His voice had weight to it, hinting that this confession wasn’t small talk. Andrew was easing into an answer to Seth’s question. “I’m forty three years old. Divorced. No children. I want children. I want to raise them as I should have been raised.” He stared at the cold fireplace, then thumped a fist against the stone of it. “My ancestors lived on a small island that the British colonized. In the middle of the Second World War, the British handed the island over to America to build a military base there. My family was forcibly removed. My grandmother grew up on a larger island nearby. Her grandmother died young, of homesickness and heartbreak. The military base never closed and the islanders were never allowed to return.”
He picked up a poker and smacked it lightly against the stones of the fireplace. The sharp ring of iron on stone rang through the room. “On the larger island, we had nothing. We were interlopers without land of our own. When I was young, my parents decided there was nothing to hold them there. They wanted a future for themselves, for me.”
Despite Seth’s urgency to catch up with Josh, he remained still.
Vanessa wasn’t sure what he heard in Andrew’s voice, but for her it was a revelation. As wary as she was of the poker in his hands, she wanted to hear his story.
Andrew had been one of the monsters of her kidnapping ordeal. She’d tried to relegate him to the past; something that had to be forgotten for her to recover. She hadn’t sought to understand his actions in betraying his own Stag team and her in any sort of context. Nothing could justify the two deaths that had resulted from his treachery, but listening to him was a reminder that people were complicated. Andrew wasn’t some cartoon villain with simplistic motives to be explained away as pure evil.
“My gran came with us to Cincinnati, but she never forgot the island. She raised me while my parents worked. I would fall asleep listening to her stories of home. Coconut palms, breadfruit, gardens that grew all year around, and the sea with its fish and its storms.” He put the poker down and thrust his hands into his pockets, hunching his broad shoulders. “I can never go back to our island. The military base remains. But I could go back to the larger island that we left when I was five years old. I have cousins there and their children. I could buy a house, a boat, build a new life.” The words were hopeful, but his tone contradicted them. A humming note of raw anger rumbled in his voice. “The larger island is vanishing. The military retains the small island, bolstering it with concrete and barriers.”
He looked at them. “The sea is rising. People can argue about climate change. My people only know that the freshwater in their wells is turning to salt. The storms chew away at the beaches. The palm trees are falling. Life on the island is becoming untenable.”
Vanessa leaned back against the dirty window glass. “You want the barrier spell to protect your adopted island from rising sea levels.”
“Yes.”
She gripped her hands together. “You want it so badly that you’re willing to be the sacrifice that binds the shield spell to the island.”
He took two impulsive steps forward, looking at her with haunted eyes. “I’m not a killer. I never meant for the kidnappers to shoot my team. That wasn’t the deal. They would hold you. I would disarm my team. But they didn’t wait. The kidnappers, I mean. They shot Malik. He went down and my team opened fire. It wasn’t meant to go down that way.”
“No. The kidnappers probably intended to kill you all,” Seth said. His cold tone froze the emotion out of the air. It splintered and cracked, falling like ice shards.
Andrew bowed his head. “I needed money to buy a solution, a way of saving the island. The cut of the ransom the kidnappers offered was irresistible.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Then afterward, Svenson had one of his men contact me. They worked out why I’d said yes to the kidnappers—or one of those bastards told them. He came to me with the chance to acquire the barrier spell. It just had to be designed.”
“Did you know it would require a human sacrifice?” Vanessa asked.
He shook his head. “It was only as Josh started experimenting and I read his notes afterward. I thought…I think he originally planned to use the yeti as the sacrifice when he tested the prototype of the shield spell.”
“A yeti?” Seth shifted sharply. “Josh intended to sacrifice one of the world’s most magical of all fantastical creatures in an untested spell? What if he lost control?”
Andrew shrugged. “Then he’d burn.”
Magic was energy. If a wizard didn’t focus the magic correctly through a spell, then it could explode outward as fire. Other times it merely dissipated or went sideways with unexpected results. But fire was the most common physical expression of the explosive, uncontrolled release of magic.
“Stupid, reckless…” Seth paced.
“Arrogant,” Andrew said. “Josh is arrogant. Believe me. I’ve been forced into close quarters with him, and he’s a self-centered, self-important bastard, but Svenson wouldn’t have gone to these extremes to get Josh to design the shield spell unless Josh was the best option for making it happen.”
Vanessa tipped her head back against the glass. “Or perhaps Svenson knew enough to realize that the spell would require human sacrifice, and Josh was the only barrier wizard who’d be amenable to developing a spell on that basis?”
“Huh.” Andrew stared at her. His surprise that she could offer even a tiny insight wasn’t flattering. Just how stupid did he think she was? She’d overpowered him—with Seth’s help—last night.
Seth stayed focused. “So Josh isn’t brilliant. He is reckless. The spell could be more disastrous than we realized. If the prototype explodes in these dry forests, it’ll make other wildfires look like controlled burns.”
Vanessa looked out the window at the smoke cloud and the tinder-dry land. “He could unleash an inferno.”
“Andrew, you left Josh at the cabin?” Seth turned abruptly to the former wizard. “Will he have stayed there?”
“Yes. I disabled the dirt bike before I hiked to the gate to wait for you, and Josh isn’t a hiker. Not that escape would occur to him. He has sufficient supplies in the cabin to test the prototype. It’s all he’s focused on. He’s waiting on me returning with an animal for sacrifice.”
“Instead, you’ll stay here,” Seth said.
Andrew shifted his weight, going from a relaxed stance to one ready for combat. But all he said was, “You’ll need back-up.”
“He has me,” Vanessa said.
Seth looked at her. His expression was stern and remote. He was at least as battle-ready as Andrew. “I want you to stay here,” he said to her. “The cabin is a mile away—”
“You need me closer than that,” she protested. “Remember what Callum said.” She tried to speak in code so that she didn’t spill Seth’s secrets in front of Andrew. But she was worried. If Josh had somehow managed to capture an animal for sacrifice—perhaps a curious squirrel lured by food scraps—then Josh would attempt the prototype shield spell. Seth would try to neutralize it and the extent of null-space he’d activate in doing so would drop him into the Void. “I have to go with you.”
“This lodge is close enough,” Seth said. “I’ll return for you.”
She stared at him, anxious and scared, and a little bit angry as she realized why Seth had taken the time to drive to the lodge before hearing Andrew’s full confession. “You always intended to leave me here. Close, but not part of the fight.”
“You’ll have the car,” he said. “If I’m not back in four hours, I want you to leave. If a fire warning comes over the radio before then, I want you to leave.”
“Not without you!”
Seth looked at Andrew. “I’m making you responsible for her safety.”
“What?!!” Vanessa grabbed Seth’s shirt. “He worked for my kidnappers!”
“I’d be more use helping you with Josh,” Andrew said in a flat voice.
Seth put an arm around Vanessa and looked over her head at Andrew. “I can handle Josh. Thi
s is your chance for redemption.”
“No,” Vanessa whispered. “You can’t leave me with him. If you really don’t want me at the cabin facing Josh, I’ll stay here, but tie up Andrew.”
“If I do, he can’t keep you safe.”
She tried to shake Seth. “He won’t do that anyway!” She swore, her voice cracking, as old fears reasserted themselves and found a horrible new shape. “For all we know he might take me to Josh as the sacrifice.”
“He won’t.” Seth held her firmly. “Andrew, will you accept a geas?”
Seth’s question cut through Vanessa’s panic. As the silence stretched out, she turned her head to look at Andrew.
He stared at Seth’s arm around her waist, cradling her against him. “She’s not part of your mission, is she?” His gaze lifted to Seth’s face. “She’s yours.”
“Yes,” Seth said.
Andrew gave a crack of laughter. “You’ve got balls, man. I hate you. I freaking loathe you for taking my magic from me.”
“I know.”
“Yet you’d trust me with your woman?”
Seth’s arm tightened around her. “The geas would prevent you from causing harm to Vanessa. It would be your choice whether you actively protected her.”
She had her pistol and knife. She could protect herself—not against magic, obviously; but then, Andrew couldn’t use magic any more, either.
On the other hand, Andrew had physical strength, combat experience and training that she lacked. He was a former Stag agent. Of course Seth trusted his training, and Seth had the raw courage to make emotionally difficult, practical decisions. She had to do the same.
Don’t hyperventilate, she ordered herself as her stomach cramped and her breathing quickened.
Andrew held Seth’s gaze. “If I accept the geas, I’ll protect her. If I do that, the debt I owe for her kidnapping is cleared.” Seth stiffened, but Andrew continued hastily before he could interrupt. “No, I know you won’t return my magic to me. I want your promise that you won’t pursue me. You deal with Josh, return for your woman, and you let me go free.”
“Vanessa?” Seth left the decision to her.
And heck but it was a hard decision. She wanted Andrew imprisoned with the kidnappers, awaiting trial. However, Seth had taken the man’s magic. Some might say that was as big a punishment as a term of imprisonment. Even more importantly, from Vanessa’s perspective, and the issue that she knew she couldn’t ignore or her own remorse would eat her alive later, beneath the bargain Andrew attempted to strike was a note of something very much like a man craving redemption.
Andrew had been willing to sacrifice himself for a shield spell to protect his distant family’s way of life on a remote island. That had to weigh against his sacrifice of her freedom in the kidnapping. It didn’t excuse the deaths of two men, but when Josh had demanded a human subject to test the prototype of the spell, Andrew had drawn a line in the sand.
A person’s positive choices had to be respected. Every impulse for good deserved to be honored.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
Andrew extended his right arm, inner wrist exposed.
Seth released her and stepped forward. He gripped Andrew’s wrist. “No harm will come to Vanessa Araya by your hand or your intention.”
“So be it,” Andrew said.
Seth was quiet for a long moment, head bowed.
The growing rigidity of Andrew’s stance suggested pain.
“It’s done.” Seth released Andrew’s wrist, but not before Vanessa saw the faint lines of a brand. Seth had stamped the geas into Andrew’s skin via magic and it took the form of a knot. “Remember, if I’m not back within four hours, leave.” He looked at Andrew, who nodded.
Vanessa didn’t agree, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to fight Andrew on it. “Be safe,” she said to Seth.
He touched her face briefly, his kiss even briefer, and then, he was gone.
Through the dirt-smeared window, she saw him jog down the porch steps and run across the overgrown yard and into the trees in a direct line to the cabin Josh was holed up in. When he vanished from sight, she sighed.
Her skin crawled at the thought of waiting alone with Andrew. She turned and her heart stuttered. He’d moved and she hadn’t heard him.
He stood far nearer to her, against the doorframe. His attention was ostensibly on the landscape.
The smoke cloud had thickened, and she wished she could shut the door to keep out the bad air. As dusty as it was inside the lodge, it was still better than the particles of ash floating on the wind. However, with Andrew on watch, shutting the door obviously wasn’t going to happen. She retreated from it and from him.
The abandoned lodge creaked as if it, too, shifted uneasily at the distant threat of fire.
She wondered if it was better to sit in the dusty confines of an armchair or on the dirty floor. Whatever option she chose, she’d feel filthy.
“Do you know why I agreed to kidnapping you?” Andrew asked.
She glanced up from contemplation of a patch of floor that would let her see out the open door and through one of the dirty windows. “You wanted money.”
“I wanted money and justice.” He kept his gaze directed outward. He could have been keeping watch, or it could be he didn’t want to look at her. “You—your father—have so much money, and you leave people to die, to lose their homes and families and hope.”
The comprehensive denouncement, and the pain underlying it, stole her breath. She couldn’t even formulate a response. Her dad was wealthy, and she lived a quietly luxurious life, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care or try to help others. Her dad channeled far more of his wealth into philanthropic foundations than anyone guessed. It was just that he was as secretive concerning his giving as he was about his business interests. Besides, who was this man to judge her dad or her?
Her own money funded numerous activities involving the Old School network. Other Minervalle School graduates had magic or medical skills or the passion to be social reformers. She coordinated and she unobtrusively helped with the financial needs of other members’ projects.
“I don’t have to justify myself to you,” she choked out.
He glanced at her briefly, emotion churning in his dark brown eyes. “Seth is a good man.”
Her own emotional storm stilled. “Yes, he is.”
“I hate what he’s done to me, taking my magic.” Andrew returned to watching the landscape. “I hate him. But I respect him.” He paused. “Don’t destroy him.” And then, before she could respond that she lacked the power to destroy anyone, he added. “I’m going to do a circuit around the lodge.”
To get away from me. But she wouldn’t mind a few minutes of privacy, either.
Andrew pushed away from the wall. Then abruptly, unbelievably, his head jolted forward, and with a groan, he crumpled to the floor.
“Well, that went better than I hoped.” Josh flickered into view, standing over Andrew’s unconscious body. He held a gun in one hand and he pointed it Vanessa. “Drag him further into the foyer. I need him at the center of a circle.”
Chapter 8
“Don’t make me shoot you,” Josh said to Vanessa. “I don’t like hurting women, and I’d prefer to make Andrew the sacrifice—he deserves it—but I’ll use you if I have to. Now, grab his feet and drag him there.” He pointed to the clear space just inside the front door, and retreated to the doorway, keeping distance between them, as she reluctantly came forward, stooped, and gripped Andrew’s legs.
The unconscious man weighed a ton.
Vanessa was grateful for Andrew’s weight. She huffed and puffed and made a performance of her difficulties, although she didn’t have to exaggerate them much. Andrew slid in small increments across the dusty floorboards, while she tried to think of how to save him and herself from the crazy wizard with a gun.
“Seth is hunting you,” she said.
“Oh, I know, and I fooled him.” Josh’s tone was gleeful. He wal
ked forward slowly as she dragged Andrew where he directed. Josh slammed the door closed, immediately darkening the vast room. With only the light from the two dirty windows set either side of the foyer space, the room felt ghostly.
It didn’t help that evening was approaching, and with the smoke, night would fall fast.
“Leave him there.” Josh waved the gun at Vanessa, gesturing for her to back away.
Panic and the effort of dragging Andrew left her sweating and her thigh muscles trembling. Still, she didn’t want to release her hold on Andrew’s trouser legs. It felt as if in doing so, she was letting him go.
“I have car keys,” she said to Josh. “Andrew’s unconscious. He can’t chase you, and I won’t. You should leave before Seth returns.” And before you kill me.
“I have time to test my shield spell first. Seth has to reach the cabin, break the barrier spell I set there, and survive it before discovering I’m not there and racing back here. He didn’t even notice me ghosting my way here. I wrapped an illusion spell into my personal barrier spell. I didn’t expect Andrew to notice me tracking him, but I was pleased when Seth didn’t detect me, either. It simplifies things.”
He dropped a satchel onto the floor, crouched and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “Andrew prepared the cabin with some useful supplies for its function as a retreat if things went wrong. I took the liberty of liberating—” He sniggered a quick, wheezy appreciation of his own wit, such as it was. “Some mundane tools. Turn around.”
Oh God. Vanessa struggled with the order.
“Turn around, arms behind your back, or I shoot you.”
She wished for inspiration, for help, for Seth—but no one stormed to her rescue. The helplessness she’d endured during her kidnapping flooded through her. She fought it back with anger. She had to survive.
She presented her wrists to Josh’s approach.
His hands were sweaty as he fumbled on the handcuffs, then pushed her toward an armchair.
Fire Fall (Old School Book 4) Page 11
