Coral & Bone

by Tiffany Daune

  This had not turned out the way she planned.

  Ever so carefully, as if she were made of glass, he took her hand in his. “So you are the one they sent to vanquish me?” He sounded amused, not angry.

  Halen cleared her throat, but still she could not speak. She could not even take her hand from his.

  “You’ll be able to answer in a few minutes. The atmosphere of this dimension has a nasty effect on your nerves. Of course I’m used to it now. That’s how they got me, you know. Built this beautiful world and then locked me inside.” He waved his hand around. Halen’s gaze followed his fingertips.

  Above, painted cherubs nestled in pastel clouds, scattered amongst grand crystal chandeliers. Gilt chairs of gold surrounded a marble table with golden legs. The velvety walls were adorned with oil paintings of the boy sitting beside her. Asair on a grand stallion riding in a field surrounded by hunting dogs; Asair draped in purple robes, women braiding his long hair; Asair writing with a feathered pen at his desk; and Asair floating over the water, his arms spread like wings, outstretched from his naked body.

  “You like that one?” he asked.

  The muscles in her neck loosed enough for her to shake her head no.

  “I think you do.” His long thin eyebrows rose.

  Halen wanted to scream. She wanted to run. She wanted to slap the annoying smirk from his face.

  He touched the rim of her bracelet and the acrid smell of char burned her nose. He flinched. “That smarts.” He shook his hand. “The metal seems to have forgotten its true owner. Remarkable bracelet.” His fingertips lingered over the band, but he did not touch it again. “Do you even know what the bracelet does?”

  Halen still couldn’t respond. She knew now the bracelet bonded her to Dax—not Tage. Dax, the liar was her guardian. She had been a fool to trust him.

  Asair brushed her bangs from her forehead. “Probably better if you don’t know.” He smiled. “A clever girl like you is best left in the dark.”

  Halen didn’t feel clever. If she had any brains at all she wouldn’t be lying helpless on the floor in another dimension with the most evil demon in three realms. She should have killed him when she had the chance.

  He leaned back on the flats of his hands. “I didn’t expect you to send me back here. I thought you and I would get to play a little first. You try to kill me, I fight back and then you surrender your powers to me—this is a bit of a letdown.” He let out a heavy sigh. “You won’t need this anymore.” He then ripped the vial from the chord and tucked it in his pocket. And like that, Halen’s chance of ever going home vanished.

  Forty

  “She doesn’t look good.” Tage could hear Ezra, though his voice sounded so far away. Her throat burned every time she attempted to speak. She opened her eyes to find the glittery golden-dusted ceiling overhead. They were back in Elosia. Ezra sat beside her. His warm hands covered hers. Behind him, Catch and Pepper spoke with Dax.

  “Halen.” Clearing her throat she asked, “Did she do it? Did she wipe out Asair?” She propped up on her elbows.

  “Hey, you should lie back down.” Ezra clasped her hand once more. His face was too long for a victory.

  “What happened? Where’s Halen?” Tage asked.

  “You did great,” Dax said. He handed her a stone goblet filled with water. “She opened the portal just like we thought she would.”

  “Whoa, whoa whoa!” Ezra stood up. His chest butted against Dax’s. “You knew Tage was going to do this?”

  “We all agreed to this,” Dax said. “She knew what she was getting herself into.”

  “I volunteered,” Tage said.

  Ezra sat back down. He looked at Tage blankly. “I was right—you’re not her guardian.”

  Tage felt bad for him. He had gone in blindly, but really she couldn’t have told him. “If he knew then Asair and the mermaids would have known. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” Tage said. “But we couldn’t risk Halen finding out the truth.”

  “Don’t you think she’s going to be ticked off with all of you? If we ever see her again, that is,” Ezra said.

  “What do you mean?” Tage asked. “Where is she?”

  “She didn’t come out!” Ezra stood up, grasping the ends of his hair.

  “She what! Out of where?” She fully sat up. “Where the hell is Halen?”

  Dax placed his hand on her shoulder. “Instead of killing him, she pushed Asair back into his dimension.” Catch and Pepper glanced away. “He took her with him.”

  “You have got to be kidding!” Tage rose to her feet, shrugging Dax off. “What were you doing? You knew she was soft. You should have helped her.”

  “He was stronger than we anticipated,” Dax said.

  “There wasn’t a way to predict it,” Catch said. “We thought he would need the elixir, but he didn’t. He still has all of his strength. Maybe more. I just don’t don’t get it.”

  “Where’s Nelia?” She owed her. Nelia had taken the first blow from the mermaids. If not for Nelia, they might have all died before Tage could get into a trance. A trance was the only way to psych the mermaids out and Halen. The black smoke burned and her lungs were paying for it now, but once she sunk into the trance she appeared dead.

  “Nelia is being healed,” Pepper said. “She has a water laceration across her throat. It was cast with magick, so it has to be healed with magick. Huron and Samira are with her.”

  “Will she be okay?” Tage asked.

  “She will,” Dax said. “My mother knows a few spells herself.”

  Tage had often thought of Samira. She had met her once after Daspar had initiated the plan. It was soon after Natalie’s disappearance. Samira consulted Daspar regularly though she did not know Daspar was Dax’s father. That had been a surprise to her as well.

  “I don’t get this,” Ezra said. “Why would you do this?”

  Tage explained. “Dax was Natalie’s guardian, but the Tari feared the hunters would find him. That was why he was raised in Elosia. They kept them separate as much as possible.”

  “But Natalie’s death made the Tari anxious,” Dax said. “Huron wanted Halen brought to Rockaway Beach to see if he could accelerate her powers by having her revisit a place of trauma.”

  “This is where I fit in,” Tage said. “I was supposed to pretend to be Halen’s guardian while Dax was here. I was supposed to monitor her emotions until the Tari were ready to act. We weren’t supposed to go in until her powers matured.”

  “You were a decoy for the hunters.” Ezra shook his head.

  “That too,” Tage said. “It was a good plan. Halen’s emotions were off the chart. As an Empath, I’ve never felt anything like what she had going on inside her. It’s like she feels everything ten times more than we do. That’s why we knew we could get her to the dark side of the seam if I was hurt. She wouldn’t be able to contain her emotions. It was the shove she needed to leap from the seam.”

  “You are all crazy,” Ezra said.

  “We played this just right,” Dax said. “She couldn’t have opened the portal without dark magick, and there wasn’t time to teach her.”

  “Not that teaching is such a good idea,” Pepper said. “Look what happened to Natalie.”

  “What happened to Natalie?” Ezra asked.

  “I couldn’t bring her back,” Dax said. “She found comfort in the darkness. She hid in the shadows of her soul.”

  “We couldn’t risk that happening to Halen,” Tage said.

  “So you thought tossing her in was best—did you ever think she might drown?”

  “Relax, everyone,” Pepper said. “She’s not Natalie.”

  Ezra was pacing, making Tage dizzy. She understood his frustration. It sucked to be lied too. She would let him vent.

  “She opened the portal for you, but now she is stuck in Asair’s dimension—how are you going to get her out of there?” Ezra looked between Dax and Tage.

  “We can’t,” Tage answered. “She has to open the portal.
That is, if she can resist Asair. If she gives her power to him, then we need to be ready for a fight.”

  “What do mean?” Ezra raked his hand through his damp hair.

  “You mean her soul,” Dax said.

  “Yes, her soul, and then she will become part of him,” Pepper said. “The portal wasn’t made to lock her in. She can leave, but Asair… If he consumed her soul, he would control her power. He can use her magick to open the portal.”

  “But she can fight him.” Ezra wrung his hands together and resumed pacing. “Right, Tage? She made spring come in winter, and butterflies carry away fire, and summoned the sun. She even opened the portal. She’s got this, right?”

  “It’s complicated,” Pepper said.

  “It always is,” Ezra said, looking at Tage.

  “No,” Tage said. “Pepper is right. It’s really complicated. Asair can only take her soul if she is willing to give it to him. It is the only way they can coexist in one body. Their seams have to interlock. This is how Daspar went from being human to becoming a siren. Pura gave her siren soul to him. She always will be a part of him.”

  “So Halen won’t be dead? She’ll be trapped in that monster?” Ezra asked.

  “Or she will be trapped with him in that dimension,” Tage said.

  “You seem to forget she may actually defeat him.” Dax stepped forward. “If she goes back to the seam and accesses the dark magick once more, she could kill him. I’ll be able to find her and talk her back.”

  “Unless he charms the pants off her,” Tage said.

  Dax scowled his jaw so tight. He looked like he might actually lunge at her.

  “I don’t mean literally.” She waved her hand dismissively. “He’s just going to…”

  “He’s going to try and convince her to give him what he wants.” Catch interrupted. “By appealing to her dark cravings, he may actually get her to give her power to him.”

  “That is why I have to draw her attention away from him,” Dax said. “I worked with Natalie trying to draw her out of the dark side of the seam. She called it the Lost and Found.”

  “Lost and Found?” Ezra said.

  “Yeah, she said when she crossed over she felt lost, until I found her. If I can find Natalie there, I’m sure I can bring Halen back.”

  “But you said yourself Natalie didn’t want to come back. What if Halen decide she likes Asair’s offer—then what?”

  “I’m connected to her—I can do this. Natalie had other issues.” Dax glanced toward Catch and Pepper.

  “Halen’s totally different.” Catch nodded.

  “I don’t know,” Tage said. “We never planned for this. It could go horribly wrong.”

  “Look Tage, I appreciate what you’ve done. Now have a little faith in me.” Dax’s eyes pleaded with her.

  Tage gnawed her fingernail. Staring at the silver bracelet now secure on Dax’s wrist, she really wished she was the guardian. She would have Halen out by now. Heck, she would have gone in after her. Even though they didn’t have the bracelets—Tage felt connected to her—Halen had become a friend. But there was nothing she could do. She had to let Dax try. “Guide her back, guardian.”

  Forty-one

  Halen’s stomach was a little queasy as she sat up and the gaudy gilt décor was making her gut turn more. Asair was on his feet, pacing, tapping his index finger against his chin in an annoying rhythm. The bright light of the crystal chandelier cast rainbow speckles along his loose cotton shirt. He wore matching black pants, rolled to his knees, as if he had been wading in water. He stopped by an open doorway and when she looked past him, she could make out a white room surrounded by more doors. Perhaps a hallway in a house, she thought. She never imagined the dimension would look like this. Somehow she thought there would be less crown-moulding and more brimstone.

  Her racing thoughts urged her to sprint out the door, but she knew no matter how far she ran it would not take her back home. She would have to open the portal again if she wanted to return home. The big problem with opening the portal—Asair would follow. There could be only one of them when the portal reopened.

  She coughed, trying to clear the scratchy dryness in her throat. There had been a lot of smoke behind the Mermaids’ Gate and the char still lingered in her lungs. Her stomach knotted when she thought of Tage.

  “Here, drink this.” He handed her a fine golden challis encrusted with dazzling gems. It was a goblet made for king. Peering inside the challis, a bright vibrant liquid, red as pomegranate seeds, clung to the sides. She pushed it away and coughed again, now buckling over. “I’m fine,” she gasped. She wasn’t going to drink anything he offered.

  “You think I want to kill you?” he asked, holding out the challis again. “I could have done that the minute you opened the portal. Don’t be so stubborn.” He pushed the challis into her hands.

  She grasped the golden cup. She was so thirsty, her throat a field of abandoned hay left to dry in the sun. One sip. She reasoned. One sip couldn’t hurt. As soon as the red liquid passed her lips, her cough ceased.

  “Better?” A coy smile played on his lips.

  She nodded, averting her eyes to the marble floor. He was too beautiful to look at. She feared if she stared to long, she too would fall under his spell and sprout a tail.

  “So, you’re the Tari’s secret weapon? I didn’t expect such a beautiful assassin.”

  “I’m not an assassin.”

  “Then what are you?” He crouched beside her. He smelled of a forest on fire, pine and smoke, dry earth and leaves. “You did come here to kill me—didn’t you?”

  Halen wasn’t sure of this answer. She had come to destroy him, but she had never thought of him being so human with a beating heart and a tantalizing smile. No, she came to kill a demon made of flames and scales, with a tail and horns sprouting from his skull. A fiery beast that had left Etlis in flames.

  Stay focused, she told herself. All of this was an illusion; the beautiful surroundings, the gorgeous boy before her. If she looked hard enough, she would be able to see the truth. Beauty could not disguise the demon inside. Seeing this truth gave her strength.

  “I’m not a weapon. I’m not an assassin. I’m a siren, like you. But I have chosen to do what’s right. To protect the realms, not destroy them. You had this choice as well, but you chose to take rather than give.”

  “You think you know me?” He laughed with a snort. “You think you know yourself?”

  He stood, yanking Halen up roughly by the arm.

  She wrenched herself away. “Get away from me. You’re hurting me!”

  To her surprise he looked genuinely concerned. He cast his eyes to her arm where the white marks of his fingerprints turned red. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s been so long since I’ve touched another. I don’t know my own strength anymore. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ve been here on my own for over one hundred years. That’s a long time, without someone to touch, to hold.” He walked past her. “Come on, let me show you something.” He nodded this time.

  Glancing back, she searched for the portal but saw nothing. She knew it was in the room though. Swiping her dirty heel along the white door, she marked the edge. She would need to come back to this room to open the portal. Once she stepped in the hallway, she was glad she had a designated marker. Twenty identical doors lined a circular balcony. A royal blue carpet covered the entire circle. They were standing on a second level, behind a railing of ornate metal lace. Asair stepped to the rail and peered below. “Come see.”

  As Halen stepped toward him, a rush of wind swept back her bangs. Her breath caught, and she grasped the railing tightly. Below was a translucent bubbled dome divided into three sections. One section was filled with trees, skyscrapers, water and mountains, the second was swirling with water, and the last section nothing but a red sky.

  “The three realms,” Asair said.

  Leaning her ear to the side, Halen thought she heard a man’s voice, when suddenly the section zoomed toward her
, and the man came into full view as if she were a bird on branch peering over his shoulder. A cab honked and the man jumped out of the way, waving his cell phone in the air. John, are you okay? a woman asked. I’m fine; it’s just an idiot driver.

  “I can hear them,” Halen said. “Hello!” Halen waved. She wanted him to see her. Maybe he could bring her back.

  “You can’t speak to him,” Asair said. “He’s not a blue moon siren, nor a guardian.” Asair propped on his elbows so he was facing her. “Did you like our little visits?” He reached for her cheek and she flinched back.

  “You weren’t invited,” she said, still watching as the man pocketed his cell phone.

  “I’ll remember to ask next time, darling.” He grinned.

  “Don’t waste your time.”

  He laughed, but she ignored him, and was now focussing on the section filled with the whirling dark sky. This had to be Elosia, but why couldn’t she see inside? When she tried to bring the section forward, the bubble resisted, shielding her from viewing farther. Her gaze darted to Etlis, the burning realm. She tried to see inside, but couldn’t penetrate the flaming sky.

  “Only Earth, darling. The other realms are just teasers. Though there isn’t much to see in Etlis.” He waved his hand over the orb, and then brought the pie section of Earth to view. A forest of trees appeared and in its center, a familiar church with gravestones and stone mermaids.

  “I like this place,” he said.

  “You’ve been spying on us?”

  “I’ve been watching you.” He swiped his hand across the section as if scattering a picture in the sand and the bubble filled with fire-winged butterflies. “I like this part best of all.”

  “You can go back in time?” Halen asked.

  “I can go anywhere—just not forward. Or to Etlis or Elosia,” he added. “So you have butterflies—I should have known.” He said to himself. “Your sister harnessed the air as well, her reflection was a little closer to my liking, though.”

  “You knew Natalie was my sister?” Halen asked. But of course he did. If he was watching everything. “Do you know what happened to her?”