Seared

by Bethany Adams

  “Do you really think we can get around her magic?” Victor asked. “There’s a great deal I’d like to do to that bitch.”

  Kien waved his hand. “Forget it. I was testing to see if she slept. There are greater goals than sex. Besides, once you have Earth, you’ll have your choice of women.”

  Patrick caught on first. “The poison spell was destroyed. How are we going to take over?”

  “There’s another version, but it requires a more…personal touch.” Kien peered at Maddy and found her unchanged. “If Fen connects me into Earth’s energy, I can channel the poison myself. It’s riskier and more potent, so I will expect your rapid cooperation in breaking through the spell barring me from Moranaia.”

  “You were supposed to help us gain control of Earth before you leave,” Victor grumbled. “You help subdue the full-blooded fae so that we can rule with our magic, and then we help you claim your throne. That was the deal.”

  “You’ll not need me here for that.” Warmth streamed through Kien’s blood at the satisfying thought. “Once I’m king, I’ll release the spell. After the destruction that the rebound will cause, they’ll be begging for your help.”

  “Destruction?” Patrick asked.

  “The humans will be fine, but the fae races?” Kien chuckled. “Not so much.”

  It took all of Maddy’s willpower not to move. The charm her father had taught her held, a simple enchantment that shielded her thoughts. But only force of will kept her body motionless at Kien’s foul words. Poisoning the energy and destroying the fae? She had to warn her family.

  She had to escape.

  Chapter 15

  Once again, Ralan stared out the passenger window at the passing landscape. This time, at least, they had a clear destination. But that didn’t ease the knot that had been in his stomach since the night before. Why had their bond formed on its own? He tried to think back to the moment it had happened, but all he could recall was his pendant heating as it settled between them.

  Perhaps their souls had known something their minds hadn’t.

  He tugged his necklace from beneath his shirt and ran his thumb over the medallion at the end. Like most of his people, he’d worn it all of his life, even during the long centuries he’d spent on Earth, though he’d been careful to keep it glamoured to hide the engravings. No human could’ve read the Moranaian writing, but the strange characters would have raised questions—dangerous ones during some time periods. Now? Now, it was his no longer.

  As soon as he had the chance, he would give the necklace to Cora. It was usually part of the first step, but though they’d bypassed that, it should still be hers. Just as he was hers. He couldn’t say he loved her, not this early, but he felt whole in her presence. Unlike with other women, he had no need to hide his true nature.

  In a lot of ways, that was better than love—an emotion he had cause to dread.

  “You’re quiet,” Cora said.

  Ralan glanced at her, taking in the serious lines of her profile. “I was thinking about our bond.”

  Her mouth turned down. “Me, too.”

  “Oh?” The knot in his stomach tightened. “You’ve been surprisingly calm about it after your initial reaction.”

  Cora shot him a wry look. “Initial reaction? A nice way to put the threats I face from Orn.”

  “We,” he said at once. “We face. I’ll not leave you to deal with it alone.”

  “Thank you.” Her fingers tapped the steering wheel. “But that isn’t the part I was thinking about. I just…I should be angry, but I’m not. I don’t understand why.”

  Ralan smiled. “And I was thinking about how I am comfortable with you. We don’t feel like strangers.”

  “You’re right.” Cora hit the turn signal, her full concentration on the road as she exited the interstate. When she stopped at the end of the ramp, she gave him a quick smile in return. “I don’t understand it, but it’s true.”

  Once they left the interstate behind, the city faded away. There were a few businesses and houses, but this stretch of road looked like a different world than downtown Chattanooga. A mix of rural development and forest. Ralan found himself relaxing as the area grew heavier with trees. It wasn’t Moranaia, but it certainly looked more like it than the city. Though he’d grown accustomed to urban life, nothing touched his soul like the natural spaces.

  Near a small neighborhood, he saw a sign for Racoon Mountain Caverns, but Cora didn’t slow. “Isn’t that it?”

  She shook her head. “It’s a great cave, but humans have tours all through the caverns daily. It would be a terrible place to hide out. I’m thinking we should head up to the Raccoon Mountain Reservoir area.”

  “Okay,” Ralan said. “Why?”

  “I’m not sure about caves, but there are trails all over the top of the mountain.” She turned down a heavily treed road and pointed at a sign. “There’s a Visitor Center. Let’s see if we can find a map.”

  Ralan took in the forest surrounding the road to the reservoir. No development here. The trees were far smaller than those on Moranaia, but this was a true forest. He smiled at the memory of Inona, worry creasing her brow as she asked about raccoons. Wildlife would flourish here despite the park’s proximity to the city, but the humans wouldn’t let anything too dangerous live near their settlements.

  For a time, the road veered near a river, another mountain rising on the other side. Ralan peered thoughtfully across the water. There could be any number of caves there, too, but he had no idea how tough they would be to access. Vek had said his nephew was near this spot, so that mountain might be close enough to warrant a check.

  “Do you know what’s on the other side of the river?” Ralan asked.

  Cora shrugged. “No clue. Signal Mountain? I think there’s a state forest somewhere over there, too. I’ve become a city girl over the centuries. I spent more than enough time in the woods when I first arrived on Earth.”

  “Really?” Ralan studied her for a moment. “You said you’ve been here around the same amount of time as me. There were plenty of cities in the seventeenth century.”

  She stared out the windshield for so long he feared she wouldn’t answer. “There are few portals to my homeland, and they’re all in North America. My people rarely use them. First, we had difficulty in establishing relationships with the many tribes living across the continent, each with their own customs and rules. Then came the Europeans with another set of customs.”

  The road curved up the side of the mountain, circling toward the summit, but Ralan lost all interest in the view. “Had the European settlements reached this far inland at the time? I didn’t travel to the Americas until after the revolution.”

  “I don’t think so, but I emerged in the Appalachians to the northeast,” Cora said. “That’s where I spent my time in the woods. I was half-starved when a couple of native hunters found me.”

  “What happened then?”

  A fond smile crossed her lips. “They were from the Aniyunwiya, now called the Cherokee. They named me a Nunnehi, a magical traveler, though that wasn’t quite accurate. They were thinking of another type of fae who lived in the area, but I’m close enough that I rolled with it. I was able to be myself for the most part, not having to bother with glamour. But as time passed and I didn’t age, some became uneasy.”

  “Did they force you to leave?” Ralan asked.

  Cora shook her head. “Of course not. They had a great deal of respect for the Nunnehi and would not have caused me offense. Beyond that, they were kind. The women taught me traditional weaving and farming. But the wary gazes and the deference wore on me. I moved to a European city on the coast and pretended to be human after that.”

  “Wait,” Ralan said, brows lowering in thought. “If you lived that long among the Native Americans, how can you be so uncomfortable in the woods?”

  She tossed him an annoyed look. “The Aniyunwiya lived in villages, Ralan. Houses, community buildings, even a wooden palisade. I never had to s
tray farther than the fields. Honestly, don’t you know anything about the different native cultures?”

  Heat crept up his neck. “I knew that much, at least. But the woods were all around you. You never explored?”

  “After almost starving in the forest?” Cora chuckled. “No.”

  He studied her profile. With her long black hair, tan skin, and brown eyes, Cora would fit in with the Cherokee. Only the soft point of her ears set her apart. “I’m surprised you weren’t swept up by some noble warrior.”

  “Who’s to say I wasn’t?” Cora asked with a quick grin.

  His eyebrows rose. “You were married?”

  She laughed. “No. But I wasn’t always lonely, either.”

  Perhaps Ralan should have been jealous, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be. The thought of her spending centuries feeling unloved was much worse than any blow to his own ego. He’d been lonely often enough in his own life to never wish it on another. Besides, he wouldn’t expect celibacy from anyone.

  “Good,” he simply said.

  The road passed beside the massive reservoir, a giant lake in the middle of the mountain. When had they curled their way up to the top? The slope of the road and the surrounding forest had largely hidden the climb. Ralan still didn’t see anything except trees, water, and power lines. They could’ve been on flat ground.

  “With this bond, I expected you to be more possessive,” Cora said softly.

  He smiled. “Our souls may be linked, but we are each our own person. The thought of you with another makes me ill, it is true, but I don’t own you. I would never seek to.”

  With sudden clarity, Ralan knew he would let her go if it made her happier. Even though it would hurt like hell. Even though the thought of severing their bond sliced into his heart. And that wasn’t even considering the social consequences. If she requested a priest break their soulbond, it would be assumed that Ralan had done something terrible. Prince or not, he would be shunned. But despite all of that, he would do it for her happiness.

  He stifled a groan. Dammit, he was beginning to love her.

  Cora leaned against the overlook rail and studied the trail map they’d been given in the visitor’s center. She was no seer, but none of it seemed right. “I don’t think they’re here.”

  “Hmm?” Ralan asked, his attention on the valley below.

  “There are lots of trails, but this place isn’t private.” She caught sight of a group of bicyclists parking next to the visitor’s center. The concrete building wasn’t huge, mostly housing a small exhibit about the reservoir, but it appeared to be a popular starting point for hikers and cyclists. “And I’m not sure there would be any caves that aren’t flooded. Not with a giant reservoir in the middle of the mountain. I didn’t realize it was this big.”

  Ralan propped his elbows on the rail. “We need to cross the water.”

  Cora frowned. “The reservoir?”

  “No.” He inclined his head toward the view. “The river.”

  “The…” Cora focused on his face. His eyes weren’t as blank as when he’d had the vision at the carnival, but they weren’t quite normal either. “Ralan?”

  He continued to stare into the distance for several heartbeats. Then he blinked and shook his head. “Sorry. It’s all muddled. But the hardest strands to follow lead across that river.”

  “I don’t know how to get there from here.” With a sigh, Cora tugged her phone from her pocket and pulled up her map. “It’s Prentice Cooper State Forest. Do you have any idea how many miles of hiking that could be? And it’ll take a while to get there. You’d better be certain.”

  “As much as I can be of anything.” He straightened, his expression softening as he faced her. “I think she’ll be okay, Cora. The strands where she isn’t are the clearest.”

  Cora looked out over the railing at the river in the valley below, another mountain spearing up beyond. Such a beautiful view to hold so much future aggravation. But she would do anything to save Maddy, even hike the untamed. “Let’s go. We’ve wasted enough time, and it’ll take a while to drive over. We’ll have to go all the way back to downtown Chattanooga to get to the bridge over the river.”

  “I’ll have words with Vek over this,” Ralan said with a scowl.

  She thought back to their encounter with the Unseelie prince. “He’s even less familiar with this area than I am, I think. If the cave is across the river, it is near Raccoon Mountain.”

  “Still—”

  “Come on.” Cora grabbed his wrist and tugged. “You can grumble about Vek in the car. I want to scope out a good starting point and see how much day we have left.”

  Ralan pulled his arm free and laced his fingers with hers. Warmth curled through her, a lightness she hadn’t felt since her youth. They’d joined together in passion, yet somehow their linked hands felt almost as intimate. Bodies blending in daylight with joint purpose.

  A declaration of togetherness.

  At his desk, Lyr struggled to focus on the paper he held as Meli wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned against his back. They’d worked on their separate tasks in the quiet study until she’d abandoned her book on Moranaian history to torment him. And it was working. The first few crops had already been harvested, hadn’t they? He could read about it tomorrow.

  “It’s getting late,” she said. “Are you almost done?”

  He tapped his finger on the stack of papers. “I’m never done.”

  But Lyr shifted, turning his head so he could give her a quick kiss. Then another. Perhaps it was time for bed. Sensing his change in intent, Meli let go and stepped back. He stood, his hands going to her waist. Her arms looped around his neck again, and she grinned.

  “I suppose I should be grateful that you fight more paperwork than people.” Some of the humor faded from her expression. “Usually.”

  Lyr lowered his forehead to hers. “Let’s hope things will remain peaceful for a while.”

  As if on cue, a knock sounded on the door. Lyr let out a wry laugh and let go of Meli. He sensed his mother’s energy on the other side, and there was a bite to it that said she brought news. “Come in.”

  Lynia strode through, her steps slowing only a little at the sight of Meli. “Headed to bed?”

  “Soon enough,” Lyr answered. “Is something wrong?”

  “Not precisely, but I thought you should know what I found.” His mother halted on the other side of his desk and lowered a book to the surface. “Remember that I found reference to the energy poisoning spell?”

  He frowned. “Yes.”

  “I tracked down another source.” She placed her finger over a line of text. “If Ralan hasn’t found Kien, he needs to do it soon. From what Arlyn and Selia said, Kien used a spell imbued in crystals for the original. But there’s a riskier form. He could also hook it into himself.”

  “Clechtan,” Lyr cursed. Just what they needed. “What is the risk?”

  Lynia’s lips thinned. “One wrong move, and he could damage Earth’s energy. Permanently. Kien is able to transmute objects and alter energy fields. All he needs is to be connected directly.”

  “I’ll contact Ralan.”

  His mother nodded and bent to gather the large tome. She winced as she straightened, and Lyr had to grit his teeth to stop himself from offering help. Even Lial admitted that her spine was healing well, and the healer was more protective than Lyr. Still, he struggled to see his mother hurting, even if it was a simple twinge.

  She smiled, a knowing glint in her eyes. “Thank you for not fussing over me. Now, try to speak to Ralan.”

  As his mother hurried out, Lyr gave Meli a resigned look. “It looks like bed will have to wait.”

  Had he ever felt bored with life? He would never take peace for granted again.

  Chapter 16

  Cora turned off the ignition and dropped her forehead against the steering wheel. They’d made it to the other side of the river, but this parking area was empty. “I am so sick of driving.” />
  “I could take a turn when we start out again,” Ralan said.

  She couldn’t help it—she laughed. “And have you blank out in some vision while driving and get us into a fiery crash? No.”

  He grimaced. “You do have a point. I managed to mostly block my talents when I lived on Earth before, so it wasn’t an issue. I’m sorry, Cora.”

  “It’s okay.” She rubbed her weary eyes and peered around the abandoned lot. “There’s not much on this side of the river. Where could they have gone? Do you think they ditched the car? Or concealed it with magic?”

  “Could be.” Ralan rubbed his hand down her back. “Maybe we should get out and look for a—”

  He cut off so abruptly that Cora straightened in concern. But he hadn’t been gripped by another vision as far as she could tell. Instead, he’d bent down to dig in his bag. Her brow furrowed. What in the hell was he doing? When he sat up holding a tablet-sized pouch, her confusion was in no way cleared.

  “What’s that?”

  Ralan glanced warily out the windows before reaching into the small bag. He pulled out the mirror from before, and she couldn’t help but stare. She hadn’t gotten a good look at it when he’d shown it to her at the hotel. The delicate silver frame formed in the shape of vines and leaves. Light pulsed softly across its surface, and a hum of magic brushed her skin. Stunning.

  “It’s the communication mirror, remember?” He held it low, out of sight of any passing cars. “I used it to speak to my daughter. Someone is calling.”

  His daughter. Oh, man. Cora had been so caught up in events that she hadn’t had time to contemplate that aspect of her new relationship. If they stayed bonded, she would be a stepmother. What if the girl hated her? What if she turned out to be terrible at parenting? She hadn’t thought about having children in so long it was almost a foreign concept.