Magical Redemption

by Jaliza A. Burwell

“I can hear the sarcasm, Shanton.”

  “Then I’m not doing my job, because sarcastic is not what I’m feeling.”

  I reached out and grabbed his arm. He stopped and glared at my hand. I didn’t let him go like he probably expected.

  “Just tell me,” I said.

  “No.”

  “Shanton. We are out here in the middle of nowhere. Just tell me.”

  He stepped forward until he crowded me, and I had to tilt my head up to look at him. “I’m pissed at you, Laila. Livid.”

  “You’ve been doing a good job of hiding it.”

  His nose flared. “I’m over two thousand years old, I’ve had a ton of practice in patience. And since meeting you, you’ve done nothing but push my limit. What you did was reckless. What were you expecting? To just come out here and find them on your own? Padraig almost got you killed. You aren’t fully healed from that.” He moved closer until I was forced to take a couple of steps back, but Shanton was on fire now. I had pushed him and now he was unloading it all off on me. “You have a whole team of us willing to jump through hoops for you and yet you ignored every single one of us to come out here, and you know nothing about this land, about its dangers. You could have gotten yourself killed, and I’m not so sure you fully understand that. Why did you run off like that? And don’t throw those crappy excuses at me.”

  “They aren’t crappy excuses, they’re the truth,” I snapped, ignoring Siitha’s whine.

  Shanton snorted. “No. They’re crappy excuses because you refuse to admit you’re wrong. You’re trying to explain it off as if it makes sense. It doesn’t. You ran into the wild, chasing after dangerous men who have killed dozens of people. They don’t have remorse. And when they caught you—because they would have caught you, don’t delude yourself into thinking otherwise—they would have killed you. But not before making you wish you were dead. That’s what they do. You were practically going to hand yourself off to them, and you didn’t bother telling a single soul back at Springer about it.”

  “Well, I’m so sorry I’m not an old man like you and have thousands of years under my belt. I made the decision I made with the information I had. If I told anyone, they would have made me stop.”

  “You don’t know that! And that’s the fucking problem. You are not invincible. I’d think the break-in would have taught you that at least, but you’re too damn hard-headed to see it.”

  “See what?”

  “That you have people who fucking love you now!”

  My mouth shut so hard that I bit my tongue. The sharp sting didn’t compare to the shock running through me.

  “None of us are dating you for fucking shits and giggles. We love you. We care about you. You aren’t alone anymore. But you don’t see that. You refuse to notice us all panting after you. Frankly, half the time I wonder why I bother.”

  His words were a twist to my heart.

  “Why do you?” I asked in a soft voice. This was it. He’d had enough of me. I wouldn’t fault him for it either. I steeled my heart for the break it was about to go through. I hadn’t realized how much I cared for Shanton until this moment. We hadn’t had enough time together for me to explore those emotions deeply enough.

  “You make me feel young, Laila. I’m an old man, and I’ve become jaded. At first you were something fun, someone to use to rile up Dwight. But the more time I spent with you, talked with you, it changed. You have a way of looking at life that I had lost a very long time ago. I can’t look at something and see possibilities anymore, not in the way that you do. I see business deals, money signs. Not hope, not belief, or kindness. I don’t create devices and wonder how it’ll help people, keep them safe. I do it for profit. I don’t give anything away without getting something in return. You know that about me. But when I’m with you, that shit doesn’t matter. If it’d make you happy, I’d give everything I have away. You make me want to do that. So when you go off chasing after dangerous men without a second thought about the people you’re leaving behind, that pisses me the fuck off.”

  He blew out a breath and stalked off, leaving me standing there and staring after him like an idiot.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Conversation didn’t exist between us. Even a day later. Last night, Shanton had shoved me up a massive tree while he and Siitha patrolled down below. I barely got any sleep, partly because I kept expecting the tree to eat me, but also because my heart hurt. Shanton hated me, and I only had myself to blame.

  Once the sun came up enough to see through the darkness, I came back down. He didn’t look at me, let alone say anything as we continued our hike. We pushed forward until we came to a stream.

  “We’ll stop here. Rest up and then we’ll make another push.”

  Shanton stalked off into the dense trees, leaving me to stare after him.

  “Do you think he hates me?” I asked Siitha. He ignored me as he went over to the stream and lapped at it.

  I went up next to him and rinsed my hands off, enjoying the feel of the cool water against my fevered skin. It was hot out, and I didn’t want to worry about draining my magic when I was about to go through an awakening. If I hadn’t had that fear, I’d have used it to keep me cooled off. Instead, I was soaked in sweat, and my clothes were plastered to my skin. I didn’t want to think about how I probably smelled.

  After glancing around and noting that Shanton wasn’t nearby, I removed my shirt and pants. The water was cool against my skin and I smiled as I went a little deeper. Siitha splashed around as he stayed at my side. I trusted that if anything bad came for me, he’d yank me out of the water. Once the water went up to my thighs, I sat down, not wanting to go deeper. That would be asking for trouble.

  It didn’t take long to rinse off and when I finally went to shore, I felt a hundred times better. I caved and used a little bit of magic to dry my underwear before putting on my cleanest outfit. The moment Siitha came to my side with a gleam in his eyes, I knew I should have waited.

  “Don’t you dare,” I warned, pointing at him.

  He came closer, and I tried stepping back. It didn’t matter as he did that annoying body shake to dry off. Water sprayed all over, and I let out a little girly scream as I covered my face.

  “Oh, you are in so much trouble.” I charged after my big fluff ball. He moved away from me, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. I never thought I’d see a kitty smile, but I got a close-up from mine.

  This time, when I went after him, he didn’t move and let me tackle him as best as I could. I was pretty sure he only lay down because he wanted to play and not because of anything I did. Before I knew it, I was on my back and his head was on my chest as he carefully pinned me. Then he commenced to lick my face.

  “Stop.” I laughed, trying to push him off. He made what sounded like a barking noise and bit my clothes, giving it a tug. “Don’t do that.” I swatted his head. “You’re going to tear my clothes, and I don’t have enough for you to destroy.”

  He ignored me. Of course.

  I managed to roll on top of him, but he used his legs to hug me as he tried to gnaw on my clothes. Siitha was so careful with me, making sure to keep his claws retracted and his barbed tails away from me.

  We would have probably stayed at it if it weren’t for a loud roar. For a moment I thought it was Shanton, but it didn’t sound anything like him.

  Siitha rolled us over and jumped in front of me as another creature broke out of the woods and into the small clearing.

  I gasped, taking in the figure. He was the size of a pony, with deadly red eyes. The fur was a depthless black, and I only knew of one person with fur like that. The air grew heavy with electrical energy as he snarled and charged toward us, wisps of smoke rising from his body.

  “Wait!” But neither of them listened as Siitha charged to the black creature, refusing to back down. They smashed together and rolled, their teeth snapping at each other as they snarled and fought.

  “Dwight!” I screamed at the enormous pony-sized dog
. “Stop it. Both of you.”

  Neither listened as they tried to tear the other’s throat.

  “Back up,” Shanton said, at my side now. I didn’t know where he’d come from. He grabbed my arm and yanked me back.

  “We have to stop them.”

  “They’ll stop on their own. It’s too dangerous to be near them when they’re like this.” Shanton continued to drag me away and I couldn’t fight against him. My heart was in my throat as the two of them went after each other. Behesiff versus Black Dog. I didn’t want to know who would win that fight.

  Both were determined, jaws snapping as they jumped and rolled around, using their monstrous frames to try to get the upper hand. My fear choked me as the two of them tried to tear each other apart. Desperation swelled low in my stomach and boiled up.

  Something needed to be done.

  One of them let out a yelp, but I couldn’t see who it came from. They never stopped. I kept thinking Dwight was going to tear Siitha apart, especially since he could hold his own against dragons. But Siitha was determined to win, and he was unrelenting.

  “They need to stop,” I whispered, my heart aching. If no one stopped them, someone was going to die, and I refused to lose anyone.

  “If I get in on this, I’ll make it worse,” Shanton said with a scowl as his eyes tracked their movements.

  They slammed into a tree, causing it to shake and the ground to rumble in anger.

  “And if they don’t stop, then Nature will step in, and I think none of us want that.” I warily watched the tree and its surrounding roots, expecting them to rise at any moment to wrap around the two fighting like cats and dogs.

  I snorted and bit back the laugh. If I were to release it, I knew it was going to come out sounding manic.

  “What?” Shanton asked, giving me a cursory glance.

  “My kitty against my doggy,” I said, already distracted as my magic gathered in me.

  If they weren’t going to stop and Shanton wasn’t going to help, then I was going to have to do this myself. Dwight managed to chomp down on Siitha when I shot out my magic at them. Before Siitha could retaliate, they were lifted up into the air.

  “I was expecting your root trick this time around,” Shanton said.

  “You felt the ground rumbling, Nature is pissed at them. I didn’t want to risk the roots deciding to kill them instead. Remember Tobias?” I shuddered. When we went through the caves, we had gone against Tobias. I had called upon the rocks to help us in a cavern and they rose up with retribution, taking it one step further and killing the pestas instead. I was devastated at the outcome, and hated myself for it. I’d never killed someone before.

  Dwight and Siitha floated in the air, still growling at each other.

  “Enough!” I snapped and made sure to add a little bite into my magic to break through their bloodlust long enough to hear me. It worked as their growling was cut off and their furious eyes focused on me.

  “Dwight Lombardi, shift back right now and stop making a fool out of yourself. That’s my behesiff, Siitha, and I won’t let you try to kill him.”

  Energy filtered through the air before Black Dog turned into the familiar naked shape of Dwight. My eyes betrayed me as they wandered over his body, taking in his sweat coated skin covering muscles and barely containing his strength.

  “Siitha, do not attack this man. He’s one of mine.” I glared at Siitha and that seemed to do the trick as his ears flattened against his head and his tails lowered. A soft whine came from him.

  After determining they were properly chastised, I lowered them to the ground. I was prepared to check on Dwight’s wounds, but he had other ideas as he appeared in front of me in the blink of an eye and then squashed me against his chest.

  “Never again,” he said, Black Dog still at the surface as he growled. “Never fucking again. If you try to run, I’m chaining you to a leash.” He pulled away and commenced to pat me down, checking to make sure I still had all my limbs, fingers, and toes.

  “I’m fine,” I said and he still nearly pulled my pants down to make sure. “Dammit, Dwight. I’m fine. Stop trying to strip me naked.”

  Siitha growled in warning and pushed himself between us. Dwight growled, and Siitha just returned with a good one of his own. They were not going to be friends anytime soon.

  “Dammit, Boss, why did you take off like that? We completely lost you…” Davies trailed off as his eyes widened when they met me. Slowly, a grin stretched across his face. “Babe, fancy seeing you here.”

  He swooped in and spun me around as he drew me into a hug. My breath was stolen as he held me close. “You fucking scared us all when you disappeared. You can’t fucking do that.” Anger slipped into his voice and still he peppered my face with kisses until his lips claimed mine in an all-consuming, soul-crushing kiss.

  I blinked furiously as it all settled in, exactly what I’d done. I was so razor focused on the hunt, that I had too easily dismissed my men. I heard others and though I couldn’t see with Davies burying my face in his chest, his thick arms blocking my sight, I knew that all of them were here. All the guys had left Springer City to hunt me down.

  “Hi, big man,” I said patting his hand, trying to get him to let me go. He finally loosened his grip on me. Briefly meeting Shanton’s eyes, I shook my head at the I-told-you-so look on his face.

  “You gave me a fucking heart attack, Laila,” Davies said “You left us, took off, told no one. I’m a human, Baby, my heart can and will give out if you scare me like that again.”

  I wrapped my arms around him and rubbed his back, trying to calm him down. “I’m sorry,” I said against his chest “I didn’t mean to scare you.” I kept reassuring him for a few more minutes until the others grew impatient and I was passed around from person to person.

  My initial thoughts were correct, everyone was here. Davies, Rhett, Alijah, Elliot, Dwight, and Venni. They all managed to track me down. Like Davies, they all needed reassurance too. I was surprised when my eyes met nearly black ones. The Blackfoot brothers. Now I knew who Shanton had been talking about.

  The Blackfoot brothers were Hale and Tek, though that wasn’t their real names. They didn’t share their full names because it gave the person power over them. Hale was the nice one, Tek the grumpy one. They stayed back with blank expressions as the guys hugged, kissed, and cursed me out all at the same time.

  They were relieved and furious. I didn’t have a frame of reference for their emotions, but I sure felt the intensity of them as they reassured themselves that I was with them again.

  It took some time for them to calm down and when they did, I had an opportunity to talk, so I asked, “What are you guys doing here?”

  Davies grinned big. “Did you really think we’d miss our Saturday date night?”

  I blinked a couple of times as I realized it really was Saturday and at this point, I’d be getting ready to go to dinner with everyone. That drew a laugh out of me and I didn’t stop for a while.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “No. No, no, no, and no. And if that wasn’t clear enough, then let me add in fuck no.” Davies paced in the cave as he glared at everyone and no one at the same time.

  After I had stopped laughing like a maniac, Hale and Tek kindly pointed us in the right direction to get to a cave. Once everyone filed in, we settled down, and Shanton and I spent the rest of the time filling them in on our journey. None of them were taking it well. Davies was just the only person who couldn’t hide it. He was fuming.

  “We can help,” Hale said.

  He and his brother stood off to the side, giving us as much privacy as they could. The fire Shanton had created flickered shadows against the stone walls, and the two of them were nearly hidden. The Blackfoot brothers looked almost the same, the only difference being that the grumpy brother, Tek, was slightly shorter, a little wider, with an extra layer of muscles than his brother. Both had long black hair they kept back in a braid. Neither believed in shirts, opting to show off
their dark skin and lithe bodies. Both were tall, slightly shorter than Davies, and Davies was a tall man at six-five.

  “How so?” I asked.

  “We can create the ward. Kokumthena will help us,” Hale answered. Kokumthena was the Shawnee word for Mother Nature. It didn’t surprise me that they would be able to call upon her to help them. They were close with Nature and because of their gifts were able to act as Shanton’s go-to guides when he was out here. I should have guessed that they were the ones he had planned to meet with us when we originally planned to leave the Elementalist lands.

  “Take your concoction,” Tek said, speaking for the first time. “We will make sure to contain this explosion.”

  “Okay,” I replied. Tek wasn’t even scowling at me. During our initial meeting, he took the Master Scowler name easily enough.

  “No,” Davies said. “Not okay. This can kill her.”

  “Then we need to make sure we do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t,” Dwight spoke up.

  “Laila, is this what you really want?” Elliot asked. I could see the nervousness in his eyes, but he wasn’t going to speak out against me on something like this.

  “I feel like if I don’t, it’ll be my biggest regret in life, and I fought for too long to live with regrets. I keep wondering what I could do if I was at my full potential. The type of toys I could create, the people I can help. If I can do that, then yes, I want this.”

  “Okay. Then we’ll make sure you come out of it alive. Did they give you a mortality rate? This doesn’t sound safe at all.”

  Shanton and I exchanged glances before I admitted to news they weren’t going to take well.

  “One in ten.”

  “Fucking great,” Davies muttered.

  “And do they have preventative methods?” Elliot said after sending Davies a glare.

  “They don’t know what’s causing the deaths,” Shanton said. “They’ve been looking into it, trying to find common connections, but it’s been random for them, as far as they’ve been able to figure out.”