by Kim Schubert
Then I touched Declan’s cords, feeling his supreme confidence. I almost felt bad about what I was about to do. Almost. I wrapped the hopelessness around his olive cords, infusing it, blending it. I watched his colors change, until the darkness I handled with ease took over. An ebony-colored disease, spreading back to the host.
“Shit,” Declan hissed. I heard the worry. He may have had some fancy magic, but I was fighting dirty. I know, I know, nothing new here.
Swiftly speeding down the cords, the darkness grew, swirling until it reached Declan. I opened my eyes, leveling my gaze with his.
He clutched his heart, fingers pressed tightly into his perfectly starched white shirt. He took a ragged breath, fear playing over his features. I took a step forward, his cords now my own, obeying me.
“You are mine.” I didn’t recognize my own voice.
“Olivia,” Declan tried.
I raised my chin and he was silent, bowing his head.
A dark chuckle slipped past my lips, seductive and dangerous. I was losing myself.
Olivia.
I took another step forward, more threads moving through me. They were all mine. All of them belonged to me. My pets, my pawns.
Olivia.
I hissed at the intrusion, turning to the source.
“Olivia,” Logan’s rich voice washed over me.
I blinked at him, still not releasing Declan.
“Olivia.” Logan stepped toward me, eyes stern. “Enough.”
Raw power washed over me again. I could bring him to his knees, make him worship me.
No, a small voice whispered. Not my wild lion.
And that’s what it took to crack the magic’s hold on me.
“Shit,” I whispered, turning to see Declan wheezing through the pain.
I cleared the distance between us. “Shit, shit, shit.” Laying my hands over his, still clutching his heart, I pulled what I had pushed into him.
He drew a clear breath, his eyes focusing on me. “What, the fuck, was that?”
It was my turn to release a shuttering breath. “Apparently, all my old tricks have been magnified. Although being able to pull emotions from inanimate objects is new.”
Declan shook his head at me.
“Back to you. What are you?” I asked, backing up so he could stand.
“A Druid,” he finally answered.
I blinked at him. “Like a mage?” I asked, having no idea what the fuck that meant.
“No, my magic functions differently, faster and more potent.”
“So you are a jacked up mage? Like a Magician?”
Declan recovered from his shock. “Yes, in a way. I suppose we are similar.”
“How do you know so much about the Fae?” I asked.
He shifted uncomfortably. “My kind has had dealings with them for a very, very long time.”
“Eww.”
He shrugged.
I nodded. “What other magical species are going to come out of the fucking woodwork?” I groaned, turning to Logan.
I cleared the distance between us, wrapping my arms around his thick neck. “Thank you,” I whispered into his ear as he bent down to hold me closely.
“Mermaids, unicorns, and now Druids,” I muttered into his neck.
Logan was calming his inner beast, so while I wanted to pull away from our public display of affection, I stayed trapped by his strong arms.
…
Back in their makeshift office, I let Logan take the lead. I kept slipping into my second sight and analyzing everything. It was driving Declan insane, or at least highly annoying him, from the narrowed-eyes looks he was sending me.
“You think they are in Oregon?” Logan repeated.
“Possibly. The Fae have been sighted there before, and we’ve also had other indicators. Regardless, I’ll be able to cast a spell to lead us to them there.”
“What other indicators?” I asked.
“The number of unusual cases for us has doubled since your incident with the talking tree. Not to mention the greenery would appeal to the Fae.”
“The cool weather would appeal to the Queen as well,” I muttered.
“Which Queen?” Logan asked.
“Mine,” I answered with malice. “Let’s go to Oregon. I need to kill my mother.”
Chapter 12
Logan took care of the arrangements, and I was soon sitting and staring at the back of Declan’s head in our private jet.
“Coming up in the world, Olivia,” Garrick said, sitting next to me. Logan was speaking with the pilot.
I huffed an answer, “I prefer to drive.”
Garrick laughed, “I’m shocked we aren’t.”
I shrugged. “Logan prefers to fly, says it’s more efficient.”
“It is.”
Again, I shrugged. “What’s wrong?” Garrick asked.
I turned and looked into his brown eyes, so much running through my mind. I wasn’t sure I could win this one. How would I tell my father I’d killed my mother? Could I really overcome my fear and horrid memories of Luharposn? My worst nightmares had come to life, and I missed the simpler days of rogue vampires and shifters gone beast.
“Just wondering if I should charge you for taking care of this problem,” was what I said.
Garrick laughed. “You are the root of this problem. Had you not almost died…”
I winced, touching my scars. “Don’t remind me. Life was simpler when I thought I was lab created.”
Garrick nodded, “Strange times, indeed.”
I nodded.
…
We were landed and in rental cars, following a “hunch” Declan had about the Fae’s location.
“I don’t think I beat him enough, he’s still keeping secrets,” I told Logan.
“Are we even going to talk about what your magic is now capable of?” he asked.
I huffed, “It’s potent.”
“And untrained.”
I shrugged, “Since when do we ever have the luxury of time?”
He sighed, “True.” He took my hand resting on the center console, intertwining our fingers. I relaxed into my seat. The tension in my shoulders eased, the gut-churning fear calmed. I turned to look at him.
“You gotta admit, it’s a neat trick.”
He shook his head, a caramel lock dusting his brow. I reached up with my free hand to brush the hair back.
“Your eyes turned black again.”
I sat back. “I wonder why. That must be due to my succubus side. My father’s eyes never turn black.”
Logan nodded, “I’d assume so.”
“So many unanswered questions as to who I am. I thought I knew it all,” I said softly.
Logan squeezed my hand.
“Return the Queen of the Fae, kill the bad guys, be home for dinner.”
I nodded, not sharing his optimism.
“I think we should bring The Magician and Doyle out for this.”
“Agreed,” Logan said. I was surprised he didn’t add an ‘I told you so.’”
…
We stopped alongside a thick canopy of trees, which so far was all I had seen of Oregon. I pulled my leather jacket closer around me, discreetly touching all my hidden weapons.
Logan stretched, coming around from the driver’s side. His desire to run was evident in the longing look he gave the wooded landscape.
“Go run,” I told him with a shooing motion.
“We need to climb down to the bottom before I can perform the tracking spell,” Declan stated, slinging a designer bag across his shoulders.
“You need one of those,” I told Logan, almost not laughing.
Declan leveled an annoyed look at us, now both laughing.
“Olivia, no crossbow?” Garrick asked.
I rolled my eyes at him. “No, I’m packing enough heat, thank you.”
Logan filled his lungs again with the crisp air.
“Seriously, don’t make me tell you again.”
Logan smiled,
chucking his pants at me. “Do you want a purse to carry those in?” he asked with a laugh.
I just rolled my eyes, tossing the still warm denim over my shoulder and tamping down my libido, which was enjoying the scents his clothing was giving off so damn close to my nose.
A wet nose brushed against my ass and I batted at him.
…
Logan couldn’t resist teasing Olie in this form. He could smell her desire and it heightened his own for her. So much had been dropped on her, yet she took it in stride, never backing down, never breaking down. She was just bent on saving the world, again.
He noticed a new dimension to her scent, a darkness that gave him pause. He knew Olivia hated the demon reference attached to her kind, but he was wondering if there wasn’t some truth to it. He would be interested to understand the scale and scope of her mother’s power, and whether the spell The Magician had placed on Olivia in her infancy had hidden all of her innate magical abilities.
Down they trekked through the lush greenery, and Logan darted off to the side, sensing something.
…
Asshole was chasing rabbits. Seriously.
Well, I assumed it was a rabbit. Some furry creature to kill and eat. He was definitely brushing his teeth before he kissed me again.
I huffed a sigh. “How much longer?” I complained.
Neither Declan nor Garrick bothered to answer me. Assholes, the lot of them.
After a long, humid hike, my leather was chafing and I was complaining in epic proportions.
“I will spell you silent,” Declan threatened.
I laughed, “We all saw how well your spells did against me. Nope.”
More walking. More hiking. More complaining.
“We’ve arrived, princess.”
“I told you. Do. Not. Call. Me. That. If you make me tell you again, I will remove your tongue,” I told him, looking around at the circle of ferns.
Declan swallowed.
“I get the impression you aren’t threatened very often,” I observed.
“Not by someone who can follow though,” Garrick said with a laugh.
I smiled, smugly, not going to lie.
Declan narrowed his gaze at us.
“So, what now?”
“Shouldn’t you call your dog?”
“He’s a lion and no, he’s hunting something.”
“How can you tell?”
I tapped my temple. “We speak without words.”
“The mating?” Garrick asked.
I nodded, flexing my hands on my hips.
Declan took off his man purse, and with a tap of his foot against the grass-covered center of the clearing, an earthen pedestal pushed up from the dirt.
“Was that always there?” I asked, circling around the perfectly round, waist-high structure.
“No, our type of magic allows us to create and pull from the world around us. I wanted a place to set my tools and I got it.”
“Interesting,” I mused. “So what supplies do you need?”
“I needed the blood of Luharposn. He was gravely injured here,” he murmured.
“How long ago?” I asked. How long had the Fae been bouncing between the realms? How much damage had they done to this world?
“Two, maybe three hundred years ago,” he answered, carving symbols into the ground. “Fresh blood wouldn’t require the ceremony.”
“Good to know,” I muttered, walking the circle. I squinted out into the thick foliage. Logan was stalking something. His beast didn’t like the magic the druid was wielding, which was funny since he himself transformed because of magic.
I turned back to Declan, tuning out his chanting and tuning into his magic. He was wielding shades of green, pulling from the earth, searching for a spot of red so old it had become one with the earth again.
Slowly, more slowly than our trek down, he extricated the substance he sought, careful not to disturb it. With sweat beading his brow, Declan deposited the blood into a worn golden chalice, encrusted with precious gems.
Blowing out a breath, he opened a paper map. “Hold this,” he instructed me. I moved, holding it up, blocking my view of him. I could see where this was going. Whatever he did next would indicate in some way where Luharposn and the Queens were.
The paper trembled in my hands, heating up.
“Gah! Warning would have been nice.” I straightened my arms out, holding the smoldering paper away from me. While it was hot, it was smokeless—small favors.
The heat burned the paper at the center in a perfect circle, the edges blackened and spreading. I watched the growing hole, wondering if it would deviate from the perfect circle. Certainly, if it found where Luharposn was holing up with the Queens it would. I kept my doubt at bay, looking up and into Declan’s perfectly sculpted scowl.
Something was wrong.
Where was Logan?
The paper burned right to the edges in my hands. I shook them out, looking down at the dying embers and ash in the dense vegetation.
“Maybe he isn’t in the U.S.?” Garrick offered.
Declan looked at the podium, back to the burned map, and then at Garrick.
Dread began seeping into my gut. I pulled my gun.
“Olivia, please do not kill Declan.”
I gave voice to my suspicions. “Something is wrong.”
“It is.” Declan turned to survey our surroundings.
Garrick, not one to be fazed by much, followed our intent gazes. “What do you think it is?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but we need to find Logan.” I sent out my awareness, searching for his silent ass.
No, came his gentle whisper, followed by resignation and regret and a stone-cold commitment to die in order to keep me safe.
“Motherfucker, you do NOT get to make those kinds of choices,” I said both aloud and in my head.
Language, came his soft reply.
I was moving, not giving a shit if Declan and Garrick followed me. I stowed my gun, finding I actually had more confidence in my unstable and potent magic. I wanted Luharposn to be here. I wanted to rip him apart, cell by miserable cell. But what I wanted more was my mate back.
“Olivia, are you sure this is wise?” Garrick asked me, masking his uncertainty. Neither of us liked the Fae very much.
“Go back, Garrick, one of us needs to survive this for the Council.”
“I’m insulted you think I would run from danger,” was his only response. I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t expected him to turn back, but it was worth a shot. When he complained later, I could always remind him of this moment. Pending we survived.
Forcing my mind away from that miserable train of thought, I plowed through the undergrowth, annoyed by it all and giving thought to burning it all away. Aside from the problems of announcing my presence and possibly wasting magic, I still wasn’t sure of my capacity. And all that greenery actually was really pretty.
Flexing my newfound skills, I reached out to brush my hand against a tall redwood tree, feeling a deep-seated peace and a new flavor of magic I had never experienced before. I pulled more, enjoying the feeling to my core.
I wondered what it would do. My thoughts were on destruction, but I supposed healing might be another avenue I was capable of.
I liked destruction, death and mayhem better. I wondered which part of my heritage I got that from.
Consumed in my own thoughts and intently following the trail of Logan, I wasn’t paying attention as well as I should have been. I missed the subtle change in front of my face, the lines of intricately woven power of pure ebony.
“Olivia! NO!” Declan screamed.
Too late, my next step took me directly into those dark tendrils, unmasking the scene that had been so carefully hidden from me.
Shadowy cords reached out to wrap around my waist, lifting me up above Luharposn, whose skull face grinned smugly, fire dancing along his jawbone and eyes.
“Four, so good to see you again,” he rumbled.
“Rele
ase him.” I didn’t remember infusing my voice with magic, but damn if it didn’t sound different.
Nothing in Luharposn’s face gave away shock, but his hesitation in moving me did.
I wasn’t going to repeat myself. Ignoring the magic at my waist, I sent my awareness to Logan, focusing on him. Luharposn was killing him, slowly tightening the coils around his lion form.
“Hmmm.” I cruised inside the threads, absorbing the learning as I did so. “There it is.” With a pluck I shredded the hold he had. Easily.
I fell, landing on my feet. I hadn’t touched the magic holding me aloft and I didn’t really care where it had gone. I was already moving to Logan, examining him with my second sight. All his ribs were crushed, his lung punctured by one of them, his internal organs a mess. I pushed out a trapped breath, hesitation and fear trying to force me into doing nothing.
I could hear Garrick and Declan screaming and pounding against the bubble Luharposn had made. Sending my awareness out, I felt Luharposn’s uncertainty. But I cared for none of it. I only cared for my lion, dying in front of me.
Using my recently pulled calming energy, I placed my hands above his side, careful not to add more pain to his already labored breathing. Closing my eyes, I hummed slightly, or perhaps that was the magic humming. Either way, without much thought or command, it traveled from my stores down my arms, into my hands, and easily into Logan’s body.
I carefully examined the energy, realizing it was sentient. I wasn’t controlling anything, I had asked and it had responded. That should make a control freak like me uneasy, but it didn’t. Perhaps that was always how my manipulation of emotions had worked.
Again, not what I cared about at the moment. I watched Logan’s side rebuild itself, bones snapping back into place, soft tissue repaired. He lifted his head to look at me, shocked.
How did you do that? His voice returned to its usual rich timbre, instantly setting my heart at ease.
I wiggled my fingers at him. “Magic, darling,”
He chuffed an answer, carefully standing, shaking his thick, russet coat. He turned those gorgeous caramel eyes away from me and onto Luharposn with a growl.
