“Can you tell when you take part of someone? Is there a beacon or something? I mean, if there are more of you, shouldn’t you be able to tell when someone has been touched by one of you? That way you know if you could take their soul or something?” I twisted my fingers in my lap, the words sounding foolish to my own ears.
“Of course.” This time his fingers did brush my knee, the touch meant to be reassuring.
“How much of my soul did you take?”
Now he looked up at me, the darkness swirling in his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked down my body, then back to my face, evaluating. “I’m not sure. I lost control pretty quickly there.” He fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “I don’t know how long I actually tapped into you. But I can tell by the sheer volume of energy I pulled from you that it was a lot.”
My lips trembled. I wanted to scream. “Could you check? I’m already not much of the person I used to be. I don’t know how much more change I can handle.”
“I’m so sorry,” he muttered again. Shouldn’t he be riding some sort of energy-high right now? I reluctantly put my hand in his outstretched palm, figuring it must help him gauge what remained of my soul. His eyes were closed, a little wrinkle on his brow between his brows, and then he opened them. I shivered at the red tint that clouded the darkness. The furrow deepened as he took in the signature of my energy.
“It isn’t possible,” Ryder muttered, cocking his head to the side a bit like a bird. He dropped my hand and then picked it up again. His head shook slowly. “There’s no way.”
Hope bloomed in my chest, replacing the doomed feeling that had settled in earlier.
“It’s all there. Your soul. It’s all there.” His hand was chilly in mine but clamped tight like a vice. Good thing I had no desire to let go. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t feel any different,” I muttered. Truth be told, I’m glad that his foray into the forbidden hadn’t had any unintended consequences. Especially since it started with me losing control of my abilities yet again. I tried to not think about that other being who’d made me attack Finn the other day.
“This has never happened before. I swear on my life. I’ve never heard of an incubus or succubus walking away from an encounter like that without taking part of the other participant’s soul.” The rough pad of his thumb grazed the back of my hand. “I’ve been around for thousands of years and never, ever have I heard of this happening.”
“You’re telling me that every one of your kind is going to try to have sex with me now,” I joked, trying to release some of the tension building between us.
Ryder’s eyes flicked to mine, swirling and glowing that unnatural gold-red-white combination. A lethal combination I was learning didn’t bode well. “What happened here needs to stay between us. No one else can know about this. I’m serious. If I can kiss you without repercussion, then there’s no telling what effect your… uniqueness can have on others. And there are many, many others.” That last part came out on a growl as he effortlessly slid to his feet, pulling me up with him. He glanced around the empty parking lot, the crumbling sidewalk. “It’s getting late. Finn’s probably going crazy with worry.”
I brushed off the back of my jeans, wincing as pieces of dirt scraped my raw palms. Maybe the kelpie could help me heal them later. As we started heading back in the direction of my hotel, I glanced over at my somber buddy. “Shouldn’t you be high as a kite right now?”
Ryder grunted. “That’s the unbelievable part. Well. Part of it. I’m completely re-energized.” I glanced back and saw him dragging his hands down the front of his shirt as if expecting sparks to fly from the cloth. “Hell, I’m overflowing with energy. I haven’t felt this good in a decade at least.” A smile quirked his lips, lightening his entire face, and I relaxed. “Which isn’t really that long in the grand scheme of things. But probably seems like a lot to your poor mortal self.”
I cuffed his shoulder, causing him to stumble and chuckle. “I’m not quite mortal anymore, you know. But I won’t exactly live forever like you.”
“Boils down to the same thing, doesn’t it?” His full humor was back. “Anyway. Normally I feel drunk after consuming so much energy, but I feel happy. Lifted. Magical. I bet I could probably pull off some of my other skills right now if I wanted to.”
Curiosity sparked again. “Will you show me?”
“All in good time, glowstick. All in good time.”
“Why do you call me that?”
“You’ll find out eventually.”
“Patience isn’t my strong suit.”
“Find some.”
We walked in companionable silence, the evening wrapping its tendrils around us as the clock ticked deeper into the night. It had to be almost 3 a.m., but I wasn’t even the slightest bit tired. As the hotel appeared at the far end of the block, I broke the silence again. “You aren’t commanded by Water. I’d be able to sense if you were like I can with Finn. In that case, which element are you?”
“No one commands me.” His chest puffed dramatically. “You heard me before. We are demons, beings of the dark. Constantly waging war with the light.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. The Kraken told me all beings are dictated by one of the four elements, if not by several of them.”
“Too bad for the Kraken. This will have to remain a mystery between us.” Ryder held open the front door of the hotel, ushering me inside. I glanced at the desk, noting the absence of a clerk, and started to head toward the elevator. I fully intended to go to my room on the third floor, but musical notes caught my attention. Something dark and crooning that sang in my bones. Part of me registered Ryder calling my name, but I was already wandering down the hallway, searching for the source of the delicious sound.
Search for me deep
It won’t be wrong.
Your soul I will keep
Down where it belongs.
Come on in, the water is cool.
You know you want to.
For who’s to call you the fool?
Words laced with spiders and ghosts and hidden crevices and cliffs begging you to jump.
A sound, a poem, a voice I’d never heard before, but one I felt compelled to find. Of their own volition, my feet wound through hallways I didn’t recognize before pausing in front of the clear wall of glass to the indoor pool. That’s where I faltered, barely able to take in the scene before me.
A horse, big as a Clydesdale and dark as chocolate stout, stood in the shallow end. Seaweed and slime dripped from its luscious, shaggy coat. Its mane and tail hung in tatters, tangled with sticks and kelp and broken pieces of shell. Eyes burning bright as the sun glowed from deep inside its magnificent head as it faced the deep end of the pool where a young, blonde woman treaded water. Occasionally she’d slip beneath the surface, face strangely calm, as her strength waned. A trail of clothing similar to the hotel uniforms led from the door of the pool to the ladder.
The horse was the source of the music.
I sprinted for the door. I tugged and twisted the handle, but it wouldn’t open. I slammed my shoulder against the glass, trying to smash it, anything that would get me inside that room. I couldn’t see any ripples across the top of the water, no bubbles, no movement indicating a person’s natural struggle to resurface. I fumbled for my magic but I couldn’t think, couldn’t grasp it, the strands slipping through my hold.
She was going to drown.
Someone was going to drown in front of me. Someone was going to die again, and this thing was responsible. And there wasn’t anything I could do.
A scream, shrill and long and wrenching, ripped from deep in my soul, pulled from that void of blackness I’d thought I’d pushed back. A siren’s scream, as Ryder would later inform me, a cousin to the mermaid that eagerly dragged sailors to the bottom of the sea and cut out their bloody, beating hearts. A shrill scream that, according to legend, shattered glass. And legend didn’t fail me now. The windows surrounding three of four sides
of the pool shattered at once, glass spraying in all directions.
Small shards dug into my hands as I pulled myself up, but I didn’t notice the pain. I followed Ryder across the broken pieces. A stream of slick, red blood trailed from one of his ears. The horse’s head turned from the water, fixing me in its unworldly stare. I barely registered the splash as Ryder dived in and hoisted the woman up.
“Whatever you are, you don’t belong here,” I told it, the words sounding broken to my ears. I raised my arm, drawing on what remained of my reserves, finally in control. Water swirled in the pool, reacting to my unspoken command, ready to blast the beast into the next realm. The horse blinked and reared on its hind legs, shifting right before my eyes.
“Probably not the best way to impress your charge, Finn,” Ryder said blandly, the woman in his arms.
I stumbled back a step. The horse was a kelpie. My kelpie. A man I’d very nearly called my friend. A man who had tried to drown someone in front of me.
“Let me explain,” Finn pleaded, now back to his human state. He fought the pull of the water to the edge of the pool. “I never expected you to show up. I never intended for you to see this.”
Convinced I wasn’t about to puke, I slowly rose.
My euphoric drunkenness from earlier was long gone.
“What exactly did you intend for me to see?” I cried. He flinched as if I’d struck him. I watched Ryder lay the woman on the side of the pool, relieved to see her chest rising and falling. “When were you going to tell me about this?”
“It’s what I am. It’s who I am. I need to… It’s not… You can’t…”
“I can’t what?” My throat burned raw with emotion. This was the person in who I’d put my safety, my security. I knew nothing about him. “I can change the tides of this planet, I can feel connections with every living thing, but I can’t comprehend why the hell you’d try to kill someone right in front of me? Try again. I’m done, so gods-damned done.”
Ryder, soaked with chlorinated water, came to stand beside me. I knew he sympathized with Finn. I could feel it wafting off him in waves. He was guilty of crimes equally as bad, if not worse, than this. But I couldn’t think about that right now. Days ago, I’d been normal, intense Zara, preparing for my next shot at the Olympics. Now I was a God, a brand spanking new God still figuring out that the fey were real, that everything I thought I knew was false. And the one person I’d counted on to help me navigate the maze was a killer.
“I can’t believe you.” I spat. And I stormed from the room, barely feeling the shards of glass that cut through the soles of my shoes and stabbed into my feet. Gripping Ryder’s hand like a lifeline, I stepped onto the elevator and pressed the glowing button for my floor, relieved when no one stepped on with us despite the late hour.
Ryder twitched, and I looked at him sharply.
“He’s a kelpie. Same as I’m an incubus. It’s not like he can turn it off.”
“Shut up. Shut up right now or you can join him downstairs cleaning up the mess.”
He shut his mouth and made a show of zipping it as the elevator door dinged and opened, displaying the purple carpet of my floor. I stomped down the hallway toward my door, but stopped short of opening it, key card gripped in my hand. De ja vu swamped me. Another time, another place, I’d opened a door that looked very much like this one. And what I found inside haunted my dreams.
Ryder took the card from my limp fingers and opened the door. This time, thankfully, the room was blissfully empty.
“Are you ok?”
I shook my head at Ryder’s concern, dismissing it. I was running on autopilot.
“I need to clean up. Wait here a minute, please.”
Before he could respond, I slipped into the bathroom and locked it behind me. I dragged my fingers through the massive tangle that was my hair, ignoring the greasy feel of sweat on my skin. What was happening to me? One minute I was me and the next I wasn’t. One minute I was a driven athlete and the next a giant octopus was telling me I was supposed to save the world.
I couldn’t do this.
I couldn’t breathe.
Cold porcelain bit into my arms as I fell on the sink. I looked into the mirror, expecting to find a face of fear framed by a wave of lank hair. Instead, I met my own eyes, realizing now why Ryder called me “glowstick.” My aquamarine eyes literally radiated light. No matter how much I blinked it wouldn’t go away.
It was too much.
Too much evidence of how very inhuman I was.
Too much evidence of how much I’d lost in such a short time.
The heel of my palm hit the glass, sending a crack shooting up the middle of my face. That was how I felt right now. Fractured. Broken. My knuckles made second contact, splintering my face. One more punch and the mirror shattered.
I shattered.
Ugly, harsh sobs ripped from my chest, and I collapsed.
The scrape of jeans against my face was familiar, welcoming, and I wrapped my arms around myself, struggling to hold myself together.
I didn’t hear wood crack as Ryder kicked in the door.
I barely registered his arms close around me, pulling me close, the cold, hard tile of the bathroom floor hard but incredibly real in this moment.
I only knew my own pain.
20
Geoffrey
The desk rattled as my phone buzzed, the ringtone silenced.
For the first time in hours, I looked up from my computer, engrossed in endless amounts of paperwork, and glanced at the screen. Toren’s name stood out against the yellow background, signaling an incoming call.
I reached for the phone, then hesitated. My eyes flew to the five television screens that hung side by side across the wall opposite my desk. Each was tuned to a different news channel from different regions of the world. The tension in my neck didn’t ease as I scoured the captions. None so much as hinted at the reemergence of the Gods.
Before the phone clicked over to voicemail, I slid the green button to the right and brought it to my ear.
“We found her.”
I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth. It trembled. Conflicting feelings of relief and trepidation rushed through my veins.
“Where?”
“Kansas City.”
Gods. She’d made it across the ocean. Someone must be helping her. The girl was intelligent. I’d figured that much out for myself as I poured over her grades, her accomplishments, the unique history that made up her being. She followed a straight and narrow line right to the top—of athletics. However, all those documents didn’t hint at someone well-versed in espionage.
“You have the situation contained?” I asked.
“We know where she is. My regional commander is briefing the mayor now.”
I’d discussed any number of battle-plans with Toren before, but never had I heard this level of resolve in his voice. The pounding in the back of my head lessened. I set the phone on the desk and turned on the speaker. I scrawled my signature on the page I’d printed out and set it in my outgoing mailbox. Another fresh report awaited my review beneath it.
“What, exactly, are you telling the mayor?” I asked.
“She’s aware we’re operating on official Order business, that my commander has orders right from the top. She’s aware of Zara’s existence and understands the potential threat to her city if she’s not contained. I’m assured we will have permission to move a unit into the area with limited potential for causalities.”
With a city of that size, it would be difficult to keep the news from getting out altogether. Fortunately, the Order had offered its support in finding her from the beginning. But given we hadn’t released her true magical identity to the public, we could hit a bit of a snag. I glanced up at an American cable news network and calculated the time difference. “Did you consider grabbing her in her sleep?”
Toren blew out a long breath. It sounded like static over the wireless connection. “Considered it, nixed it. The windows of th
e hotel don’t open. We’d have to cut through the glass and her room faces a busy street. But that isn’t really the issue. There’s a complication.”
“What kind of complication?”
“Someone is with her,” Toren said. “You’ll have the report in your inbox shortly. Basically, we tried snagging her at a club, but a different subject intervened. My sources tell me this particular subject is highly volatile and very dangerous. He followed her back to the hotel and, from all accounts, hasn’t reemerged.”
Before I asked, I knew the answer. “Am I to assume by dangerous you mean fey?”
A pause. “Yes.”
It only made sense. I could feel magic stirring all around me. It made me antsy and twitchy. Other mythical creatures would feel it, too, and they would start emerging from the folds if we couldn’t bring Zara to heel.
“We’ve dealt with fey before,” I began.
“Fey with shackles on their abilities, sure. But now that magic is awakening…” Toren trailed off, the words hovering unspoken between us. It was obvious. We couldn’t anticipate what to expect. Not anymore. The rules of the game were changing—quickly.
“How do we know this fey is allied with her?”
He coughed. “My agents, uh, saw them together.”
That didn’t necessarily mean anything, but it was better to err on the side of caution.
“You see, this guy. He isn’t like most fey. He’s not just a peon in the cogs of the system trying to get by. He’s a major player in all this. He’s been around for a long time, he has connections—I’m looking through his file now. Despite the lack of magic, he’s hardly stood idle over the centuries.”
The backs of my hands burned. Looking down, I realized I was scratching them again. The healing cuts oozed from the fresh damage. I’d forgotten to replace the bandages this morning. This whole situation was going from bad to worse.
“Do you have a name for this guy?” I asked.
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