Skydance
Page 26
He glanced at Raissa, Max guessed to seek her approval, but just as their gazes met, he saw the connection. It slammed through the room, and echoed through his own head.
Mate.
Snapping his head to his son, he saw the astonishment on Collin’s face, and Raissa let out a yelp a moment later. She covered her mouth with her hands, staring at him in shock, and a second later, ran out of the barn through a different door than the one Collin was standing in front of.
Did…did that just happen? Amy asked him.
You felt that? Do you think anyone else did?
The other people in the room were still staring at the rock, save Niko, who was gaping at the door Raissa had booked it out of. He walked to Niko and leaned in to ask him the question quietly.
“Is that—”
“Exactly what I felt when you saw Amy the first time, yes.” Niko cut him off. “Exactly.”
Collin and Raissa—but Raissa ran away…
Max nodded, looking at his utterly shocked son. “One thing at a time. Let’s figure out how to take care of this damn rock.”
“Everyone in place?” Niko called through the walkie.
A half dozen positive responses came back, and he gave the go signal.
Max wasn’t sure how long they’d be waiting. Collin and Niko had spent hours at the chem lab working through the equations they would need to extract the stone, save the smallest possible effective piece of it, and how to dispose of it.
Patricia and Lola had been setting everything up after sending Carl back to Niko’s shop to grab his tools. Aaron stayed behind to cast the lead in the small stone box they had found.
While they were gone, Max and Amy had set up a video system with old smart phones, so that no one magical had to be in the room when the stone was being extracted.
Rijn had slept.
Without the water dripping on the stone, no more shocks and pulses ripped through the town. It was a relief that they weren’t fighting that anymore, but they had warned the whole town that there was one more giant blackout coming. None of them doubted that the pulse from the cracked sodium was going to knock everyone magical on their asses.
“We’re going to start now,” Patricia said.
Max leaned into the monitor, but Amy’s hand on his arm pulled him back.
“Sit.” She tossed a look at Niko and Collin. “Sit, all of you. I’m one person and I don’t need three massive fucking dragons passing out on me and knocking their heads on consoles and corners while the power is out. I’m not hauling your asses around this room.”
Collin chuckled and sat in the chair. “Yes, stepmother.”
Amy’s mouth dropped open, and then she started laughing. She also still pointed Max and Niko to chairs, but she was right.
“You were right, Niko,” Patricia said through the Bluetooth she was wearing. “The water has made a lovely little circular area that won’t take much time to extract. We should be able to crack it out pretty quickly.”
They all turned and watched the monitors as Lola and Patricia handed off tools and worked the little circle around the top of the rock.
“Stop, I have a fracture,” Lola declared nearly forty-five minutes later.
The cracking sound could be heard through the speakers as they raced to put on heavier gloves than just the latex they had been wearing. Lola was faster and managed to put her hands on either side of the rock to hold it in place.
Patricia finished with her gloves and took Lola’s place on the other side of the rock. She looked up at the camera and nodded. “Here we go. Real slow.”
They looked at each other, and Max watched as his mate’s mother and best friend’s grandmother adjusted their hands to pull the two halves of the sodium encasement from around the rock that had been haunting and destroying their town for six months.
Balagancizk’s Rock was…unimpressive.
“That’s it?” Max mumbled.
“What is it?” Amy asked.
“Calcite,” Niko answered.
“Common goddamn calcite?” Collin grumbled.
“We might get really lucky because that shit flakes like snow,” Niko said.
Max leaned forward and clicked off the mute button. “Ladies. It’s calcite. It flakes easily, so go gently.”
The two of them nodded as they set the sodium on the dry bench. Max had plans to destroy those chunks in the Mississippi, so they would be washed out to sea and destroy any lingering magic.
Lola and Patricia leaned into the chunk of calcite. It was a rectangle, about ten inches long and five wide and deep. They took pictures, just like Carl had asked and measured it exactly with the laser.
“Ten point three one four,” Patricia said, “by five point one five seven.”
“Metric,” Collin grumbled.
“Twenty-six point two by thirteen point zero two two,” Lola offered.
“Half cubit,” Niko mumbled. “Half cubit by quarter cubit. Ancient Egyptian royal cubit.”
Collin leaned in. “Ladies, you’re going to need less than a tenth of a gram of that. A single flake may be too much.”
“Oh, fuck.” Niko shoved Collin out of the way. “Put the dust vacuum over it before you do anything. The flakes flake, and if you leave any behind it’s going to affect people. We can’t breathe that in.”
Again, they nodded and Max watched as Lola deftly switched out the filter on Niko’s vacuum and put a new one in. “We’ll put that in the box as well. That way there’s nothing left.”
“Good idea,” Max said. He looked at his cell phone and saw a text from Aaron.
LuckyCharms: Carl and I are on the way back. Five minutes.
LuckyCharms: Box is lined, lid is lined. I have the tiny little silver amphora vessel. The Pegasus gave us the glass box.
LuckyCharms: I have a huge bag of table salt from Krieg’s Market and Krieg now thinks I’m nuts.
ToTheMax: You are nuts, but not because of the salt.
Aaron simply sent back a middle finger emoji.
It was quiet while the two women circled the table, looking at the rock. They were pointing out different spots on the rock—crystal—and were chatting about them.
“Okay, where’s Aaron? We have a good spot.”
“Here,” Aaron said from behind them, in the door. “I sent Carl down with the amphora. Once they get that sliver off, into the container and closed, we’ll work on the glass and stone boxes.” He gestured to the box on the hand truck.
“That heavy?” Rijn asked quietly from his corner.
“It’s granite and lead,” Aaron replied. “It might be nothing for a dragon to carry it, or even a shifter, but I’m a fucking leprechaun. I can turn off the light without climbing out of bed and hoard gold. That’s it.”
Carl chuckled from the door. “That’s why Max has you as Lucky Charms in his phone.”
Max cleared his throat, but Aaron took a swing at him anyway. Niko laughed. “Better hit me too, Lucky.”
“Fuck. You. Both.” Aaron snapped, “You can lead-line your own box next time.”
There was a chuckle from everyone, but it settled down a moment later as the women in the lab spoke up, “Okay, we’re ready for this. We are going to try first with a pair of tweezers. Remember that once we have a piece off, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Max nodded, then realized they couldn’t see him. “Yes. We’re ready.”
“Sit down, all of you,” Amy snapped. “I’m not dragging your asses into chairs!”
Max lowered himself in the chair as everyone else found their chairs again, including Aaron and Amy. She rolled hers close to Max and grabbed his arm.
Nervous?
This is your magic and my mother. Yes.
He grabbed her knuckles and kissed her skin softly. She smiled at him and nodded at the screen.
Patricia wrapped her gloved hands around the rock and held it steady as Lola flipped on the vacuum unit. Grabbing the tweezers, she moved close to the rock and droppe
d the jeweler’s loupe her grandson had lent her over her eye.
The tweezers, made of plastic so to not scratch a gem, touched the calcite and everyone waited with bated breath.
Nothing happened.
Encouraged, Lola moved the tip of the tweezer to separate the sliver from stone, sliding underneath the flake.
“Still nothing,” Max said.
Lola stared at the tiny piece of rock in the pincers. She nodded, gripped, and popped it off—
Amy watched as everyone around her dropped unconscious in less than a heartbeat. The shriek of stone echoed through her head, and the resonance made her want to throw up.
But she held on, covering her ears uselessly. The shriek was psychic.
Snapping her gaze over to Carl, she saw he could feel the psychic blast as well. His face was scrunched and there was a trickle of blood under his nose.
“Jesus…” he mumbled.
Amy snapped her eyes to the monitors and saw her mother moaning and pushing herself to her feet.
Lola wasn’t moving.
Patricia managed to crawl over to her and roll her over. She shook her once, twice, and Amy saw the panic spring into her features. “She’s not breathing!”
Carl tore out of the room and down the hall. As Amy was getting ready to run after him, she heard a gasp and movement behind her. Spinning back, she found Rijn sitting up.
“It’s time…” he mumbled. “It’s time…”
She jumped back to where he was seated and grabbed his hand. “Rijn?”
“The power didn’t go out. It was just a scream from the rock. It’s time. It’s time…”
“Time for what?”
“Wake Aaron. Wake him. Send him for Rigel.”
Amy drew back, confused. “For Rigel?”
Lifting his hand, Rijn pointed at Aaron. “Wake him. Get Rigel here. Carl knows…” He slumped in the chair, unconscious.
She wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but Amy knew enough to trust Rijn. She ran over to where Aaron was passed out in his chair and shook him. “Wake up! Come on, wake up!” He groaned and flopped his head to the other side. “Aaron, wake up. Come on. Rijn said you have to do something.”
He grunted and his eyes flickered open. “Wha…?”
“The rock knocked out all of you. It’s killing Lola.”
The words sank in and Amy could see him desperately trying to wake up and start functioning. “Why me? Why not Niko?”
“Rijn said you. You have to get Rigel.”
He managed to sit up and glance over at Rijn. “Rigel?” His head snapped back to her. “I can’t get Rigel! I can’t—” He cut himself off.
“Can’t what?”
His lips turned down in an angry frown. “I’m only three-quarters leprechaun. I mean, how else does a purely Irish magic end up with a name like Aaron Berkowitz?”
“What has that got to do with anything?”
“Three-quarters means I don’t have all the abilities a full-blooded leprechaun would. Rijn seems to think I can teleport.”
“Oh!”
Grabbing her arm, Aaron shook his head. “No, Amy. I can’t. I never have been able to. It’s just not a gift a non-full blood has.”
“Come on, come on, at least you can help downstairs with Lola.”
“In the room with the rock?” He gasped.
“She’s dying!” Carl screamed through the monitors.
Amy grabbed his arm and hoisted both of them to their feet. “Come on!”
The run down the hall was short, but Patricia and Carl were taking turns with the bag respirator he had apparently found in the room.
“Does she have a pulse?”
“Thready, faint,” Carl said. “We can’t do compression because her heart is beating.” He looked up at Aaron, who was hanging in the door. “You need to get Rigel.”
“I can’t! I just explained that!”
“For Niko. You have to try,” Amy begged. “He’s your best friend. Lola is his grandmother. Pappous didn’t give enough of a shit to hang around while my best friend is in jail. Lola is here. He loves her. Rigel loves her. You have to do something!”
He thunked his head on the door frame. “I can’t do it.”
Carl motioned Amy to take over the bag respirator and he stood in front of Aaron. “Can’t? Have you tried?”
“For years, Eminence,” Aaron bit off. “You think it was fun being around my mother’s family and watching all the kids popping in and out around the room and not being able to myself?”
“Did they just pop, or did they use the words?”
His brow wrinkled. “Words?”
“Words.” He nodded. “Irish Celtic isn’t just a lyrical language. If you add your blood to the words and speak them with magic, they are magic. You’re part fairy, Aaron. The Aos Si were magic and while the folklore, which clearly your family subscribes to, describes your people as green and small and derivative, you’re not. Aos Si, daoine sidhe, were gods. Fae gods. You have that in you. Call your blood, speak the words. I swear you’ll be able to do it.”
Amy heard the knowledge of the Black Eminence in Carl at that moment and smiled at her mother. There was a flash of hope in Patricia’s eyes at that moment that they weren’t going to lose Lola.
“Call my blood?”
“What is your mother’s family name?”
“Kenny.”
“Her real family name.”
“Cionaoith.”
Amy felt a little shock go through her. One of the fire-born was living in Pine Valley, and she had no idea. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten a proper lesson on being of the Family Cionaoith. Glancing over at Carl, his eyebrows had hit the ceiling.
Clapping Aaron on the shoulder, he shook his head. “We need to talk. But for now, if you prick your finger, know where you want to go and speak the words, you’ll be able to teleport.”
He hesitated, but it was only to look at Lola on the floor. “What words?”
“Imm Cuirethar me sin,” Carl said. “Literally, take me there.”
Aaron scrubbed his hands over his face. “I know more Yiddish than Ancient Irish. Fine. Got something to prick my finger with?”
Amy pointed to the table. “There’s a X-Acto knife right there.”
Carl grabbed it and motioned Aaron to give him his hand. “One drop of blood. Rub it between your fingers and say the words.”
“Hurry, please, she’s dying,” Patricia whispered.
Nodding, Aaron opened his hand. Amy watched as Carl pricked his finger and a single drop of blood appeared. “Think of Rigel.”
He closed his eyes and was quiet for just a second. When Aaron popped his eyes open, they were bright gold and glowing eerily. He brought his fingertips together and whispered, “Imm Cuirethar me sin.”
He was gone.
There was no pop, no sound, no twist of space, stir of air, or anything to indicate he’d been there just a nanosecond before.
“Yes,” Carl whispered. He leveled his gaze at Amy. “Did you know he was fire-born?”
“Not at all.”
“Time for some lessons.” Carl smirked and then dropped down next to Lola, feeling for a pulse. “She’s hanging on, but we don’t have much time.”
“Hospital?” Patricia asked.
“And tell them what? A magical stone was offended by her separating a piece of it off, so it sapped her life force in order to try and kill her?”
It did sound ridiculous, though she and her mother knew that was exactly what had happened. The room was quiet and the only sound was the bag respirator, huffing air in and out of the unnaturally young woman on the floor.
With no preamble—no wind, no sound, no flash—Aaron was there again, with Rigel. He let go of the vampire’s arm and Rigel rushed forward to Lola.
“What—”
“The rock took her,” Patricia answered.
Amy touched his forearm where he was brushing hair out of the woman’s eyes. “Rijn said it’s time.”
He took a deep breath. “I love her. I can’t lose her.”
“Take her. Get out of here,” Patricia said.
He scooped her off the floor after Carl pulled the respiratory away. Rigel tossed his chin at the stone. “Get that fucking thing out of here. For good, for all of us.”
Amy nodded and this time, there was a flourish of wind and wisped tendrils of black smoke as Rigel disappeared with Lola. Aaron had slumped to the floor, and Patricia walked to the table where the tweezers and the sliver of rock were still waiting.
She lifted the sliver, slipped it into the amphora that was still waiting, and stoppered it. Glancing at Carl, then at Amy, she cleared her throat. “Go wake your mate and the other dragons. We’re done with this, and it needs to be gone.”
“You got this?”
Max’s voice quivered. Amy thought it was adorable, but didn’t say that. That would be poking the bear. Or dragon.
“I’ve got his, Max.” Amy smiled at him. “You’ve shown me about a hundred times and you’ve made me practice at least that many. We’ll be fine.”
He tugged on her coat to pull it closer. “Warm enough?”
“Maximillian Czerkanowicz. Enough. I am warm, I am comfortable, and I’ve got your abilities. I will be fine. This is the best thing we can do.”
Amy adjusted the straps of the air tank strapped to her back and lifted the rebreather to her mouth to test it one more time. She looked at Aaron, who still looked like a stunned bug on a windshield, but also grimly determined, and Niko, who was standing there in a pair of tear-away sweats and nothing else.
Gotta tell you, Max, he gives you a run for your money.
Max wilted a little at her teasing until she grabbed his collar and pulled him to her for a toe-curling kiss. I said run for your money. I’m yours, royal purple. I’m always yours.
“I’m worried. Why you?”
“We’ve been through this. We’ve experimented for the past two days. The box is not going to affect me, and yet I have enough magic from you to create the bubble. None of you can touch it, and Mom can’t use magic. You aren’t a water dragon, and Niko is.”