“Tess, put your shield up, but be ready to drop it fast if Griff says he feels anything odd. Griff, if you feel a drain on your magick, any at all, let Tess know.” He nodded, not looking even the slightest bit nervous—unlike Tess.
She grasped the pendant and I could feel it as she pulled on the magick within. I noticed she didn’t say the words and wondered if that was intentional or if she simply forgot. Knowing Tess, it could be either. The shield sprang up and around them both, brighter and stronger than when she’d tried on her own just minutes ago. Griff didn’t look as if he’d noticed anything out of the ordinary. Tess grinned happily and let the shield drop.
“How do you feel?” she asked Griff.
With a shrug, he shook his head. “Was I supposed to feel something?”
Mistress, I’m not sure, but . . .
Did you seriously just call me Mistress? Call me Roxie, or even Roxanne, unless you want me to take your name back. What was it with titles in this world?
There was a second of silence, then, As you wish. But once given, a name cannot be revoked. I accepted it and it became mine. All I wanted to say was that the potential for symbiosis between your kind, even those considered lesser, and the fae is not something the fae wish to be known.
Okay then. I hadn’t known about any kind of symbiosis—I’d only hoped the shielding armour Griff wore would help give Tess’s own magick a little boost. Just out of curiosity . . . how would you know this? Aren’t you, like, a new, er, entity or whatever?
I spent thousands of years saturated in fae magick. With that magick comes knowledge. A lot of it. I am . . . still sorting through it all.
Thousands? I thought Astra had said hundreds.
Hundreds in her court, yes. But I was brought, along with other . . . gifts . . . from an older court. I do not remember much from that time.
My mind was reeling from this information, as well as the rest of what she’d said. I filed it away and came back to the matter at hand.
“You know it’s kind of freaky when you do that, right?” Tess asked. “I hope you aren’t going to do that in the middle of a fire fight with whoever we’re up against, because you’ll make a pretty easy target if you do.”
I ignored the indignant mutter from Trixie that she would never let that happen. “Yeah, sorry. Just a lot going on up here, right now.” I pointed to my head. It was getting a bit crowded in there these days. She had a valid point, though. “Griff, are you sure you feel okay?”
“Right as rain. Maybe better.” He looked a little surprised as he said this, fluttering his wings. His glow did seem a bit brighter than it had been before.
“Okay. Do you think you could stay close to Tess if we do end up in a fight?” He looked unsure, as if the prospect of missing out on a battle was daunting, so I added, “She’ll need a brave protector, just in case.”
He puffed out his chest and patted her neck. “Of course! She will come to no harm with my sword at the ready.”
It was a good thing he couldn’t see either her eye roll or the ‘really?’ expression she gave me. But then she noticed the envious faces of the firm’s coven and relaxed, a small smile on her face.
Rand touched my shoulder to get my attention. “There’s a problem.” I turned to him, realizing the boat had slowed, the engine quieter than it had been before. “The signal says Harris should be less than a half mile in that direction,” he pointed toward the front of the boat. “But there’s nothing there.”
Jeremy had come out onto the deck, glaring into the darkness ahead of us as if his anger could force whoever or whatever we were looking for to appear. Cappy killed the lights at a word from the crow shifter, but the moon reflected off the water in the clear night, allowing us to see out a long way easily. A small, dark form skimmed low over the water, angling for the boat. Just before it reached us, something leapt straight up from the water beneath where its shadow passed. My breath caught in my throat, but the small form rolled and evaded whatever had attempted to make it a late evening snack. I heard Jeremy curse as he held his arm straight out. With a flutter of wings, a bird larger than Jeremy’s crow form landed on the outstretched arm. Was that a hawk?
I must have voiced the question out loud, because Rand answered. “It’s a Peregrine Falcon. It has one of those action cameras strapped to it, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say it must be the spy from the marina Jeremy sent after Harris.”
Jeremy removed the camera, set the bird on the floor of the foredeck along with a small bundle of clothes, and stepped away. The bird fluttered its wings and began to shift. I turned away to allow the shifter privacy, pulling Rand with me. Sam, Tess, and the coven followed suit.
“Oh, it’s good to finally get that thing off.” The voice was female and I chanced a glance over my shoulder to see if she was decent. She’d pulled on sweatpants and a t-shirt, and was running her fingers through her spiky, brownish blonde hair. She had sharp, angular features that looked so much like those of her hawk form it was hard to imagine her as anything but a shifter. It was hard to place her age, but she looked as though she could be anywhere between thirty and forty. Shifters aged slowly compared to humans, so she could have been a hundred years old, for all I knew.
Jeremy motioned me over, “Dis Shaylynn.”
“Nice to meet you, Shaylynn. I’m Roxanne.” I held my hand out.
She looked at it, her head tilt looking disconcertingly bird-like, then gave it a quick, firm shake. Her sharp, golden-brown eyes met mine. “Everyone knows who you are, Madame Witch. The honor is mine.”
It was all I could do not to sigh. “Please, call me Roxie.”
The grin she gave me lit up her face, softening her features. “Only if you call me Shay. This one,” she pointed a thumb at Jeremy, “is the only one that ever calls me by my full name and lives to tell about it.”
I liked her already. I smiled back. “Done. Now what can you tell us about Harris disappearing into thin air?”
The conversation shift to business didn’t faze her. “Just that. One second he was there, the next he was gone. The harness I wore has a device that indicates the strength of the tracking signal I’m following. It speeds up when I’m close, slows down when I’m not. It told me I was really close but, unless he’s directly underwater, I don’t know where else he could be. I’ve been flying over this area again and again, testing the signal. It’s got to be right out there.” She pointed toward the front of the boat.
“Thank you.” She nodded and started to say something else when her gaze cut to something behind me, her brow furrowing in curiosity.
“Hey, Rox? We’ve got company coming aboard.” Sam watched as Olen assisted Arella up the ladder. Dorn followed close behind.
The three water fae took us in, their faces unreadable as they gripped their wicked-looking tridents. I crossed over to them, Rand right behind me. “King Olen. Arella,” I greeted them, giving Dorn a quick nod of acknowledgement. I started to tell them what we knew—which wasn’t much.
Olen cut me off before I got far, his voice sharp. “We are aware; we heard everything. I sent three water shifters to investigate the area. There is something out there, but they cannot get close to it. Whatever it is . . . repels them, somehow.”
“How close were your people able to get?” I asked Olen.
“They tested the barrier repelling them from all directions. If we had to guess, it is a large vessel—several times the size of your own—within. One of our water shifters tried to use echolocation, but he said the signal just faded, as if there was nothing there.”
Ruthann spoke up. “That sounds like a cloaking spell with a ‘go-away’ component worked into it. Keep in mind, just because we can’t see them, doesn’t mean they can’t see us.”
Processing this, I turned to the coven. “Ideas anyone?”
Olen shifted his weight impatiently. “We need to act. Now.”
Rand held up his hands, palms forward in a placating gesture. “We need to be smart. W
ho knows what kind of firepower they’ve got? If we go in blind, they could shoot us down without breaking a sweat. We don’t know where the children are being held on the vessel or whatever it is—or if they’re even still there. Do you really want to risk putting them in more danger?” Olen glared at Rand, only calming when Arella placed a hand on his arm.
“My love, he is right. We must think about the children’s safety.” Closing his eyes, he covered her hand with his own, his jaw tight. When he opened them again, the pain they held made my chest constrict in sympathy.
Tess spoke up. “How far can you cast your magick, Rox?”
The last time I had cast a spell with any distance involved was when my magick got away from me and I ended up putting a protection spell on Jeremy’s place. From the estate. And I’d ended up magick drunk. Frowning at her, I answered, “I don’t know. Why?”
“Well, the coven managed to break the spell around that ring. Why not just break the one around whatever is out there the same way?”
That ring was small and we’d been maybe a foot away from it at the time. If what we were facing was as big as Olen thought it was, I didn’t know if that was even possible.
Arella and Olen looked at me expectantly. “You can do this? I will ready my people for the attack.”
“Wait, wait. I don’t know if I can. It will probably take all of us,” I waved at the coven, “and even then, it might not work. If it does, I don’t know what condition we’ll be in after to help with the rescue.” I stressed the word. If the water fae were anything like the pixies in a fight, I didn’t want a blood bath on my hands. The fact that magick was being used by whoever Harris was working with made me nervous. We needed to find out more about the Paragons and how the people that took the children were tied to them. That meant we needed people left alive.
“Can you glamour us so they can’t see us?” Sam asked quietly, before Olen could respond. “Maybe muffle the sound of the engine if we have to work our way around, since they’re probably watching us now? Maybe even listening.”
Could I? I felt everyone’s eyes on me as I turned, taking in the entirety of the boat. At nearly forty feet long, it was much larger than the conference room at the firm. As far as glamouring the whole thing? This might be different from the simple glamour I’d done as we moved through the canal. But it was night, so that should help. I watched the water and the way the moon highlighted the waves. Finally, I nodded. “I think I can do it. I’ll try.”
“And the spell around the other vessel? What of that?” Olen asked.
“Let me do this first while I think about what that would take.”
From the set of his jaw and his narrowed eyes, I sensed he wanted to argue my response but, again, Arella intervened. “Thank you. We will prepare and await further word from you.” With that the three turned and slid gracefully back into the water.
Shay, who had been watching from Jeremy’s side, said, “Well, they seem just a bit uptight.”
Sam was the one to respond. “First of all, they can hear you, so you might want to watch your words, and, second . . . they have children that were taken from them that may be aboard that vessel. Children that could be sick or injured, as we speak.” She didn’t say this with any judgement in her voice, but Shay still flinched.
“I didn’t know. I thought I was just following some human. Boss?” She sounded unsure as she looked at Jeremy.
“Dis true,” he admitted.
She straightened, squaring her shoulders. “Then I would like to help in any way I can. I’m fast and I’m good in a fight.”
“Thank you. We’re going to need all the help we can get.” As I said it, it felt like the understatement of the year.
Chapter 14
Approaching the pirates
It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would to glamour the boat. Shay shifted and flew around us to confirm the glamour worked while Sebastian kept the water fae informed of everything. The privacy bubble I’d used at the firm was a bit more tricky. I pushed it out as far as I could, but at first it didn’t encompass the full length of the Sea Witch, falling about ten feet short. Even pulling on my Power ring, I could feel the strain. I’d expected the bracelet to come to my aid, but there was nothing.
Hesitantly, I asked, Trixie, a little help?
Me? Certainly, Roxanne. I thought perhaps you were planning to rely on that little ring. I gritted my teeth. Between the strain of holding a bubble this large, the glamour, the weight of the situation we were in, and the petulance I felt in Trixie’s response, it was all I could do not to snap my reply back.
I wasn’t sure if you were feeling drained from sharing magick with Sam earlier. And, for the record, this ‘little ring’ has saved my butt more times than you can imagine over the past year.
Her tone became immediately contrite. Apologies, Mistress. With that, I felt an influx of magick, similar in many ways to my own and that of the ring, yet still slightly foreign. The bubble expanded past the bow of the boat with minimal effort. I drew a relieved breath.
Thank you. If this is too much of a strain, let me know.
It is no strain at all, Mistress.
Roxanne. It almost felt like I was dealing with a teenager again. I shuddered, then reminded myself there was no comparison. My stepdaughter Michelle’s attitude throughout my tumultuous marriage made any exchange with Trixie seem like a pleasant walk in the park.
There was no response, but I could still feel her attentive presence.
“Okay, I think we’re covered. Cappy, you want to move out?” I called up to the cockpit.
“How fast and which direction, lass?” the small man asked. He’d been standing in the doorway, watching and listening to everything.
“I’ve got this.” Rand followed Cappy into the cockpit. The engine came to life and the effect within the bubble was immediate. The sound was muffled and my ears felt like they needed to pop. Shay and Jeremy both shook their heads, working their jaws as they did so. I hadn’t considered that shifter ears would be much more sensitive than ours.
Cappy and Rand slowly took us around to what we hoped was either the front or rear of the vessel from the shape of the barrier the water fae had tested. We’d barely moved much more than forty or fifty feet when Rayna cried out. I hurried to the rear deck.
“What?”
She pointed. Coming from . . . nowhere . . . was a rope, the length ending in the watery space we’d just moved from. “A spear. Or harpoon or whatever they’re called. It only missed us by a few feet!”
We were still moving away from the spot we’d just been idle in, but she was right. Whoever was aboard that vessel must have decided to shoot at us right after I’d glamoured the Sea Witch.
“Rand?” I yelled.
“I see it. We’re going to move out of range and then come back in from a different angle. Tell Sebastian to warn the water fae. I’m sure they saw the harpoon, but this might get a bit tricky if that vessel starts aiming randomly.”
While Sebastian did that, I conferred with the coven. “Anyone come up with any ideas to get past that barrier?”
Tess and Rayna exchanged a look. Rayna cleared her throat nervously. “Like Tess said earlier, we think we might be able to break it like we did with the ring.”
Again, I wondered how the heck she thought we could do the same for a large ship? Cautiously, I said, “I’m listening.”
When Rayna didn’t speak up right away, Tess said, “Remember when you threw your shield in the lobby of the firm when that guy brought the bomb in?” It hadn’t exactly been a bomb, but I nodded. “Didn’t you do the same thing when you fought those blood magick witches?” She hadn’t been present for most of that, we’d left her back in the Jeep, healing Danai, but she’d heard about all of it. Again, I nodded. “Well, what if Rayna’s magick could be attached to one of your shields? If we got close enough and you threw it at that thing out there, it might disrupt the spell enough to do something.”
My min
d spun with the implications. Could something like that really work? Rayna had strained to break the much smaller spell on the ring, even with the coven’s magick, with my magick, backing her up.
Ruthann spoke. “What if we made our own bomb?” Everyone turned to her. “Selma and I have our potion kits. It wouldn’t take long to mix something up. If we could somehow bottle several vials of Rayna’s spell breaking magick, we’d have a better chance of disrupting a larger area. Large enough to let the water fae past that barrier, at least. There has to either be several witches combining their magick to keep a spell that strong going or some sort of magickal Item on board powering the spell. If it’s witches, we might be able to break their concentration long enough to get past ourselves. If it’s an Item, the king and his people might be able to get to it and try one of the vials on it. Either way, we get in.”
“You’re right. Get to it. Let me know if you need anything from me.” The women headed for the galley kitchen below. I hoped this worked, because we didn’t have time to come up with anything else.
Sebastian?
I’ve already informed the king of your plan. His people are circling the vessel, testing the barrier to make sure the ship isn’t going anywhere. He will let me know if anything changes.
Thank you. I debated on reaching out to Zara. I was used to having her by my side for any kind of fight and I felt naked without her, even with all those around me now.
I am here. Trixie’s voice was subdued.
I know. And I’m grateful, believe me, it’s just . . .
Your familiar is a part of you. That bond is different than the one between you and I. There is no comparison for what you and she have, for it exists on your soul level.
I felt the truth of that. Zara was just as much a part of me as my very soul. But, I was curious . . . How do you know all of this?
I sense it.
When she didn’t elaborate, I asked, So what is our bond like, the one between you and I?
MAKING MAGICKAL ALLIANCES: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel Page 17
