The League of Illusion: Legacy

by Anna, Vivi

  By the time he had drawn seven keys out, his face was flushed and drenched with sweat from the effort on his mind. The back of his shirt was wet, as well. His arms quivered from holding them still for so long. He still had two more keys to go and he wasn’t su I suhis ware how much time he had left. Not much, he suspected. By now, the powers that be would’ve realized that there was no more danger, and people would soon be streaming back in to continue their tour.

  With no time to waste, Jovan lifted the next key and moved it out of the case. It slipped through the opening without much trouble, but then his concentration lapsed. Just a little. A pain zinged through his hand. It must’ve been from holding it in form too long. A cramp in the muscles. His fingers twitched just slightly. But it was enough for the key to drop from his invisible grip. The tip cut through a swath of light before Jovan could catch it again. It set off the alarm, which consisted of two bells chiming over and over.

  The loud sound echoed throughout the building. It was definitely time to disappear. He quickly scooped up the seven keys he could abscond, dumped them in his leather pouch, then grabbed his jacket and cane and made his way toward the stairs. If he could make it to the back of the building, he could break a window and slip out that way.

  When he reached the bottom of the stairs though, he realized that plan wouldn’t work. Three constables were already coming from the rear. The only way he could go now was forward or back up. Either way he’d be trapped. There was only one true way out of the situation. One way that would prove that his risk was not in vain.

  Continuing toward the front doors, he poured all his magic and concentration into one thing—the bag of keys. Within seconds it disappeared from sight. It was still there, mind, he could feel it in his hand, but now it was invisible.

  When he reached the doors, he put his hands up, just as two constables came rushing at him. “Stop right there,” one demanded.

  He did as directed. The last thing he wanted was a baton across the head, which lately the bobbies were notorious for.

  “What were you doing in here, eh?”

  “I must’ve gotten lost during the commotion.”

  The constable eyed him intently, his brow furrowed. “Place has been evacuated going on an hour now. Whatcha been doing?”

  “Well, it’s a big building.”

  He must not have liked Jovan’s answer because he nodded toward the open front doors. “C’mon with ya, then. We can sort this out outside.”

  Another constable joined them as Jovan walked out into the gloomy daylight, one behind him and one in front. Just like a regular criminal. His father would’ve slapped his leg and said, “Told you so,” if he had seen him.

  His arms still raised, he immediately scanned the crowd for Skylar and Rhys. He knew they would be waiting anxiously nearby.

  He spotted Skylar instantly. She stood out from the crowd with her white-blond hair and golden eyes. Rhys stood beside her, looking nervous and unsure. Jovan nodded to them.

  A sergeant came up to his side to address the constable who’d escorted him out. “What’s going on? This here’s a gentleman. We don’t treat gentlemen as such, Constable.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but he was the only one inside when the alarm went off.”

  “It’s all right, Sergeant, the man was just doing his job.” Jovan lowered his arms, hoping he still had a chance to talk his way out of the situation.

  Another sergeant, one with considerable more girth, ruined any and all chance of that.

  “He’s to come down to the station. I know this man. He ain’t no gentleman. He’s a thief. And he’s probably the one that set the rats loose so he could steal some more.”

  Jovan met the man’s gaze, not liking where this was going. “I don’t think you know me at all, sir.”

  “Oh I do, Davenport.”

  And that was when Jovan noticed the glyph on a chain hanging around the man’s neck. A lightning bolt. It was the sigil of the house of Hawthorne.

  “But he ain’t got nothing on him, Sergeant,” the constable argued.

  “Do you want to keep your job, Constable?”

  That was all that was needed for the constable to back down. Jovan didn’t blame the chap.

  Before the man could grab his wrists to shackle him, Jovan flung his arms out, letting go of the invisible bag. He heard the satisfying thunk and clank of it landing somewhere on the grassy knoll nearby.

  “See what I have done!” he yelled out to the crowd. To Skylar. To Rhys. “See and believe!”

  The crowd laughed a little as the sergeant flailed for Jovan’s arms to shackle them together in chains. Jovan kept his gaze on Rhys as he was pulled toward the wagon. He willed him to understand what he’d just done. To know what he’d meant by his outburst. To remember the game they played as boys. Because if he didn’t, everything they’d tried to accomplish so far would be for nothing.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “What in the world is he doing?” Skylar watched in disbelief as the constable led Jovan to the wagon. “He’s as mad as I always thought him.”

  “Maybe not.” Rhys grabbed her arm and pulled her aside, away from the lingering crowd. “Did you hear what he said?”

  “Yes, I heard him rambling, as did everyone else.”

  “He was speaking to me.”

  “How so?”

  “When we were children,” he said, rooting around in his pockets. “We used to play this game called See, Don’t See. Our father would make something invisible and hide it in the yard. He gave us each a piece of special glass that could ‘see’ through the spell. Whoever discovered it first got to keep whatever it was.” He smiled at her. “To Jovan’s despair I was especially good at the game.” He pulled out a monocle on a chain from his inside jacket pocket. “Here we are. I knew I had it with me.”

  He settled the bulky blue-tinted glass into the groove of his right eye. He then walked toward the front doors with his gaze on the ground. Skylar had to increase her stride to keep pace with him. She’d never seen Rhys so animated before. It lightened her heart to see it. The rivalry and hurt between the brothers had made him so stoic that it was a rare sight to see him with a bounce in his gait.

  She could do nothing but follow him closely as he searched the grass. Others gawked at him, but thankfully no one came to ask what they were doing. Jovan’s arrest was enough of a spectacle for them. It would be fodder for gossip for weeks.

  After another couple of minutes, Rhys finally stopped and smiled. “Got it.” He reached down toward the grass, then poof! A brown leather pouch appeared grasped between his fingers. He lifted the bt st to keep ag. “It’s the keys.”

  She shook her head. The Davenports were full of surprises. Even now, after all this time, they still managed to astound her. “We’ll figure out which key we need after we rescue your brother from jail.”

  Rhys removed the monocle and slipped it back into his jacket pocket. “Or we could just leave him. It might do him some good to stew a while.”

  She regarded him sadly. “Do you really despise him that much? I know you have your differences. You always have.”

  “I don’t hate Jovan. He’s my blood. But he is not the man you wish him to be, Skylar. I don’t think he’s capable of being such.”

  She patted his arm. “Seven years is a long time to hold a grudge, my friend. A man can change.” And the second she said it, she realized she could’ve been talking to herself. Did she really believe that Jovan had changed?

  They returned to the carriage, and Rhys drove them down to the police station. Once parked nearby, Rhys climbed down from up top and joined her in the cab.

  When he was settled, she asked, “Now, how do we get him out? My father has contacts inside, but I don’t think he’d be obliged to help Jovan out.”

  “The Davenports employ a few people in the Yard but it would take some time to contact them and put the wheels in motion.”

  “Time we don’t have.” She glanced out the little
window to see the shadow settling over the city. It wouldn’t be long before it was dark. “We need a more direct method.”

  “Breaking him out, then?”

  “Yes.”

  He laughed. “Of course. What should we use? Explosives?”

  “Too loud. Too messy. Would draw too much attention we don’t need. We need something more subtle.”

  He eyed her. “I take it you already have an idea.”

  She just smiled.

  * * *

  “Are you really going to sit there all night and watch me?” Jovan folded his hands behind his head as he lay on the hard wooden plank fastened to the stone wall in his tiny cell.

  The guard outside the rusted bars shuffled from foot to foot. “Yes, sir. They say you’re a tricky one and I’m to stand guard to make sure you don’t go and do anything.”

  “Tricky, hey?” He tsked. “They used to say I was a cad, a hooligan, scandalous even. Now I’m just tricky. What a shame.”

  Jovan had only been in the cell for a few hours but it was long enough to start grating on his nerves. He wasn’t one for small confined spaces or for prison bars. He liked his freedom, actually reveled in it on a daily basis. In here not only was he limited in his movement but also in his practices. With a civilian guard watching him, he couldn’t perform any magic. Not any that would set him free.

  That was one rule the League enforced that he understood. To expose themselves was to ask for trouble. Persecution would be right around the corner. They’d lost a lot of people in the Crusades. The general public and the ruling society wouldn’t be quite accepting of a people who could manipulate energy and matter and create magic out of what seemed like thin air. Panic and chaos would ensue if they knew about Druids and elves and other older races of people. It would be pure pandemonium.

  So, he had to sit back and wait for Skylar and Rhys to rescue him. If that indeed was going to happen. He wasn’t completely confident in that notion. They both had plenty of reasons to let him sit and rot while they chased off after Sebastian on their own. They didn’t really need him anymore now that they had the key. At least he hoped they found the key. Rhys was an intelligent man, so he had faith that he understood Jovan’s last words.

  His last words. He certainly hoped those wouldn’t be his last ones to his brother. Jovan had many things to atone for when it came to Rhys. His foolish immature antics in the past had cost his brother many things. Including happiness.

  He’d only meant to test his skills that night. To see if he had what it took to break into a fortified safe. He’d no real intentions of stealing the famed Weston necklace. It wasn’t like he’d needed money, although his gambling debts had been mounting.

  It had been bad karma all around that Rhys and Patricia had chosen that moment to steal a private moment from their hosting duties at the ball. They’d stumbled into the room already in an embrace, lips feasting on each other. And that was when they found him, the safe door open, his hand reaching for the priceless piece of jewelry.

  Patricia had wanted to call the authorities, but Rhys had begged her not to, wanting to spare their father any disgrace. In the end, she agreed, but ended their engagement quickly and quietly. The rumors of the youngest Davenport engaging in scandalous activities circulated widely, causing speculation as to the reason for the end of the engagement and to why the brothers’ once close relationship had ceased to exist as well.

  Jovan sat up again, leaning back against the wall. He glanced at the guard. “Are you bored yet?”

  “No, sir.”

  “I won’t tell anyone if you wanted to slip away for a few hours. It will be our little secret.”

  The guard paused then straightened his shoulders. “I won’t abandon my post no matter what you say. So yous best shut up now.”

  Jovan stood and stretched out his arms and legs. He hated being alone, being isolated. It gave him far too much time to think. To ponder his mistakes—there were plenty—and rue them. Maybe this little adventure would afford him an opportunity to fix his relationship with his brother and to make things right again with Skylar.

  Although he wasn’t sure that was even remotely possible. She’d severed all ties with him so quickly, so severely, he wasn’t sure there was anything left, not even a thread, to hold on to.

  Druids were known to be stoic, in charge of their emotions, but Skylar had been different. She’d been so free with hers. Given them to him as a gift. And he’d crushed them. The memory was so raw, so real, that it flooded him…

  Skylar turned from the large picture window to smile at him. Sunlight played over her naked body. Her skin glittered as if sprinkled with gold dust. Just looking at her was a punch in the gut.

  Jovan reached a hand out to her. “Come back to bed, darling. I’m cold without you.” He patted the bare spot beside him on the mattress, where she’d been just minutes before.

  With a lazy smile, she crossed the room and nestled in next to him. She kissed the tip of his nose. “Let’s go swimming in the lake.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. It’s the perfect day for it.” She sprang”

  “I have something I want to tell you.” He tugged her back into the bed. His heart hammered in his throat. He was surprised his hands weren’t shaking as his nerves jumped like frogs.

  She curled around him, playing a hand through his hair. “What is it? You’re as pale as an elf.”

  He took her hand in his. “I love you, Skylar. You know that, right? You mean everything to me.”

  “I love you too.” She frowned, and pulled the blanket up around her shoulders. “But you’re scaring me. Do you have bad news about your family? Is it your father?”

  He wanted to jump off the bed, bend a knee and ask her to marry him. But he couldn’t. Not with his conscience so stained and riddled with guilt. He had to confess all his sins before he could ask her to commit everything to him.

  “I’m a thief.” He dropped his gaze. He couldn’t look upon her beautiful face as he spoke. “I use my magic to steal from others.”

  She shrunk away from him. “I don’t understand. Why would you do that? Does your family have financial troubles?”

  He sighed. Of course she would assume he was doing an immoral thing for honorable reasons. She would never think the worst of him. At least, not yet, she didn’t.

  “The family is stable.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I gamble. I have debts. But mostly I steal because I can. It’s easy using my magic and I can get away with it.”

  She slid off the bed, bringing the blanket with her. “You’re the Phantom. The authorities have been looking for you for over a year. The council suspected it was a sorcerer, but…”

  “I am, but I’ve retired.”

  She brought a hand to her mouth; there was a fine tremble in her fingers. “I heard a rumor that there was an attempt at the Westons’.” She gave him a hard look. “That was you?”

  He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.

  “You’re the reason Miss Weston broke off the engagement to Rhys.”

  “Yes, but I haven’t stolen since. Doing that to Rhys made me realize how far I’d fallen.”

  “I can’t believe it.” Her voice shook.

  He reached for her. “I can explain, Skylar. Just give me a chance.”

  “A chance to what? To destroy even more than you already have?” She dropped the blanket and gathered her dress to pull over her head. “How could you do this? You know using magic like that, against others, is against our laws. Laws my family and yours are to uphold. And to use it against your own brother, for you own selfish gain…” She turned to him then. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “If you could betray your own flesh and blood so easily, how could I ever expect anything else from you?”

  He jumped off the bed, trying to grab her arm. To make her stay, to make her understand. “I would never betray you. Never. You are my sun and my moon.”

  “You just did.” She pulled away from him and stormed towa
rd the bedroom doors. Before she went through them, she glanced over her shoulder one last time. “I would’ve given you everything. I would’ve loved you for a lifetime.”

  Then she w-1"her shas gone.

  He’d never felt complete again.

  The next day he’d ridden his horse to her home to beg her for a second chance, but she’d already left for Holy Isle to start her training as a Druid tracker. Two years of intense training and isolation. She left him no note, no message of any kind. Nothing but the emptiness in his heart.

  The stinging remarks from her father hadn’t helped either. Lord Soren had told him in no circumstance was he to ever contact his daughter again. He commanded Jovan to let her go and allow her to live a life as a true Druid. Of course, he’d rejected that command and wrote her letters. One every month for a year. But they’d all gone unanswered and he never saw her again. Until he’d walked into the den at Davenport Hall and saw her perched on the sofa, her hands in her lap and a gleam in her eye.

  And his heart beat no less for her than it had all those years ago.

  When he saw her again—if she came for him, that was—he would remind her of what they had together. He believed—mind, body and soul—that it was worth fighting for.

  The guard at the door sneezed into his grimy hand then wiped it on his pants. Jova

  n watched him with disgust. He had to figure a way out of this place before it was all too late to make any amends.

  The distinctive chug-chug of a steam carriage outside his window made his heart skip a beat. She had come for him.

  “Hey.” He gestured to the guard. “I have something I want to give you.” Inside his fist was the beginning of a sleep spell.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rhys positioned the carriage underneath one of the jail cell windows in the dark alleyway behind the police station. Skylar sat beside him ready to climb atop the moment it was still.

  “Are you sure this is his cell?”

  “I’m sure. I bribed a sergeant for the information.”