“Who was that?” Lexie chimed in. Now that he was dead and we were in a safe place, I wanted to know, too.
“Toshiro Yamada,” Liam responded. “He used to work for the Pax, but he left when he couldn't make the cut to become a venator.”
“So he became a bad guy when he couldn't be a good guy.” Lexie said.
Liam nodded. “After he was rejected, he stole a few artifacts and fell off the radar. I'd heard whispers that he'd joined the Eight, but thought they were only rumors until I saw him just now.”
“They found us.” I wrapped my arms around my chest, but couldn't stifle the shiver that racked my spine.
“Sort of,” Liam said in a soothing voice, having noticed my reaction. “If Toshiro was here, then that means his boss Duo can't be far behind, but I doubt anyone else has been sent for you yet.”
“Yet.” Lexie came to stand closer to me.
“Yes,” Liam agreed. “Duo is Octavius' assassin who handles all of his dirty work.”
I took a deep breath to focus myself. “What do we know about this guy?”
“Not much,” Liam answered apologetically. “We know he used to be a high-dollar assassin for at least two hundred fifty years acting under an assumed name. Then around a century ago, he began working exclusively for Octavius and became Duo. That's about all we know about him.” He paused, a torn expression on his face before saying, “Other than that he likes to play with his prey.”
I swallowed.
“Shouldn't we run then?” Lexie asked.
“No.” Liam shook his head. “The good thing is that if he sent his lackey to do the footwork, then it means he's reaching. He doesn't know where you are. Running around like chickens with your heads cut off is exactly what he wants. What you need to do is to keep your heads down until you have a cover ID, destination, and an escape plan to reach it. Duo is very skilled at what he does. He will find you within the next few days, but the point is to keep you two hidden until you have a plan in place.”
“Is he going to kill us?” Lexie sat back down on the couch, pulling her legs up to her chin.
“Unfortunately, no—”
“Unfortunately?” Lexie repeated sharply, cutting him off. “What the hell is unfortunate about us not getting killed again? It wasn't any fucking fun the first time around, you know!”
Liam held his hand up, silencing her. “He may be an assassin, but he isn't here to kill you. His job is to bring you back to Octavius, and he won't be nearly so kind as death.”
Lexie paled even more. She'd never seen the depths of Octavius' creative and violent wrath, but she'd heard of it in great detail from me while we were on the plane back to the US. She knew how little value he placed on life and how high a value he placed on the infliction of pain. She knew that her own nightmare and death were at his order and what he had done himself to Selena and the nameless couple in the pit. She knew to be more afraid of Octavius than of dying again, even permanently.
8
Liam stood carefully from the sofa. I stepped up to support him, but he stopped me with a hand.
“I think I'm all right now,” he said. “The moonshade wasn't in my system as long as it was in Ms. Dillon's.”
I backed off as he walked slowly to the nightstand in his room and grabbed a cell phone.
“Now, I've got to call in for a clean-up and get a few things in order,” he said from the doorway. “Why don't you call for room service?”
“Okay.” Clean-up for what?
“Order a burger for me, would you? I'll be out when I'm done.” With that, he shut the door and turned on the television in his room. Why the secrecy?
Lexie went to the phone in the other bedroom and placed an order for burgers and milkshakes.
“Lexie, dear, would you move the eye of newt?” Grandma pointed to the box across the room. “It doesn't look very stable on top of all those bags.”
“Can we see it?” Lexie asked as she moved it to the dinner table.
I got up to go see. I wanted to know what a giant, magic newt eyeball looked like.
Grandma shrugged. “It's not like you can lose your appetite.”
Lexie cut the box open with a butter knife and pulled out an enormous glass jar that held an eyeball the size of a small watermelon. It thudded on the table loudly enough that it was sure to have left a gouge in the wood. The force of setting it down caused the eyeball to rotate in the jar, revealing the iris.
Its color was otherworldly: emanating from a thick, diagonal pupil were lightning-like streaks of cobalt blue over a bumblebee yellow background that faded around the edges. The fine, thready veins that covered the white of the eye were greenish blue in color and formed twirling patterns as they encircled the oblong shape.
“Wow,” I breathed and leaned in for a closer look. I yelped and jumped back when the pupil dilated.
Grandma laughed.
“This thing is really gross,” Lexie said, but kept staring at it anyway. “I wish I'd left it in the box.” She took her scarf off and wound it around the jar to obscure its contents.
The room service cart arrived a minute later, Liam was still in his room.
I debated knocking, but he was probably in the middle of an important conversation. And while I was itching to get a hint at what it was about, I decided to just put his plate in the microwave for him.
I sat down on the sofa Liam was on and put mine on the coffee table. Grandma balanced hers on her lap. Lexie offered to feed it to her, but she declined, insisting that she was feeling well enough to eat on her own.
“It's weird,” Lexie mused, head in hand. “I used to love food. Now it's meh.”
I raised a brow.
“It doesn't smell like food. The smell of your burger is as appetizing as a brick,” she sighed, her eyes downcast. She seemed sad, which made guilt a stone in my stomach.
I set my burger down.
Lexie pinned me with a grouchy stare. “Eat it. I will not be the reason you become anorexic.”
I did as she bid. There was no denying that look. Immediately, I dropped it and spat it out onto my plate. I stuck my tongue out and panted cool air over it.
“Too hot? Drink some of your shake.” Grandma passed me my coffee milkshake.
I slurped it down greedily until my brain froze. The icy goodness was a salve to my poor burned tongue, but it bit me back. I dropped my head and cradled it between my hands. I just couldn't win.
“Why don't you try healing it?” Lexie suggested.
Grandma nodded enthusiastically around her mouthful of burger.
I closed my eyes and mouth and imagined my tongue not feeling like I'd licked the bottom of a pan. Nothing happened.
This wasn't the first time I'd used healing magic. What was I doing wrong? Remembering back to the time I healed Liam's arm while we were in the pit, I put my fingers on my tongue and focused on healing my burn. My fingers and tongue tingled and warmed. Within seconds, I felt as good as new.
“That's wonderful, duckie.” Grandma smiled. “I'm so proud of the progress you're making.”
My cheeks heated and I couldn't help but smile a little under the praise. Despite having a master assassin out to drag me back into my worst nightmare, it finally felt like I was getting at least a tiny handle on things and that was better than nothing.
Lesson learned, I opened up the steaming burger and let it cool off.
“Grandma?” Nerves crept into my voice, knowing she probably wouldn't like the topic I was about to broach. When she looked over at me in question, I asked, “You say I'm a different kind of mage. Do you think my healing magic could be different enough to heal Mom?”
Grandma's shoulders fell. “I'm sorry, dearie, but magic is magic. The only things that make you different is the amount of it you have and the way that you use it. You cannot heal her.” She took a deep breath as if to center herself and continued, “I have tried everything under the sun and beyond to save my baby girl. I would give anything to save her. There
is nothing you can do.”
“Couldn't I at least try?”
Grandma dropped her eyes and shook her head.
Anger prickled my skin. “Why not? I've fixed broken bones before, so why not Mom?”
In a soft voice, she answered, “Healing magic doesn't always work on cancers. The body has to recognize that something is wrong with it in order for healing magic to be effective. In some patients, their body knows it's infected so the magic works, but it doesn't for your mother. Trust me, I've tried everything.” A shaky breath fluttered from her lips and her other hand wiped her eyes. “I've called in some of the most powerful mage and fae healers, but her body doesn't realize that the tumor is killing her.”
I cleared the frog from my throat. “So there's nothing I can do?”
She shook her head. “I'm so sorry, dear. I know that helpless feeling and it's wretched.”
Now it was my turn to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“When her human time comes, because she is half mage, there's a fifty-fifty chance that her species will change when she dies.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Grandma was quiet for a moment, mulling over the question. “Humans are a malleable species. If they have the blood of another species in their bodies when they die, there's a chance that they will rise again as that species.”
“So you could change her into a mage, too?” Hope filled my chest, lifting the anvil off my lungs.
Grandma shook her head. “Mages and most species of fae are hereditary only. A human can only make that change if they have an ancestor of that species. Vampires and shapeshifters can change a human— if a single drop of their blood enters a human's body and that human then dies within a certain time frame, there is a chance that they will change species. That chance varies from species to species, but they are all contagious.”
“So couldn't you turn her into a vampire or something?” Lexie asked.
Grandma sighed. “No, duckie. Because of her significant mage blood, she can't be turned. Neither she nor any mage can be turned vampire because of how low-magic they are. Our bodies cannot survive on how little magic theirs absorb. And mage blood is fatally incompatible with shapeshifters as well, as our bodies always reject the beast that comprises their very nature.” She took a hand from Lexie and I and held them in hers. “I have thought of everything possible to save my baby girl. But she cannot be healed or turned. Her fate is in Rhytha's hands now.”
My lower lip trembled and I nibbled it to keep myself in control.
“Rhytha willing, she will come back to us.” She reached her arm across the coffee table and held her hand open for mine. I leaned forward and gave her my hand. Her thumb stroked my palm in a soothing motion.
“Who's Rhytha?” Lexie sniffled.
“She is the patron goddess of magic and magekind.” Grandma smiled, but it lacked the warmth of joy. “I've been lighting a candle and anointing her statue every night since your mother was born human.”
“Wait a sec, how'd you know she was human?” Lexie asked.
“Yeah, that's a good question. How could you tell that she and I were human at birth? Mages don't look any different from humans.”
“When a child's dominant species is unknown, you can hire a vampire specialist to identify them with a small blood sample from their toe.”
Instantly, I was grossed out and kind of appalled. “You let a vampire drink my blood when I was a baby?”
Grandma snorted, rolling her eyes at me. “I paid him to.”
I took another bite, in part because I knew I needed to eat, but more because I couldn't think of anything to say to that. It was important information, but surely there had to be another way than by having somebody drink my blood.
“Why'd you marry Grandpa George?” Lexie cocked her head to the side. “I mean, if you knew this kind of thing was possible, why date humans to begin with?”
That sad smile returned to Grandma's face. I hated making her sad like this, but it was important and I wanted to know, too. Grandma had always been a very rational person and for her to marry Grandpa— as much as I loved and missed him— didn't make sense.
Grandma was silent for long moments, opening and closing her mouth without saying a word. Finally, she answered, “I don't know how to tell you this other than to just spit it out: your Grandpa George wasn't your grandfather by blood.”
My jaw almost hit the floor.
Lexie was the one who could find words, “Then who was he?”
“George was my best friend for over sixty years. He was seventeen when we met and I was pushing seven hundred! But of course, he never knew that.” She laughed, the soft sound carrying a sorrowful mirth. “He courted me for months, but I could tell his heart wasn't really in it. His heart was in the fishmonger's son.”
Not even Lexie could manage a remark. We sat stunned.
“Back in those days, George's preferences were unacceptable. It shocked him when I finally told him that he didn't have to pretend with me! The look on his face was, well, about as aghast as yours.”
“Of course I'm aghast!” The lens I viewed my entire childhood through had a blob of dye thrown onto it. My dreams of a perfect relationship were based on the one my grandparents shared and now to find out theirs was only platonic?
Lexie changed the subject. “Why did you marry him if he was human? Didn't you want to marry another mage?”
Grandma rolled her head from side to side, eying the ceiling, as if the answer were written there. “I should preface this by telling you that we mages don't have single, fated mates like vampires or shapeshifters. We choose whom we marry and it's a bond much stronger than a human's— one dies, the other dies and infidelity is a physical impossibility. So you can understand the gravity of a mage's decision to marry.”
Lexie nodded.
“My father did not.” She paused. “Or he did, but didn't care. For more than two hundred years, he'd been pushing me to marry the son of his… friend. And of course, I didn't want a marriage of convenience, especially since I couldn't have the comfort of a dalliance the way a human woman could. I fought him tooth and nail on it, ran away more than once and lived in hiding. He always found me and continued to demand, bribe, and threaten me to make me marry Eirwyn.”
“Was he a bad guy?” Lexie asked.
Grandma nibbled her lower lip. “He isn't a… bad man, but he is the same kind of man as my father— ambitious, relentless, self-centered, a political animal willing to crush anything or anyone to climb the ladder of power.”
Lexie made a sympathetic face. Grandma had just described half of Lexie's family and even more of their business acquaintances.
“But why did you marry Grandpa George?” Lexie asked.
“I married him in the human ceremony— not the mage way— to protect my friend. When we met, he was desperately seeking a wife to keep his family from forcing him into the priesthood.”
“Did he know you weren't human?”
“Nope. He never knew a thing.” A fond smile spread across her lips. “I tried telling him once, but he didn't take it well, so I had to have his memories erased.”
“So then who's my biological grandfather? Where is he?” I was proud of myself for prying my tongue from the metaphorical cat.
“When I met Dafydd— and George, for that matter— I was hiding out in this itty-bitty seaside village outside Sidmouth in the south of England. By the time I met your grandfather by blood, George and I had already been married for over ten years. He and I had no expectations of sexual fidelity, so when I met Dafydd, well, we just couldn't keep our hands off each other.”
God, I wished I could pour bleach down my ears and erase that part of this conversation.
“I'd stubbed my toe in the market and let out a nasty string of curses in Welsh. Dafydd started laughing and told me I swore like a sailor in our mother tongue. From there, it was love at first sight and I became pregnant with your mother shortly thereafter.”
/> “So what happened to him? Where'd he go?” Lexie leaned forward, paying rapt attention and obviously unhindered by the thought of her grandparents having sex.
Grandma's shoulders dropped. “My father dispatched one of his underlings to kill my human loved ones and drag me back. I lost—” She took a deep, shaky breath. “— everyone. My lover, my friends, even my landlady.”
“How did Grandpa survive?” I asked.
Grandma ran her hand over her forehead and gave a sad laugh. “George wasn't home at the time. He was with the fishmonger's son”
“As soon as I saw a few drops of blood on the rose bushes in the landlady's precious garden, I knew something was wrong. I ran to get George. He was upset that I'd caught him in flagrante delicto, but when I told him that my past had caught up with me, he dropped everything and ran away with me. We fled to South Hampton and caught the first ship to the United States.”
“Your past? I thought he didn't know anything.” Lexie took the empty bag to the trash can in the kitchen. I didn't even notice that I'd finished my burger.
“He thought my family was in the IRA.”
“Oh. Yeah, that's scary enough.” She nodded in agreement as she gestured to Grandma to pass her the remaining trash on the table.
I passed it to Grandma. “Why was he still pushing you to get married when you were already married to Grandpa?”
“Marriages or matings with humans are illegal under Circle law because the halfling offspring of such unions further dilute our bloodline link to the Atlanteans, and thus dilute the power of our species.” She dropped her head and clenched her fists, crumpling the wrapper into a tiny ball. “Human/mage hybrids are illegal and are culled at birth by law. So it wasn't only my and George's life at stake, but also Winnie's.”
God, he would have killed a baby? He did kill babies. My great-grandfather murdered babies. It was hard to fathom such evil in my own family.
“Is he a threat?”
Grandma's hands relaxed and she handed the wrapper to Lexie, who put it in the trash. “Without your bracelet, yes. But now that you're a mage and that you've killed one of the most powerful criminals in our world, it's up in the air.”
Duo (Stone Mage Saga Book 2) Page 8
