Emma lit his hair on fire. Literally. And he wanted more. “Where do you think you’re going? We need to talk about this, Emma.”
“No, we don’t.” She shook her head and bent down to pick up her clothes from the floor where they’d hastily discarded them on their way to the bed, and threw them into a tall bin next to her dresser. “You made your feelings on this issue perfectly clear when you refused my Mark. Twice.”
He stood and walked to her. She didn’t flinch or look away, and he was hard and ready to taste her again. It had become his nearly permanent state of being since he’d met her. “I was a fool, Emma. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side, considering him. “Do you still plan to return to Itara and assume throne?”
“Of course, with you as my Queen.”
The slight curve of her lip was sad. “That’s what I thought.”
“You will make a wonderful Queen.” He reached for her, but she twisted away from his arms at the last minute and backed away, shaking her head.
“No. That’s the problem, Ajax. That’s my dirty little secret, the thing I’ve never told anyone. Not my parents or Bran. No one.”
“What?”
“Your rejection hurt me, Ajax. All my life I’d been told the story of how I’d meet you, and Mark you, how we’d fall in love and rule Itara together. How being your Queen was my destiny.”
“It sounds perfect to me, Emma. Come here.”
“No.” She held up her hand so he’d let her finish talking. “When you rejected me, it stung, but then I thought about it. You did me a huge favor. I’m human. A Timewalker. The Itarans would never respect me. Every day of my life as their Queen would be a struggle for power and control. You let me off the proverbial hook when you didn’t accept my Mark. I don’t want to be Queen. I never did.”
“Then why seduce me?”
A blush crept up her cheeks and he knew he’d hit on a sensitive and very personal subject. “Because no one ever made me burn before, Ajax. I didn’t want to let that pass me by.”
“No one?”
She ignored his question and kept talking. “I was selfish and self-indulgent, and I’m sorry if I hurt you, but I didn’t want to have to wait another forty or fifty years to find someone I wanted in my bed. You’d already rejected me and refused my Mark. Casual sex seemed harmless at that point.”
“So, you do not want me, and do not want to be my Queen. What do you want?” Speaking the words was acid in his throat. Impossible. Painful. Her answer ripped open old wounds, memories of his mother speaking of similar things before they’d been found, days before his brother and sister were taken and his mother beheaded and burned. His mother had been running from her destiny as well, flitting about and fighting fate.
“I want to fall in love and not have to worry about saving the world. I want to go dancing, instead of listening to lectures on Itaran politics. I want to learn how to sail a boat because it’s fun, not because it’s a survival skill. I want to have sex on the beach and bask in the sun instead of spending my afternoons learning to throw knives. I want to live, Ajax. I don’t want billions of lives to be affected by my decisions. I want to be free.”
“Your decision is affecting them now.”
“No. It was your decision, Ajax. And when you refused my Mark, you set me free.”
At last she approached him, but he didn’t reach for her. He had no idea what to say. He couldn’t promise her any of the things she claimed she wanted. Life at Itaran court was notoriously dangerous, the ruling Circles vicious and sly. He stood before her naked, and for the first time in his life, felt like he wasn’t enough.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him before turning her head to place a chaste kiss in the center of his bare chest.
“I went into this with my eyes wide open, Ajax. I thought you did, too.”
“I did.” Oh, yes. He’d known. One time. That was all she’d asked of him. He’d made the mistake of letting her go in the first place, and then of thinking one day in her bed would be enough.
She nodded and padded her way to the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower and make breakfast. Then we’ll join the others. We need a plan to take care of the young ones that come through the portal tonight. Nicodemus can’t keep that many people at the Darkwalker house.”
“And then what, Emma?” He stared at the door, kept his back straight and didn’t look at her.
“Then I wait for the goddess to come get me, I guess. I’ll go fry the Queen and you can have your throne.”
But I won’t have you.
The thought was punctuated by the soft click of the latch on the bathroom door. Soon he’d have everything he thought he wanted, a clear path to the throne and the freedom to find a high-born and powerful Itaran female to be his Queen. He would finally, after seven hundred years in the dark, finally be going home. But if he’d looked down at his chest, he’d have sworn there was a hole there big enough to punch his fist through.
<><><>
Thunder shook the ground and the wind howled, the gusts strong enough that Emma had to lean into them to stay upright as she made her way to where Katherine and Mari stood, hiding from the wind behind the hulking outline of a car that stood on its end.
“What is this?” Emma yelled to be heard over the storm as a giant jolt of lightning lit the dark sky, followed by a boom of thunder that shook the ground beneath their feet. Huge drops of rain poured from the sky. Their entire party had ported out of Florida about an hour earlier, and arrived in the middle of hell on earth. It was close to midnight in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. A thunderstorm whipped the few hardy oak, willow and cottonwood trees side to side and flattened what she could see of the prairie grass and weeds.
“Tornado season,” Mari answered her, and pulled her hood forward to block the random piece of pea-sized hail coming at them like sidewinder bullets. It stung. “I told them we should’ve brought Sarah. She could have zapped this storm back where it came from.”
Sarah was a Timewalker that lived on Bermuda with her husband, Tim. Emma had never met her in person, but remembered Sarah’s help once when she’d been lost in the dark dimensions and the Triscani had been about to find her. Sarah had hidden her somehow, bought her some time to figure out how to get out of there. She was eternally in the woman’s debt, and hoped she’d get to meet her. Mari just wanted her around because, as Mari said, Sarah could tame lightning bolts and control the kinetic energy of the wind and the storm.
“Usually the hail only lasts a few minutes in these kinds of storms,” Katherine assured her. “I lived in the Midwest for a while. Trust me.”
“What about the rest?” Emma had seen a few rainstorms, but nothing like this. The weather on Itara was controlled. Nothing this violent was allowed.
“It could be over in ten minutes or two hours. Just depends.” Katherine peered around the edge of the car that she, Mari, Zoey and Emma crouched behind.
Zoey had a camera out and was taking pictures for her blog.
“You don’t show our faces on your blog, do you?” The idea of any of their true identities hitting a conspiracy theorist’s blog site made Emma sick to her stomach.
“No way. Totally smudge them. Please. Like I want Aron’s gorgeous face all over the internet.” Zoey scoffed and kept looking through her zoom lens. Aron’s gorgeous face was a near identical match for Ajax’s, so Emma could relate. Zoey’s crazy riot of curls was tucked under a leather hat with just enough brim to keep the rain off her cheeks. She pulled a black trash bag from her pocket and draped it over her head and the camera to keep her lens clear and dry. Emma heard her muffled voice from beneath the plastic. “It’s starting.”
Emma didn’t need an announcement from Zoey to know that something was changing. The air around them filled with heavy power that, combined with the gusts of wind, made it difficult to breathe.
They were at a replica of the famous S
tonehenge, and she wanted to come back here one day, in the daylight, so she could take a better look.
Cars and trucks had been planted in the ground, welded together and painted a light stone gray to match the standing stones in England. The project was either complete stupidity or utter genius.
The dirt beneath her feet was fine as silt and blew into her mouth and nose, blew everywhere and tore at her cheeks. The roof of her mouth tasted like a mud pie. The rain melted the top layer of fine powder into a crust of mud, and underneath, more dust. If they got hit with a real downpour they’d be walking in mud deep enough to swallow her shoes.
A few scattered weeds and prairie grasses had sprung up on the side of the tourist-created walking trails. Without that hearty vegetation, the whole area would have looked like a giant field of dust.
The males were positioned around the center of the structure and blocked all of the exit spaces between cars. The Timewalkers were slightly farther out, on the outer ring of the circle, waiting. The men were going to fight first, which, in Emma’s mind meant they were going to stand there like targets and assess the situation before they’d allow any of the Timewalker women to get close.
She and Mari were on the edge with their Angel’s Fire. Mari could shoot hers like a laser, which Emma found fascinating. The other Timewalker didn’t pass out every time either, which hardly seemed fair. But she also couldn’t cleanse a Triscani soul the way Emma could. Mari, like the Queen of Itara and her descendants, could only destroy them.
Emma thought the plan was foolish and archaic, not chivalrous. But she didn’t have the heart to argue with any of the males, especially Ajax. He’d looked hurt today, and she hadn’t expected that. But there was no way she was going to hand him her heart and soul in a gift-wrapped box…for the third time…just because the sex blew all her circuits. No way. Sex was not love, and there was no chance in hell she was willing to take on an eternity of servitude, to a race of beings who would look down their noses at her, for a male who didn’t love her.
She’d grown up on that planet, after all. She was well aware of the prejudice and inequitable treatment of humans on Itara compared to the Immortal elite. Making her their Queen would be like crowning a tabby cat to rule a den of lions. A joke. A painful joke.
True that she wasn’t your average house cat. She was a Timewalker and a jumper, and she had white fire, but her D.N.A. was all wrong for those people. All wrong and way too human.
She didn’t need more rejection. No thank you. Been there. Done that.
Katherine nudged Emma with her elbow and she pulled herself from her pity party. “What?”
“We have company.” Katherine nodded over her shoulder, away from the center of the circle where all of the males were waiting and watching a swirling portal of black begin to take shape at its center.
Emma, Mari and Katherine turned around. “Is that Nicodemus? What’s he doing?” Emma grabbed Katherine’s elbow and tugged. “Come on.”
“I’ll stay here with Zoey in case any of the boys get hurt. But make it quick.” Mari turned back around, dismissing the other two women for the moment.
“Okay.” Katherine looked from where Nicodemus stood about fifty yards away motioning them to come over, to Emma. “You sure about this?”
Emma thought of Nicodemus’s kiss. Sighed. “Yes. He’s one of the good guys.”
“Okay.” Katherine took off at a dead run, her nearly six-foot frame and long legs left Emma huffing to try to keep up as they raced to the side of the small white building that sat on the edge of the field. She could run, for miles, but there was no making up almost a full head of extra height. And most of the Immortals were tall, taller than Katherine. One more reason to stay far away from their throne room.
When they reached the building, Nicodemus stood waiting for them, but he wasn’t alone. “Who’s your friend?” Emma held out her hand instinctively, the white fire already flaring to life on the tips of her fingers. This guy needed to burn off some evil mojo, badly.
“I am Elijah.”
Katherine scowled but Emma just waited, hand out. He looked at it, but didn’t touch her.
Nicodemus spoke. “Elijah is my elder brother, and we’re both Archiver born, so we can open portals for a handful of people, but not enough to get all of the younger sons out.”
Katherine stepped forward. “You want me to open a Gate for you?”
Elijah bowed to her, a slight lean at his waist. “Yes, Guardian. They must all leave at once, or those left behind will be trapped.”
“By Droghan?” Emma asked.
“By fate.”
“Well, isn’t that cryptic.” Katherine crossed her arms and looked at Nicodemus. Emma studied the two males. They looked remarkably similar, golden hair, dark eyes, same nose, same chin. Believing they were brothers was easy.
“Why are we here? Not over there?” Emma pointed to the portal behind them where a steady stream of one or two Triscani were arriving every few seconds. So far, Ajax and the others were holding, but if the Triscani started coming in greater numbers, they’d need her fire.
“This night is a ruse, a charade for Itara’s Queen. I need to sneak the younger sons out while Droghan is busy. I won’t let him sacrifice them for his vengeance, not when your fire and the one you call Robbie can save them.”
“How do you know about Robbie?” Katherine shifted beside her and Emma was ready, in case her friend made a move.
“Droghan captured him. He is the one holding the Gate for the Hunters right now.”
“Let him go. Now.” A black fog began to rise from Katherine’s skin. Emma took a step back. Never seen that before. And it didn’t feel like something she could burn away, the energy was wrong. Not evil. Eternal.
“Robbie and Droghan have come to an agreement. The boy can’t be held against his will. You, of all people, should know that.”
Emma let both of her hands burn. “How many of these younger sons are with you?”
“Fewer than fifty.”
“What? There were twice that a few weeks ago.” Nicodemus’s gaze was hard, and furious.
“Droghan pushed them, wanted more Hunters for his attack.”
“I’ll filet that bastard.” Nicodemus’s voice shook with his rage.
“I’ll fry him for you when I meet him, which should be soon.” Emma held up her hand again, palm up, at its center a small, controlled flame. She offered it to Elijah. She needed to help him, it was like an ache in her gut, in irresistible instinct. She could burn away some of his darkness and not pass out. She could stop without burning herself out completely. Couldn’t she? “Take my hand. I can burn the darkness out of you.”
Elijah actually retreated a step. “I cannot accept, my lady.”
“Why not?”
“Because Droghan would suspect. I must remain as I am until after this is over.”
“But I can feel them. It’s terrible.” Emma wanted to close the distance between them and force the stubborn forbidden son to accept her help. His insides were twisted and torn apart. She could sense the evil roiling beneath his flesh, its power brushing up against her own like a porcupine’s needles rubbing her bare skin. And at the evil’s core? Bedrock. Elijah’s will. It felt ancient and unbending, like standing next to a cliff face and knowing it had existed long before she was born, and would remain long after she was gone.
“I have carried them for centuries. A few more days is nothing.” If anyone else had said that, she’d have scoffed at them. But her fire retreated and she nodded at him in respect.
“Okay. But find me, after. I can help you.”
“Of course.” Elijah said the words, but she wasn’t convinced.
“How many Hunters are coming through tonight?” Nicodemus asked the question.
“Enough to convince the Queen that Droghan kept his word.” Elijah looked up at the sky. “Three hundred, perhaps a few more. My lieutenants are sending them through two or three at a time until my return.”
&
nbsp; “Why?”
“To distract your males so I could speak to the two of you without interference.”
“You’re sacrificing them?”
“They are beyond redemption. Other than the lieutenants at the Gate holding back the Hunters, all those that could be saved are waiting for you.”
Nicodemus raised a short sword in salute. “Help my brother, ladies. Please. I need to return before they notice I’m not hiding behind my men.” A portal enveloped him and Nicodemus disappeared.
Emma looked at Katherine, who nodded. She turned back to Elijah. “Okay. Tell us what you need us to do.”
Elijah turned to Katherine. “Take us far from here, to a safe place for them to arrive and be touched by Emma’s fire.”
Katherine nodded and a black Gate formed to her right. Emma, Elijah and Katherine stepped through to the beach outside of Teagh and Katherine’s home. The stretch of rocky beach would hold forty or fifty people with no problem. It was also completely isolated, and Emma realized they were alone with a Triscani leader, alone and hundreds of miles from everyone else.
Katherine must have been thinking similar thoughts. She turned to Emma as Elijah walked up and down the beach, looking for God only knew what.
“You sure about this, Emma?”
“No. You?”
“Hell no.” They both watched Elijah pace out their immediate perimeter. “But I think we’re both going to do it anyway.”
Emma grinned at the taller woman. “Yes, I think we are.”
Chapter Fifteen
Elijah returned, and put his sword away. “Okay. This should do. Where will we take them, once Emma’s finished? We need to hold them somewhere safe until Robbie has finished his task and can return to give them each a soul stone.”
Katherine held out her hand and pointed at the large open area surrounding her home. “Fifty guests. We’ve got tents and cots, enough for double that. They’ll have to sleep outside for a few days until we get something more permanent figured out. But the weather is mild.”
“This is not the Darkwalker home.” Elijah looked over the grounds with a critical eye.
White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5 Page 16
