by Jamie Magee
River knew she shouldn’t have aired her suspicion. Mason had always been a magnet for the opposite sex, he was a safe bet, a boy who could make you feel alive, take you down a wild road, but made sure you got home nice and safe. The type of boy that could pull the innocent card when looking into parental figures eyes. Mason Wade equaled the total package, plainly said.
“I haven’t been serious with anyone, River. Just flings. Here or there.”
“Well, I had one fling, one constant fling. So we’re on the same playing field.”
Anger never left his expression as jealousy arrived. “I don’t want to be on a field. I want all of you.”
“I told you I’m not voiding anyone from my life.”
“I don’t want you to void anyone. I don’t want anyone else to hold you like this,” he said with a glance down at their position. “Or in any other way. I want to be exclusive.”
River’s breath hitched just before she spoke her next words. “You’re asking me to be your girlfriend again?”
He swayed his head as all the dark emotions faded from his alluring image. “I’m asking you to be one with me again.”
River hesitated, not because she was thinking of Dagen, but because she knew that Dagen saw this coming long before she did. Long before yesterday. He saw it the night he took her innocence, when he asked her if she was sure she wanted to see his face in her thoughts when the boy she never let leave her mind came around and staked a claim. Back then River told him that would never happen and to stop asking her if she was sure.
“River,” Mason said tenderly. “We already are one...you know it.”
River opened her mouth to spill what was in her head, but Mason must have feared rejection because he spoke over her. “Let me take you out tonight. We could get away from this manor and what it’s doing to us, find some bands to listen to or some place to just have fun.”
Both Jamison and Dagen had told River to stay on the grounds, that she was safe here. She wasn’t about to disclose that, especially with knowing how territorial Phoenixes were, and more so knowing Mason would use the threat to prove he could protect her. Instead, she pulled his shoulders a little closer, “I have plans tonight.”
He held her gaze not daring to wonder what they were, the echoes of flames in his eyes ignited with his jealousy once again.
“You see,” she said glancing down shyly. “I’ve been listening to this soundtrack all day, and it really made me want to watch a movie I’ve never watched all the way through…” her stare met his. “I was thinking P.J.’s, a warm fire, and an old movie.”
A sinful smile lingered on his lips, “You want company?”
“I do.”
Now an audacious smile was in place.
“Sometimes I wish I could read the thoughts behind your smiles,” River said as she reached to graze her hand across his cheek.
He caught her hand, letting his lips linger across her flesh, sending a tidal wave of warmth through her body.
Chapter Eighteen
Once their plans settled in for the evening, you’d have thought it was a life or death situation for Mason to get her inside. She went to shed her winter layers and he told her he was going to hunt down dinner and the movie.
River was sure he planned to do so, but she also knew he planned on checking in with the ‘boss lady.’ Earlier in the day when had an epic snow fight, she saw his gaze move to the manor, to a specific floor.
River had managed to catch a glimpse of Indie and Phoenix gazing down at them like a king and queen looking out at their loyal court. Mason stole her attention with a deep kiss as soon as that happened, and then a face full of snow if River remembered correctly, but still his gaze went there a few more times, like he was listening to a distant conversation or was judging the decisions being made without him being present. River expected him to leave her side then, but he never did.
She rushed to her suite wanting to take a shower and find a way to look like she was not plotting the details of this night.
On her bed, she found the package her mother sent. River opened it with the slim hope she had put some P.J’s that were not conservative in there. Everything in the package was new, and none of it was the causal business attire River asked her to send up.
River was starting to think her mother had lost her marbles. On top, there was a flapper dress. Not a costume dress, the real, sexy, I’m partying like it’s nineteen twenty-nine dress. It was a rich deep purple with fishnet stockings, heels to die for and every accessory you could imagine to go with it. Odd. Very. Odd.
The other clothes were new, too. Long sleeve shirts, new jeans, and what do you know, new P.J’s, too. There was also a cute little lavender silk cami, and bottoms to match, even a tiny robe. It was the kind of sleepwear that was innocent, but could be seen in a different light as well.
River didn’t know how much time she had before Mason would show up, but she sent a text to her mom that was all question marks. She responded instantly, which was not normal, her mother kept up with a cell phone as well as River did. “Saige predicted you would need that. Look in the bottom pocket.”
Pocket of what? River tore the package apart, which was basically a travel bag stuffed with new clothes. In the bottom, under a flap, in a velvet bag there were all the makings of what she would need to pull off a spell—only lacking the words to said spell. Something River had never really done on her own.
She didn’t even bother to text—she called. She didn’t think her mom was going to answer at first. When the ringing stopped River said, “Mom, spill it. What spell? I’m reading text, and Halloween was a hot second ago, what’s up with this dress?”
“It was all part of the dream Saige had that sent you there in the first place.”
“I can’t pull off a spell. If Saige needs a spell done she needs to talk to her daughter, she is here by the way.”
“She is, but she can not interfere. Her role as a shadowed soul states so.”
“What are you talking about? Shadowed souls are like witches on steroids, she can put enough energy behind words to match an entire coven.”
“Not in spells that have to do with her fate.”
“Oh,” River said as she eased herself down on the edge of the bed.
Fate was something you didn’t mess with in her family. You let it play out, even if it looked like your loved ones were throwing themselves off a cliff. They believed the darkest hour promises a coming rapture.
Meaning casting a spell that had to do with someone’s fate was a capital no, no.
“We only have a few pieces of the puzzle, River, I really hoped by the time your package arrived you would have found the rest.”
“You mean the words and the reason.”
“I do.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then no spell needs to be cast. There is little doubt however that you will find a way to free Skylynn.”
If Dagen had his way that was already a promise. River had no doubt he was fiercely plotting to take down Camlin, and with his fall, all shadowed souls would be released. That and, of course, whichever one Dagen had in his back pocket was going to get his boy free, too. Win. Win.
“If the only objective of sending me here was to free Skylynn then maybe we should have addressed that with the Queen of the Veil. I thought I was here for the Veil part, to see what is coming at Raven. I wasn’t searching for spells. ”
“Shadowed souls would not fall under the Queen of the Veils reign. Skylynn is not dead, forced only to exist in the Veil, in effect she simply does not exist; she’s a breeze, felt but not embraced, or seen.”
River slowly closed her eyes seeing her afternoon, and what could be an awesome night, fading away with a sick feeling. She felt like a Trojan horse. Sent there for her agenda. With or without Mason being here that was not her style, it wasn’t the style of anyone in her family or coven.
She told herself the Falcon’s would have wanted Skylynn free anyway, that she was doing them a fav
or. But she seriously thought she just lost any hope of having an objective opinion. Every time she stated facts to the Falcon’s that suggested taking down Camlin, a Lord they unknowingly set free, she would have no way of knowing if she wasn’t simply trying to back up her own agenda. This. Sucked.
“River?”
“Yeah…”
“In the end, if you follow your instinct, it will be just fine.”
“I don’t like this illusiveness. I’m not happy about this position I’m in.”
“And you’d like it even less if anyone told you how to live your life.”
“I don’t want anyone hurt,” River said quietly.
“They won’t be.”
“What’s with the dress?”
“It appears all of you are invited to a party in the Veil.”
“All?”
“The girls and Soren.”
“Then why didn’t they bring the party favors? Why did you ship the stuff for the spell up here?”
“Because your foundation is on the hallowed ground. They will be coming from this direction.”
Awesome.
River assumed what she uncovered about the manor being mirrored in the Veil was on point. It also meant that the Falcon’s were taking what she uncovered as fact.
“It has to do with a Lord of Death, doesn’t it? Bringing him down,” River said.
“You would know before me.”
She let silence take over.
“Mrs. Wade came over today,” Emery said.
Her words made River’s soul seize right up.
“He loves you, River. He never stopped.”
“It’s complicated…apparently we’re both guardians to others,” River could not hide the hopelessness in her tone.
“Guardians are the fiercest in this war, the bravest, the most balanced. They’re too powerful for any one being to keep them apart.”
“Mom we’re twisted.”
“Then untwist it. Nothing worth fighting for ever comes to you easily.”
“We had a good day,” River admitted.
“Yet you called home.”
“I called home because I thought you forgot what decade it was.”
“You know what I know,” Emery said calmly.
“I think you know more.”
“River, you’re the key to this. Read the text and find the path you can live with. The girls and Soren are going to have your back, in the end you’re going to end up where you belong and with who you belong.”
“You want to swear to that.”
“I do River, for your heart will take you to where you need to be, meaning you control this, you know what matters, where you want to be. At times, it may feel like you’re walking barefoot across broken glass, but all wounds heal, even those that cut the soul.”
“Right….” River knew she wasn’t getting anywhere with this conversation. “I need a shower.”
“Night, River. I love you.”
In the shower, River went over what she knew, and it wasn’t much. She came to the conclusion that the Falcon’s would want her to help them stop Camlin and that she would find a spell in that text that needed the ingredients sent to her, and they would take him down.
In turn, Skylynn would be free, and Dagen would be on track to free Rydell King from his bonds. This would all be wrapped up in a tight bow. Yet that foreboding feeling she had didn’t go away. She felt like she was building a foundation with Mason that a tepid storm would blow away at any second.
She had never taken so much care putting on P.J.’s in her life. It was hard to make it look like she wasn’t trying when she was.
A knock on her door made her heart skip a beat.
When she opened it, Gavin was standing there, with a notepad that looked like it had seen better days.
The first tip that her P.J.’s might not be as conservative as she thought was when his eyes dipped to the low, loose hanging collar of her cami. She pulled her robe closed, but that didn’t make her feel any better, it only covered the bottoms of her P.J.’s so now it looked like she had nothing more than a silk shirt on.
He knew by her fading smile that she was expecting someone beyond him at her door, but didn’t bother to point it out.
“I didn’t realize you were turning in this early,” he said with a cough.
“Been a long day,” River said as dismissively as she could manage.
“I just, I was in the library, I went over your notes on the board and went through a few pages. I have some points I wanted to ask you about.”
Points? Meaning that maybe he would be able to come up with a legitimate idea for how to kill Camlin and I would only have to nod. I would not be the heavy hand in what was about to go down. “Come in,” River said opening the door wide.
***
Mason had found his brand of heaven this afternoon. It was like all the hell from the last time he saw River and now had not happened. Nothing had ever felt so right or made him feel so whole. They still had a lot of stuff to overcome, but she was letting him in, anyone that knew River knew how big that milestone was.
He’d asked the kitchen staff to make a meal for them, showered, found that movie in the theater room, and while he was waiting for the food to be prepared he made his way to Indie’s office. He came so close to asking River to give him five minutes to check in with Indie earlier today, when he felt the building turmoil around the others, but he couldn’t walk away from her. Not after he’d just gotten her to laugh once more and open up to him.
Right now he just wanted to understand what happened while he was gone, figure out if he had fabricated that sensation or if something did go down today.
He found Indie all alone. She was leaned back in her father’s office chair, her feet were on the desk, she was watching a pendulum rock back and forth. She looked just like the best friend he’d always had, mismatched clothes, an array of handmade jewelry, her blond hair pinned here and there. It would be hard to imagine her as the Queen of the Veil or even the powerful heiress she was.
Mason knocked on the frame of the door when she didn’t look up. It was hard for him to gauge her mood.
She looked up as if he had just screamed her name, then let a slow smile ease across her face as her now constant blue eyes fell over him.
“You look nice, you smell nice, too,” she said.
A sly smile came to him as he manifested in the chair before her desk.
She kept her relaxed position in her chair but did reach out to move the pendulum, so they would slam into each other again.
She was watching a memory. Mason couldn’t see it, but he had watched her stare into nothingness for years and even heard her describe the scenes to him as if he were a blind and deaf man. Her words would articulate the memory so well that, in some way, he did manage to see them.
Mason was sure she was seeking advice from her father in some way. Mason had been so wrapped up in his ordeal that he hadn’t even considered that Indie might still be struggling. Honestly, since Phoenix showed up in their lives, Mason had felt like less of a guardian to her. Before he was always on guard around Rasure and Cadence. Now they were gone, now Indie had Phoenix, now she had power.
“I don’t think I have ever seen you so at ease,” her eyes met his. “That says a lot, you’re the chill one.”
Mason smirked.
“You guys working it out?” she asked.
“I think so, we didn’t talk much about it today. We were, we…we were just us.”
“I don’t think denial is healthy,” she said with an arched brow.
“Trust me, last night we laid enough daggers down to last a few days.”
Indie dropped her legs from the desk and leaned forward. “I think I took her off guard, that she sees me differently than I am. I saw her when I came back from that dinner. I was dressed a little hoity. I’m like her Rasure. I know I am.”
Mason shook his head to tell her in his way that was not River’s style. Even if River did hat
e Indie, she would talk herself out of it, that’s how all of the people he knew back home were brought up. You reap what you sow, that and hate only punishes the soul that bears the emotion.
“How’d that go?” Mason asked tilting his head to the side wondering what the Reaper might of had to say about the mass of dead just outside.
“With River or The Reaper?”
“The Reaper.”
“Odd. He looked like my dad.”
Mason expression mirrored both the confusion and understanding he was feeling just then. “What decision was made today?” Mason asked glancing around the room. He could gauge the energy signatures; it was clear to him the meeting they had ended on a tense note.
“Beyond throwing a party there wasn’t one,” she waved her hand to tell him the party was nothing. “I have to choose a Lord of Death to take down. Skylynn is behind one, that boy that popped in here is behind another.”
“Are you going to flip a coin?” Mason teased.
Indie gave him a playful glare.
“I think the decision has already been made, I’m just waiting for proof so that I can ease Sebastian—I mean Phoenix’s thoughts.”
“And it’s not about Skylynn.”
Her eyes grew a little wider. “You feel that way?”
Mason shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean in my head she’s not even a choice.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know. I know we owe her but at the same time—it doesn’t even feel like she’s a choice to me. That’s crazy because I don’t even know the other dude.” Mason leaned forward. “Do you think she’s acting a little weird?”
“Skylynn?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I didn’t know her before we were dead, and when we were she was all over it, now she almost acts like she doesn’t want to be bothered. When you do catch her she makes what she says all too brief, then vanishes like she has better things to and what we’re going through is petty. I didn’t know if that was the norm.”
“She’s avoiding me, too. I thought it was because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, I’m not too thrilled that she urged your family here and where the cards fell.”
“Makes two of us, but it’s not like she can undo it. I just don’t want any more wild cards thrown at me.”
