by Lexi Blake
Her hand slipped from mine.
Daniel immediately moved in. “Summer, we don’t need to know anything you don’t want to tell us. You can come home with us and we won’t ask a single question. But you need to understand that telling us about your past won’t change a thing. I don’t care. All I want is you home and happy.”
“I’m glad to hear that, my king,” a deep voice said. I glanced to my right and Marcus walked up. Like Summer he was dressed in all black and looked ready to enter the matrix or something. “Taking Summer home and ensuring her happiness is my mission.”
Dev’s shoulders straightened in that “not with my daughter” way of his. I looked that faery right in the eyes. “Don’t you dare.”
Dev’s mouth firmed and I knew I was in for an argument.
Summer reached a hand out. Not to either of her fathers, but to Marcus. “Papa, I know you’re worried about Marcus, but I feel safer with him than I’ve ever felt with any male. I hope you can accept our relationship.”
Marcus’s lips curled up in a smile that let me know that relationship was not platonic. He brought her hand up to kiss it before holding it to his heart. “Yes, Devinshea. You should understand that Summer is the most important person in the world to me, and her safety and happiness are my highest priorities.”
“I am so glad to hear that.” I’d only thought my heart couldn’t get any fuller. Marcus had been longing for years. For all the time I’d known him there had been a deep sadness that marked his soul. Kelsey had made him happy for a while, but the satisfaction I saw on him now let me know this time it was right. Summer completed him.
It might have been different if she hadn’t looked at him like he was the sun in the sky.
“You were supposed to be in jail,” Dev complained. “I’m going to have a talk with that mercenary about allowing his prisoners to run wild.”
Daniel laughed, a sound I hadn’t heard in days. “I suspect Marcus found a way to be utterly discreet.”
From the blush that took over my daughter’s face I knew she’d spent some time in Marcus’s mind. I’d been a guest several times—mostly when Marcus wanted to take me away from physical pain or overwhelming grief. Marcus could take a person to places far away and every moment would be real.
Marcus had been so kind to us. He’d sheltered Daniel in the beginning, and then he’d offered up his immortal life to get a message to me.
Dev might fight it, but Marcus was already family.
“My king, we should talk.” Marcus sighed and got serious. “I believe we should take this time to update each other on what’s happening. Kelsey told me a bit, but she did it in her signature style, so I still have questions. And we have much to tell you as well.”
“Should I incapacitate the others?” Dev asked. “I can do it without killing anyone.”
I was certain he could, but I looked to my daughter for guidance. This was her life and her mission. Marcus would make the safest of calls, but perhaps not the right one. I wanted to give my girl what I so often hadn’t been given—a choice.
“No, Papa,” Summer said quickly. “I know Taggart arrested me, but his wife has been helpful. She’s done a lot of research. There’s some worry that I might be causing the problems the outer planes are having.”
Dean had explained what the convergences were. “Good. I’d like to speak to her.”
“That could be a problem,” Summer said with a wince. “She’s kind of unconscious, but according to Marcus, she’ll be okay.”
“She should wake soon,” Marcus explained. “She was hit with a heavy sedative. There are several factions we need to watch out for. Summer has made some powerful enemies.”
“I want to know everything.” Daniel had moved fully into protective dad. “Do we trust the mercenary? And who are the others?”
Marcus started giving Danny and Dev the rundown, but Summer took a step back. I followed her, moving slightly away from the men and nearer to the small stream that ran through this part of the forest.
“I can’t believe I’m here with you,” she said quietly. “There’s a part of me that wonders if maybe Marcus is doing this and I’m still in his head. I wonder if this is his way of making my last days more pleasant.”
“What does that mean?” I hated the desolation I heard in her voice.
“It means that there are several groups who wouldn’t mind executing me.” She gave me the saddest smile. “I’ve caused a lot of trouble, Momma.”
“Who hasn’t?” I joined her as she sat down on an overturned log. “You know what I used to do for a living.”
“I know. I kind of liked that I was following in your footsteps the first time I had to steal something.” She stared out at the stream.
“That’s what I don’t understand. Where did Haweigh take you? When we let you go it was to save you. I didn’t understand what was going on at the time. I thought the demon I was working for wanted you, and I couldn’t let him take you. It turned out what he really wanted was to use your father as his assassin and spy.” She gasped and I held a hand up. “It’s okay. I got us out of the contract, but you have to know if I’d thought you weren’t safe, if we’d known you were truly ours, we wouldn’t have let you go. I want to talk to Haweigh because she promised me you would be safe.”
“Haweigh’s dead,” Summer said, the color draining from her face.
“What? When? Did she get caught up with the witches?” I asked because I was fairly certain I’d seen the woman when we’d been caught in the convergence.
“It was a long time ago,” she said. “It’s why I bound my magic. I saw Dean was with you. Have you talked to him?”
Dean hadn’t mentioned anything about Haweigh. “Yes. He explained that you don’t have access to your magic, but he didn’t tell us why. But Summer, you are magic. It’s not like you’ve cut off a piece of yourself. You’ve cut yourself off from what you are.”
“What I am killed my tribe,” she stated flatly. “I didn’t listen to good advice, played with forces I couldn’t control, and they died.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “It was an accident then.”
“It was,” she allowed, “but I deliberately disobeyed my foster mother. She asked me to not play with those magics until I was older. I thought I knew better.”
“Are you sure she’s dead? You saw her body?” If we were dealing with a spirit, then I would have to consider how to handle the situation because I knew I’d seen her when the veil between worlds had thinned to the point of not existing.
“I saw the ashes that were left behind.” She stared down at the water. “I burned down my whole village all the way to the sea. All was ashes.”
“So you didn’t have bodies to bury.” I knew I should talk about lighter, happier things, but my instincts were tingling.
“No, there was nothing at all left. I was the only person who survived,” she said. “Well, besides Erna.”
Yes, there were my instincts proving they were still fully functional. “Erna was there?”
“She was my teacher at the time. Haweigh brought her in to tutor me on some of the finer arts of magic.”
“Why? You didn’t need spells.” She’d been able to do spectacular things when she hadn’t even been able to speak.
“But I did. Haweigh bound my magic as a child because I didn’t have control. I would think something and it would happen. Binding part of my magic meant I needed spells to use it.” Summer’s voice had gone quiet, forcing me to lean in so I could hear her. “Even bound I was told I gave off magic. When I was a child that magic fueled our village. When there was an uprising and I was a babe, I managed to shield our whole village from invaders. We survived the rebellion because of my magic. It’s why it hurts so much that it was my magic that killed them.”
My mind was racing because I didn’t like the fact that Erna had been there. I also had to find a way to explain to my daughter that this woman she respected greatly was doing something hella shady.
I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad tidings so early in our reunion, but a mother does what she has to do. “About Erna…”
I felt a crackle of energy and then there was a pop and Erna was standing in front of us.
I got to my feet and started to move in front of Summer.
“Momma, it’s okay,” Summer insisted. “This is Erna. She’s been my guide for ten years. Erna, this is…”
“I know who she says she is, child,” Erna said, staring a hole through me. “But she lies. She’s not your mother. She’s here to steal your power. She’s already worked a spell on Dean to make him turn against me, and now they want the book.”
“Hey, you’re the one who put a thrall stone in that kid’s head,” I countered. “You will stay away from my daughter.”
“Summer, you can’t believe anything she says,” Erna insisted, reaching out her hand. “It’s time for you to come with me and then we’ll talk about how to save the boy. Take my hand.”
That wasn’t happening. Not on my watch. I reached out to bat Erna away and felt a jolt of energy go through me.
Pain overtook me and I screamed as it felt like my whole body was on fire. Then the world went dark.
* * * *
Summer
I watched in horror as my mother’s body twitched and then dropped to the ground.
Panic overrode my confusion about what Erna had said. She was wrong. I knew the woman lying so still there loved me. I felt it deep in my soul. I felt her love for me the same way I was starting to feel Marcus’s.
Now I felt her death, and fear overtook me.
“Summer, you must come with me,” Erna said in a stern tone. “Now.”
I had dropped to my knees, putting my hands on my mother’s cheeks like a child who didn’t quite understand what was going on. “Momma?”
I felt heat around my throat, the charm warming against my skin, a pulsing reminder that I could remake this world. I could change the course of the next few moments and force the universe to do my will.
Except I couldn’t. Those chains had been forged so I couldn’t simply decide to drop the safety the charm offered. It wouldn’t come off until I was dead and then the glow of my magic—and the danger it brought—would be gone from the universe.
Like my mother would soon be gone.
I heard Marcus shout out my name as Erna jerked me upright.
“We have to go, you idiot girl,” Erna ordered.
I hadn’t heard that sneer in her voice in years. Not since she’d first come into my life. When she’d started my training there had been a deep bitterness to the woman, but she’d softened up as we’d become close. Now I remembered how she’d looked at me in the beginning. Like I was beneath her, like there was shame in teaching me when she should be held so much higher.
“I’m not leaving her.” I could hear the trees shaking as someone charged toward us.
The air around me sizzled as Erna brought up her hand, then everything seemed to go quiet. Marcus broke out of the tree line followed by my fathers. He was shouting, but I heard nothing.
“What are you doing?” I struggled in her grasp, but she was so strong, far stronger than I’d given her credit for.
“I’m saving you.” Her eyes were on the scene playing out in front of us. We were so close I could almost reach out and touch them, but it was obvious they couldn’t see or hear us. Erna had erected a barrier, much like the one she’d built around the brugh. No one could see us or hear us. “They are not who they say they are. They are sent by the witches to drag us all back to Arete.”
“No. That is my mother and father, and they aren’t here to hurt me.” I pulled but she held fast. My fathers were on the ground beside my mother. Marcus was standing just outside the barrier Erna had erected. He put a hand up like he knew something was there but couldn’t see it or feel it. I wanted so badly to reach out to him, to give him my hand and let him pull me to his side. “Didn’t Dean tell you? He searched my papa’s mind. There was no deception.”
My mother’s body shuddered and she sat up, her eyes wide with fright. I breathed easier as my dad took her in his arms and my papa joined Marcus. He stood over them, protecting them even while his eyes searched for me.
“Dean has been compromised,” Erna stated implacably. “They got to him in the time between when you were arrested and when they joined me at the brugh. I knew almost immediately that they’d done something to him. It was only later that I discovered they’d placed him in thrall. I can’t allow them to do that to you.”
She started to walk along the edge of the stream, hauling me along. I knew she was working some kind of magic because my feet weren’t touching the grass. I hovered a few inches off the ground and she pulled me along.
“What are you talking about? Momma said something about a thrall stone.” I knew of them, but only in a vague sense. I’d read a book or two that mentioned the dangerous practice. It was a way to influence others. Some leaders—the worst kind—forced their closest advisors to accept thrall stones in order to ensure loyalty. “I know it’s something Turi does. His whole plane is thick with them.”
Turi’s plane had once been a demonic shelter. Their bones could be found in the dirt and the sea. The more powerful bones were used in trade.
“Yes, and I suspect that’s where the deceivers obtained the stone they put in Dean,” she said. “If I’d allowed you to stay with them, they would have turned you this evening. They obviously want to control your magic. They want to convince you to take off the charm and then they will chain your magic to their persons and use you like a battery.”
“What?” It was a ridiculous notion to come from her since she’d been the witch who’d bound my magic. She knew the rules concerning the charm around my throat. “I can’t take it off. It’s there for life.”
“They don’t know that.” She stopped and looked at the tree in front of us. “That wasn’t here earlier.” She shook her head and started to move us around it. “You know how volatile you would be without the bindings. Perhaps they think they have found a way to remove it altogether and use you freely. All I know is I can’t allow you to fall into their hands.”
I didn’t believe a word she was saying. I knew my mother. I knew my father and his wounded heart. They would never use me. I didn’t need Dean’s powers to know they loved me. But I needed to figure out what Erna was doing and why she believed what she believed. She’d been my protector and guide for years. When I had no one else, I had Erna. She’d suffered with me for years when it would have been easier for her to leave me behind and get on with her life.
Behind us I could see Kelsey, Dean, and the mercenaries had joined the rest at the stream. And there was Kaja in her wolf form, her husband at her side. She raised her nose and then she was running after us as though she’d gotten a scent.
“What in all the planes?” Erna turned and cursed under her breath. “I swear the trees are moving.”
I would bet my papa was using his Green Man skills to trap us, though he couldn’t see us.
“Erna, something is wrong here. My parents don’t need my magic.” I was confused. I didn’t understand how things had gone so wrong. I should have talked to Dean the minute we met up, but I’d been too excited to meet my mom and dad. Now he was staying close to Kelsey as though he trusted her.
He closed his eyes and then pointed toward us. He couldn’t see us, but I was betting he could feel the power Erna was using.
“Everyone needs your magic, child. Yours is the most powerful magic in all the worlds.” Erna turned and started hauling me back in the woods. “It’s why it should never have been trusted to a child. It’s creation magic. Do you even know what you can do with it? Bah, it’s wasted on you.”
Anger started to war with the confusion. “You need to let me go. I’m willing to allow that there has obviously been some kind of mistake, but if you don’t clear it up, we’re going to have a problem.”
She stopped and glared my way. “We
already have several problems. That damn book went dead again and it’s trying to get away from me. I need you close by or I won’t be able to read it. Didn’t you want to read it, girl? You wanted that book so you could see Dean’s prophecy. Your new friend tried to steal it.”
“What do you mean it went dead?” I’d checked that book myself when I’d stolen it and it had been perfectly fine. I had run my hands along the pages and felt the power inside the book. I could have sworn it had hummed in my hands, and I’d had a feeling of satisfaction.
Kaja was running beside us, Kelsey hard on her heels. Dean had set them on the path, and they seemed determined to find us despite the fact they couldn’t see us. I could see that she was shouting something, but I still couldn’t hear her. It was like we had a bubble around us. I had to wonder if I could punch through the spell. Though I didn’t even seem to be able to get my arm out of her grasp or my feet on the ground.
“What in all the hells?” Erna stopped as a branch from an oak tree dipped down and blocked her way. Erna’s jaw went tight and she dropped my arm. “He’s in my head.”
Marcus. My vampire had figured out where we were, and he was playing his games again.
I was physically free, but I still couldn’t move. Something still held me off the ground in that bubble. “That’s Marcus. He’s got incredible powers of the mind. He won’t let you take me away from him.”
Her eyes flared as she scowled at me. “What have you done?”
The whole world seemed to shake, though I could see outside our bubble wasn’t affected at all as Taggart and Adam aimed at us and fired their sonic weapons.
“That’s where…” Devinshea’s voice could be heard momentarily.
They were breaking through.
“Erna, I know you’re scared, but they aren’t going to stop, and Marcus nearly made Dean gut himself,” I warned her. “Marcus believes I’m his mate. He’s a vampire. He’s not going to simply allow you to take me.”
