by Mia Marshall
Reluctantly, I withdrew the threads of magic from Frank. His breathing remained labored and a sheen of sweat covered his forehead, but he was alive.
Vivian leaned on Mac for support. She kept a hand on her broken arm, holding it in place. Sera and I followed them through the small kitchen. I glanced back at Frank once. I would remember what they’d done to him. What they would continue to do if we didn’t end this.
We burst out into the empty alley and ran to the Bronco. We pulled into the street just as the fire truck arrived. Stephen Grant, the local police who was also an ice elemental, was right behind them. We passed him on our way out. His eyes widened when he saw, then he nodded in understanding. Stephen would fix it so no one ever knew we were there.
No one except the council.
Despite everything we needed to discuss, or perhaps because of it, we were silent as we returned to the cabin. Tahoe was our home, and they were taking it from us a piece at a time… and they’d keep doing it until I capitulated to their demands. This was starting to feel like a lose/lose situation.
I couldn’t get the stench of smoke out of my nose. It taunted me, a lingering reminder of how easily Deborah had manipulated us.
The smell grew stronger. Mac’s eyes met mine, matching expressions of panic on our faces, then he punched the accelerator.
He pulled to a screeching stop before the smoldering ruins of the cabin.
We fell from the SUV and ran toward the remains of our home.
The ground floor was burnt but recognizable. Scorched walls outlined each room, though nothing within the walls had been spared. The second floor was only rubble, and the third floor loft was missing altogether. Thick plumes of black smoke rose from the wreckage.
The explosion at the Rat Trap hadn’t been intended to harm us so much as distract us. Deborah had used Frank’s business and his life as nothing more than a diversion, and we fell for it like actors in a script she wrote just for us. She’d separated us with ease so the council could attack where it would hurt the most.
This was my home. It was all of our homes—and it hadn’t been empty.
“Simon!” I screamed. “Miriam! Grams!” I yelled their names until my throat was raw.
For too many heartbreaking moments, the only other sound was the river pouring over rocks, then an adorable head poked above the river’s surface. A small cat with singed fur emerged from the nearby forest.
My knees buckled in relief and I fell to the ground. My friends shifted to their human forms, and for the first time since I’d known them, they didn’t look comfortable naked. They looked exposed.
“Grams?” I asked them.
“She and Jet went with Will. She said she wanted to meet the children of shifters.”
Of course she did.
“Call her. She’s better at healing than I am, so she should fix Vivian’s arm. It broke when the bar exploded and now the cabin’s gone. It’s gone. Call everyone and tell them the council is done waiting. They’ve started breaking things.” A sob escaped before I could stop it, and another soon followed. “Everything’s broken. Everything.”
Mac crawled to me while I fought for control. I couldn’t afford to break down, not yet.
I gripped his hand, fearing his despair and rage matched my own. The cabin was the only thing his mother left him, and now it was rubble. But when his eyes caught mine, his expression was more fierce than angry. “This was them, not you.”
“I don’t know. Burning houses have become a theme in my life.” I tried for a wry smile before I realized Miriam and Simon remained tense and angry, and one person was noticeably absent. “Wait, where’s Luke?”
I wasn’t concerned. I was pissed. Luke should have been here. If he’d controlled the flames, the cabin would still be standing.
Miriam glowered. “They took him. Pretty little thing walked right up to him, and he smiled and flirted as she stabbed him with a fucking needle.”
I drew my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms tight around my shins. “Luke wouldn’t trust someone from the council. He’s not an idiot.”
“It wasn’t a water. A fire climbed out of a red sports car, said she was a friend of Sera’s. He never had a chance. And after he was out, she burned the place to the ground.”
Sera cursed and began pacing.
It took great effort not to rock back and forth. “A fire elemental did this?” If so, the situation was even worse than I thought.
Sera gave a terse nod. “No chemicals, no electrical failure. Those fires have a bitterness you’ll learn to recognize. This was oxygen, rage, and magic.”
I closed my eyes and fought a shudder. Despite the smoldering cabin, I was cold. Goosebumps rose on my skin. “They brought in outside help.”
It seemed the council had, at last, accepted that my friends and I were stronger than they were. They’d given up their pride, their desire to keep my existence a secret, so they could even the numbers.
“At least it explains why the water council kept setting fires,” Miriam said.
It was impossible to know how many elementals they’d summoned, or how many were fulls who could crush my friends.
I only knew one thing for certain. They would never stop, and it had already gone too far. A forest of shifters had been displaced. Our home was destroyed. Frank was in the hospital. Somewhere, Luke was trapped, his best-case scenario imprisonment and life-altering drugs.
To stop them, we had to destroy them. If they sent a dozen elementals after us, we’d need to eliminate one after the other until the secret died with them. My stomach clenched in revulsion at the thought, my mind rejecting the idea before it was fully formed.
Mac was correct. This was them, not me. The council was responsible for all its actions, and I wouldn’t accept the blame.
Not being responsible wasn’t the same as not being the cause. I was the reason our lives were being destroyed, and I’d keep being the reason.
I was also the only one who could end it.
Every suite at the Lakeshore Resort was booked by businessmen on a corporate retreat, so we settled for a couple of connected rooms on the second floor. Grams and the shifters met us in the lobby. While Grams mended Vivian’s arm, we caught the others up on the day’s events.
Those of us who lived in the cabin had nothing but the clothes on our backs, but there are advantages to having your name on the deed of a luxury hotel. The concierge ignored all the other guests to help Sera, and soon we had new clothes in every size, color, and fabric hanging in our closets, each item more expensive than the one before.
We ordered sandwiches, but room service decided we forgot half the order. The tray that arrived included a roasted vegetable salad and handmade ravioli. The hotel’s restaurant had a Michelin star, but we could only pick at the food. Even Simon showed little interest in his tuna tartare.
We didn’t leave the hotel. The group had developed a siege mentality, and after several hours that became a problem. I needed to be alone for a while.
“I’m going to the lake,” I announced.
Grams stood with me. “Oh, that sounds lovely, dear. Lead the way.”
I couldn’t say no, so together we visited the pristine blue of Lake Tahoe. It was too cold for swimmers, and the winter tourists wouldn’t arrive until the first big snow of the year. Only a few people milled around the lake, and they paid no attention to either me or Grams.
“No matter what happens, you’ll get her out?”
My request didn’t surprise her. “Of course I will. Fiona is my daughter. I wouldn’t let her languish in some council cell. But nothing is going to happen, my dear.” She caught and held my gaze, insisting I believe her words.
Ah, denial. As much a Brook family trait as our blond hair.
Dinner was a quiet affair, though this time I cleaned my plate. Tomorrow, things would change, and I suspected I’d need all the energy I could get.
Mac and I were given our own room. As soon as the door shut, I threw myse
lf at him, claiming his mouth while my hands roamed his body, trying to touch every part. My urgency surprised him, but it wasn’t long before Mac met me touch for touch, his lips just as demanding. We fell onto the bed, tearing clothes as our need built. We wanted to lose ourselves in the taste and scent and texture of the other’s skin. For hours, we found relief from the day in each other’s bodies.
At last, he drifted off to sleep. I waited a little longer than I should have. I wasn’t ready to go. Not while Mac’s arms were tight around me for what would be the final time.
I reached for the tiny thread of power he kept safe for me. It was so vibrant. We shared the magic, but it would never truly be his. It had been born within me, and its life was tied to mine. When my power was suppressed, so was his, and if I died, the magic would die with me. It was a small comfort, knowing Mac would be free.
I forced myself to leave the bed, and then the room. I saw no one on my way to the lobby, and the night clerk didn’t argue when I asked to use the hotel’s town car.
The driver dropped me at an office in central Truckee. The man who greeted me was yawning. My three a.m. phone call had been a surprise, but my lawyer knew it was bad business to turn away the woman whose fortune supported his entire practice.
An hour later, I returned to the hotel with a thick stack of documents. I pulled out the keys I swiped earlier. Sera had used that cartoon devil keychain as long as I’d known her, and seeing the silly thing made my throat tighten.
Her Mustang was in the hotel’s underground parking lot. I put the folded documents that handed over my entire trust fund in her glove compartment. She’d discover them the next time she searched for her copy of London Calling.
When I reached Will’s room, I slid another document under the door. This was the deed to the unused property I owned in Oregon, along with a request for him to pass it along to one of the now homeless shifters.
It was still dark when I snuck into the hotel room, and Mac’s even breathing told me he hadn’t noticed my absence.
The bathroom was connected to a walk-in closet, so I could close the door and dress without waking Mac. I still wore my outfit from that morning. It reeked of smoke, a constant reminder of what the council took from us.
I pulled on a new pair of my favorite brand of jeans. There was a bite in the air that wouldn’t vanish with the sunrise, so I added a royal blue sweater.
I studied myself in the bathroom’s full-length mirror, trying to memorize the image—the woman I’d become, not the one the council believed I was.
The shades of blue in my outfit evoked the pure color of Lake Tahoe, the body of water that had fed and powered me so many times over the years. It was where Mac cried against my neck while telling me about his family, where Sera had fought to keep me sane, where my mother and I began rebuilding our relationship after years apart.
It was home, and I didn’t think I’d ever see it again.
All I saw in my reflection was water. Gray eyes like river pebbles. Gold hair, the color of the sun reflecting on the ocean at twilight. A tall body as slim and fluid as a stream merging into a river, and then into a lake, growing in power with each transition.
I’d been a stream, and I’d grown with each person I added to my life. Now I was an ocean.
The woman staring back at me wasn’t complete.
A makeup case lay on the counter. I rarely wore any, but Sera did, and she’d asked the concierge to purchase several items. They’d given me a set as well, just to be thorough.
I dug through the plastic case until I found a thick black eyeliner.
I rimmed both eyes. The look should have been startling and unfamiliar, but it felt like my face became my own. I wrenched off my blue sweater and rifled through the clothes hanging in the closet. The concierge hadn’t known our preferences, so the shirts were in a rainbow of colors, orange and pink and purple.
There was also a bright red sweater with a deep v-neck. It fit like it was custom made.
Gray eyes blackened by soot. The body of a water covered in the heat of a fire.
Whatever future remained for me, I would never again deny who I was.
I was ready.
I picked up the flip phone and dialed the number from earlier. Deborah answered on the first ring. She sounded wide awake.
“You win,” I told her. I added several conditions, and she didn’t hesitate before agreeing to every one of them. After I gave her a time and location, I hung up.
The meeting was hours away, but I needed to escape before anyone woke. They’d try to stop me, because that’s what friends did.
Friends also did anything they could to stop psychobitch council members from destroying lives and property or kidnapping people. Today I needed to be that kind of friend.
The door slid open on silent hinges. I walked toward the bed, unable to leave without seeing Mac once more.
The bed was empty.
Wincing, I turned to face him. He wasn’t alone. A small black cat known for his spying skills crouched at Mac’s feet, and my sister stood at his side.
“Hey, Ade,” Sera said. “You got anything planned for today?”
CHAPTER 26
The council told me to come alone. My friends made an alternate plan.
I’d agreed to meet the council at noon. My friends decided that didn’t apply to them.
While they altered one thing after another, there was one part of the plan they didn’t try to change. No one attempted to stop me.
“You’re really going to let me do this?” I asked. We were studying a map of the planned meeting spot. It was a large clearing several miles northeast of Truckee, in a section of the forest best known for the illegal parties college students held on weekends. It was familiar territory. I wanted to face Deborah on home turf.
“It’s not a question of letting you do anything. You’ve made your choice, Ade. I’ve been trying to keep you from being an idiot for months now, and it never seems to work. We’re still in this position. If I stop you, you’ll try it again, and you’ll be smarter next time. At least this way you won’t be alone. We’ll have your back.”
I didn’t want them to risk their lives by coming with me. They wished I wouldn’t go at all. This was the closest we’d get to a compromise.
Mac grumbled his very reluctant agreement. I’d say this for my friends. They understood exactly how stupid and stubborn I could be.
They also thought it was only a meeting. I knew it was a surrender.
The shifters arrived at the designated spot five hours before the scheduled meeting. They scouted the entire clearing and several miles of surrounding forest, confirming that no elementals were already there and planning a double cross. Vivian and Jet arrived an hour later and, with Simon’s help, scanned for any transmitting tech. Deborah might not understand technology, but we had no idea how many others were involved by now.
When the council appeared five minutes before noon, I stood in the middle of the clearing. Behind me sat a couple of SUVs and a Mustang. The vehicles had transported two bears, an otter, a mountain lion, a cat, a fire, an earth, a water, and one human. They all stood behind me. I’d been surprised when Jet asked to come. She said it sounded like fun.
Deborah rode in an enormous SUV. If it was any larger, people would try renting it for special events. The behemoth rolled to a stop a safe distance from me.
Four full waters climbed out of the vehicle. Deborah and Michael, of course, and two women I recognized from a photo in which they threatened to torch the homes of those I loved.
They all looked wan, their hair and skin a bit dull. The chase had taken its toll on them, as well. Good.
Grams had told me the Ponds were in disgrace, so none of their family had been invited when the council was reformed. That meant the new members standing before me were Ruth Strait and Harriet Lake, if Grams’ gossip was correct. Both women had relatives who’d died on the Brook island, and both of them stared at me with a simmering hatred that boil
ed over when they saw my shifter company.
There was a weighted pause. It felt like a decision was being made, then the other rear door opened and Allison Ash, the leader of the fire council, stepped out.
We weren’t off to a good start.
“Are you kidding me?” Sera was at my side faster than Usain Bolt. “You’re the water council’s bitch?”
It didn’t surprise me when Allison took no offense. A few days in the Blais compound had reminded me that fires seldom mince words.
“I’ve known—knew—your father for centuries, Sera. I considered him a friend. He talked about you often, which is why I know he desired the best for you. This path you’re on will lead to incarceration or death. In Josiah’s memory, I will help his daughter any way I can, even if you reject my help. It’s what he would want.”
“You knew him that well and never learned that no one was allowed to fuck with his daughters?” Sera sneered.
I raised my hand. “Please note her use of the plural. Daughters. Both of us. You didn’t try to help me avoid incarceration or death?”
Allison’s lips tightened. “That hasn’t been confirmed.”
“He told a roomful of people!” Who were all either dead, standing behind me, or a council member. Not an impartial witness among them. Frustrated, I chucked a small fireball at Allison as proof.
“That doesn’t prove you’re his daughter. Another full fire could have impregnated your mother.”
The other thing I remembered at the compound was that fires can be stubborn to the point of irrationality. I gave up. This wasn’t a battle I would win, and it was an unnecessary distraction.
“Where’s Luke?”
Deborah gestured to Sera. “She needs to move back. No joining powers.”
I glanced pointedly at the other council members. They took three steps away from each other. I nodded at Sera, and she put the exact same distance between us.
Deborah called over her shoulder. “Now.”
The back of the SUV swung open. Two men emerged, both over six feet and more muscled than a full water. They were blond, but a shade darker than the rest of the council. I’d guess they were halfs at most. The men looked like twins, the only distinction being one wore a sullen expression and the other appeared flustered. Neither seemed entirely sure why they were there.