“And now you’re having to do it with a magical binding placed on you.”
Nicole put her hands up, once again playing referee. “Everyone needs to calm down. What’s done is done. We can’t change it. All we’re doing now is wasting time.”
Nicole may have sounded reasonable, but I saw the fear in her eyes. Until now, magic had mainly been a positive thing in her life. Even when Marcus had contacted her, he had scared her in a way that was familiar to most women: the fear of a strong and creepy man. This kind of fear was different.
Seeing that fear sobered me in a way nothing else had. I wasn’t isolated in the Citadel as a CCS agent anymore. It was easy to forget that my actions affected others now in a way they hadn’t before. By entering this vow, I had inadvertently entered my friends with me. Sure, the magical binding didn’t extend to them, but I was a fool if I didn’t acknowledge that by placing myself in jeopardy, I had wrangled them into the same vow with the same responsibilities and consequences. If I died, not only would my friends mourn, but I knew they’d feel responsible. So now they would take risks with their own lives and live in fear until the vow was complete. And if this was all a plan by Marguerite and I played right into it, the consequences for the mages and sorcerers in Elustria could be catastrophic. I’d quickly realized how stupid my decision was, but now my stomach sank under the weight of it. If we failed, I would die. And if we succeeded, we might be giving Marguerite everything she wanted.
“Nicole’s right. We have to figure out what the clue means.” I was eager to move the conversation—and my thoughts—away from the gravity of the vow. “We have to move forward. We’ll just keep our eyes open and be wise about it. That’s all.”
“Because wisdom has really been our strong suit up until this point,” Alex said.
Sarcasm wasn’t something I frequently saw on Alex, and despite the seriousness of everything, I couldn’t help smiling at hearing it now. “Exactly.”
“I don’t know about all of you,” Millhook said, “but I’ve always made wise decisions. Like that time I agreed to come to Earth and fetch a mage for the Council. Yep, that worked out real well.”
When Millhook had first come for me, I could have never imagined what a great friend he’d become.
“And like that time I helped out a poor noob in the Twilight Forest who couldn’t figure out how to get to her race’s capital city,” Nicole said.
“Hey, I was having fun killing those mutated grubs.” When I had started playing Wizards and Fae, I didn’t get how expansive the world was. I had stayed around the starting zone for an abnormally long time, not understanding how to get out of the zone into a major city. Nicole had been my first friend in-game. It didn’t take long before her help extended beyond the game and into real life. I hated to think what would’ve happened had she not rolled a new character in that starting zone while I was logged in. Of course, since I probably would’ve stayed there forever, the chances of us eventually running into each other weren’t all that bad.
“And to show you how smart I am,” Nicole said, “don’t you think we should get out of here?”
That jerked me out of my little bit of nostalgia. “Shit, you’re right. We should’ve left by now. Grab your stuff and we’ll port to another hotel.”
We all gathered up our things and got ready to port.
“You know,” Nicole said, “now that you’re not trying to get into the Armory, we might as well get a room somewhere cool like Hawaii. We can solve clues just as easily there as anywhere.”
“You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii. That’s a great idea. I don’t see why not.” I looked to Alex and Millhook to see if they saw a flaw in this plan.
Alex shrugged. “Might as well. Like Nicole said, it doesn’t really make any difference. I’ve never been to Hawaii. I move overland for the most part.”
“I’ve never been to this Hawaii place either,” Millhook said. “Pull it up on your little screen. Let’s go.”
If I was going to die soon, I might as well see Hawaii before I kicked it.
Eight
Nicole sat at the hotel room’s desk, her laptop in front of her. The familiar words of the clue filled the screen. “Say it again.”
“Grrr. I’ve said it a million times.” We’d been at this for what seemed like hours. Nicole had double- and triple-checked to make sure she had it typed correctly. “‘This is the key to my success. If you can formulate it, all my riches shall be yours. It may seem impossible to one less than my heir, but anything is possible in a world where mermaids don’t cry and dragons melt castle pinnacles. In such a world, the key to all my knowledge may be found.’ It’s a bunch of nonsense.”
“You know that’s not true. Everything Meglana did was calculated. We just have to think like her.” Alex placed his hand on my knee. We sat next to each other on one of the queen beds, legs stretched out in front of us. Millhook sat on the edge of the other bed, legs dangling over the side.
“I don’t know how to think like a genius sociopath.” I brushed Alex’s hand away. Everything, even his touch, grated right now.
Nicole had gotten us a reservation at a nice resort as soon as we arrived on Oahu. There was only one room left, and it overlooked the ocean. The view was magnificent and the weather perfect, but none of that mattered because we were no closer to solving my mother’s riddle. I was in my own personal hell in the middle of paradise.
“Okay, let’s go over it again, bit by bit. There has to be an answer. Is it possible the vial held an actual key? Could that liquid open something magical?” Nicole asked.
“I’ve never heard of anything that works like that. What about you, Millhook?” I turned to him for an answer. I hadn’t considered that the liquid could by a physical key. I had taken my mother’s words to be figurative, not literal.
“Nah, I stick to it being a potion. If it is an actual key, I’d guess it’d be some Earth contraption.”
“My vote is for the vial containing a potion,” Alex said. “The next line she talks about formulating it, which makes sense if it’s a potion.”
“That also means Marguerite has a sample to reverse-engineer.” For all we knew, she had already figured it out.
“Yes, but reverse-engineering a potion is a specialized skill. It’s not something that most people can do,” Alex said.
That may buy us some time, but not much. “I’m sure she has someone in the Directorate working on it right now.”
“Yes, so we should probably move along,” Nicole said. She looked back at the computer screen. “The next bit starts talking about mermaids and dragons.”
No, the next bit was about how the task would seem impossible to someone less than my mother’s heir. When I’d first learned about my birth mother and read her writings, I had assumed the heir she referenced was me. I harbored no such delusions anymore.
“And you said mermaids and dragons are real in Elustria?” Nicole asked Millhook, a little spark of excitement in her eyes despite the circumstances. These were the things dreams were made of. Nicole and I had spent years in a game world trying to experience as fantasy what existed as reality in Elustria. Even though as a human she’d never get to see Elustria, it was still exciting to learn your dreams were true.
“Oh yeah, they’re real all right. Don’t know how they relate to the clue, though.”
“Is there some folklore about what makes a mermaid cry? Any stories or myths? Any significance in a mermaid crying?” I asked. It was grasping at straws. Meglana wouldn’t have included anything too obvious to an Elustrian.
“Nope, not that I know of. Never heard a thing about a mermaid crying. I mean, I suspect they do, but I’ve never seen it myself. You get the regular tales, girls crying for their lost loves, that sorta thing, but I don’t see how that relates. Nothing stands out.”
“What about you, Alex?” I turned my focus to his yellow eyes, almost willing him to come up with something.
“Nothing. I know dragons are r
eal. They’re rare, but they exist. I don’t know of one ever melting a castle. That doesn’t even make sense. Castles are made from stone. Even a dragon can’t melt that.”
“Is it possible there’s another world she traveled to? If portals can be made between Elustria and Earth, why not to another planet?” I’d thought this earlier but suppressed it. If Meglana were speaking about another world in a literal sense, then we had no way of knowing which one.
“Oh, no. No, no, no. Don’t you worry about that.” Millhook shook his head. “Earth is the only place we can create portals to. Elustria and Earth have been bound through magical threads that weave through space and time for millennia. It’s a special bond we don’t share with any other place.”
That was a relief. It meant there was at least a possibility of us solving this. “So what are we missing? Where do we go from here?”
“Let’s go over it again.” Nicole turned to her computer screen.
“No. Going over it again isn’t going to change anything. We’re not going to magically come to a different conclusion this time. We need to think about this differently, do something different. More of the same is going to give us more of the same. People’s lives are depending on us. My life is depending on this. Sitting in a hotel room reciting a riddle isn’t going to help anyone.”
Hurt crept into Nicole’s eyes, but I was too frustrated to care. There’d be a lot more hurt and fear there if Sadie or Marguerite came after us.
Alex stood from the bed and made a show of stretching. “Why don’t we take a break for dinner? We can come back to this with fresh eyes.”
“Ooh, yes. Dinner sounds great.” Millhook hopped from the bed and went toward the door.
“You guys can go. I’ll stay here and go over my memories from the talisman. There has to be something there, something I’m missing.”
Alex looked at me for a moment then turned to Nicole. “Why don’t you two go ahead? I’ll stay with Kat.”
Nicole nodded and left with Millhook, looking as tired and defeated as I felt.
“Thanks, Alex. I just need some time alone with my thoughts.”
He walked over to my side of the bed and took my hand. “No, you’re not staying here. We’re going to dinner together. You have to relax. You’re thinking about this too hard. If you eat, maybe take a walk on the beach, your subconscious and instincts will have a chance to process everything and give you an answer.”
“Since when are you a psychology expert?”
“I’m not, but I know a lot about instincts. They don’t work when you’re overthinking. Come on.” He tugged on my hand slightly, which was adorable since we both knew he could not only pull me up from the bed but fling me over his shoulder in one movement if he wanted to.
“Fine. You win.”
A feline smile spread across his face. “I always do in the end.”
Nine
The wet sand squished through my toes as Alex and I walked along the beach after dinner. Each new wave brushed against my ankles before retreating back to the ocean. The sun sat low on the horizon, illuminating the clouds in otherworldly shades of pink. Even though I’d never been here before, there was a strange familiarity at being back on Earth, free from the Council, the CCS, and the Directorate for a moment.
“Thanks. You were right to get me out of that room. This is beautiful. I’m glad I got to see it.” The sunset, the gentle rolling waves, even the other tourists made it postcard-picture perfect. I couldn’t help stopping to soak it all up.
“You’re welcome.” Alex wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, pulling me close until I relaxed against his chest. When he spoke, his breath tickled against my ear. “The beauty of your world is breathtaking. I’ve wanted to share sunsets with you all over this planet.”
“I don’t understand why. You’re only attracted to me because you wore my talisman to track me. We already determined that its attraction to me rubbed off on you.”
“I know I said that. And it was true, initially. But what I feel for you now is purely from me. I’m sure of it. After I left you at the Armory, I knew. I didn’t need to be back with you the way I would’ve if the attraction had been from magic. I wanted to be with you. For the first time in my life, I wanted to be with someone more than I wanted to be alone.”
I turned around in his arms to see his face, searching for something, a sign that he was telling the truth even though he had never lied to me before. These specific words, though, I needed to know if he meant them. I thought it’d be easy to spot if he was lying because I felt the same way. Ever since my adoptive parents had died, I’d wanted to be alone. If they hadn’t wanted me at their alma mater so badly, I would’ve dropped out. Alex was the first person I was really with in years. At first I’d gone with him because I had no other choice, but somewhere along the way we’d become more to each other.
“But why?” If I was going to consider trusting him with my heart, I needed to know why he wanted it.
“You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met even though you’re infuriating most of the time. You didn’t ask for any of this, but you’ve stepped up to every challenge that has come your way. When there’s a choice to be made, you make the harder one knowing it’s for the better good. I’m such a selfish bastard I would have walked away from it all a long time ago. I did. Why do you think I left Elustria to be here on my own? It’s a life free of responsibility and accountability. You had the chance to run away with me, but instead you joined the CCS to make a difference, to try to help people. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but that made me want you all the more. You’re an extraordinary woman.”
Deciding to join the CCS and say goodbye to Alex had been one of the hardest decisions I’d ever made. I knew it had been the correct one, but that hadn’t made it any easier. During our months apart, we’d kept in touch through letters. Ultimately, the separation had been good for us. We’d built a foundation of friendship, and I had a better understanding of who I was. “Well, when you put it like that—”
“I’m not joking around, Kat.”
“I’m not either.”
“And we don’t need to make any decisions now. Things are too crazy.”
“And I might be dead soon.”
“If you are, I will be too. No one’s taking you down without taking me first. But once this is all over, I want to give us a chance.”
“I do too.” I said it before I could think better of it, before I could come up with a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t. Because ultimately, it all came down to the fact that he was my person, the first person I thought to share things with, the person whose advice I wanted, and the person I felt safest with. The truth was he already had my heart, and he was just too foolish to realize it.
The smile that lit his face was unlike any I’d previously seen. I hadn’t noticed how anxious he was until relief smoothed the lines of his serious expression. He leaned down, and I closed my eyes, my lips parting.
“Excuse me, would you like to donate to help clean up Hawaii’s beaches?”
For fuck’s sake. Alex straightened, and I opened my eyes, ready to tell off whoever it was. A few feet away, an exuberant girl in her teens was soliciting donations from a guy who’d been walking nearby. As soon as he brushed her off, she set her sights on us.
“Would you like to donate to help clean up Hawaii’s beaches?” Before I could tell her that we didn’t have any cash on us, she thrust a flyer into my hands and pulled out her smart phone. “I can even take credit cards. You know, if something isn’t done, this beach will be nothing but trash—not very romantic.”
This girl was good. I actually felt bad that we didn’t have any cash or credit cards on us. We had charged dinner to the room. “I’m sorry, but we really don’t have anything on us. Good luck, though.”
“No problem. When you get back to your room, you can visit the website on the flyer and make a donation there.”
I looked down at the paper when she poin
ted to the web address. A line beneath the URL caught my eye.
“And be sure to sign our petition to hold manufacturers accountable for the mermaid tears they produce each year!”
“Wait a minute.” I stopped the girl before she left. “What’s this mermaid tears thing?”
“Oh, they’re little bits of plastic that run off into the ocean from manufacturers. They’re horrible because they’re so small that it’s incredibly difficult to remove them, and they’re toxic. They’re contaminating the food supply in our oceans which contaminates our food.”
Something about the phrase “mermaid tears” niggled at my mind. “Thanks for the info. I’ll be sure to sign the petition.”
The girl smiled and bounded off to the next unsuspecting beachgoer.
I read the flyer again, trying to figure out the significance of mermaid tears. “The clue said something about mermaids crying. If they cried, they’d have tears.”
“You think your mother’s clue has something to do with plastic pollution in the ocean?” Alex asked.
All I needed was a little bit of silence. The pieces were all there in my mind. I just needed to arrange them to make sense. I was so close. “Yes!”
“Why would your mother care about plastic pollution?”
I shook my head, impatient to reveal my epiphany. “No, not that. Remember when we were at my mother’s house she kept all of her writings down in the cavern? One of them mentioned mermaid tears. It was a recipe of some kind—a potion recipe.”
A spark of excitement glinted in his eyes. “Can you remember the rest of it?”
“Of course I can. Even if I can’t, the talisman can.” I grabbed his hand, and together we ran back to the room.
Ten
Once inside the room, I directed the pen on the nightstand to write out the recipe on the hotel’s stationary. Nicole and Millhook had already returned from dinner and sat on the sofa looking at Nicole’s laptop. I had the pen write out copies for everyone and levitated them to each person.
Magic Hunted (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 4) Page 5
