Using Zoe’s phone, I dialed information and connected to Adam’s hotel voicemail. “Call me.” It was the only message I felt remotely safe leaving.
I reached to jab the door button, but Zoe’s grip on my arm stopped me. “You really do have fairy blood in you, you know?”
“Thanks for rubbing it in.” The wry twist of my mouth hurt my new perfection. “According to Riley, I have all kinds of funky blood in me.”
“They said the Rift energy is reacting to those affected—”
“I know.” I mashed my fist against the door. “I sensed it miles ago.”
The lines between her eyes became gullies. “I heard a cop yak to a PVD agent that he had orders to arrest any paranormals, and to use deadly force on anyone who resists.”
“Then I won’t resist.” I shoved my hair behind my ears, the new length bothering me. “Let’s hit it. We’re sitting fairies in this car. Riley’s men probably aren’t far behind, and the police are the lesser of the two hells.”
We met at the front bumper. A blast of wintry air shivered down the length of me. My sweatshirt didn’t work past sundown. At least Zoe had a leopard wrapped around her.
To our left, a group of college kids milled about in the shadows of twilight. We joined them, skirting the fringes of the crowd. Zoe strode in front of me to run interference. I dipped my head to hide my glowing eyes. A racket of excited and scared voices bounced in my ears, my dread swelling to rocket launching levels. The bitterness of damp asphalt clogged my nose, sending my tail spinning into the stratosphere. A narrow froth of clouds scuttled overhead. Dusk’s first stars littered the indigo sky and freed the suffocating hold on my heart. They were the first stars I’d seen since landing in Rainy Town.
Despite my natural skewed sense of direction, the Rift enticed me to the right. I could find it blindfolded. The Japanese Gardens loomed ahead, and the circle of stones nestled beyond it in the out of bounds section of the park.
Zoe’s phone vibrated against my waist, and I skipped a step in alarm. The unfamiliar shoes didn’t help my natural unluck much, and I stepped into a slurping, oozing mud puddle. Beep, beep, bad luck coming. “Hold on.” I whipped out the phone, not recognizing the local number. “Hello?”
“Blondie?” Adam’s voice splintered. “Where are you?”
Relief untied a knot in the back of my neck. “I’m not at DR if that’s what you’re asking.” Ice filled my voice, which wasn’t difficult to achieve since I was freezing my butt off. The night had shot my awakening ability to trust straight to the tar pits. Until Adam gave me something concrete to chew on, I had to nibble. “Have you heard from…Ronan…in the last hour?” I had a hard time dredging his name from the cobwebs in my brain. My heart throbbed in my ears, overriding the din of fearful excitement in the air.
“Yes. He said you and Zoe escaped. You could have killed him, Aria.”
More relief trickled warmth through the ice in my veins. What if I had succeeded? I didn’t want Ronan dead. “Anyone else?”
“Two guards are sleeping it off at the hospital. They’ll live.”
A freezing sweat washed that trickle of relief away. Numb, I couldn’t speak.
“Aria? You okay?” The agony in Adam’s voice radiated through the phone.
“He betrayed me.” I choked up. Blindly, I followed Zoe into the shadows of an overhanging evergreen, distancing us from chattering co-eds converging on our space.
“No, not true.” Nothing he said dulled my misery. “I’m coming for you. Where are you?”
“How do I know I can trust you? Ronan’s working for his father. He set us up at—” I shut my trap lest I stuck my muddy foot in it. “You weren’t there to see him cater to his father.” I spat the words out like gravel between my teeth. A gust blew a damp, frigid wind over us, and I cast a nervous glance at the ever-changing sky. “How do I know you didn’t go Benedict Arnold too?”
Three of the college kids, two women and one man, gathered close. One reached past Zoe and tried to grab my arm.
“She’s one of us,” the shimmery guy exclaimed.
I caught myself staring at the pale blond guy, noticing the wimpy auras around the trio. I lowered my head, hiding my face. Their energy flirted with mine meekly. Fear surpassed my anger at the invasion of my space, and my gaze darted around suspiciously. “Come get me,” I snapped into the phone.
“Where?”
“Washington Park. Near—”
“Damn it. Do you know what’s going on there?”
“Thanks for the 411,” I whisper-yelled. Wheeling in a circle, I tried to shun the hands reaching to touch the slightest bit of my exposed skin.
Zoe slapped at their arms. “Give us some air here, people.”
“Twenty minutes,” Adam said. “Can you get to the Rift?”
Mr. Blond tried to grab the phone. I jerked back, tromping on Zoe’s toes, slick mud sliding me backward. She clasped my arm to keep my ass from kissing the ground and took a powder on her own butt. “I don’t know.” I mouthed “sorry,” and helped her up. I slicked mud off her behind, leaving a nasty residue on my hand.
“Try. Use the energy to defend yourself. It’s off limits to all but the scientists. The energy’s raw, so be careful. Stay out of the stones and erect a blocking shield. That’ll keep you invisible until I get there.”
“How do I do that?” I brushed against the brunette girl. She landed the most beautiful smile of devotion on me. I mean, her teeth practically glowed in the overhead lights. Her waist-length hair feathered my side, several locks twining loosely around me. All of them plucked on my aura, a natural magnetism, rather than an energy suck. Electrical heat radiated off me and they slurped it up. I had become their ray of sunlight. All hail Aria the Queen of Fae. As if.
“Aria! You listening to me?” Adam shouted.
His voice lugged me out of my baffled unicorn land. “What? Repeat.”
He explained how to erect the fae aural shield. “I owe you my life, Blondie. I’ll never do anything to lose your trust.” He let out a stilted laugh as though he had a hard time admitting an awkward truth. “I don’t know what Ronan did, but we’ll straighten it out.”
My heart thawed. I clutched the phone so tight my fingers grew numb. Of course, the ice age wind chill factor didn’t help. “Just get here, please.”
“Move along, folks. Playtime’s over.” A cop advanced on a group surrounding our gang of fae.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed Zoe’s hand and shoved through the trio. “Excuse us.”
“Where to?” the short girl asked.
“You’re not—” Could I abandon them here to a fate worse than death, if not death? After all, they were dead fae walking. Hell, I was the greatest felon of them all. I always wanted to be somebody, but I guess I should’ve been more specific.
I handed the phone to Zoe, the text message champion. “Give up your phone numbers. Then skedaddle before you’re arrested. Don’t tell anyone what’s happening. I’ll be in touch.”
Their auras wavered in relief and harmony. They rattled off numbers, and Zoe’s thumbs blurred on the screen.
A man shouted “hold up” behind us.
“Over there!”
A beam spotlighted us, and a crew of news people rushed over. They’d spotted us, sitting fairies on a log, and our niche of the park lit up like Christmas tree town. Let the games begin.
I pushed Zoe from behind. We bulldozed through the crowd, the three fairies scattering in the opposite direction. Someone tugged my sweatshirt, then my mud slick shoes slid, and I fell forward. A large mass bashed me onto the soggy grass. I stuck out my arms to take the brunt of the hit and to keep grass stains off my face, but the force blasted the air out of my lungs. The brute rolled off me, and I sucked in air.
Scores of people talked excitedly. Zoe screamed street gang slurs at a PVD officer. A cop grabbed my wrists and wrenched my arms behind me. Fire licked my shoulders.
“Get up.” The cop with a New York accent heaved me to my feet as
though I were a toothpick. I wished I was a unicorn so I could stab my horn up his ass.
Someone slapped deadener cuffs around my wrists. A spark of my energy snapped to attention and laughed at the rinky-dink technology. I spat out a blade of grass stuck on my lip. It tasted faintly of dew. Why did I know how dew tasted? It wasn’t something that’d ever been in my diet.
The three paranormals—fae, sorcerers, whatevers—huddled together, an overzealous cop training a gun on them. A pair of PVD officers drove up in an unmarked van, squealing tires as they braked to an abrupt stop. Zoe disappeared into the heaving crowd.
The New York brute prodded my shoulder from behind. “Walk toward the van.”
I frantically scanned for Zoe, but the sea of people had devoured her. Camera flashes exploded in blinding light, and I hid my face in my shoulder.
The Rift’s magic invigorated me, waltzed across my skin, recharged my batteries. My ninja Catwoman powers increased with every passing moment. Dubiously, I followed the mental instructions for the shielding spell Adam taught me. Where he learned it was beyond my comprehension. The air wavered, thick, shimmery. Each time I shifted a limb, air solidified around me and a thin veil shielded me. Digging deep, my magic shorted out the electronic wrist cuffs. Invoking the final words of the invisibility spell, I scampered for an opening in the crowd. A strange mix of energy coursed through me, sweet, pure, earthy. It was more robust, more recognizable than before.
“Son of a bitch,” my cop brute yelled. “Where’d the fairy freak go?”
“Asshole, go gargle some bleach.” I backed into an open space and waved my arms, jumped up and down, but caught no one’s attention.
The three fae stood shaking in fear and anger at the rear of the van. I dashed toward them and brushed against the short girl, sensed acceptance in her touch. Amazement wiped the fright from her eyes.
“Shhh. I’m not here,” I murmured, enjoying the airy sensation of invisibility.
The other two averted their faces as the detaining PVD officer opened the van doors. Like lightning, I touched each of their cuffs. The deadeners popped and smoked but no one noticed in the darkness encroaching on the winds of trouble.
“Run when you can,” I said in the girl’s ear before zooming away.
Diversion time. I shouted, “Hey, fuzz balls.” Careful not to bump into anyone, I dashed around the area. I touched a couple of dimwit cops, feathering my fingers over their hands. They reached for me, missed, pointed their guns at nothing, yelled and cursed as I baited them.
Pandemonium broke out, and the sharp smell of anxiety and testosterone clouded the air. I was having way too much fun by the time I realized the three fairies had disappeared.
“See ya, bozos.” Light as a leaf on a lick of wind, I jogged into the dark park. Shimmering ghost trees hid me as I searched for Zoe’s distinctive red hair and leopard jacket.
Night settled on the area, a moist mantle bogging down the air, but headlights, beams, and camera flashes set the darkness back into the early gloom of twilight. Tree limbs rustled and snapped. Wind swirled dead leaves into the air, shifting into a whirlwind of nervous mauve above my head.
“Where are you, Zoe?” The tired trees of winter absorbed my whisper. Maybe they’d arrested her for smacking a cop, something she’d do in a heartbeat. I wandered closer to the crowds and searched. Nothing.
I counted to ten, calmed my breathing, praying she was okay. Time wasn’t spinning backward. Adam and I would have to return to hunt her down. I had no idea what to do about the three fairies or the others that undoubtedly had materialized in the midst of the awakening fae-sorcery from the Void. One crisis at a time.
I rushed toward the stone circle. No GPS required. Magic chased over my skin in a long, slow possession. It tugged on me like the mother ship towing a spacepod, even as I vacuumed the vapor trails of magic inside my center of power.
Who was doing the possession? The Rift or me?
Chapter 26
Magic flooded me with the most enchanting serenity, a sense of belonging inside myself and in my life. I felt immortal, old as the universe, young as a newborn baby. Lazy spring afternoons, summers abloom with reckless abandon, air freshened with sultry promises, melting, sugary. I wanted to lap it up, bottle it, and take it home. Also my new tattoo sizzled in answer to a bizarre silent plea.
I ached for Ronan, the man who’d saved me in my apartment, the man who’d opened up a world I never knew existed, a world I fit into for the first time in my life. The sorcerer of my heart. Half of the two beings I loved so very much, each in different ways. Ways I still hadn’t reconciled within myself, a fairy and a sorcerer who made up the whole of the doppelgänger. The realization left me reeling, and pain became an ember in the core of my heart. I had to force my mind off him and his potential betrayal. We may never go back to yesterday. The future was my true path, wherever it carried me into this dangerous and exciting world of the Forbidden.
Canary crime tape roped off a broad area around the Rift. Biohazard and no trespassing signs hung every twenty feet. An electronic fence emitted an electrical hum that vibrated in my ears. Floodlights illuminated each quadrant.
Several people wandered inside the marked zone, holding electronic gadgets, taking notes and readings. I remained outside the invisible fence and strode closer to a short, thin man scrutinizing the screen on a handheld device. A tall, chunky redheaded woman approached him, peering into her tablet, searching for her own cluestick. How much did these people know about the banished magic and the Forbidden?
I shifted to the left and stumbled over a rock that I swear wasn’t there a second ago. I swung my arms to catch my balance.
The two scientists whirled in an excited fluster. “Who’s there?” the man’s voice squeaked. A series of blips and red lights flashed wildly on his electronic device.
Mindful of the face-busting terrain, I rushed into a planter of winter dormant bushes. They dashed behind me until their gadgets fell silent. The man beckoned to a second pair of scientists and the four consulted notes. I bet it took more than four scientists and lots of toys to figure out the speed of dark too.
Tiny lights bobbed in the air and streaked toward them. The swarm of large fireflies buzzed over their heads, zipped into their faces, zoomed away only to charge them again. The four swatted at the bizarre insects, and I slapped a hand over my grin, stifling a giggle. The glowing buggers wouldn’t stop long enough to give me a chance to see if they were bitty fairies. Who knew what had spewed out of the Rift. The Void may have been an incubation farm for all the former magical creatures that ever existed for hundreds of years.
Carefully, I walked into the cordoned off area toward the stones. Electricity pinched me as my passing killed the ineffective deadener block. Woe is me.
“Fairy King, come out, come out, wherever you are.” A breeze carried my whisper away.
Hands grabbed my hips from behind, tugging me into a familiar hard body. Air whooshed out of me in a moment of panic before Adam’s clean, enticing aura circled me. Wow, he felt awesome, so alive, and real.
“Right here, Blondie,” he whispered in my ear, then spun me in his arms.
I melted against him. “Can you see me?” I asked in a low voice. “Are we still invisible?”
“Yes and yes.” Adam took my hand in his, raking his gaze from my tousled hair to my muddy shoes. “God, you feel incredible. Your magic’s in my blood now.”
What else was new? I was a new creature of the magical night. I defied definition. The Twilight Zone was now the Aria Zone.
“What exactly do you feel? Can you use my powers? Are you telekinetic?” Curiosity didn’t kill the awe streaking up my back.
“I feel your aura in mine. Your magic enhances my new powers, but I can’t draw from you and do what you can. Ronan and I are sharing each other’s energy. I don’t know how it works.” He moved so close we became one, with a huge empty pocket. Ronan, I presumed. Was that how we’d feel with all thirteen sorcerer
s? What would happen when the others found their doppelgängers? I shut the gate on that mental path and inched backward to view what our magic had created.
Seeing Adam for the first time since we’d restored life to his magnificent body, I couldn’t resist giving him the once and twice over. The lord of fae appearance had replaced his death-warmed-over exterior. Even in the glare of spotlights, I saw that his skin tone had deepened into the color of honey. A slight glint radiated from his vibrant, blue-violet eyes. Two beautiful fully formed, but subtle, pointed ears peeked through his thick, silky hair. Did I say magnificent? There must be a better word, but I was firing blanks.
“So, I’m a god now?” I joked, defraying my awe, letting the intangible sunlight wafting off him bathe me in its warmth.
“A goddess.” Roses and lightning floated in his eyes. Rays of sunlight burned them away, leaving a rainbow in their wake.
Twilight Zone to Aria: we welcome you to your new loony bin. I clutched his arms to keep my spinning head in the air and my watery knees solid.
“Park’s off limits until ten o’clock.” A PVD officer’s loud dismissal sent my heart skipping. Yellow light washed over us and highlighted the last few people the magic and darkness hadn’t chased away.
“He can’t see us,” Adam murmured close to my ear. “Stand still, he’ll pass.”
The last three people exited the unarmed gate. I hugged Adam tighter. I couldn’t describe the attraction between us, the internal tug on everything good inside me, beyond the realm of normal or human. So different from the hot and cold wrenching confusion Ronan caused. Adam still felt as if he was part of Ronan—his lighter half—so pure and energized. On the flipside, I sensed his individual self apart from Ronan. And I had a feeling his unruly fairy glamour created much of the attraction between us. My head whirled with the array of mystifying feelings.
One thing I knew for certain, my head trusted Adam implicitly. No pinkie twitch warning me away. How far I’d come in the trust department over the last few days. It scared the bejeezus out of me. It also offered me hope that I could leave my insecurities and phobia of forming attachments at the Rift. With Adam—and Ronan—I didn’t have to hide my true nature or the bad luck, klutzy Aria.
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 174
