Rise of the Magi

by Jocelyn Adams

  “Alseides was right, you know,” Parthalan said through a sigh, brushing a wayward curl from his brow. “Had she not interfered, I’d have given Liam a run for his money.”

  I laughed and drew him into my arms. “I see the king you were meant to be, Parthalan.”

  “And may yet be one day, since the Goddess has given me the option of being reborn. I’m sure your daughters will be stunners, so watch out for a dashing young lad to come along in the future and sweep her off her feet.” Leaning down, he brushed his lips lightly against mine. “Liam can’t kill me for that if I’m already dead.”

  With that, he faded out as fast as he’d arrived, taking my friends with him, and leaving me utterly stunned. He was happy. Will and Quinn were happy, not one of them showing an ounce of regret. The hole in my center had begun to close ever so slightly.

  “They’re really waiting for me?” I asked Gallagher.

  He grinned, leaning to my left and my right. “They really are, and it seems I will have good company with which to escort you to them.”

  Without looking, I knew who he meant. Their energies swirled around me in perfect harmony. “You’ve made it, Lilabear,” my mother said with her lips against my temple. “You’ve come so far. Let us take you the rest of the way home.”

  I looked up into the angelic face that had tucked me into bed so many nights, had guided me through the beginning of my life with such wisdom and grace. Her satin hair, a touch lighter gold than mine, curled down her back. Eyes like shining sapphires glittered with pride.

  Donovan stood to my left and slipped my fingers between his, squeezing tight.

  “Take me home, Daddy.”

  His expression of fatherly adoration made me cry and ache to curl up in his arms. “We will never leave you.”

  I nodded and laughed through my tears. “You’d better not, or I’ll never stop being mad at you for taking off on me in the first place.”

  “I guess you meant what you said.” I tugged my mother closer and set my head against her shoulder. “You said you’d take me home, and you will.”

  “I told you no such thing, Lilabear. I could not reach you in the Magi’s realm.”

  Eyes wide, I stared at her. “Then … who?”

  Her knowing smile faded as our ascent began.

  32

  After a seemingly endless drift, cool air lifted the hairs along my arms, followed by warmth traveling up and down—from a hand’s gentle caress, I thought. The sweet, floral scent of the garden filled my nose. Home. I’d made it home at last. I lay still, my hands clasped over my empty stomach. Garret’s spirit no longer burned like the fire in my hearth.

  Sounds of children playing nearby reached me first. Closer, a steady heartbeat. Farther, voices, some female and some male, speaking quietly to one another.

  “Come back to me,” Liam whispered. His warm, sweet breath slid over my lips. It was his heartbeat that lulled me into calm, chasing away any lingering fears that I’d wake to find myself alone. “I know you’re still in there somewhere. If you don’t come back soon I’m going to strip you naked and tattoo obscene pictures all over your body.”

  “Do that and you’re dead,” I croaked with a voice too long from use. I peeled my lids up to find his eyes close and piercing, his lids spreading in surprise. “I’d better not have flowers in my hair, or you’re in big trouble, buster.”

  Sputtering with laughter and tears, Liam yanked me up and into his arms. My rear landed in his lap where he sat in the grass. His kisses landed everywhere, his too-long scruff roughing over my cheeks, my temples, nose, and throat. Grunts and contained sobs spilled from his lips.

  I pulled back enough to look at him, to really see him. His hair had grown even longer, falling in a mop of loose curls. A few weeks’ growth marked a swath across his strong chin, giving him that rugged edge I loved so much. “Is this real? Are you real?”

  “Oh, yeah, baby. This is real.” The proof came when he opened the gates to his mind and shared himself with me. His utter joy at seeing my eyes open, his relief and anger. The gambit of emotions ran its course, and I lapped up every delicious ounce.

  Finding enough energy to fly around the earth twenty times, my excitement got the better of me. I claimed his lips in a scorching kiss until my thoughts turned to Garret. Was it true? Could he really be alive?

  As I pulled back, a lazy smile stretched Liam’s lips wide. “I like what you’ve done to your hair, by the way.”

  I sat up, my face most certainly testing out every shade of red in existence by the fire in my cheeks. I held a bunch of my hair up so I could look at it. Along with my natural golden blonde, cream and true metallic gold ribbons mixed with it.

  “You look like a sunrise.” Liam kissed my nose.

  “I guess I really did become the sun for a while. But we did it. Or—” I swallowed, terrified to ask about Garret in case Gallagher had lied to me, and buried my face in the curve of Liam’s neck.

  “I know you did. It’s over, Lila. We’re safe now.”

  My heart sprinted and threatened to grow wings and fly. “It really is over, isn’t it?”

  Grunting preceded a tug on my dress, the one Liam had made for me. I was afraid to take my face from Liam’s throat, afraid it wouldn’t be who my heart knew him to be.

  Chuckling, Liam loosened his grip on me, letting me go in small degrees. “There’s someone here who’s been waiting six months to meet you. He hasn’t left your side, sleeping only in your arms. If someone tries to take him away, he cries.”

  Another tug. “Mmm. Mmmum, mum, mum!”

  Liam laughed deep and hearty, a proud daddy laugh if I’d ever heard one. “Brígh’s been trying to teach him. That’s the first time he’s said it.”

  Unable to wait another second, I gazed down at my bare feet to find a tiny boy dressed in a white button down, tweed pants and a bow tie. His wild tangle of golden blond curls stood in every direction. He’d gotten my hair, but Liam’s everything else. Hand over my mouth, a half laugh, half wail escaped. I reached a tentative hand toward Garret, who grinned a toothless grin, his powder blue eyes twinkling. “I guess I don’t need to ask who dressed you, little one.”

  Gallagher cleared his throat from somewhere to my right. “Yes, well, someone had to dress the boy, since his father sees fit to let him crawl around naked all day.”

  As I laughed, the tension leaked from my shoulders. Garret’s pudgy fingers opened and shut as he grunted and reached for me. I wasted no time pulling him into my arms and holding with a sort of desperation I couldn’t overcome, kissing him everywhere while he giggled. He was alive. We’d come home. He fisted his hands into my hair and put his head down on my chest, pushing with his feet and getting closer to me. If anyone had tried to take him from me in that moment, I’d have gone nuclear again.

  The Court remained silent save for Garret’s cooing and Liam’s heartbeat at my back. “I’ll never let you go again. Nobody will ever hurt us again.” I held him out so I could see his sparkling fae eyes with stars of silver, those little Cupid’s bow lips curved up in a grin.

  He reached up and tried to touch my eye. I nodded, understanding what he meant. “Yeah, baby, momma’s eyes are open now.”

  We stared at one another for a long time, my chest swelling with so much emotion I thought it might consume me and the Court along with it. How could I ever have been afraid of that moment? Of taking care of my son? I knew deciphering his mysteries would be only a joy, and instead of fearing it, I welcomed every moment. I couldn’t get enough of touching him, kissing him, feeling his tug on my heart and the little roots he’d planted there. I would see him grow, walk, date, have children of his own. Our dawn had come, and it was the most beautiful I’d ever seen.

  “Why aren’t I weaker?” I asked. “Don’t bodies atrophy if they aren’t used?” />
  “As I said within your dream, the entire city has been feeding you energy as you’ve done for them countless times,” Gallagher said. “We kept your body sound while your mind healed.”

  There weren’t enough thank-you’s to tell them all what that meant to me. The fae were finally together again after so long apart. Finally whole.

  “We seemed to have given birth to a little thief,” Liam said, petting a hand down Garret’s silky curls.

  “Yes, I know. He’d been trying to tell me all along, but I was so intent on keeping him safe, I wouldn’t listen, not until the very end when I allowed myself to feel the power of him, of our bond.” I set Garret in the grass and lay down beside him, bending a buttercup to tickle his nose and marveling at the sheer power his laughter could have on me, how it could make my soul take flight. “I guess Laerni was right after all. In the end, it would be you and me against the world, little man. You saved me.”

  “Uh … that wasn’t all he stole,” Liam said to his bare feet. “I think he had his own mission right from the Goddess herself.”

  “What?”

  “I can no longer get into the Place Between or suppress fae Light. Brígh can no longer See. Andrew can’t stop time. Gallagher is still a telepath, but I think that’s because he uses his ability to see.”

  I summoned my Light, finding it a pleasant shade of honey-cream, but no amount of trying allowed me to find that little knot in my mind that would allow me to force my will on anyone. Pushing out my senses, I could still feel everyone and thought I could share their emotions.

  “He took it, but did he keep it?” Worry sliced at me, that he would one day be sought after as a weapon to be used in some future war.

  “No. Most of it’s gone as far as I can tell.”

  Bursting with relief, I ignored whatever put the twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “Do you know what that means?” I asked, but didn’t wait for his answer before my excitement spilled the words from my lips. “It means there’s nothing left for us to fight against. Our work is done, and anything else that comes our way will be solved with brains and brawn. The way it should be.”

  Still grinning, Garret rolled in to nuzzle me again.

  “Is everyone ticked off at me again?” Even though Garret had done the taking, nobody would be mad at a child.

  Gallagher sat down beside us, balancing a tiny girl with pink pigtails on his knee. “A few perhaps, but even they are coming to see the joy of a life without the burden of such powers. The rest are adjusting to this new time of peace. I would wager you will retain your ability to heal others, and Neve is still spreading babies like wildfire.”

  I reached for the baby without having to ask who she was. “Hello, little one.” She bounced and touched my fingers, our Light mingling while she giggled.

  “This is Faith,” Liam said, as Garret crawled up Gallagher’s leg, hugged his little friend, and planted a big wet kiss right on her mouth. “As you can see they’re well acquainted.”

  Our laughter filled the Court.

  “I’m so mad at you.” Brígh came to the edge of the dais wearing a simple yellow sundress, her pink curls a right mess around her slender face that was even paler than normal. Beside her was Cas in his favorite jeans and blue T-shirt. He no longer appeared the young man I’d left. His eyes held too much knowledge, too many stains from images he shouldn’t have had to see, yet kindness remained dominant. Someday, I’d find out everything that had happened to him that dark, dark day, but for the time being, I was satisfied with him alive and whole.

  Liam picked up Garret, and I kissed my boys, reluctant to have my son anywhere but in my arms. I had a few fae to reassure, though. With Gallagher’s helping hand, I came to my feet and went to Brígh in time to catch a lonely tear as it escaped her lashes. As if my touch had unhinged my young aide, she collapsed against me, dribbling snot all over my shoulder while pounding a fist into it. “How could you do that to me? To Liam? Do you have any idea what you put us through? I told you to come back to us. I meant right away, not six damn months later!”

  “Okay, sweet,” Cas said, nodding to me while pulling his half hysterical girlfriend against him. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. Gave us quite a scare, Lila.”

  I tugged on his plum hair, giving in to a desperate need to touch him, to make sure he was real. “I hear I was well protected while I slept.” I pulled him in, and although he remained stiff for a moment, he squeezed me until I couldn’t breathe. “Thank you.”

  “I wouldn’t have been anywhere else. The whole city was out there causing a ruckus today, demanding to see you for just a second. While Gallagher did his thing, Neve made sure nobody came in. She’s going to freak when she sees you awake. Girl has been seriously wigged out.” Leaning back, he shot me a stare that put mine to shame. “Just … don’t ever do that again, okay? Or you just might find out what I look like when I’m mad, and you won’t like it nearly as much as seeing Brígh pissed off.”

  I nodded, smiling back at the grin growing across his lips, reminding me of the Cas I knew was still alive, still the gentle boy inside the man. “Deal.” Looking back and forth between him and Brígh, taking their hands and linking them together, I said, “So, is it official, yet?”

  She leaned in as his hand slipped out of hers and went around her shoulders. “No, but it’s okay. I know why the Goddess hasn’t bonded us yet. We weren’t ready. I don’t want that moment to be anything but perfect, and we both have a little healing to do. Now that you finally got off your mental ass and came back, maybe it won’t be long.”

  Cas, grinning, bent down and brushed her lips with his, their gazes locked, and I turned away lest their love burn a hole in me.

  Returning to my boys, I asked, “The other cities?”

  “The Black City’s gone,” Liam said, staring at Garret with intensity that made me put a hand to my chest. “After the light show you put on and what you were willing to sacrifice for all of us, you left no doubt in their minds about where their loyalties should lie. Once they came here, and the shifters followed, the portal to it disappeared, and nobody’s going to jump into the Grand Canyon to see if that door is still active.”

  “Dun Bray?” I took Faith from Gallagher and kissed her forehead. Did all babies smell like heaven?

  Liam’s gaze left our son in favor of meeting mine. “Occupied by a single tree.”

  “Neasa.” I let that sink in for a moment, deciding how I felt about that. “Even though she chose her fate, I still …”

  “There’s no soul,” Gallagher said, tweaking Garret’s bare toe. “It seems that when the Magi returned to their natural state, her soul fled with theirs. The human world has begun to rebuild as well. Your sacrifice has united them toward their own survival, too.”

  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was too much to take in all at once, so I filed it away for later.

  Gallagher and Liam whispered low words to one another before Gallagher turned those opaque eyes on Garret, a smile flirting with his lips. “Why not show your mother what you can do now, young one?”

  A glance at my three favorite men didn’t bring me any closer to understanding what he was talking about. After handing Faith to Brígh, I took my son from Liam. The little man kicked his legs as Gallagher led us all to Talawen’s tree in the center of the Court. Brow cocked, I looked up at Liam, who remained mute but shone with amusement mixed with a shot of pride.

  He urged me forward, close enough that Garret leaned out and placed his pudgy palms against the bark. A moment passed. Another. A shimmer raced up the trunk and into the bare branches above. Blooms exploded into a firework of pink and white, the scent of sweet cherry blossoms filling the air.

  “I guess you’re the new keeper of the forest, little man,” I said, laughing. “So pretty.” The Goddess had chosen my son to look after the wild pl
aces since her daughters were gone, and I knew in my heart he would use his gift to make the world more beautiful instead of using it for destruction.

  Garret let out a rush of baby babble as if telling me the best story ever, jabbing his chubby finger at the blossoms raining down around us. I nodded and answered as if I knew exactly what he was talking about.

  When I spun to brush my free hand through the petals, I found Arianne toddling down the center aisle with Maeve. In Arianne’s other hand, she held a much larger one that belonged to a man I’d only seen a few times—Raze.

  “He’s alive?” I said.

  “Yeah, you should have seen him go once Meline’s crew set him free,” Liam said. “Like a man possessed. I’d bet it was that little girl that brought him home, just like Garret did for you.”

  As Arianne left her parents and walked to us, I knelt before her. “If it isn’t the pigtailed avenger.” Maeve and Raze held one another where they stood behind her, each offering a nod in my direction. It took a mere second for me to realize that whatever had kept them apart no longer mattered, their bond a shining force behind their eyes.

  “What took you so long?” Arianne stomped her little foot.

  I brushed her silky tangerine bangs from her head. “I don’t know. I guess I got lost again.” Garret twisted out of my arms, and I steadied him as he reached for Arianne, who obliged by grabbing him around the head and giving him a good kissing, smack on the lips.

  “Two kisses in one day? Geez!” Liam said in mock shock. “Kid gets more loving than I do.”

  I gave him a look that said I’d be changing that before the day was out. Garret and Arianne played at my feet as I straightened and located Gallagher to my left.

  “How many did we lose?” I asked.

  Liam put a protective arm around my back, scooping up Garret with the other, while Raze tossed Arianne onto his shoulders, waved, stretched his arm across Maeve’s shoulders, and left the way they’d come. “I’d fight with you, tell you just to be happy now and give it some time before you hear the worst of it, but I know what that’ll gain me.” Sighing, Liam dropped his head down against mine, his fingers playing in Garret’s hair. I leaned against them both, kissing my baby’s cheek.