by W. J. May
Julian grinned and grabbed his coat, racing down the steps behind her. A minute later they were sitting side by side in her Porsche, holding hands as they shot towards the horizon.
Both Rae and Devon stared after them with matching smiles.
Their unlikely love story had blossomed into a bond so great, that to see things hurting between them had felt fundamentally wrong. Like trying to stand before remembering you’d forgotten your other leg. Now, it seemed that the balance had been restored.
“And what about you, Miss Kerrigan?” Devon spun her around for a sudden kiss, his blue eyes twinkling in the glorious sunset. “What would you like to do tonight?”
* * *
Freedom had been released somehow in the house. Maybe it was the interview, or the honesty that came out of it, or something else, Rae had no idea. She didn’t care. The house felt like there was hope in it again. A chance for a future despite everything.
Devon suggested the two of them turn in early that night and Rae didn’t argue. They disappeared up to their bedroom in an adolescent fit of whispers and muffled laughter. It was a good thing Beth was out for the night, as she would hardly have approved. It wasn’t until hours later, after the entire house had long since fallen asleep, that Rae suddenly opened her eyes.
“Devon?” she whispered, but he was out cold. Based on recent activities, it was safe to say that he’d be out for quite some time.
Quiet as a mouse she slipped out from under his arms, another task that would have proven impossible if she had not tired him out to the point of exhaustion. The second her feet hit the floor she conjured a silk bathroom and slipped it over her arms, glancing over her shoulder to make sure her fiancé was still asleep.
There had been something troubling her. Something that, despite its importance, she hadn’t been able to address in light of the last few days they’d had. She planned to remedy that now.
But not without a few precautions.
Closing her eyes to remember it as best she could, Rae held open her hand and conjured a syringe full of the same sedative that Gabriel had given her just a day before. It glowed slightly in her palm before cooling down to room temperature.
This is crazy, she thought to herself as she stared down at it in the dark. I can’t actually do this.
But as crazy as it was, it was something that couldn’t be put off even a second longer.
She had stopped time.
It had to be addressed. It couldn’t be fearfully shelved any longer, hoping that the immense weight of the power and the implications that followed would simply go away. It was time to see if she could do it again.
But minus the explosion this time.
Hence the sedative.
With a feeling of the utmost dread she stared down at her arm, unwilling to actually stick herself with the needle. Gabriel had been right again—she was afraid of them. She had been ever since she was a child.
Then Devon stirred on the mattress and she gritted her teeth with fresh determination. She couldn’t risk a repeat of the last time, when her system was too excitable and lost control. Not with Devon sleeping right there. Not with the rest of them sleeping just down the hall.
The simple answer was to just leave, but she was afraid to try it outside. What if she ended up freezing…the entire world? Or at least the part of it she could see. As far as she knew, the freeze had been limited to the kitchen simply because she was confined to its walls. She’d need to confine herself again if she wanted to test it out with any degree of sanity.
No, it was no or never. And one way or another, it had to be done.
Her Privy Council training kicked in, and she stuck the needle in a vein without a second thought. There was a slight burn as the drug raced up her arm. A burn she didn’t remember from when Gabriel had done it before.
Then all was quiet once more.
And now… I wait.
For the next few minutes Rae counted the seconds on the clock, feeling increasingly foolish the longer that nothing happened. Perhaps she wasn’t as talented a conjurer as she thought. Perhaps she’d shot herself up with nothing but a vial of colored saline, and the entire dreadful exercise had been for nothing.
But then, just as she was giving up all hope, her head wobbled forward onto her chest.
YES!
She jumped to her feet in celebration—not really thinking about the next few steps—only to go tipping backwards into the vanity. If it weren’t for the fact that she’d used Devon’s own tatù to noiselessly muffle the sound, he’d have woken up in an instant and caught her.
As it stood, he never moved. He slept on soundly as she tilted drunkenly in the middle of the floor, swaying her increasingly heavy arms for balance.
Okay, time to get this over with. Before I fall asleep.
Using as much concentration as her chemically-soaked brain would allow, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember exactly how she’d been feeling the first moment she’d used the ink.
It wasn’t easy.
So many things had been happening at once, that when it came bubbling up out of her it was simply a reflex. A desperate attempt to soothe all the chaos.
That’s it!
Every tatù had a trigger, and this one was no different. It wasn’t as much about stopping time as it was about finding some semblance of peace.
The second she thought the words—that’s when it happened.
Like a giant soothing pillow, arcing out in a bubble around her, time in the little mansion in Kent came to a sudden, peaceful stop.
Rae stared around in wonder, feeling the magic at work, but unable to tell if anything was truly different. Then she looked out the window, and saw a nightingale frozen in mid-air.
“Holy hell!” she whispered, clapping her hands over her mouth. A feeling of childish wonder came upon her and she tiptoed out the door, wandering through the rest of the house.
Sure enough, the entire mansion and everything around it had frozen in place.
How am I controlling this? How can I move and still have time frozen? This is huge. Like crazy, I’m even bigger than Rae Kerrigan-Simon Kerrigan’s daughter huge.
Dust particles had stilled in the air. The kitchen sink was frozen mid-drip. The hands on the clock weren’t moving. As she half-tripped back up the stairs, dying to show Devon, she suddenly remembered that he, too, had frozen in time.
She gazed down at him for a moment, swaying sleepily in place with a beaming smile on her face before leaning down suddenly to kiss his lips.
It was like kissing a statue. No give. No yield. Nothing like the soft lips she was used to.
But how deep does it go…?
Picking up one of her earrings from the vanity, she returned silently to the bed. Although there was no need for quiet anymore, she couldn’t help but whisper as she leaned over him.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” she breathed. “One more tiny sacrifice for the greater good.”
Then she reached down and poked the tip of his finger. Not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to break the skin. Her breath caught in her chest as she leaned over to examine it.
Nothing happened.
No reaction. No gasp of pain. No blood.
His entire body—from a cellular level—was completely frozen!
She realized it with a gasp of wonder, but had no time to revel. No sooner had she tossed the earring back towards the dresser than the entire world began to dim in and out of focus.
I’ve got to get to sleep, she thought sluggishly. But I’ve got to undo this first. Otherwise it could stay frozen for hours!
What if they can’t breathe while frozen? Could that be a side effect? She shook her head, not believing it.
She pulled in a deep breath and closed her eyes once more, willing the world to keep on moving as it had before. Before she’d undertaken this little experiment, she’d vowed not to use Camille’s power unless it was an absolute last resort. She’d used the time tatù to bring things to
a stop; she should be able to use it to speed things back up again.
It was the single hardest thing she’d ever done. A task that required every single bit of her quickly- dwindling strength and concentration.
Before she realized what was happening, a stream of blood dripped down from her nose. It was the same thing that happened to Julian when he was crushed with the strength of his visions. The world around her seemed to pulse in and out of focus, and for a second she didn’t think she’d be able to get it started again.
But then, before her very eyes, a tiny drop of blood appeared on the tip of Devon’s finger. It did so at exactly the same time that he jerked awake.
“What’s going on?” he mumbled sleepily. “What time is it?”
A damn good question.
Rae wiped her face quickly on her sleeve, dabbing away the blood before he could see it. By the time he squinted towards her in the dark, she was simply standing there—a look of wide-eyed wonder and absolute fatigue fixed comically upon her face.
“What’re you doing?” he asked again.
“…Nothing.”
He blinked. “Why are you wearing a bathrobe?”
“Why are YOU wearing a bathrobe?”
He wasn’t. It wasn’t her greatest defense.
He simply stared at her for a moment before rolling back over in bed. “You are the weirdest girl I’ve ever met.”
Oh, Devon…
She stared down at her hands in the dark.
…you have no idea.
* * *
The next morning, the entire house woke with no one being the wiser. The dot of blood rubbed unnoticed off Devon’s hand. The kitchen sink continued dripping as it always had. The clocks resumed their busy schedule.
Then just before afternoon, Rae woke up as well. This was done with great difficulty, and a lot of rather profane commentary as she forced open her eyes and threw herself out of bed.
Whatever sedative she’d given herself, it was not the same as the one Gabriel used. The one that made you fall blissfully to sleep and wake up symptom-free the next morning.
This was something different. Something worse.
Rae conjured up the first thing she could think of, and headed gingerly down the stairs. The rest of the gang was already in full-swing, giving her full access to the coffee maker.
She didn’t conjure a cup. She conjured a straw and stuck it inside the pot itself.
“Morning, sleepy-head.” Devon walked cheerfully inside from the back lawn, having heard her swearing-laced trip down the stairs. “You’re looking as beautiful as ever.”
Rae simply glared, cradling the pot like it was a newborn baby. When Julian and Angel strolled in behind him, walking hand in hand, she tilted her head to the side, in question.
“We made up,” Julian said simply, ever the gentleman.
“A few times,” Angel added with a pleased grin.
Rae rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but feel pleased. Despite what shenanigans she might have been up to, at least two people had a good night.
And on that note—
“This isn’t working.” She set down the pot and started heading back up the stairs. “I’m going back to bed.”
“What the heck are you talking about?” Devon laughed in surprise, catching her by the back of the hand. “It’s already two in the afternoon, and you just got up.”
“Trust me.” She yanked herself free. “I’ve got the time.”
But no sooner had she taken another step than she was waylaid again. This time, by a rather angry-looking Molly, who’d also just woken up, and who also hadn’t gotten much sleep.
“Oh, stop complaining,” she grumbled, grabbing Rae by the elbow and turning her sharply back around towards the kitchen. “At least you can still drink coffee. This little monster growing inside me won’t let me keep anything like that down.”
“It’s protecting itself from the caffeine,” Devon said wisely. “You know, if you would just read that book Jules and I got you about chemical transference during pregnancy, I really think you would start—”
“Unless you and Jules want to sleep outside from now on,” Molly smiled sweetly, “I suggest you don’t finish that sentence.”
Julian glanced between them and took a step away. “Leave me out of this.”
Things most likely would have escalated even further if Rae hadn’t chosen that very moment to slump over the back of the sofa, cursing England and everyone inside it.
“That’s the spirit,” Molly said encouragingly, propping her up with a grin. “Are you feeling pregnant, too?”
Rae simply shook her head with a groan, conjuring a shot of espresso at the same time.
If only Gabriel was in the room with her. He’d be the first one to recognize the symptoms. The first one to pull her aside and ask the question, “Rae Kerrigan, what have you done now?”
Except, from the sounds of it, Gabriel was finding himself rather busy.
A laughing shriek echoed through the window, and Rae glanced outside with a pair of bleary eyes. What she saw made her sit up straight and smile for the first time all morning—er, afternoon.
Alicia was back.
And Gabriel was thrilled. By the looks of things, he was trying to teach her how to fight. They had set up on the grass, going through various sparring exercises. Sparring exercises that seemed to consist of the two of them grasping onto each other as much as possible, while on occasion Alicia would ‘accidentally’ fall into his arms.
The four friends pressed their faces up against the window with matching smiles. Angel, the fifth, put her makeshift hat back on with a glare.
Devon nudged Julian with a grin. “You and I sure didn’t learn to spar like that.”
Julian shook his head. “It would have made for a far different relationship if we had.”
“Oh please,” Molly injected with a snort of laughter, “you guys would have turned out basically the same.”
She and Rae exchanged a quick confirming nod before Rae turned her gaze back out to the lawn. The two were standing still now, their heads bent together with gigantic smiles as Gabriel showed her how to make a proper fist.
“I’ve never seen him like this,” she murmured, her heartwarming at the very sight.
“Me neither.” Devon seemed greatly relieved at the prospect—for reasons Rae could only assume had a lot to do with her.
The two of them shared a grin, but not everyone was so thrilled with the budding romance.
“Well, I think it’s shameful,” Angel declared. “Imagine—Gabriel ending up with a girl who can’t even throw a left hook.” With that she stomped off towards the kitchen, muttering something under her breath about people not having the decency to ‘pay homage’ and ‘ask permission’ from ‘the family.’ The way she was ranting, she made their little mansion family sound a bit like the mafia.
The four remaining friends held in their laughter until she was safely out of the room, letting loose and turning back to the window. Apparently, Gabriel and Alicia had moved on to stretches now. ‘Stretches’ that were enough to make everyone still standing inside blush.
“Does Gabriel know she went through training like all the rest of us?” Julian finally asked.
“I think he decided to selectively forget.” Rae grinned. “And I think that Alicia selectively decided to not tell him. At any rate, don’t spoil their fun. Heaven knows they’ve earned it.”
But, as usual, such things were never meant to last.
The two of them looked up with a start as a dark car with tinted windows headed slowly down the drive. The gravel dusted up ominously behind it, like a foreboding cloud, as they headed to the front steps. Rae and the rest of the gang headed outside to the driveway. Together, they waited.
The car parked, and after what seemed like a long time the window cracked down.
“President Kerrigan?”
The glare from the windows reflected painfully into Rae’s eyes and she stepped forwar
d with a wince—Devon by her side. “Figures the creepy car is for me,” she muttered.
Devon whispered so only she could hear, “Just wait till they come out.”
She shook her head slightly. She was the president of the Privy Council. She wasn’t privy to waiting when someone called her name. “Who’s that?” she called from a few yards away. Years of experience had taught her not to get any closer. Already, she was contemplating getting a security code for the gate.
There was a slight pause, then the window lowered some more. A second later she was able to see inside.
“Mr. Keene?” she asked questioningly.
Louis Keene had filled in as President of the Privy Council for Carter during the brief time that he’d been excommunicated by Victor Mallins. But, unlike his position might suggest, Keene was a good man. A fair man. And a capable man at that.
His lava tatù was one that Rae was still afraid to try.
“Good afternoon, Rae.” He was one of the few to respect her request to be called by her first name. “I’m sorry to drop by unannounced, but I come at the behest of the Council. They have a special favor to ask. One for which you are uniquely qualified.”
Rae took a step back, feeling a bit nervous and wildly unprepared. “Um…okay. What is it?”
The window rolled down the rest of the way, and she was able to see the other man sitting beside Keene.
Her jaw dropped to the ground.
At the same time, Devon sucked in a sharp breath.
“Dad?” Rae asked.
Chapter 12
“I’m sorry, am I missing something here?” Rae looked between her father and the vice president of the Privy Council, in shock. All that seemed to be missing was Cromfield himself between the two of them to complete the world’s most unlikely trio. “Are we all joyriding together now?”
What’s the point in having a psychic for a best friend, if he doesn’t see THIS coming? She shot Julian the thought mentally, hoping he got it.
Devon elbowed her hard in the back—hard—the way he always did when she failed to show the proper respect to those in positions of authority. But she ignored him. This time, it was a fair question. Even Keene had the wherewithal to look embarrassed. Sitting beside him, Simon merely smiled.
