Dream Magic

by Michelle Mankin

  “Then do it,” I rasped. “What are you waiting for? If you require payment I…”

  “No need.” He touched the arm I had wrapped around Millie’s back. “Phoebus instructed me to spare no expense. So no expense will be spared.”

  My throat closed on a sob. I reached out for Stone at the same time he reached for me. He nearly crushed my fingers in his hand. We watched the doctor, transfixed, as he inserted the needle and hung the bag of fluid that looked like it had fireflies in it on a rung in the headboard of the bed.

  The doctor washed his hands in our bathroom, retrieved his bag and touched me again softly. “I regret that there wasn’t more I could do. I’ll give you some time alone with her. I’ll wait outside. Just call me when she…”

  “Yes,” I cut in, my throat burning. I didn’t want him to say the word again.

  “Cici,” Millie croaked my name a moment later, her eyes opening, a sliver of dull sea green peeking through her lids. “I don’t feel good.”

  “I know, honey.” I stroked her limp hair. “I’m sorry.”

  “I was dreaming about Mamá and Papá.”

  I stilled.

  “Did you know that I hear their voices in my sleep now?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t know. My eyes met Stone’s. Gargoyles couldn’t cry but I could have sworn his eyes glistened.

  “They want me to join them.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” I told her. “I need you.”

  “No, you don’t,” she whispered. “You are strong, Cici.”

  “Not strong enough.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to go on without you.”

  “You are and you will. You are stronger without me. After I am gone you will realize that what I’ve said is true.” She closed her eyes.

  “Don’t go, Millie.” I sobbed. “Please.” I swiped at the wet on my cheeks and gripped her hand tighter as that would keep her with me. “If you leave, I’m going also,” I decided.

  “You can’t.” Her eyes opened but only a sliver and the light within them flickered like a candle about to go out. “It’s not your time yet and you have much to do before it is.”

  “Yeah?” I gritted my teeth. “To kill Phoebus for doing this to you and Apollyon for murdering our parents? I will avenge all of you,” I vowed. My body flashed hot with rage.

  “I wish you wouldn’t, Cici. What’s done is done. I know Papá wanted us to decide our own destiny, free from a world of fear and pain, but I think fate chooses for us. I wish for better than revenge for you. I wish you would live. I wish you would love. Hate is such a heavy burden.” She glanced at Stone. “Love is a light in the darkest of places. Love is hope.”

  “Love is too hard,” I whispered. “And it hurts too much. If you leave, you’ll take the last of mine away.”

  “That’s not true, not if you let go of the hate. Remember me as I once was. Remember our parents. You saw them clinging to each other. Even as they died they were focused on their love.” She swallowed. “Stone,” she called softly.

  “Yes, pretty one.” The sound of strain in his voice made more tears burn my eyes.

  “I will miss you.” She reached for his face, her arm trembling with the effort.

  He leaned into her palm, his human aspect visible. “And I you, my Remedy. And I you. More than you will ever know.”

  “I would have you closer. I need to tell you something before I go.”

  He bowed his head, tenderly framing her cheek with his hand, his fingers grey against her ashen pallor.

  “I love you.”

  “No.” A low barely audible rumble of denial.

  “Yes, I do. I know my heart and you are the other half of it. You are infinitely loveable, Rahotep.”

  He bowed his head farther. I saw agony in the features of the handsome man usually hidden beneath the marble. “You honor me, Amelia.”

  “Press your lips to mine then before I pass. I would give you the remedy of my love.”

  He was silent a long moment. “No, pretty one.” His gaze was solely focused on my sister’s face. But just outside my peripheral vision I saw the shimmery outline of two forms. Our parents. Sorrow choked me. Their arrival chilled me. Not because I didn’t want to see them but because I knew they were here to take Millie from me.

  “I want that kiss. I want you.” The roughened voice was the one I heard when Stone sang to her. “I love you beyond anything but I must refuse.”

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “Because I don’t care to be a man in this world without you beside me. I will never give my love to another. If the Creator is kind whenever this form crumbles to dust, maybe he will grant me the privilege to join you on the Otherside.”

  “I don’t want that for you. I want to give you this gift.”

  He shook his head and the man was gone. “In this form Stone can protect your sister. Every day Stone will be dedicated to this purpose, watching after her as though she were you. That is Stone’s gift to you.”

  “Infinitely loveable,” she breathed softly, then called my name. “Cici.”

  “Yes.” I brought her hand to my lips and kissed it. “I’m here.”

  “I can’t see you anymore.” Her eyes were fully open. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too, honey,” I sobbed. Her skin was ice cold.

  “Choose love,” she whispered. Then her hand went limp. It slid from mine. Her chest was still.

  My heart broke.

  And my life as I had known it came to an end.

  I folded in my wings as I passed over the courtyard wall, plummeting feet first without the dark as the night thirteen-foot expanse of them spread to slow me. The wind from my rapid descent yanked my blue-black hair above my head and sliced tears from my iridescent eyes. Despite the violence, my lips curved as the ground rushed to meet me. While I preferred flying high and fast, freefalling definitely had its merits.

  My six-foot frame with its two hundred pounds of combat disciplined muscle leaving barely a ripple in the air to mark my passage, I landed silently though the soles of my heavy boots hit the ground with enough force to slam my teeth together. I scanned the area quickly pleased that only a tropical oasis nestled within the heart of the French Quarter welcomed me. Thick concrete walls and a tinkling fountain dampened the refrain of the lone saxophonist underneath the gallery on the other side. I wasn’t surprised by the fact that my arrival seemed to have gone unnoticed. Stealth and reconnaissance were the tools of my trade.

  Rolling my shoulders within my modified flight jacket to loosen my overworked muscles, I shifted my weight from one powerful leg to the other to encourage circulation. I had been in flight many hours and away from those I cared about too long. Though anxious to see them, I lifted my gaze briefly to the inky canopy of stars above wishing my journey on their behalf had been more fruitful.

  A gentle breeze stirring the palm fronds carried a familiar lemony scent to my flaring nostrils at the same moment that my acute raptor hearing detected a soft rustle of cotton. Focusing my night vision, I located her a moment before her curvy form triggered the motion sensitive light above her head.

  “Thyme Bellerose.” I swept my gaze over her and arched a dark brow. “You are overdressed for a midnight rendezvous with a Lothario such as I.”

  “And you’re late, Morpheus,” she countered in her soft French accent. “I’ve been tossing and turning for hours.” Barefoot, she padded quickly across humidity dampened pavers eliminating the space between us. My lips twitched noticing she wore a man’s shirt the buttons of which were charmingly misaligned as if she had donned the garment hastily in her eagerness to meet me. “I missed you.” She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly burying her pretty face in the supple lambskin of my jacket. “Hug me back, you overgrown falcon,” she mumbled after a moment, sliding her hands to my upper arms. “Best friends embrace, you know. Even socially awkward outlaws who imagine that they are impertinent seducers.”

  “There is no imagini
ng.” I let out a low chuckle and complied with her request. “It is a fact. I am as sought after for my skills within the bedchamber as I am well versed in those required upon the field of combat.”

  Her body shook as if my response amused her, no doubt finding her friend in such a role difficult to envision. As for myself, I still found it a bit unnerving to be able to physically touch her. During most of the ten years of our friendship, she had been a desecrated spirit, as insubstantial as a wisp of smoke. She had willingly taken on that curse hoping to be reunited after her death with Shane Lamar, my older brother, the fiancé who had been murdered right before her eyes. Love and loyalty like hers were rare. In all my years in the Underground I had never seen their equal, except perhaps between my parents. For a decade Thyme had waited in vain and searched for Shane tirelessly. Her sacrifice hadn’t yielded the results that she had intended, but I was pleased that she had found love in the end with her Fated One, my younger brother, Billy Blade.

  “How is Blade?” I queried. Retracting my razor-sharp obsidian capped talons, I set her back so I could search her violet hued eyes, a trait as distinctive as the fennel staff symbol upon her wrist to mark her as the Offspring of Bacchus, the god of wine. Every full grown son or daughter of a Progeny wore the mark of their father.

  “He’s wonderful.” Blissful adoration bubbled in her reply. “He’s sound asleep.” Her eyes glowed with satisfaction. “I think I’ve worn him out.” A becoming blush painted her café au lait skin.

  I grinned widely. Life owed her such joy after all she had been forced to endure.

  “I bet you’re about to collapse though you’re too stubborn to admit it.” She stepped backward and gestured to the wrought iron seating group beside the fountain. “I remember how you used to sleep for twenty-four-hours straight after returning home from a long journey.” She took a seat, tucking her shapely legs beneath her. I sank gratefully onto one of the cushioned chairs opposite her, stretching out one jeaned leg and then the other. The transcontinental flight had been exhausting though I would never admit it. “Where did you go?” she demanded with a frown. “And why didn’t you warn me you were leaving?” Accusation creasing her brow, she leaned forward. The collar of her shirt spread wide, affording me a tantalizing view of her breasts that I would have soon not seen since she was my best friend and my brother’s Fated.

  “I traveled many places,” I answered vaguely, avoiding eye contact, my gaze focused on a spot over her shoulder. The places I had gone and the tasks that had taken me there involved her, but Billy had insisted upon secrecy.

  “And you’re not going to tell me anymore than that, are you?” A familiar worry crease formed between her brows. Though no longer a flickering grey spirit, her mannerisms hadn’t changed. I was well acquainted with all of them having lived with her for years in our canyon home below the earth.

  “No, Thyme. It’s better that you don’t know.” I reached for and tucked a wayward cinnamon curl behind her ear hoping to soften my refusal.

  “Better for whom?” Her frown deepened. “I don’t like being kept in the dark, Morpheus.”

  “Speaking of the dark, why are you two out here conspiring in it?” Billy Blade sauntered closer, his hair rumpled from the bed and his bare feet peeking out from the ragged hem of an old pair of faded jeans. Studying us, he hooked a thumb in his right front pocket. The gesture might have appeared casual, but I knew our father’s talisman, a harmonica that summoned the dead to do his bidding, rested inside that pocket easily accessible in case of trouble.

  “You should have woken me, Ty, Boo,” he chastised gently, but I could sense that he wasn’t happy about her abandoning his side in the middle of the night. Far from being overprotective, he had legitimate reasons to be concerned about her safety. With the enemy we shared, a moment of inattention could lose even immortals like ourselves their lives.

  “You were asleep. Besides he only just got here,” Thyme explained softly.

  “Fair enough, baby.” Billy pulled a chair beside hers, lifted her as if she weighed nothing and settled her sideways on his lap. She snuggled closer, one arm disappearing around his back, the other laid upon his bare chest. “But you know I can’t be separated from you.” He stared into her eyes for a long moment, something deep and meaningful passing between them that thickened the air. I think they had forgotten that I was even present. He pried her hand from his chest, threaded their fingers together then pressed the entwined digits back to where only Thyme’s had rested a moment before.

  “Welcome back.” He lifted his gaze, his eyes searching mine looking for an indication of the outcome of my mission. “You’ve been missed by both of us,” he clarified, extending his hand, jostling Thyme. “How are you, brother?”

  “I am in exceptional health.” We clasped hands in our usual greeting. “And you?” I inquired as we both settled back into our seats.

  “Good. I’m real good.” He grinned, flashing white teeth within a face almost as tanned as my own, a face that graced magazines racks nearly everywhere I had traveled over the past few weeks. I knew of his fame in the states. I had only recently come to realize that my southern rock star sibling’s popularity extended worldwide.

  Blade brought Thyme’s hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles. She made a low approving sound that made Billy’s light blue eyes darken.

  Yes, he was well. They both were. The evidence lay right there on their love sodden countenances.

  “But, Morpheus. Dude.” Billy’s gaze brightened with a humorous glint I knew for a fact Thyme couldn’t resist. “You’ve got to lose that stiff formality. I thought we had made some progress bringing your speech up to the twenty-first century. Did you forget everything I taught you while you were away?”

  “Indeed, I did not.” I lifted a brow. “But I am a mercenary, Blade. My clients value me for my fighting prowess not my eloquence. It matters little to them what phrases I turn. Furthermore, we have more pressing concerns than a linguistic update for me.” I hit him with a pointed look.

  His expression immediately sobered. “Ty, baby.”

  “Huh?” She blinked at him. She had been intently studying me.

  “I’m sure Morpheus is famished.” He framed her face in his hands. “Would you mind getting him a bowl of that Tahitian vanilla ice cream you whipped up earlier? It was delicious. I wouldn’t mind another helping myself.”

  “Sure,” she replied. She bit her full bottom lip as she unthreaded her fingers from his. She wasn’t fooled. She knew he was sending her away so we could speak privately. But she slid off of his lap without hesitation, her hips swaying gracefully as she glided towards the building. Billy followed her with his eyes. I understood his fascination. She was more mesmerizing on solid ground than she had been floating above it. But the moment she disappeared inside the house, Billy shifted to regard me, no longer the smitten lover, his expression set and serious. “What happened, Morpheus?” His eyes narrowed. “You were gone much longer than you expected to be. I was worried.” His gaze swept over me, head to booted feet performing a visual triage.

  My chest grew tight, my reaction to his concern having nothing to do with the exhausting hours of flying. No one but Thyme had ever given a thought to my welfare. The mindset in the immortal world was every creature for itself, a philosophy that started at the top with the three Heirs and trickled down to their Progeny and Offspring. But deep inside I could feel the bonds between us growing. Too quickly. Too easily. I already cared too much for the younger brother I thought I had lost all those years ago.

  And caring was a weakness that could be exploited.

  “I miscalculated,” I admitted. “But there is no need for concern. I am in excellent…” I self-corrected. “I mean, it’s cool.” I rolled my eyes at his immediate approval of my appropriate usage of slang. “No harm befell me. I successfully destroyed the records at the adoption agencies Bacchus used for you and Shane. Unfortunately, those who serve Apollyon were but one pace behind me.
They were asking questions that I fear will eventually gain him the answers he seeks concerning our parentage. It is only a matter of time before he unearths the evidence he needs to destroy us.”

  “Then we must get the Code changed before he does,” Billy stated determinedly.

  “I wish it were that simple, brother.”

  “How many of the seven on the Council will side with us?” Blade leaned back in his chair and tucked both thumbs into his front pockets. The harmonica was assuredly in one, and I was certain that the obsidian switchblade I had gifted him was in the other. My little brother might not have wings or talons, but he was far from defenseless. “Is there any real hope of eliminating the rule prohibiting Dark and Light Immortal unions?”

  “I believe we are getting closer to the needed majority of the governing Progeny.” I tapped my fingers together. “Of the three dark ones, Apollyon, Ares, and Hephaestus, so far only the god of war has committed to our cause. Our enemy Apollyon will never side with us. That leaves only Hephaestus, the smithing god. I am accompanying Bacchus to try to convince him on the morrow. I do not know if the god of wine has made any headway with the three Progeny who preside on the light side of the Council with him.”

  “Eros, Phoebus and Hermes, correct?”

  “Yes.” I nodded impressed with his quick grasp of the hierarchy in our immortal world, one he had never known existed prior to meeting Thyme. “I think it is extremely unlikely the Sun King will support our cause. Phoebus is our mother’s twin, but he blames our father for her death.” Though our father, Nyx, had been one of the Favored, one of their own, that hadn’t stopped a majority of the Council from sending him to his fiery death because of his illegal union with our mother, Hemera, a Light Immortal. Our uncle’s vote had sealed his own sister’s doom as well. Violent images of the past flashed in my memory. I could feel the old anger rising like bile within me. I swallowed it back. “It is well known that Phoebus’ ire extends to all Dark Immortals now.” My feathers bristled with agitation at the atrocities he had perpetrated on our kind because of that hatred. “I cannot fathom why Hades turns a blind eye to him and the Dark Immortals he enslaves within his realm.”