“Fine. Thanks.”
Kyle chuckled. “Uh-huh.”
“Sugar?” She moved passed him and rummaged through the overhead cabinets.
He pointed to a corner pantry, the door slightly ajar. “You needed it.”
Maura cooked breakfast and tried to keep a regular routine. Breakfast chatter about sports and current events did its best to distract from festering thoughts. Scrambled eggs, toast with jam, and Irish coffee were one of her last meals. A conversation about electing government officials in the next upcoming race would be one of the last things she’d hear. The sunrise, how it stretched across the horizon in an array of pinks, oranges, and blues, was the beginning of the end. This is it.
“Morning,” Liam said.
She jumped at his touch, slapped a smile on, and continued to play with her food. He returned the smile, glanced between her and Kyle, and then poured his coffee before sitting beside her.
Kyle collected his newspaper, coffee in hand, and sat on the front porch.
Maura dodged Liam’s glances and focused on her untouched food.
“About last night…” Liam said.
“I had a nice time,” she said, popping a piece of toast into her mouth.
Liam let out a breathless chuckle. “Me too, but I wanted to talk about us…”
Maura shrugged and sipped her coffee. Us. The word clenched her stomach – the idea of there being an “us”. After spending centuries in an empty bed, she'd forgotten what it felt like to wake up in someone's arms. The strange feeling, though it left her vulnerable, filled her with a comfort she'd never known.
“Maura?” Liam asked, his hand falling to hers.
She relaxed into his touch and smiled. “You said so yourself, we've been running parallel to each other for centuries.”
Liam's grin widened.
Cleaning the dishes after breakfast, she thought about using one of the Goddesses' powers to avoid tonight. One of their gifts was the power to manipulate fate. With that magic, she could turn back the hands of time to the night of the Riley incident and avoid everything by not being there.
She shook her head, rinsing a dish before putting it in the drying rack. She couldn’t do that. Too much time had gone by between that night and now. The amount of power needed would shatter the mirror into oblivion.
“I’m going out to get coffee,” Liam said from the doorway. “Do you need anything?”
Maura turned, dried her hands, and tossed the towel onto the counter. “Coffee?”
“And my uniform from my place. I picked up an extra shift tonight. If anything happens at the party, I’ll be the first one to respond.”
“The whole point of you not coming to the party was for you not to come to the party.”
Liam smirked and turned to the front door. “Do you need anything while I’m out?”
“Yeah.” Maura grimaced and snatched her apartment keys from the table. “I need to pick up my dress.”
“We’ll pick yours up first.” Liam hopped into the car.
Maura joined as he started the engine. “Why are you so stubborn?”
“Why are you?” Liam asked.
“I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“Why can’t I do the same?”
She sank into her seat, feet propped on the dashboard, arms crossed against her chest.
Liam chuckled and sped out of the driveway. They stopped at the grocery store a few blocks over, picked up the specific kind of coffee Liam craved, and headed toward Maura’s apartment. Once there, she fumbled through abandoned boxes, searching for the one gown she owned. Her apartment had been cleaned out by the landlord. Everything she owned, which wasn’t much, laid out on the curb for the garbagemen and the scavengers. After finding the gown and shoes, they drove to Liam’s apartment on the opposite end of town. Maura waited in the car while he retrieved his uniform, and when he returned, they retreated toward Kyle’s cottage.
The streets were beginning to fill with cars that carried people to their nine-to-five jobs. Maura tried to imagine what it was like to live a mundane life. No powers. No running. No curse. It almost sounded like heaven until she gazed into the car next to her – the male in his ironed suit, coffee in hand while he drove, trying to beat the clock to work, a look of dissatisfaction on his face. He lived the same routine every day. Dress. Coffee. Work. Home. Dress. Coffee. Work. Home. While Maura found herself craving normalcy at times, she didn’t crave the boredom that came with it.
“Shit,” Liam said.
Maura turned. Before she could ask, a turquoise sheen cascaded over the car, and they began to slow. She looked over her shoulder at the two unmarked cars tailing them. She recognized the license plates and the emblem of The Keep hidden behind the plate numbers.
“Drive,” she said, as she broke the spell that weighed the car to a stop.
“Wh–”
“They’re Adrian’s men.” She charged a spell in her palms. “Drive.”
“Don’t.” Liam cupped his hand over hers. “They don’t know you’re in the car.”
“They know someone is in the passenger seat.”
“They don’t know it’s you.”
She extinguished the charm and tightened her seatbelt.
Liam weaved through traffic, sped through red lights, and mounted the curb in a sharp turn. The car groaned with his foot flat against the floor. Horns blazed beside them, waning quickly into the distance. Pedestrians cursed him out and jumped to safety on the sidewalk. Maura angled herself in her seat, one hand on the console, the other on the door. She peered into the mirror, the two cars fighting to catch up half a block away.
“Use an Illusion,” Liam said.
“We’ve been through this before. I don’t have any that’ll help. They’re all dead.”
“Use a spell to dye your hair, change your eyes.” He tossed her his phone without taking his eyes off of the road. “Google it.”
She ran her fingers over the screen. “Google?”
“On the Mystic Web. Find a spell that’ll temporarily disfigure your appearance. Turn into a goblin.” He veered through traffic, skid marks in their wake. “Be someone other than Maura Leroux.”
She scrolled through the search options. “You just had to get your coffee this morning.”
“It’s better than them raiding the house.”
She pressed against the door from a hard left turn. The loose contents of the car shifted toward her, crashing against the door. “You knew they were following us.”
“They were waiting at my apartment.”
“Bastards.” She straightened. “There are temporary Illusions, but I need a drop of blood from the person. Since you’re the only one in the car and we can’t exactly make a pit stop, it doesn’t do me any good.”
“Conjure the Wend.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I’m not asking.”
“I’m staying.”
Liam sighed and tossed her a side-glance. His gaze was sharp, a fiery emerald. His lips tightened, his fingers doing the same around the steering wheel. “We can’t both use the Wend. They’ll trace the spell to our location. If you go, they won’t bother to look for you if they have me. I’m what they’re after.” He made a sharp left onto a narrow road. A garbage can took a hit from the back end of the car. Papers and empty food containers littered the sidewalk. “They know who I am. They can’t know who you are. Go.”
“I’m not going.” She tested a spell in her hands, strengthened it until the red glow from the Flare illuminated within the entire car. “Turn right.”
“What?”
“Get on a vacant street.” She unbuckled, turned around, and straddled the seat. “I can’t use magic with all of these humans around.”
Liam zigzagged through a quiet neighborhood and swerved into a dark alley. The cars followed. Maura threw the Flare out of the sunroof. In a powerful flash, it collided with one of the cars in a ball of flames.
“Hang on,” Liam
said. He sped over a bump that sent her smashing into the dashboard. “Shit. Shit!” The tires hit a large mass that threw the car into the air. Liam’s Shield encapsulated the car as it slammed on the road upside down. Spinning, the roof bent inwards. Glass crunched as the car slid to a stop in a cloud of smoke. The crackle of fire surrounded them, paired with groaning metal.
“What the fuck,” Maura moaned, crumpled against the airbag.
Liam dropped beside her, specks of glass stuck in his hair. “Get out.”
Voices approached. Footfalls fell heavy on the wet ground.
“I’m not–”
“He can’t use one without the other. Go,” he pleaded, eyes wide with the fear they’d both been carrying for years.
Maura knew she had to leave. The future of Erewhon, Earth, and Abysm relied on her disappearance. Being locked in a cell, waiting for Adrian wouldn’t help. Being unprepared to face him wouldn’t save them. Being a prisoner wouldn’t end this.
She crawled through the shattered window. Bruised joints ached when she stood. Her head spun while she adjusted her vision through the dense smoke. “I’ll find you,” she said, as she conjured The Wend and disappeared.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Bribes and Promises
Maura dropped from the Wend into a green marshland. She’d remembered the coordinates to goblin territory after having raided their underground black market many times in the past. They sold black magic potions, demented pixies, and illegal spells even dealers wouldn’t risk handling. The goblins were her only hope for obtaining an Illusion that would bypass security at The Keep. Pressed for time, she couldn’t conjure the spell herself. With officials searching for the second suspect spotted in Liam’s car, she wouldn’t have the privacy needed either.
She walked along the narrow path that wound around a murky body of water. Soft Flares skated across the surface of the green water, filled with floating moss and the occasional bubble that escaped the depths of the marsh. The smell of a decaying world stung her nostrils, and she tried not to breathe. The quiet squish of her shoes against the ground was enough to make her want to vomit.
“I didn’t expect you to ever come back,” a squeaky, raspy voice said from behind. “Not after last time.”
Maura faced the small goblin, only tall enough to reach her knee. He leaned against a slanted tree, arms crossed, a smug look on his face. His facial features were scrunched, puckered as if he’d taken a bite out of a lemon. His pink, pig-like skin was ashy along his cheekbones. He had scrawny arms, bony legs, and a round midsection. His pointed ears swiveled around at the various sounds. A plop in the water. A rustle within the trees. The rare crow of a bird.
“Jax,” Maura said. “I thought you were exiled.”
“Your payment last time pleased the council.” He grinned. “We hadn’t had a human sacrifice before. The potions we were able to produce from your gracious offer…” He trailed off suggestively, a hint of malice in his smile. “The council pardoned the favor I had done for you.”
“It wasn’t a favor if I had to repay it with blood.”
Jax cackled. “Your kind will never understand us. You would’ve made a delicious stew,” he slurped. “I’ve never eaten the heart of a Goddess before.”
Maura stepped forward, a spell at her fingertips. “Want a taste?”
He shrunk back slightly, an amused look still on his face. His eyes blazed with the glow of the growing spell. “What did you come for, Maura? You haven’t needed our help in decades.”
She blew out the Annihilation spell with the clench of her fist. “Illusion potion.”
“That’s child’s play.”
“I don’t have time.”
Jax sighed and turned to the tree. He waved his hand across its front, and it opened wide to reveal shelves of potion vials. Big. Small. Tall. Wide. Potions whirled within their glass containers, sparkling like a million stars. “I’d hoped for something more elaborate.” He handed her a tiny vial with silver liquid inside and an ID card. “Something more your taste.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” She pocketed the vial, prepared to pay an arm and a leg for the spell. “What do you want for it?”
Jax leaned against the tree. “Nothing.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Nothing.”
“Nothing right now.” He shook his head. “Seeing your face, Maura Leroux, is worth more than any blood you could spill, but consider yourself in debt to us. We will keep in touch.” He vanished like sand in the wind.
She gulped and turned to leave. Quickening her pace, she conjured the Wend and landed on a side street beside The Keep. One of the two cars that had followed them was parked haphazardly in the employee lot. She neared closer to find it empty. Like she’d assumed, she’d need to enter The Keep and find Liam herself.
She retreated into a narrow alley, popped the top off of the vial and knocked it back. Her skin tightened with the transformation, stung with the change. She choked down bile that crawled up her throat and burned her mouth. A faint silver flash illuminated from her body and disappeared. She straightened, combed back her blonde hair, and walked toward The Keep.
At the door, she signed her name in the visitor’s log, produced a fake ID, and was issued a pass. She followed the path she had once taken to her office. Second elevator. Sixth floor. A right. A left. Straight into the heart of the Collector’s Department. The marble floors, poorly painted walls, and thick smell of coffee and freshly printed paper were welcoming.
A door swung open from one of the private offices, and she waited to see who it was. She needed another Illusion, one that could open doors, pass fingerprint scanners, and get her in front of Liam.
A man walked from a door three offices from where she stood. James. She’d never liked him. His promotion from a cubicle to an office inflated his already exploding ego. The fact that his hand was deep in Adrian’s pocket, made him one of the many she never trusted.
When he neared her old office, she wrapped her arms around his neck and mouth, kicked open the door, and dragged him inside. The door slammed shut with a soundproof seal. In one quick jerk, she threw James to the desk, his teeth biting into her fingers.
His strength and height competed with hers. James wiggled free and ran to the opposite end. She slid off the desk and angled herself to the right of him. He lit a Flare that brightened half of the room in a dull turquoise.
Maura slunk into the shadows by the door and crept along the wall, matching his steps until she was behind him. She held her breath.
James panted, his arms shaking and heart pounding loud enough to be heard. With each step, he inched closer into the corner.
“What the fuck,” he said, his voice quivering.
The magnetic pull of his magic tickled Maura’s skin.
“Didn't they ever teach you to check your blind spots?” She snapped his neck before he turned around. He hit the floor with a deep thud, and his Flare went out.
Fangs out, magic pulsing through them, she stole his appearance. She gathered his dropped files, flipping through them to find they had no relation to Liam. After a once over of the office, she left.
Maura couldn’t help but to think how uncomfortable it was to be in a suit. The belt was too tight. James hadn’t broken in his leather shoes yet, so they were still stiff and rough. The jacket, pinstriped, black and stylish, was too heavy to wear in such a warm building. Walking through the hall, she yanked at the choking purple tie.
She scanned her hand to gain access to the interrogation suites and then passed each double mirror, looking for Liam. Empty. She approached the circular desk at the head of the hall and flipped through the log book.
“Where’s Liam Winston?” she asked the clerk.
“Erewhon,” he said without looking up.
She slammed the book closed. “What’s he doing there?”
“Dimitri authorized the transfer.”
Maura stormed from the department. Fucked. She ran into a desolate hall and punched the wall, her Illus
ion faltering with the blow. Her mind screamed in the absence of thoughts that would tell her how to get Liam. She leaned against the wall, head pounding, stomach in knots. Dimitri is bringing him to Adrian. The thought sent a hot flash along her skin. She punched the wall again, a portion of the marble cracking.
“I can help you,” a familiar voice echoed from the other end of the hall.
Maura searched for the person, finding him at the mouth of the Collector’s Department. Claus stood with his hands in his pockets as he looked down either end of the empty corridor.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“The same thing you are.” He walked forward and formed a soundproof dome over them. “I wanted to find Liam before my brother did.”
“Does he know?”
“If Adrian knows Liam is a GateKeeper, it isn’t because I told him.” He quieted when the elevator doors opened. “A Vessel that works for Adrian spotted Liam at Viper with you.”
“She recognized him?”
“Adrian trained everyone to recognize the last GateKeeper. He wanted all of his attention on finding you.”
“He should’ve learned to recognize an Illusion,” Maura muttered.
Claus chuckled.
“Why’d he take him?”
“Because he doesn’t have you. You’re hiding. He wants to smoke you out.”
“I’m going to his fucking party. He’ll have me tonight.”
“Consider Liam insurance for your arrival.” Claus leaned forward. “He didn’t anticipate you’d show.”
“He threatened to kill everyone in Mystic Academy if I didn’t come.”
“Something must’ve told him that wouldn’t be enough.” He smirked. “Like tossing Heidi’s corpse into Viper.”
“There’s a difference between revenge killing and heartlessly killing,” she spat. “Adrian needs to find better things to do with his immortality.”
“He’s trying.”
“He’s trying to rule a world. There are other things.”
“I’ll advise him of your suggestion.”
“How do you know all of this, but not that Adrian was going to take Liam?”
Blue Ruin (The Phoenix Series Book 1) Page 22
