by Jaymin Eve
When it rains, it pours. That saying was much more real to me these days. I mean, I wanted my powers free; I needed them for Asher. But I also didn’t have time to stop for months and train to control them. Always with the catch twenty-twos.
We reached the spot unscathed, passing a lot of interesting students along the way. I wanted to ask questions, I wanted to know what the different demi-fey were, but they were questions for later. We had started to learn about some of them in class. Race Morphology had briefly covered mermaids, trolls, and gargoyles so far, and we had a lot more still to come. Seeing them firsthand though, that was definitely better than learning about them from a textbook.
“This is where the perimeter starts,” Mossie said, waving his hand around. In front of us was a forest, behind us an outdoor workout arena with gym-like machines scattered about, but nothing I recognized. We only had general coordinates on the map, about a half-mile radius.
“Do we dig?” I asked. There was no building to search, and if they were trying to keep something secret, building an underground facility made the most sense.
“I’ll see if I can feel it first,” Rone said, striding forward. “My senses are strong, and I might be able to scent the Atlantean magic.”
I crossed fingers on both hands, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could wait to get Asher back. I was unraveling. Not sleeping, barely eating, and only just managing to get my ass to class. I felt like I was failing him, and he would never have failed me.
Rone took his time, pressing his hands and then nose to the ground in different parts, but found nothing. Jesse shifted into his lion and sniffed around as well, but he didn’t scent anything either. Axl took the map and all of Asher’s notes off me again and started to calculate things.
I strolled off on my own, using the small flickers of magic I had access to, hoping to sense something. But I didn’t get even a single buzz of magic in the area. It was almost like we were in a magic dead zone.
We explored for a few more hours before deciding we’d come back tomorrow. With shovels. When we got back to the house, Larissa and Ilia were waiting out front for me. I hugged them both before opening the front door to wave them in.
“You guys want a drink?” I said, feeling a little down. “I could use a drink.”
Three hours and ten bottles of wine later, we were swimming naked in the pool. I couldn’t even remember whose idea it was, but it was the best fucking idea ever.
“I’ve missed you,” Ilia said, her voice dreamy. “Ever since the whole kidnap thing, you’ve been distant. Which I totally get,” she rushed to say, “totally totally … totally. It’s just … nice to have your fun ass back for a night.”
I shook my head, floating on my back, boobs and vag flashing the entire world because I just didn’t give a fuck anymore. “I’m a fucking mess,” I said, eyes locked on the stars above. The summer weather was perfect here, and I couldn’t remember the last time the barrier was used above the commons, even with its random weather changes. It was definitely more volatile in winter. “We’re no closer to finding Asher, and every single day he’s gone it’s like acid eating away at my soul. I’m not sure how much longer I can be patient.”
How did I help him on my own though? If anything, me tracking him down might cause him more issues. I’d been powerless when the Arterians took me. And no library meant no idea who I was or how to control my stupid powers.
Maybe I should demand my powers be released. Deal with the fallout, whatever happened.
“Maddi, seriously,” Calen shouted, his voice muffled like he was holding his head in his hands. “Can you put some damn clothes on. You’re giving the rest of us blue balls.”
I flipped him off, but he kind of had a point, so I at least stopped floating, submerging my body under the water. Larissa looked nervous as the guys appeared, all of them entering the pool area to check on me, as they did every night when they came back from working out or classes.
“Are you all naked?” Rone asked, his voice a mixture of anger and resignation.
“Naked as the day we were born,” Ilia said, shimmying in the water. Her nipples were barely covered, and with the advanced sight of most supes, the dark and water didn’t really hide anything.
“Fantastic,” Calen groaned again. “They’re naked and drunk.”
He started muttering, and it sounded a lot like Asher is going to kill me, but I couldn’t really be sure. Just the thought of Asher was enough to sober me up, and I reached for the towel on the side, lifting it as I stepped up out of the water, wrapping it around me as I went.
“I don’t want to get out yet,” Ilia complained, lazily gliding across the pool. “You guys have the best water in the entire Academy. The entire world!”
I shot her a wonky smile. “Stay,” I said. “Enjoy yourself. I’m going to do some more research.”
I could see the indecision on their faces, and it wasn’t until Calen, thankfully dressed in shorts, dive-bombed in and splashed water all over them that they got caught up in a water fight. I hurried away, sad and sober once more.
The next morning when I stumbled out of bed, I was surprised to see Ilia and Calen wrapped around each other on the couch. My friend was thankfully clothed now. I went in search of Larissa, only to run into Rone as he opened his bedroom door. On the other side was a familiar head of blond hair, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
He shook his head before gently shutting the door. “It’s not what you think. I just made sure she was safe because she was very drunk by the end of the night.”
Rone had a caring side, one he hid behind his gruffness. The angry, untrusting side of him was not an act—he was a product of his upbringing—but this was not the first time I’d seen him act in a protective manner toward Larissa. I was starting to think he had a little bit of a thing for her.
I didn’t push him on it, because he wasn’t the type to deal well with that, but Larissa was definitely going to spill the next time we were alone.
Jesse cooked us breakfast, which was a nice surprise—we usually had food delivered from the Academy. His pancakes were probably the best I’d ever had, so I wasn’t complaining.
“So, back to the Demi-fey Academy today?” I asked, shoveling in one bite after another, craving the food after all the wine and swimming.
Jesse, Axl, and Rone shook their heads. “Today is Supernatural Day,” Axl said, and I leaned forward because I loved it when he got that teacher tone in his voice. “This date is the first official record of supernaturals crossing from Faerie—outside of the Atlanteans—and is our celebration of that.”
I smiled. “That’s cool. I remember someone mentioning it in history class the other day. What happens?”
“Celebrations all day,” Rone said. “Starting with a race competition event in some of the practical magic buildings.”
Despite my annoyance over missing another day to search for the library, Supernatural Day turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. Magic users dominated in the first three events, but vampires kicked our ass in the scavenger hunt and race through the forest. At the end of the day, there was a huge magical light display, which was akin to fireworks but much more creative. I saw dragons and unicorns and waterfalls explode across the sky, and I could feel the energy on my skin, raising goosebumps.
All day though, there had been a dark cloud hanging over our heads, and I was looking forward to July 21 next year.
That Supernatural Day, Asher would be back with us.
I was determined.
34
“This patch won’t hold much longer,” Louis said as the heat under his hands increased. “You’re wearing yourself thin, not just with school, but with everything else you’re taking on.”
I barely answered him, my mood alternating between “angry” and “emotional wreck.” Another two months had passed since Supernatural Day, and we had dug out half of the demi-fey school, to no avail. I was starting to think the library was a figment of their imag
inations and we had been wasting time.
“What if I don’t want it to hold?” I said. This wasn’t the first time I asked, but it was the first time I was going to really push. “I need my powers now. I need to be able to use them.”
Louis tilted back so he could see my face clearly. “Are you having trouble in class?”
I shook my head. “No,” I said, my tone monotonous. “Classes are pretty easy. I’ve had a lot of time to study.”
I was actually topping two classes, Sword and Sorcery and Race Morphology, which was a first for me, but I couldn’t even be excited about it.
“I need to go after Asher. I can’t live like this any longer.”
Louis knew bits and pieces, and he had promised me that he would check out the situation, but there was stuff going on back in America that was taking up a lot of his time, events that could affect all supes on a global scale, and I understood why that had to take precedence.
“I understand your need, Maddi, I really do. But we know Asher is still relatively unharmed and moving around. So I would ask for you to hold out a little longer.” My heart sank. “I will make the time for you, I promise. But your powers … this is not going to be a quick twenty-minute lesson. It could take months to teach you how to contain that energy.”
I swallowed roughly. Months. “We need to find the library. Asher was so sure that the answers to my power would be there.”
Louis pushed a hand through his blond hair. “I traced Asher’s power and I found their home base, but there was no one there. They’re always under the water.”
I nodded. “It’s Atlantis,” I said softly. “They’re trying to bring it back, help it rise, but … Asher must not be able to give them what they want.”
Or he was deliberately not giving it to them. But how long could he stall them for? Time had to be running out for him.
“What happens if Atlantis rises?” I asked softly, one of the many questions keeping me awake at night.
Louis took his time to answer. “No one knows for sure,” he said. “Those that believe Sonaris, in a fit of anger, sank Atlantis as a way to punish his people also believe he used so much of his power to topple the great nation that he also trapped himself. Those supes believe that if they rise again, so will Sonaris.”
“And he will destroy us all?”
Louis shrugged. “Powerful gods are unpredictable. We have no idea what he will do, but for now it’s best we don’t find out.”
“Am I his daughter?” That question wouldn’t leave me, no matter how much I laughed about it in my head.
Louis’s lips pressed into a firm line, his eyes soft. “I don’t know,” he admitted, sounding like that bothered him. “Your blood … your energy, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen or felt in this world. But I don’t know any gods and can’t give you a definite answer. Maybe when your power is fully released I will know more.”
“Is that part of the real reason you’re holding back on releasing it? Because of these unknowns?”
He nodded. “Ever since you told me what the Arterian said, I’ve been worried that maybe even I won’t be able to contain your power. Not once it’s fully released. When it burst with Asher, that was just a small hole that grew larger as more power poured from it, but I got there before it was completely free.”
If Louis couldn’t control it, then no one could. He was the strongest of all magic users in the world.
“I will figure out the best location to take you when I release it. I will help you, even if I have to bring in a few of my friends. Or Tee, my mate. She’s very powerful as well, and she really wants to meet you.”
I smiled, having heard a lot about his true mate. She sounded amazing. “I’d love to meet her.”
Louis nodded. “I’ll make it happen. For now, I have to go back and deal with America’s dramas. You keep an eye on Asher’s energy, search for the library, and if either of those things change, contact me.”
I nodded, accepting that was my only option.
The rest of the week, exams took my focus; I studied every night with Axl. When it was over, I felt relieved and excited … and broken.
“Are you sleeping?” Jesse asked me as I flopped onto the couch with him. “Because—and please don’t take this the wrong way—you look like crap.”
“Smokin’ hot crap,” Calen said, entering the room, bottles of beer and wine in his hands. “You’re always hot, Maddi, it’s just that the circles under your eyes have circles now.”
I chuckled, dropping my head back with a groan. “I’m not sleeping well, that’s for sure. This new nightmare has decided to appear…” My nightmares before had mostly been about the kidnapping. But the last few nights… “It’s Asher, and he’s trapped under the water, strung up between these massive stone pillars. They bleed him, trying to activate a stone that’s above his head. It feels so real.”
Jesse and Calen went motionless, which was a tell for these guys.
“It’s really happening, isn’t it?” I whispered. Part of me knew or sensed it was, because it was so vivid.
“It might be,” Jesse said grimly. “Like Axl said, the reason they’ve been moving so much is because they can’t find the secret slipstream entrances that lead to the underground pocket that holds Atlantis. They move all the time.”
“Atlantis moves?” I asked, trying to figure out how that was possible.
Jesse shook his head. “No, the entrances move. They’re magically designed to do so, or so the legend says. But … your dream. It sounds like they’ve locked on to it and Asher is fulfilling his promise.”
I was on my feet, my head shaking. “No,” I said, looking between them. “No. NO! I refuse to accept this. If you saw the dream—” I broke off as panic overwhelmed me.
It was one thing when Asher was fine and active, moving with them, his energy strong. But this… I choked on a sob, my clenched fists pressing to my chest as I fought to breathe.
“We can’t keep delaying. We’re never going to find that library. We just have to go and get Asher back. We can take them on, I know we can.”
Calen was nodding with me, Jesse looked less sure. “We should talk to the others tonight,” he finally said. “It makes me uneasy to go against Ash’s orders, because we could easily screw up whatever he has going on. But … I’m about fucking done with him being gone like this, and now that they’ve found the entrance. We might have no other choice.”
Bottom line for all of us: we’d rather die in hell with Asher than be safe while he suffered.
By the time Axl and Rone arrived back at the house, I was dressed and ready to leave. That’s how sure I was we would leave this very night to track Asher down.
“We have to go,” Rone said as I stalked into the kitchen, anger driving my steps to be loud stomps. “Fuck waiting for the library. Asher needs us.”
Yes. Fuck yes and all that jazz.
“I’m already calculating, and it will take us about twenty hours to drive, five hours if we can use the school jet.” Axl was noting everything in his book. “That’s to get us to the island where their base camp is. We’ll have to go by boat after that.”
“Princeps Jones won’t lend us the jet,” Jesse said with an irate shake of his head. “I’ve already run the plan past him, and he wants us to wait. He said that we have no idea what we’re walking into and dragging Maddi into a situation like that is irresponsible.”
Four sets of eyes turned to find me. “Don’t even think about leaving me behind,” I said. “I won’t stay here. I don’t care what I have to do to get loose.”
“It is a big risk for you,” Rone said, his voice softer. “They wanted you first, and if whatever they’re trying is not working with Asher, then you’ll be their next target.”
I didn’t even bother to reply. They knew my stubborn ass by now. They knew that when I set my mind to something, I never wavered on it. Just like Jesse with his order of food placement, I was set in my personality quirks.
“W
e’ll take Asher’s jet,” Jesse decided, and there was no more arguing after that. “I’ll contact the pilots and see when they can head out.”
Something inside my chest relaxed; I was able to breathe again. Even though this would be dangerous, I didn’t care. We were finally doing something, and that was the only thing that mattered.
A knock at the door startled me, and I was closest, so I got there first to open it. Ilia and Larissa were on the other side, and I remembered we were supposed to go to another school dance tonight. One to celebrate the end of exams.
They both looked over my all-black outfit: skinny jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and black boots. “Are we in stealth mode?” Ilia asked, chuckling.
She looked like a million bucks, dressed in a tight black dress that made the red of her lips and hair pop nicely. Her five-inch heels lengthened her legs, so she was basically as tall as Calen. Speaking of, Calen was on his feet in a heartbeat, stalking toward Ilia.
Those two had had a bit of a thing going on since the night in the pool. Ilia insisted it was just fucking, both of them scratching an itch. It was easy because we all spent so much time together, but … I wasn’t sure that was strictly true. There was a spark there, something that spoke of more than just animal attraction. Maybe not the same as what she’d had with Josh, but … it was definitely not nothing.
He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, and I heard whispers as Ilia draped herself across him. She was so sexy that he looked dumbstruck every time.
Larissa was extra gorgeous tonight too, her blond hair back in a braid, showcasing the delicate beauty of her face. “What’s going on?” she asked. She’d probably scented the nerves and determination in the room.
I tried to smile. “We’re going after Asher.”
She swallowed hard, her throat working. “But … Dad … he said that you…”
He’d clearly told her we’d asked to use the jet.
