, I have laid out many next steps,” Amber said. “I just won’t settle on one until after I see how our man reacts to you.”
I slumped down onto the edge of the couch. “Was everyone in on this but me? I mean the details. The stuff with Harding.”
“We didn’t tell Jerry,” Thane said.
“Yeah, Jerry would tattle,” Donovan added.
“Freaking Jerry,” Boman muttered with a grin. They’d all taken up teasing Jerry, largely because he never seemed to notice, or if he did, he didn’t care.
“I can shelter you and the kids from a lightning storm,” Jerry said, staring out the plane window. His plate of appetizers had been picked clean. “I don’t care how wondrous this fool’s magic is. I own the mountain he lives on.”
“Damn right you do.” Boman put out his fist for Jerry to hit. Jerry ignored him, and Donovan and Thane snickered.
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Fine. Sure. I’ll do it. But when he threatens my kids and I rip his soul out of his body, you’re going to answer to Zeus, Kieran. Not me.”
“I’ll answer to Zeus. I hear that guy is hot,” Amber said.
“Ego’s too big—he’s probably bad in bed,” Bria responded.
“You’ll have spirit surveillance all over that town,” Jack said from his corner, the only spirit I’d allowed on the plane. “We’ll call in everyone and set up shop. We’ll start our perimeter at the edges of your magical awareness so we can account for his possibly larger range.”
I nodded, relaying what he’d said. Amber nodded with me.
I knelt in front of my wards. Their expressions were guarded. “You are somewhat trained, but not for this.”
“Speak for yourself,” Daisy said.
“I am,” I replied. “I’m definitely not ready. I’m now really thinking this is a terrible idea.”
“Actually, Lexi,” Mordecai said, “going to the Magical Summit without more firepower is a terrible idea. I’ve been doing a little research on it. Everyone might say it’s just about magical politics, and for the Demigods and leaders, that’s probably true, but for the staff, it sounds like the Wild West. Everyone challenges one another with their magic. A lot of people die.”
“Without a good defense, that place will be the ultimate risk for you, Lexi,” Daisy said. “A lonely Lightning Bolt—”
“Rod,” Mordecai corrected her. “It’s Lightning Rod.”
“Whatever. He’s just a steppingstone on the dangerous path Kieran dragged you onto.”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t love it,” Mordecai said.
“I do, but I don’t want to take the heat for it,” she replied. “This is all Kieran’s fault. I’m just doing my part to lessen the horror.”
Amber huffed out a laugh and murmured, “Cute kid.” She was starting to say that a lot. It made me nervous.
Kieran reached for the champagne.
“Besides, Lexi—”
“Shut up,” I said, pushing to standing. It wasn’t nice to say that to a kid, but Daisy was getting on my last nerve. She was talking too much sense.
I went to the back of the jet and tucked myself into the bathroom for a while. I needed a second. This was my life now, yes, but I still hadn’t adjusted to the constant danger. And no way did I believe that nonsense about Zeus. The gods hadn’t messed around with humans for countless years. There hadn’t been a new Demigod baby sired from a god in forever. It had been even longer since a goddess had birthed one. A big part of me wondered if Harding was just messing with me to see how far I could be pushed. The same big part of me wondered why the hell I had already decided to rise to the challenge.
12
Alexis
“They thought this would help us blend in, did they?” Daisy asked as we stood in front of a large house pushed back into the woods.
The three-year-old Jeep Wrangler that Kieran had purchased sat in the driveway, not a scratch on it. The rock-climbing supplies we didn’t know how to use and wouldn’t be unpacking sat in the small trunk area behind the back seat. The rest of our bags rested on the ground around us, Daisy’s pristine rolling suitcase with a designer label standing out next to Mordecai’s and my beat-up travel gear. Neither of us had thought to buy new stuff, so we’d used my mom’s old luggage, a pink suitcase without wheels and an army duffel someone had probably stolen along the way.
“It looks kinda like a cabin,” Mordecai said, looking up at the three-story structure spanning out within the trees. The For Sale sign still stood in the front yard.
“It looks like a rich person’s idea of a cabin, yeah.” Daisy shook her head, grabbed her rolling suitcase, and headed up the walkway. “We’re the bait.”
I hoisted up my pink suitcase, which had given Bria no end of amusement, and followed Daisy in. “Well, yeah, they told us we’d be bait. They weren’t mincing words about that.”
“No, they said the mark’s reaction to us will help Amber decide on a strategy. Which is probably still true.” Daisy held her hand out, and I filled her palm with the keys. She unlocked the door and shoved it open, clearly annoyed. “But they acted like we’d be drawing him out. Being bait is different. Staying in this fancy place—a house Kieran bought instead of rented—we won’t need to go to him.”
I set down my suitcase on the stone tiles in the grand entranceway, decorated in beige and gray and rust. Peeled log beams stretched across the pale wood ceiling, the dark knots a stark contrast to the lighter background. Simple and elegant wooden furniture in the same neutral tones gave the area a subtle elegance, and the deep gray stone around the fireplace enhanced the grandeur. I didn’t bother voicing my surprise that Kieran had managed to find
and close on a home, not to mention furnish it, so quickly. Rules didn’t apply to Demigods, even in the non-magical zones. Or maybe it was Kieran’s wealth that had paved the way. Money and power talked, wherever you were.
“This place looks like the inside of a tree,” Daisy said, leaving her suitcase at the bottom of twisty stairs made of finely polished logs. Stone of various shades and sizes lined the stairwell. The décor was weathered and rustic, yet very classy.
“Drawing out the mark, acting as bait—I don’t see what the difference is,” I said, opening the fridge. My heart sank. The interior was bare. The cabinets were equally empty. “We need to head into town for dinner.”
“Pizza might deliver,” Mordecai said, standing near the large window in the open living room, staring off into the trees. Deep shadows draped the branches as evening stole the light from the dying sun.
“Why bother? Let’s just go into town and get this rolling.” Daisy opened the cabinet and then scoffed. “Really, Kieran? No glasses or anything? Why put in furniture and not some freaking glassware?”
“Because he secretly hates us,” Mordecai said. “He probably put our names on the deed, just out of spite.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Daisy asked as I headed down the hall, marveling at the oak floors, polished to a high shine.
A quick perusal of the other rooms on this floor told me that glassware wasn’t the only thing Kieran had forgotten. No curtains or shades lined the windows. Outside, shadows pooled around the tree bases and branches dusted the dirt. A lurker would have plenty of places to hide. Thankfully, the trees were pushed in close. To get a glimpse of us, the Peeping Tom would need to venture onto my radar. I’d know if someone came sniffing around, and if I didn’t, the spirit surveillance I’d soon call in would catch them.
“Nothing.” Mordecai was still looking out the window when I returned. “It’s weird, though. Being on our own again.”