by Ioana Visan
She sounded worried. Perhaps she should be. Personally, she had ambivalent feelings on the matter. Once you ended up as food for Mermaids, it was hard to get over that. Rafe could have prevented it from happening. He should have prevented it. Alise didn’t know why he hadn’t, and he hadn’t bothered to explain. Maybe he didn’t care enough. She had thought he did, at least a little bit. There had been subtle and less than subtle hints, like that kiss, but when time had come for him to rise to the occasion, he had failed. Guardians never failed. They died, but they didn’t fail. She had been wrong, but she couldn’t blame it on the poison yet.
Alise disliked the attachment Cassie was forming with the Guardians. However, she didn’t want to worry her. “They’re trained for these kinds of things. I would be surprised if they died that easily.”
“But what if they’ve been captured? You saw what they did to Vale … just because they could.” The corners of Cassie’s mouth dropped.
Alise winced. What the Wizard had done to Vale was nothing compared to what Gorem had done to her. “Gorem takes no prisoners,” she muttered. The Guardians were no use to him. They only got in the way.
Cassie bit her lip and watched her from underneath lowered lashes. “Would you know it if something bad happened to them?”
Would she? “Not directly.” She thought about the magic sigil and reconsidered. She could still feel it, a slow burn that made its presence known whenever she consciously thought about it, balanced out by the coldness of the poison that flared from her side. She glanced down. A gray smudged vine peeked from underneath the leg of her shorts on her right thigh. She pulled on the hem to cover it. The poison was spreading, corrupting the magic paths. Soon, she wasn’t going to be able to wear shorts anymore. “Why do you care?”
“Because they saved us,” Cassie said. “They didn’t have to, but they did. And I think…” She hesitated, and her voice lowered to a whisper, “I think they want to save you, too.”
Alise fought the temptation to argue with part of that statement because it was useless. Cassie was good at reading people, so there was no point in trying to convince her otherwise. She took a sip from her drink then put the glass down on the table and lay back in her chair. For several moments, she stared at the sky. She smiled when the first wing brushed against her skin.
Next to her, Cassie gasped.
There were hundreds of butterflies in all possible colors swarming around them, softly batting their wings. Cassie stared, blinking rapidly, and leaned back as if wanting to disappear into her chair. Alise waved a hand, directing them. The butterflies flew up high in the sky and turned north, leaving a scintillating trail below the clouds.
“What—what was that?” Cassie’s eyes were wide.
“If they’re still around, they’ll find them.” It intrigued her to see the butterflies follow the same direction as the sparks for the location spell a couple of nights ago. Why would they return to that deserted place?
“I thought you said you can’t do magic anymore,” Cassie said.
“It comes and goes.” Alise shrugged. It was totally unreliable at this point, but she could still do some if she concentrated hard enough. Aside from that, while the absence of magic was slowly killing her, its presence was speeding up the poison’s infestation process, leaving her torn between the two options that were no options at all.
Cassie shook her head and shuddered. “I hate butterflies.”
What an odd little girl.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Rafe pulled out his blade, and Vale following suit. That cloud had covered the moon too quickly to be natural. Whatever it was, it glided across the sky, heading in their direction.
“What the…?” Rafe murmured.
Despite their good eyesight, the cloud had gotten only meters away before they could distinguish each individual in that mass. The swarm avoided the vortex and stopped in front of the open window, hundreds of wings batting in unison.
“I’ll be damned,” Rafe said. “She’s checking up on us.” He sensed a faint trace of the magic he had tasted during their kiss.
“I’m surprised she can still do this.” Vale sounded genuinely impressed.
So was Rafe. He stretched out his left arm and let the butterflies touch him. Their wings brushed against his hand, tingles spreading over his skin. He struggled to hold back a possessive growl. She shouldn’t have done this, not when there was so little magic left. But since it was already done, they better not let it go to waste.
He concentrated and channeled his thoughts, taking over the insects. Normally, he shouldn’t have been able to do this. Guardians could not command living creatures. Still, his connection with the Fairy transferred her ability to him long enough for him to steer the swarm the other way.
The swarm regrouped. It turned around, hesitated, and headed to the vortex. Rafe’s hand clenched on the windowsill while the butterflies approached the darkness. Lightning flickered around them, but let them pass unharmed. A hint of smoke and molten lava slipped through the opening.
Vale’s nose twitched, and he paled even more.
“So, that’s where he went,” Rafe said. While they had only suspected it, they now had the confirmation.
“Where else could he find Werewolves to support him?” Vale sneered and stormed off down the stairs.
Rafe looked after him. “Well, that’s not good.”
It helped knowing where Gorem was hiding, but if The Mists supported him, that meant trouble for all of them. And it particularly put Vale in a difficult position. Shaking his head, Rafe threw a beacon into the vortex to warn him whenever someone passed through then went after Vale. Someone needed to get drunk tonight.
* * *
“Oh…,” Alise uttered, startled.
“Oh?”
She glanced at Cassie who was sitting on the edge of her seat. “They’re fine, but…” She frowned. “The little guys have disappeared. Hmm…” Odd. She couldn’t picture the Guardians taking them down one by one. Maybe the magic had run out, and the connection was cut off.
Alise swung her legs over and lowered her feet to the ground, slipping on her sandals. She stretched and yawned under Cassie’s inquisitive gaze. “Okay. Now that you know everything is all right in the world, I’m going to bed. I don’t know about you, but I have to go to work tomorrow.” She had already taken two days off, and the project she was working on was not going to finish itself.
“How can you think about work? The entire world is falling apart!”
“My world…” She leaned forward and placed her hands on Cassie’s shoulders. “Not yours. And someone has to pay the rent.” The hurt look from Cassie’s eyes tugged at her heart a little, and she sighed. “Cassie, there’s nothing either you or I can do to change that. Not tonight. So we better sleep.” The past few nights spent in foreign beds had not been restful. It was time to do something about it while they could.
Obviously struggling, Cassie chose to listen to reason. She got up and picked up the pizza box.
Good girl.
* * *
They didn’t sleep for long. Alise felt as if she had just laid her head on the pillow when the loud knocks on the door began. She scrambled out of bed and stumbled into the corridor to join Cassie by the door. Whoever was on the other side was determined to get in. Is that singing?
“It’s them.” Cassie gave her a wary look. “We better open it before the neighbors start complaining about the noise.”
Alise waved a hand, signaling her to unlock the door, and leaned against the nearby wall, her eyes heavy with sleep.
“We have the confirmation. We know where Gorem went,” Rafe said. He had Vale’s arm draped over his shoulders, and he helped him inside.
The other Guardian didn’t seem to notice the change of surroundings and continued to hum an old drinking song while he swung a bottle around. Luckily, it was nearly empty so it didn’t spill.
“Did the excitement make him get drunk?” Alise asked sarcas
tically. He had said they knew where Gorem went, not that they had found him. That was not much of an improvement, so she wasn’t pleased.
Cassie glanced at her friend and murmured, “Let’s get him to the living room.”
Rafe steered Vale to the living room where he let him fall on the couch, the bottle landing safely on a cushion. Vale groaned and went back to his singing. How had he managed to get this drunk? Had he drunk a whole store or something? How pathetic.
“Where is he?” Alise asked. She crossed her arms and tilted her head, trying not to think about the bed hair and cute pink pajamas with “Kiss the Fairy” across the front.
“He crossed over like we suspected,” Rafe said. “To The Mists.”
Cassie looked at Alise. “Is that good or bad?”
Alise wondered the same thing. She breathed a little easier, knowing they weren’t on the same side. But it wasn’t a solution, merely a delay. “And you are still here.” The disappointment in her voice was hard to miss.
Rafe ran a hand over his face. “I told you. We’ve been banned from going there.” He pointed at Vale, who ignored him, lost in his stupor. “His fault.”
Cassie looked from one to the other and ended up shaking her head. “So many rules…” She sighed.
“Tell me about it.” Alise eyed Rafe. There were a lot of rules, but the Guardians were not normally specifically forbidden to cross over. They must have really screwed up.
“Don’t worry. We’ll know when he crosses back. And he will,” Rafe said. “For now, we wait.”
“Works for me,” Cassie said, a little too fast. She rubbed her eyes. “Will you be all right here? Can I go back to bed now?”
Rafe nodded. “Yeah. I’ll keep him company. Do you have something to drink around here?”
“Why? Can’t you watch him without a drink?” Alise went to retrieve a scotch bottle from the cabinet.
“Did you hear his singing?” he replied.
She hadn’t paid attention to it and wasn’t going to start now. “Here.” She thrust the bottle in his hand. “You better stay here.” Her room was off limits.
“Oh, if someone calls about a four digit bill, we’re not here.” Rafe grinned and toasted with the bottle.
Rolling her eyes, Alise turned on her heels and left the living room, determined not to give the impertinent Guardian another thought until morning. She had a suspicion her dreams would have a different opinion, though.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Soft music and low voices made the atmosphere feel like any other day at the office. Seated at her desk, Alise studied the Palas blueprints. Only the area surrounding the artificial lake remained to be dealt with, and she was searching for the right selection of plants—strong and pleasant to the eye—that needed as little care as possible.
She had tons of notes and, from time to time, she consulted botanical catalogues and databases in search of plants whose names she didn’t know. Every now and then, she discovered a species that had gone extinct or had never existed on this side, and then her entire design got scrambled and she had to start from scratch. It was a long and tedious process, like matching the pieces of a puzzle that didn’t fit, but she preferred it to the alternative. At least it kept her mind busy.
Her cell phone vibrated on top of a pile of folders, and her heart skipped a beat at the name on the caller ID: Cassie. Alise held the phone to her ear. “Yes?” Her free hand continued to browse through the catalogue.
“Are you sitting down?” Cassie asked.
“Huh?” Alise frowned. “Yeah?”
“Fabian is back.”
“What?” From the nearby desks, heads turned to look at her, so she muttered, “Hold on.” She got up and stormed out of the office to lock herself in the bathroom. “Are you sure?” Something didn’t add up. Cassie sounded concerned and a little wary, but not as terrified as she should have been after her close encounter with the Wizard. “Have you seen him?”
“No, but he’s about to have lunch with Sarah.”
“What?” Alise paced back and forth, the cell phone clutched tightly in her hand. “How do you know this?”
“Sarah called me.”
“I don’t get it.” Sarah couldn’t know who Fabian was, and why would she call Cassie?
“I didn’t catch it in the beginning, either,” Cassie said. “She was rambling on about a meeting with a banking consultant from Frankfurt, how he gave her a tip about some deposits with special interest for people under twenty-five, and she said she’d thought about me. That was nice of her, I guess…” Cassie stopped to ponder. “But you know me and finances…”
Yes, she did. Cassie always forgot to pay the cable bill.
“I told her we could talk about it, but I couldn’t wait for her to hang up because Vale was showing me how to make a special sauce for pasta and, no offense, it’s better than yours.”
Alise bit her lip so she wouldn’t tell her what Vale could do with his precious recipe. “Okay, okay. Get on with it.”
“Anyway, she said she was going to have a business lunch with Fabian. First, it surprised me to hear her being on a first name basis with someone from work. It’s unlike her because she is so stuck up. But then the name caught my attention. Fabian!”
Alise winced and pushed the phone away from her ear. “It could be anyone.” She didn’t believe in coincidences, though, especially in this situation.
“Yes, I know that, but then I started asking questions. Has she met him already? How old is he? What does he look like? Guess what?” Cassie made a dramatic pause. “The description fits. It’s him!”
Well, that blows. “It sure didn’t take him long to return.” She had counted on at least a few more days of peace. Going back in time, draining the lake, and dealing with the Mermaid must have taken their toll on his powers, but he had to be stronger than they had thought. Now the Wizard was going after Sarah. Why? “It’s a trap.” What else could it be? She lowered her voice, “He wants to lure us out.”
“Yeah, that’s what Rafe and Vale said, too.”
Oh, really? How nice of them to agree. “What’s the plan?”
“They’re going after him, of course.”
Of course. It was a matter of honor after all. Fabian had tortured Vale. It was horrendous and beyond embarrassing, and he couldn’t be allowed to get away with it. However, meeting the Wizard in plain daylight wasn’t a good idea. What could they achieve, other than freaking out a bunch of innocent bystanders? She let out a sigh. Poor Sarah. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
As she considered all possible options, another thought crossed her mind, and Alise stopped pacing. “Cassie, where are you?”
She paused. “I’m hiding in the bathroom at the Union Hotel.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Sarah is having lunch at the restaurant on the top floor.” The girl’s voice was merely a whisper.
Alise groaned. “Cassie, nooo…” This was a bad idea.
“But Rafe and Vale are determined to catch him, and I’ve seen what Fabian is capable of. They’ll need a distraction—”
“You better not be that distraction! Stay put, do you hear me? Do not interfere!”
“I … umm… Well … okay…”
There was not enough determination in Cassie’s voice to convince Alise she would listen.
“Don’t move! I’m coming over!” She was already walking to the door and slammed it open in front of a stunned colleague, who hurried to step back and let her pass.
“Alise, no. It’s too dangerous!” Cassie said.
“They want a distraction? Well, I’m going to give them a distraction they’ll never forget. Wait for me in the lobby!”
“But—”
Alise grabbed her purse, announcing, “I’m going out for lunch!” Then she walked out of the office and left the building.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Alise was all worked up after the hurried walk, and finding Rafe on the fro
nt steps of the Union Hotel did not help improve her mood.
He scowled at her. “What are you doing here?”
She passed by him. “Is Gorem back?”
“Not that we know of.” Rafe followed her. “We put a hex on every portal leading to this world. We’ll know it if he tries to cross over.”
“You didn’t know about that portal.”
“That has been covered. We will be informed if any new portal opens.” He reached for her arm and stopped her in the middle of the lobby.
Two security guards watched the exchange from the entrance.
Magic swept through Alise, making her stagger, reminding her how good it felt. Pain flashed in her side as the poison also reacted. She grimaced. There was little chance this could be cured by magic alone, not by the way the two things interacted. The trip back home was going to be a hell of a ride. If she ever made it back.
Preoccupied by her own mortality, Alise hadn’t been paying attention to what Rafe was saying. She only looked up when he asked, “What do you think you’re doing?” A ray of sunshine sparkled in his eyes, making them gleam like diamonds instead of the usual quicksilver, but he was too furious, he wouldn’t have noticed even if a rock had hit him in the eye.
“What are you doing?” she retorted. “Bringing Cassie here? What were you thinking?”
“We both know she wouldn’t have stayed home, not once she knew Sarah was involved.”
He had a point. Cassie would not let an innocent get hurt, regardless of how she felt about Sarah. She was a sucker for lost causes. And she could talk her way out of anything, which came in handy sometimes, but not now.
“You could have restrained her.” Alise glared at him.
“How? Tie her down and gag her?” Rafe asked. “Yes, we discussed that option, and she enumerated all the laws we’d be breaking. All sixty-seven of them.”
Alise arched an eyebrow. “Since when do you care about human laws?” She looked around, expecting to see Cassie, but couldn’t find her. She had told her to wait in the lobby, hadn’t she? “Where is she?”
