by May Dawson
Airren shakes his head. “I don’t think we should use the same portal twice. The king will be looking for us.”
“Where will this spit us out?” Rian asks.
“In Deplae. We’ll have to portal to get the shield to your sister,” Airren said grimly. After all, portaling landed them in a jail cell once. “You and Tera should stay here. Your father wants you more than he wants anyone else.”
“Why should Tera stay here?” Rian asks, frowning. “Is she in more danger than—”
“I want her to stay here so you will,” Airren tells him.
Rian rolls his eyes, but doesn’t protest. Mycroft leads the way up a narrow set of stairs to the second floor tarot shop, which is over a grocery store.
“You again?” A woman demands. She wears a purple scarf over her gray hair, and a long purple dress. She fixes Mycroft with a dark look.
“It’s been years,” he tells her. “I’m surprised you’re still in business.”
She snorts. “No thanks to you.”
Penny pops out from behind my knees, and she takes a step back, gasping.
I rest my hand in the ruff of Penny’s fur. She looks like a dog right now.
“True sight.” Airren elbows me. “She sees through Penny. Some people find it distressing to have a dragon around.”
“If they had to flee Avalon for their crimes, at least,” Mycroft says. He sticks his finger in her face. “I’ll be back soon. If those two aren’t where I left them, I’m coming back to kill you.”
Well, that’s chilling.
“Maybe we’ll wait across the street,” I say, catching Rian’s hand. “I saw a coffee shop.”
I don’t like allowing the guys to leave us behind, but it’s true the king is probably focused on finding Rian more than anyone else. Splitting up makes the most sense.
The room we’re in is dark and close and smells of incense. A laptop with a square reader glows at a desk against the wall.
The woman takes her seat on the other side of the table, which holds a crystal ball and a set of tarot cards. Her movements are dignified, as if she hasn’t just heard a death threat from my grouch. She spreads the cards as she looks up at us. “Care for a reading to pass the time? Only fifty dollars for you.”
“I think we’d rather be surprised,” Rian said drily.
Airren and Mycroft are already tearing down the the black and purple silk she has pinned to the wall. She rests her head in her hands, sighing, as they reveal a plain, cracked white wall.
While the two of them are still yanking the fabric down, Cax presses his hands to the wall. It ripples and cracks under his hands, and then sunlight brightens the small room.
“Remember what I said,” Mycroft says, shouldering the shield. “And you two, don’t touch anything.”
“What does he think we are?” Rian leans close to me to whisper. “I’m the heir to the throne—if I can live long enough to take it.”
“It means he cares,” I whisper back. “If he’s bossy, he must like you.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Does that make you feel better about it?”
“Not particularly, no.”
Cax blows me a kiss before he steps through the portal. Mycroft doesn’t look back. Airren gives us each a grim nod. Then he’s gone too. The portal ripples and then closes.
“Wait.” The fortune teller is on her feet. “What was that? That Mycroft was carrying?”
Rian and I exchange a look.
“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “None of your business.”
“I’ve seen it before,” she mutters. Her fingers dance over the crystal ball. Magic crackles inside, glowing white and silver.
“Do you have magic?” I demand.
A sly smile crosses her lips. “Why do you think I live on top of a rip?”
I take the seat across from her, curious about what she’s looking for in the crystal ball.
“Careful,” Rian says warningly, resting his hand on my shoulder. “Anything in the ball could be a lie. If you take it too seriously—”
People in Avalon are terrified of false predictions. When magic is so real, so everyday, false predictions have led people to do strange, dark things, or even to kill themselves to avoid the fate they imagine.
“I won’t,” I promise.
Her smile widens. “Touch the ball, child.”
“No thanks.” I smile back at her, then lean forward, examining the crystal.
In the swirling image, Merlin walks along a man with a crown and a beard, dressed in old-fashioned armor—is that Arthur?—who carries the Shield of Everlach. They climb a mountain into a swirling sky, where magic rages like a storm.
The two of them embrace. Arthur hands Merlin his sword.
Then Arthur falls through the rip.
I gasp as I straighten. Wait, is that how Arthur handled the rips in the first place? Using the shield to sever the two worlds?
And—that’s how he died? Saving our world from the rips?
Does someone always have to die?
“What is it?” Rian demands. “Tera, are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I push back from the table. “It’s just a story.”
Rian shoots the fortune-teller a dark look—even though my reaction is not really her fault—and draws me out of the room into the narrow hallway at the top of the stairs. From here, I can see the way out to the sunshine seeping through the window, and it makes my breathing hitch in relief just as I realize my heart is racing.
“Tera.” Rian rests his forehead against mine, and his strong arms close around my waist. I sway against him. Some of my tension ebbs away when he touches me. He whispers, “What did you see?”
“It might be a lie,” I whisper back. “You can’t tell them until we know.”
He frowns, cocking his head to one side. “Why would you keep anything from them?
I know, I know. Lies have never helped us in the past. But I think Airren and Mycroft are concealing some of the truth. Airren’s recent melancholy makes sense as the pieces fall into place.
Hopefully, we can seal the rips with the Shield.
But if we can’t, if a greater magic is needed…
He’s preparing to say goodbye.
The thought makes my heart twist in my chest. But my voice comes out steady when I tell Rian, “Because if what I saw is the truth, I’m pretty sure Airren plans to kill himself to save the world if there’s no other way to seal the rips.”
And if he knows I know, he’ll try harder to give us the slip. My best chance at saving him is if he doesn’t know what I know.
“The shield is supposed to give people the ability to control the rips,” he says slowly. “Surely there’s another way to seal them.”
“Let’s just do some research first,” I say. The thought of losing Airren bites into my soul. “Then we’ll tell them what I saw, okay? If there’s any validity to it? I wasn’t supposed to see into that ball anyway, and you know how fortune tellers are.”
He looks back at me, his lips pursed, as if he hates the idea. Then he says, “Alright. For now.”
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“When you look at me that way,” he tells me, tilting my chin up to his face, “I’d do anything for you. I’d give up my kingdom.”
I’d give up anything for him and the others, too. But it’s easy for me to say. I don’t have anything to lose.
Or at least, I didn’t have anything to lose before I met them.
He presses his lips to mine. He kisses me with reckless, sweet need, as if I’m his life, as if he really would throw away his wealth and his crown for this love. When my lips caress his, I taste the sweetness of peppermint—and truth.
I kiss him back just as eagerly, and the two of us stumble against the wall across from the fortune teller’s shop.
Rian’s arms cage me against the wall, not that I want to escape. He pauses, and his chest rises and falls with his desire as he gazes at me with those deep gray eyes. The mask of the
easygoing playboy prince has fallen away. This is the hero who has saved hundreds who gazes at me like I’m the most perfect thing he’s ever seen.
He buries his face in my shoulder, kissing my neck, and my fingers twine in his hair. His lips devour me, kissing and suckling my skin, and need pools low in my belly. I know we can’t satisfy it here, but my head falls back, and he sways between my thighs. No matter what the future holds, I can lose myself in him, in this moment.
There’s a ripping sound, like silk tearing, in the fortune teller’s office.
“Where are they?” Mycroft sounds dangerous, but then he always does.
“They’re making out,” she says. “Good grief. To all of you!”
Mycroft strides out into the hall. His eyes brighten when he sees us, full of relief.
“We’ve done it,” he said. “The princess will keep the shield safe. Hopefully, her people are able to begin to heal the rips. She asked us to hide a while longer.”
Hopefully.
I’m still tense, straining to see behind Mycroft. Then Airren steps out from behind him.
For a second, even though it makes no sense, I feared he stayed back in Avalon to save the world, that I’d never get to see him again.
I fling myself into his arms, and he staggers back, laughing as he catches me around the waist.
“I thought we were just gone for a few minutes,” he murmurs into my ear. His fingers tangle in my hair as he holds me close to his body, and I breathe in the scent of his aftershave, warm and spicy. “I didn’t expect such a greeting.”
He squeezes me back so tightly that he lifts me off my toes, and I laugh.
It seems like we’ve won, but it doesn’t feel right.
It can’t possibly be that easy.
Chapter 23
That night, back in our hotel room, the guys turn on a football game. Apparently, they find the whole concept hilarious. Even Mycroft laughs when someone gets sacked on the television.
Shaking my head, I catch Rian’s hand and tug him away. “Have you heard from Devlin?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I’ve been trying to reach out to him.”
I rake my hand through my hair. “I’m so worried about him.”
“He’s the Fox,” he reminds me, twining his fingers in my hair the same way Devlin does. Although they’re so different in some ways, they share so many of the same gestures, the same mannerisms. They studied each other to pick up the same mannerisms, to make the Fox into one person.
Now that I know what to look for, the Fox is always there:: it’s in the way they lean in a doorway, the slow, teasing smile, the way they look at me as if they see right through me.
I still don’t know which one of them I was with when they were the Fox. It’s so hard to figure out sometimes where Rian leaves off and Devlin begins; it’s almost as if they’re brothers, like twins, even though they come from different families, different countries.
I chew my lip, still worried, and Rian reminds me, “Devlin and I are well-versed at getting ourselves into and out of trouble, don’t forget.”
“I know.” I try to make myself smile. “I guess I won’t feel…right…until we’re all together.”
“Then we’ll make that happen,” Rian promises me, no matter how impossible it might be.
My lips twist. We’re all trying to be honest with each other, aren’t we? But it’s in the nature of these men to make impossible promises, and to keep dangerous secrets. They want to protect me and spoil me.
It’s sweet. But it’s not what I need.
“Tera?” Rian asks.
I shake my head. “You were right. In the fortune teller’s shop. We shouldn’t be keeping any secrets.”
“Oh,” he says. His face is troubled as he shoves his hand into his pocket. “Usually, I feel more excited when someone tells me I’m right.”
He makes me smile, no matter what else is on my mind. I lean up on my tiptoes to graze his cheek with a kiss.
These few days feel like a respite, and seeing Rian bond with Cax, Mycroft and Airren means so much to me.
He catches me with a hand in the small of my back, firm and possessive, and turns to capture my lips with his. I deepen the kiss, savoring his mouth against mine, then break away.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I say, “I have some secret-keeping men to scold.”
He raises his hands in a placating gesture, his expression playful. “I don’t want any of that.”
I grin at him over my shoulder as I head back toward the television.
“Yes!” Cax shouts, at the same time as Airren groans, rubbing his hand over his face. Mycroft just grins again. Someone must have gotten hurt.
“Is there some kind of enchantment on—” I start to ask, staring at the screen, which doesn’t seem all that exciting. Then I cut myself off. I grab the remote off the coffee table and hit the power button.
The three of them exchange a look.
“What’s up, Tera?” Cax asks first.
“True or false.” I toss the remote at Airren, and he sits up as it hits his abs, catching it with one hand. He frowns at me. “To seal all the rips, someone has to sacrifice themselves.”
The guilt that passes over Airren’s face tells me everything I need to know.
“Really?” I demand in exasperation. “You looked me in the face and promised me there were no more secrets. No more lies.”
“I don’t intend to sacrifice myself if I can help it,” he said. “But in the end, it makes the most sense. Rian and Devlin have to take the throne. Mycroft has his mother to take care of. None of them are disposable.”
I rest my hands on his thighs, which tighten under my grip, as I lean in close to him. My voice comes out low and fierce. “You are not disposable, no matter what your awful family made you think.”
“I noticed I was not mentioned as having anything in particular to live for,” Cax notes. “I was disowned and lost my family fortune, after all.”
Mycroft leans over to him. “If I were you, I’d sit very silent and avoid eye contact and hope you don’t get your head torn off too.”
“I’m not saying I’m disposable,” Airren says. He caresses my cheek with the back of his hand; his eyes have gone soft. “I don’t want to leave any of you. But if someone has to end things, to save our world, the five of you could go on without me. You could be happy, T. That’s all I want.”
“I’d never stop missing you,” I tell him. “Never. We’ll find another way.”
Something changes in his eyes, and I have to wonder—did he really not realize that? That I need him?
“We’ll do our best,” he promises me. “But if the power of the Shield as-is isn’t enough to seal the rips one-by-one in time, if higher magic is needed—”
“I’m disposable too, you know,” I interrupt him. “Sacrificing my life make the most sense. I had nothing before I met the five of you—no magic, no family, nothing. No one would mourn me but you all and Stelly.”
Anger sparks in Airren’s eyes. “No.”
“Find another way,” I tell him. “Because if someone is dying, it might as well be me.”
The two of us stare into each other’s faces, tension pulled tight as a string between the two of us.
“You two, knock it off,” Cax says. “We’ll find another way. We always figure something out. Remember?”
“You promised me you wouldn’t lie to me again,” I tell Airren. “I asked if you were keeping something from me.”
“I’m not going to apologize for trying to protect you,” he says. We’re still so close, and his blue eyes are bright and unapologetic. Of course. Airren always thinks he’s right.
He goes on, “I knew you’d react exactly the way you are. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to see a world without you in it, Tera Donovan. You are my whole life. My light.”
“I feel the same way about you, you insufferable jackass.”
His eyes crinkle at the corners, and he leans toward me, his h
and rising to my cheek.
“Oh hell no.” I point my finger at him as I pull away from his touch. “Kisses are for the men who trust me. Not the ones who ‘protect’ me.”
“Tera,” he says, his voice exasperated.
“You can go back to your football game. I’m going to make out with Rian, because he hasn’t pissed me off lately.”
Behind me, I can hear Cax laugh, then the muffled thump as Airren punches him in the arm.
It makes me smile, right before I catch the front of Rian’s shirt and tow him behind me to keep my promise.
The two of us are trading wild kisses when suddenly, Rian pulls away. I stop too, my heart suddenly beating fast.
You need to get back to Avalon, Devlin whispers into my ear, his voice hot. But you need to know what you’re going back to.
Rian looks at me, his eyebrows rising, and I can tell he’s got the prince of Vasilik in his ear too.
You’re not going to congratulate me on winning our ‘race’? I demand.
No. His voice is impatient. The war you started just turned into an apocalypse.
What the hell are you talking about? Rian demands.
You’d better see it for yourself.
Devlin must be able to feel my hesitation from here.
I’ll meet you, Tera. I’ll show you what you need to see before you go back there.
Why? I demand. But I’m already heading into the living room. Airren twists to see my face, then turns off the television.
“We need to meet up with Devlin,” I tell the guys.
“I’m sorry,” Cax asks, frowning, “were you with us for that battle on Merlin’s lawn?”
“I know, I know. He’s not on our side.” I use air quotes for ‘on our side’ because it’s pretty damned complicated right now.
He is on our side. But he has to appear not to be. He has no problem screwing over our plans in the interest of maintaining his cover, for the sake of his people… “But he says that the war took a turn.”
“He used the word apocalypse,” Rian says. “And that just means one thing.”
“You communicate with him telepathically too?” Cax asks. “That would be very convenient. Is that magic we all can use?”
