by Linsey Hall
“You’ve tried magic?”
“I have, but not much. Just took it to a couple of witches when I was a teenager. They couldn’t get it open.” Hope flared in my chest. “But maybe Aethelred can help. I’m going to see him about it as soon as we fix the portal.”
“It’s a good idea.”
We finished eating, chatting about lighter topics than dead parents and lonely childhoods. I felt like I’d known Aidan longer than I actually had, as if the dramatic nature of our circumstance drew us closer. But that was pretty textbook, right?
“Would you like to look at the stars?” Aidan asked.
“Sure.” This was turning out to be a really good date.
We found spots at the side of the room and lay on our backs, an enormous telescope propped over us and pointing at the glass ceiling. Aidan was so close that the heat of his body warmed mine, sending goosebumps over my skin.
This was the first time in a month that we’d been alone and not running for out lives or one of us ill from injuries. Which made it damned hard to focus on Aidan’s words as he told me how to adjust the telescope.
His arm brushed my chest as he fiddled with the telescope, trying to give me the best view of the stars or planets or whatever the hell I was supposed to be looking at.
“There,” he said, his voice low at my ear. “Now you can look.”
I peered up through the telescope, trying to focus on the lights and colors, but all I could comprehend was Aidan’s soft breath at my ear and the touch of his arm against mine.
When I felt his hand on my stomach, I stiffened, my heart pounding a fierce tattoo against my ribs. He paused, his hand warm and still, as if to give me a chance to protest.
I didn’t. I just stayed staring up through the telescope, praying he’d move his hand up or down or anywhere at all.
When he drew his fingertips in circles on my abdomen, my breathing became harsher.
“You’re so damned beautiful, Cass.” His voice was a rasp at my ear.
I shivered, then tilted my face toward his for a kiss.
“Keep looking,” he said.
I almost growled, but the promise in his eyes made me turn my head back to the telescope. When I’d finally focused back on the star or planet—I had no idea because I’d been distracted when he’d described what I was looking at—Aidan’s fingertips drifted beneath my shirt.
They were hot against my stomach, a burning brand so fierce it might leave a mark. Tingles streaked through me, lighting up all my nerve endings and making me whimper.
A satisfied sound escaped Aidan’s throat, the closest thing to a growl I’d ever heard a human make. When his lips pressed to my throat, I closed my eyes, giving up on the stars above. I focused only on the path of his lips and the pleasure that trailed behind.
His tongue darted out, licking a delicate line along the tendon at my neck. My breath strangled in my lungs, and my head spun. It’d been ages since I’d been with a guy, and this wasn’t any guy.
This was Aidan.
The guy.
My guy.
The one that I’d gotten to know so well, that I respected so much. Having waited for this, instead of making it a quick hookup between jobs, made it so much more special.
Not to mention hot. I was on fire, every part of my body blazing like an inferno. I might not be ready to round all the bases yet, but I didn’t want to stop here, either.
Unable to take it anymore, I turned and met his gaze. “I’m done looking at the stars.”
12
In some wonderful twist of fate, I woke before our alarm clock, nestled against Aidan’s side. I yawned, memories of last night sending heat across my cheeks. We hadn’t gone all the way—I hadn’t been ready yet—but what we’d done had given me more than enough reason to turn red from my head to my toes.
The dawn sun broke through the clouds on the horizon and sent a golden light into the bedroom. It reflected off Aidan’s face, highlighting his ridiculous hotness and the dark sweep of his lashes. His lips were still slightly swollen, and I blushed at the memory of the things he’d done with them.
As if he’d sensed my thoughts, his eyes opened. He blinked sleepily, then turned his head toward me.
“Hey.” Sleep roughened his voice.
“Hey.”
“Thanks for last night,” he said.
“Likewise.” I kissed his lips, then shivered again. “You did most of the work.”
“I’d hardly call it work.” He grinned. “But if you’re hiring, consider last night my application.”
“You’re on the payroll.” I wished we could stay here all morning. My body ached, and my brain was still foggy from sleep. We hadn’t gotten much rest last night, but it’d been enough to get me ready to go today.
The reminder of what faced us cast a pall over my cheer.
“We should go see the Nullifier. He should wake soon,” I said.
“You’re right.” Aidan leaned over and kissed me one last time, then we both hurried out of bed.
Aidan fetched my clean clothes from the washroom—I’d refused to do the walk of shame through his house in case Iona was in the hall—while I brushed my teeth in the bathroom.
After dressing, I grabbed my cell phone from the bedside table. As I went to shove it into my pocket, the blinking blue light caught my eye. I turned it over to look at the screen.
Missed Call.
From Aerdeca.
Oh shit.
I stabbed her name with my thumb and hit Call, then waited, bouncing on my feet.
“You need to get here quick,” she said as soon as the line connected.
“What’s wrong?”
“More than half the museum is gone now. And the portal has expanded even more. The Order thinks it could suck in more than Magic’s Ben. Maybe as far as Portland.”
Where my friends were.
“Shit. Okay. We’re coming. Be there within an hour.” I prayed I could deliver that. I’d only be able to if the Nullifier woke up.
I hung up with Aerdeca and found the Nullifier’s room. Aidan was already there, talking to Iona’s niece, who had taken over for her in the middle of last night.
“I’ll bring breakfast here,” she said, her Irish accent a charming match to her red curls. My deirfiúr and I had trained ourselves away from our accents as a way to better hide our real identities, but I’d probably sound and look just as wholesomely Irish as Siobhán if I hadn’t.
“Thank you, Siobhán,” Aidan said.
She grinned and left the room.
“He needs to wake up soon,” I murmured as we sat in the chairs at the side of his bed. As much as I wanted to shake him awake, he was old and healing, and even I wasn’t that big of a jerk.
As I told Aidan about the conversation with Aerdaca, I couldn’t stop bouncing my knee as I watched the Nullifier, hoping his eyes would open.
When they finally did, part of me regretted hoping they’d open. As soon as his gaze landed on us, my magic dampened. The aching loss filled my chest. He had to be dampening the magic that fueled my concealment charm as well.
“Stop,” I pleaded. “You’ll lead the Monster to us.”
The Nullifier’s blue gaze cleared. His dampening power dissipated. My shoulders relaxed as my magic welled again, filling the emptiness in my chest.
“How did he find me after all these years?” he asked, his gaze both worried and curious.
“What? Who?”
“Victor Orriordor. The man who walked into the clearing at my home and then blew me out of the sky.”
“Victor Orriordor?” My heart pounded. That was the Monster’s name?
“Yes. At least, that is what he used to go by. Centuries ago. But I don’t understand why he found me. I thought he’d stopped looking.”
“Centuries?” I was so lost. “How is he immortal?”
“I do not know. He may not be, but he’s lived long somehow.” The Nullifier struggled to sit upright. I helped him, adjusting th
e pillows behind his back.
“How did you meet him?” I asked.
“He came to me about three hundred years ago. He wanted to kill me to take my powers.”
“For immortality?”
“I think not. He had the air of someone with tragedy in their past. And I’d heard stories. I thought he wanted to kill his own magic. To destroy the FireSoul within him by taking my power of nullification. It would suppress all of his magical ability. Take it away.”
I cringed. Who would do that willingly to themselves? It felt like dying. I didn’t like everything about being a FireSoul, but I’d never cut out my magic like that. Repressing it all those years had been bad enough, but at least I’d had my magic still within me, ready to access when I needed it.
Permanently killing my magic? It’d be almost worse than death.
“What happened?” I breathed.
“I fought him. Used my power to nullify his powers. It gave him a taste of what was to come, and he hesitated. I won that battle and ran, though I thought he might seek me again.”
“But he never came for you?” I knew I needed to be getting his help with the portal—and I would—but this was the first opportunity I’d ever had to learn about the Monster who hunted me. The Nullifier could have the ammunition I needed to destroy the Monster and save myself.
“Not until today,” the Nullifier said. “I thought he’d given up on that. I heard that he had become addicted to the power, the way FireSouls always do.”
Always do.
It’s not true, I wanted to cry. I’m not addicted. I’ve been fighting it. I’ve been winning!
Instead, I said, “So that is why you recognized him.”
“Yes. Thank you for getting me away from him. But how did he find me?”
“He didn’t. He found me,” I said. “I had a concealment charm that protected me from him. He’s been searching for me.”
“Ah, yes.” The Nullifier nodded. “If he had seers scrying for you, they would have found you when you entered my no-magic zone. Concealment charms are dangerous. They can hide a person from my protections. Your charm failed when you neared my home.”
“But you’re not using your powers now,” I said. “It’s the only way we’re safe.”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll help us close the portal?”
His gaze darkened.
“Victor Orriordor is behind it,” I said. “If the portal devours the museum, it will kill people. Destroy thousands of homes.”
“Like my home,” the Nullifier said grimly.
I thought of the explosive blast that had destroyed so much of his patio and part of the back of his house. “Yes.”
“Yes. I will do it,” he grumbled. “Victor Orriordor is dangerous. Whatever he wants with the museum, I do not want him to have.”
The tension in my shoulders loosened a bit. “Thank you!”
“Don’t thank me,” he groused. “We haven’t succeeded yet.”
We met Nix and Del on the front lawn of the museum thirty minutes later, after the Nullifier had recovered enough to be up and about. It was a bright, clear day. The kind that would have lots of kids out playing on the lawns, if half the town hadn’t been enveloped in a glowing purple portal. Nix and Del stood at the edge of the Museum lawn, on a small patch that wasn’t enclosed in the portal, which expanded out far in the other direction.
Most of the museum had disappeared. When it all disappeared, the imbalance in the magical power grid would cause a vacuum and destroy the town.
“It’s way worse,” I said as soon as I reached Nix and Del. I’d raced ahead, leaving Aidan and the Nullifier to catch up.
“Yep.” Del eyed the figures behind me. “And that’s our best hope?”
I glanced back at the Nullifier. I was worried about getting him through the unknown challenges at the waypoint, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it. Or swim that ocean, or cross that desert.
“Want me to conjure a life vest?” Nix whispered, her gaze on the Nullifier. “Because if we get dumped in the ocean again, he doesn’t look like the strongest swimmer.”
I eyed the Nullifier, who was looking immensely better than he had earlier, but still frail. I’d seen plenty of folks over seventy swimming laps in the cold waters of the Pacific, so I knew they could be tough, but after the Nullifier’s injuries, I was worried for him.
“Thanks,” I said. “I wish we had any other choice because I hate asking him to do this, but we’re out of options.”
On a whim, I’d asked the Nullifier if he could just use his power to kill the portal from here. Unfortunately, he’d said no. The Pool of Enchantment was too powerful. He needed to kill the source of the power in order to kill the portal.
Before we’d come, Aidan had called the Order of the Magica, who had been no real help, so this was what we were going with. The Order had already sent in two contingents of their strongest Magica—two groups of six—to attempt to disenchant the pool, but neither had reported back with success. They hadn’t reported back at all, actually, and the Magica were concerned they were dead or permanently lost. They were going to send another contingent in shortly after us, though I wasn’t convinced they’d do any better a job.
Aerdeca approached us from across the lawn, her white suit now dingy and grass-stained. She really hadn’t left her sister’s side.
“I’m coming with you,” Aerdeca said
I glanced at Del. “Can you take one more?”
Del shook her head. “The four of you are already a stretch. I don’t think I can do another. Not if I want to have enough power to get us all back.”
“I’m sorry,” I told Aerdeca. “But thank you for the offer.”
She twisted her hands, her normally unflappable facade clearly flapped.
“Are we all ready to go?” Aidan asked. “I don’t like the look of the portal. If we’re caught when the museum disappears and the portal finally closes, we could be stuck.”
“I am.” I glanced at the Nullifier. “Are you?”
He nodded, his gaze resolute.
“How do we do this, then?” I asked.
“Link hands,” Del said. “On my count, step through. Then you lead us to the Pool of Enchantment.”
I nodded. We’d told the Nullifier that I was a Seeker, which was how I’d find the Pool of Enchantment. He’d seemed to buy it, though there wasn’t much reason to doubt it.
“Let’s get this show on the road, then.” I stepped up and took Del’s hand, then linked my other with Aidan’s. I glanced at him, glad he was at my side. He gave me a half-grin that I chose to interpret as him feeling the same.
Del reached out for Nix, who then grasped the Nullifier’s palm in her other hand.
“Thank you for doing this,” Aerdeca said.
“Don’t have much choice,” I said.
“You do. None of your loved ones are trapped in that portal.” Her tortured gaze traveled to Mordaca, who still floated within the purple haze.
“Ready?” I asked Del, my gaze on the purple glow that was only a foot away. My heart thudded as my mind raced over what we could be stepping into.
“Yep. On three.”
I squeezed Aidan’s hand.
“One, two, three!”
I stepped forward, my eyes closed and my breath caught in my chest. When I opened my eyes, we stood in the desert again, confirming my fear that this was where the Monster’s home was located. The desert was like the base for this place, the absence of anything but sand and heat making it a perfect palate for the other worlds to be projected upon.
Hot wind blew my hair back from my face as I focused on my dragon sense. It tugged, strong and sure. I glanced at my companions and said, “Left.”
We had no way of knowing where the Pool of Enchantment was located, but thought it might be away from the portal. Nix had said Dr. Garriso believed it was a safety precaution to have the portal entrance located farther from the pool to limit situations like this occu
rring. When he’d built the portal, the Monster had probably expected someone to fight back. Keeping the portal away from its battery made it harder for us to destroy it.
“I like the desert,” Nix muttered. “At least we can see what’s coming.”
“And it’s like being at the beach,” Del said. “Except drier.”
“Don’t wish for the beach or we might get some water,” I said, remembering our icy plunge the last time we were here.
A second later, the ground dropped out from under us. But instead of water, there was nothing. Cliffs rose steeply in front of me as I plummeted into an enormous gorge. I shrieked, my stomach caught in my throat, and I clawed at the air, somehow managing to catch onto a ledge. My fingers dragged at it, but I lost my grip and fell again.
On either side, Nix and Del plummeted, along with the Nullifier.
“Aidan!” I couldn’t see him, but I prayed he’d turned into a griffin.
Except he couldn’t carry all of us. My skin grew cold.
My heart threatened to break my ribs.
He couldn’t carry all of us.
There was only one way out of this. Could I even do it?
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus, reaching out for Aidan’s shifting power. I caught hold of his signature—the scent of the forest, the sound of crashing waves, the taste of chocolate. I drew on his magic, using my Mirror Mage skills to imitate his ability to shift.
“Griffin, griffin, griffin,” I whispered.
I’d only ever tried to turn into land mammals before, but none of those would help me now. Turning into a griffin was a stretch, but since Aidan was hopefully already in his griffin form, it should be easier than doing it from scratch. Mirroring an animal that was near me was easier.
Wind whipped by as magic filled my being. Warmth flowed through my limbs.
Suddenly, the wind changed. Instead of blowing my hair and clothes, it ruffled my feathers and fur. I opened my eyes and could see great clawed feet in front of me. My wings flapped awkwardly in the wind.
I could fly!
Sort of.
Below, the ground was growing closer. I flapped my wings harder, trying to propel myself upward. They caught on the wind, pushing me toward the sky. I laughed, but it came out as a strange squawk. Then I whirled on the air and dived for the nearest body that had been falling alongside mine.
