“I’m afraid not. You know this is a small town. People talk.”
“I’m well aware of that, Sheriff.”
“Come on now, Briana. We’ve known each other a long time. Call me Gawain. I’m not here on official police business. This is a courtesy call.” He stepped closer. Just like on the beach with Kean, she felt a bubble of warmth surround her. Coming from Gawain, it felt heavy and too intimate, like a stranger’s steamy breath against her bare skin.
She took a step back and bumped into her car.
“People are talking, and because of what they’re saying—curses and all that—some folks might not feel real safe with you here on the island. It’s my job to make them feel safe, so I feel obligated to tell you I think it’s best if you don’t stay around these parts too long.”
Bri opened her door. “I appreciate the courtesy of telling me in person that I’m not welcome here, Sheriff. I’ll be gone in a couple of days, but I really don’t care what people say, we both know there is no curse.”
“Good. I’m glad you finally have the sense to not let those rabble-rousing friends of yours fill your head with wild ideas. Things never end well for mundanes who get tangled up in Zyne affairs.”
Indignation burned on the tip of her tongue — this mundane was going to do his job for him — but she bit it back. Step carefully. Gawain had already made up his mind, whether actively covering something up or simply blinded by his ego, they couldn’t trust him not to muck things up. He couldn’t get a whiff of their intentions. “I’m sure everything will work out as Fate intended.”
In the light from Astrid’s porch, Gawain’s wide-brimmed hat shaded half of his face, making his answering smile look more like a smirk. “I’m sure it will. Drive safe, Briana.” He tipped his hat and walked towards his Explorer parked up the road.
Bri climbed into the Lexus vibrating with nerves. Her hands shook as she tried to find the ignition. A silent alarm was bleating in the recesses of her mind, making her thoughts jittery. What the hell had she gotten herself into? She’d been back one day and she was already hip deep in Zyne politics. She had a boyfriend to keep at bay with a pile of bigger and bigger lies, the coven Sigma breathing down her neck, her grandmother’s dying wish to puzzle out, her two best friends’ hopes hanging on her, and her untapped power flaring out of control.
Two more days of this could kill me.
Gawain waved as she backed her car out of the drive. She didn’t skid out, tempted as she was to slam the accelerator to the floor. If she could have driven back to Sydney, she would have. But she was on an island, with nowhere to hide. Even the things familiar to her were equal parts joy and torment. She needed to call Eric, to get her head on straight again. Except the thought of holding in what she’d learned in the past twenty four hours, of pretending everything was okay…exhausted her beyond reason. No surprise she took a wrong turn and ended up on the scenic route back to Ce-Ce’s, stretching the half-mile drive out over five miles of narrow, winding coastline.
She pulled around a blind curve and noticed a net of chicken wire over the rock face to her left. The missing guardrail on the right was marked off by bright orange barrels. Her whole body went rigid with a surge of comprehension. This was where it had happened.
She parked on the shoulder and got out of the car with the engine still running. The door ajar bell dinged into the darkness. She inched up to the mangled guardrail and peered over the edge. Her stomach jumped into her throat when she saw the hundred-foot drop to the rocky shoals below.
The world was suddenly spinning too fast. She fell to her knees.
It’s him, Bri, her grandmother’s voice whispered on the wind.
Briana gasped, searching the empty night. An unnatural wind rustled the branches overhead. Ce-Ce was dead and gone, burned to ash, yet the scent of lilacs and baby powder surrounded her. Bri gulped back tears. “Ce-Ce?”
The breeze caressed her face, lifted her hair, then drifted away.
She went back to the car, emptied her purse onto the front seat, and snatched the rose quartz out of the pile. She clutched it next to her heart and looked up at diamond-studded night sky. “I’m here, Ce-Ce. I…call to you. Who? Show me what you want me to see.”
For the first time in her life, she willed her mind to get sucked into that void that funneled into her nightmares. Her vision flashed with a fast-reeling image. Colors faded in places, flared ultra-vivid in others. She had no control over it. She held perfectly still, trying to make sense of the chaos.
Ce-Ce was driving, her knuckles white on the steering wheel as she navigated through what seemed like a hurricane. Rain, branches, and leaves lashed the car from all sides. The wipers screamed across the windshield. Tara sat beside her in the passenger seat, talking urgently, but the words were garbled. She could barely see five feet ahead, but they couldn’t slow down. They had to get away. It was coming for them.
Suddenly, the car lurched to the side. Tara fell limp in her seat, blood oozing down one side of her face. The car spun and spun, the wheel flying out of her hands no matter how hard she tried to hold on. A loud crunch echoed through her very bones. Her legs went numb, and a jolt of pain filled her chest.
Briana, child of my blood…I bid you to see. You must protect the Legacy. It’s him Bri, you have to see…
The world flipped upside down. Blackness, and then a froth of white lace waves, getting closer. She closed her eyes just before the icy tentacles of the Pacific pounded through the windows and tore them to pieces.
Bri collapsed into the grass, clenching her middle as she sucked in desperate breaths. She rolled onto her back. Her vision went black for a while. The spinning slowed and eventually stopped enough that she could sit up. The earth stayed put. A normal breeze blew against her face. But she felt stripped raw, bare to the elements, as if her nerve endings were floating outside her body. It took another few minutes for that to pass.
Okay…that just happened.
Maybe not the brightest idea to try and do impromptu roadside magic, but at least she hadn’t passed out that time. Shaking and chilled through, she felt oddly calm as she climbed back into the car. She drove the rest of the way to Ce-Ce’s house in a shocked daze. When she pulled into the drive, Kean’s truck was parked in front, his hunched figure on the porch steps.
She took a few deep breaths to gather her wits, then got out and stumbled across the lawn to him. Kean didn’t move or speak as she approached. She was sure he had quite a lot to say. She probably deserved most of it, but after the past few minutes, she couldn’t be anything but relieved to see him.
“Kean.” She collapsed to the steps beside him and started to cry. She’d been doing more of that in the last two days than she had the past seven years, but she was beyond caring anymore. Her delusions of control had been obliterated one by one since she set foot on the island. She needed something solid to hang on to, and Kean was the most solid person she’d ever known.
He brushed his hand over her cheek. “What happened?”
“I was there, where they died. I saw it. I was there!” She sucked in a blubbery breath, just to fall apart again. She could only get out two words at a time, with giant gulps of air between. “It’s him. Her message. The blood. The Legacy.”
“Damn it. You don’t do anything the easy way, do you?” Kean carried her inside and set her on the sofa. He covered her with a blanket, then sat beside her rubbing warmth into her hands.
She shivered as Ce-Ce’s words echoed in her mind. What if she was doomed to be harassed by visions and ghosts for the rest of her life no matter what? She would end up in a mental institution, or killing herself. Just like her mother… A whimper escaped through her gritted teeth.
“Shh.” Kean squeezed her to his chest. “It’ll be okay.”
“She said, ‘It’s him, Bri. You have to see.’ They were so scared. He killed them!” She pressed her eyes closed, but Ce-Ce’s last few moments played on a loop behind her eyelids. “I don’t want to see a
nymore.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Briana relaxed into his embrace and tried to match her breath to the steady rise and fall of his chest. He was exactly what she needed right then — strong, steady, and alive. Real. Kean was really holding her. What would she have done if he hadn’t been there? Packed her bags and left. Or taken enough pills to knock her out. Permanently? He’d brought her back from the brink once before, just before her powers had been bound, when the nightmares kept her from sleeping for days on end, and half of their high school class acted like they would die on the spot if they touched her. She’d walked into the ocean, haunted by the vision of her mother, ashamed of the rumors. She’d got it in her twisted teenage brain that she should join her on the other side.
As if Kean had read her mind, he loosened his arms and leaned down to brush his mouth across her cheek, saying the same words he had that day, shivering in their soaking wet clothes. “I’ve got you.”
She tilted her face up to him, swallowed back her tears. “I know.”
“I’m not letting go.” His hands tightened on her shoulders and he leveled their gazes. His eyes burned with such raw devotion, it took her breath away. “Do you see that?”
“I see.” She’d been so blind. All her work at building a new life, and it was an illusion. A house of glass. Now she could see all the cracks, could see how isolated she’d been, how desperately lonely, locked away from everything she’d ever known. She didn’t have to be lonely anymore, if…
Bri wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him forward for a kiss. Kean gave her everything she didn’t have the courage to ask for, and demanded everything in return. He stole all thoughts, all words. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was, how much she needed him, then and now. Always. All she could get out between hot, deep kisses was the “need you” part.
He answered with his body, which coiled around her like a spring ready to bust loose, then lifted her from the couch in one smooth motion. “Your room?”
The husky undertone in his voice made her body shiver in a completely different way. Bri swallowed hard and nodded. He’d taken two steps towards the stairs when Vivaldi’s Spring blasted from her sweater pocket. Kean froze and then set her down in the middle of the hall rug.
“Sorry,” she said, pressing answer. “Hello?”
“Briana?” Eric. “Finally.” Fuck.
“Hey.” She cleared her throat and straightened, cringing inside. Her voice was raspy from more than crying. “I forgot to call. I’m sorry.”
Kean took a few steps away from her, tension bunching his shoulders.
“Is everything all right?” Eric said. “You sound upset.”
“Everything is, uh…” She stared at Kean’s broad back as he paced to the door. Everything was royally screwed up, and had been about to rocket into irretrievable territory. She sat down on the stairs. Her thoughts felt slow and clunky as she tried to shift gears. “Fine. How are things with you?”
Kean shot her a warning look. She stared back, feeling trapped. What was she supposed to do? Tell her boyfriend of three years she couldn’t talk because she was about to jump in the sack with her first and only real love? Her body flashed hot and cold at the thought. And she wasn’t listening to anything Eric was saying. “Uh-huh. I’m sorry, it’s been a really long day and I’m exhausted. Can I call you back tomorrow?” She reassured him their plans for New York hadn’t changed. Two more days…
“I love you,” Eric said over the line, just as Kean slammed the front door.
Bri burst out onto the porch behind him. “Kean, wait!”
He stopped halfway down the stairs, his face contorted in a mixture of anger and heart-wrenching hope. The idea of staying in the empty house alone warred with the thought of soothing her fears with Kean’s warm, solid body. She’d been drifting alone for so long…but the words stuck in her throat.
“Don’t. I can’t take you pushing me away again. So, don’t. Not unless you’re sure of what you want.”
“I can’t stay.” She silently pleaded for him to understand. She wanted to be with him, but she still had a whole other life hanging in the balance. Maybe she was lonely there, but there were good things too — things she wasn’t willing to sacrifice. With Kean, it had to be all or nothing. She wanted him, but if she let go of her life in Sydney, her connections, her career, she wouldn’t know who she was anymore.
Kean’s jaw ticked. She had to let him go, or they would both only hurt more later. He read the decision on her face, and his expression steeled over. He walked down the drive and climbed into his truck without another glance her way. Bri watched his tail lights disappear down the street. She’d done the right thing, but knowing that did nothing to ease the hollowness in her chest. Kean Royce Fitzgerald had recaptured her heart in one dance and a handful of kisses. No matter what happened now, he would possess it forever.
It was far less than he deserved.
Chapter Eight
Bri stared at the horned logo for Witch’s Titty Dark Ale engraved into the mahogany paneling of the Devil’s Pub & Brewery and mused on the term “hiding in plain sight.” The town tavern had been one of the first establishments built along Front Street, at the very heart of Evergreen Cove. When Astrid had purchased and updated it, she’d catered to the curio appeal of the island’s occult roots. She served fishbowl cocktails in miniature copper cauldrons, fake shrunken heads hung from rusted iron sconces, and the bar itself was a single piece of polished redwood with eerie gape-mouthed faces burnt into it. A large oak table spanned the entire dining room, flanked at either end by a five-foot high fireplace.
The locals gathered in the high-backed booths in the rear. Most of them were fishermen and craftsmen, all of them were Zyne. A few cast wary glances their way. The latest news on the Spurrier curse was probably grocery line chatter by now, and they’d agreed letting that rumor circulate was a good cover for now. Astrid was tending bar while one of her employees was on break, and Bri had been keeping her company. In almost thirty minutes, not one of them had risked exposure to come ask for a refill.
“It’s him, Bri, you have to see?” Astrid rolled the words with a different rhythm for the fifth or sixth time.
Bri picked at her sweet potato fries, not really hungry. “Mhm.”
Astrid drummed her fingers on the bar and rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “That’s not very helpful, you old hag.”
Bri shushed her and glanced around to see if anyone had been listening.
“You’d think if you went through the trouble to send a message from beyond the urn, you’d make damn sure it was clear. Why does Ce-Ce have to be so freakin’ cryptic all the time?”
Bri choked on a sip of water and started coughing. Once she got it under control, she felt like everyone in the pub was watching, probably waiting for her to keel over dead. Her linen blouse itched like burlap. “What if that’s all there is?”
They knew they were looking for either a Ward or a Summoner, most likely in the North Wake coven, and now they knew he was male. That narrowed it down quite a bit. Over lunch, she’d learned there were twenty-two male Wards — not counting Kean — and a little over twice as many male Summoners on the island. Only a handful of them were impressive witches, according to Astrid. Bri didn’t know the others, but Gawain had moved to the top of her list. He had no known motive, but he fit the profile. That and her gut feeling about him were enough to keep him pinned there until they learned more. Of course, it could be someone from off-island too, but it was unlikely. In such a small community of magic-users, a stranger didn’t go unnoticed.
Astrid cleared Bri’s plate and wiped underneath her. “There has to be something else, something that will only be revealed once your Inner eye is open and your Sight is engaged.”
Though she hated to admit it, she agreed with that assessment. Ce-Ce wanted more than for Bri to be tortured by those final moments. There was something else. Protect the Legacy, she’d said. “Geri said
she had something to discuss with me about my Legacy. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“Fucking Oracles.” Astrid poured them both a shot of whiskey. She tossed hers back, winced, and gave Bri an apologetic look. “Sorry. They just play everything so close to the chest.”
Bri shrugged. She couldn’t disagree. Her experience with Oracles hadn’t been grand. It’s impossible to lie to them, and Ce-Ce had always had a way of pulling feelings out of her she wasn’t even ready to admit to herself yet. It was hard to have a normal life when you couldn’t sneak out of the house for a midnight teenage tryst without finding a box of condoms on the hall table.
After the whiskey was through burning a path down her throat, she plucked some money out of her purse and set it by the vinegar bottle. “Thanks for lunch. I should get going. I have to meet the lawyer in thirty minutes, and make a phone call.”
She could only put Eric on hold for so long.
“Wait up.” Astrid shoved her money back and took off her apron, revealing a T-shirt that featured a naked pin-up riding a broom and said Real Witches do it Moonclad. She yelled at someone in the back to take over. Outside, she retrieved her bike from the side of the building and caught up with Bri halfway down the block, slowing to pedal beside her. “I know this is scary, the idea of opening yourself up to your magic.”
“It’s not that.” It was pretty obvious her power was flaring whether she liked it or not. Her only choice was to try and control the flow — to decide when and where. That’s why she was still going through with the potion tonight. If there was any other message from Ce-Ce, she should get it loud and clear.
Rain of Ash: Skydancer Book 1 (The Zyne Legacy) Page 6
