He wouldn’t get it from me.
The door shut behind them, and now only Lena, Jason and I remained. A strained silence filled the air with only the sounds of heavy breathing, and sewage flowing through the nearby pipes. It was too quiet.
I looked to Jason, who gazed back at me with deep longing in his eyes. I knew Lena was assessing us, and all I could do was wonder what would happen now. I knew that Jason staying with me would mean exile for him – or execution, as he had so bluntly put it. But that didn’t keep me from hoping.
“Nothing’s changed,” Lena finally said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Wolves are wolves, and mages are mages. Even a Cardkeeper couldn’t be seen with one of us. It would make us look weak.”
A wave of sadness washed over me, clouding my thoughts. My heart began to race and I could feel some moisture brewing at the corner of my eye. But I wouldn’t cry; we had just done something incredible – as a team – and that needed celebration, not misery.
“Lena,” Jason said, turning to his alpha. “I know the rules. I understand that it’s forbidden. But do you think that exceptions could be made? Keira isn’t like the others. I think she’s done everything to prove that tonight, don’t you?”
Lena stared him down, her teeth making that awful grinding sound. It looked as though she was furious at being second-guessed by one of her minions. Presumably, that’s all Jason was to her. “You truly want to be with this mage?”
Jason turned to me. His eyes met mine. “Yes.”
I endured the longest pause of my life. The rest of my life depended on what Lena said next. And although a part of me wanted to rebel like a teenager, chasing after my charming new love, even I didn’t want to go against Chicago’s alpha wolf.
“Okay,” Lena said.
Before I could stop them, the corners of my lips tugged upward in a radiant smile.
“I will spare you the death penalty, but you can no longer be one of us. The curse of the moon will remain yours to bear, but you will do it alone. You will be entirely isolated from the pack. If you seek help, seek it from the mages. But if I hear word of you working with the vampires, we will come back to punish you. Is that understood?”
Jason’s serious brown eyes darkened with a tease of sadness. He tried to hide it along with a deep swallow, but it didn’t get past me. Slowly, he reached out to take my hand in his, and he nodded. “I understand.”
I knew he was making a hell of a sacrifice for me, one I didn’t entirely approve of, but who was I to dispute his choice? It was his life to do with as he pleased. All I could do was bite my tongue as he led me out of the sewage plant, where we stood in the cool midnight air. Link’s wings fluttered in the distance and I knew he was watching, but stayed back to give us some space.
Jason stopped as we reached the gate, and looked back at the building. This had been his home and now he was leaving it for me. Something about that just didn’t seem right. As I looked up at him, he appeared distracted, sad – almost broken.
I couldn’t take it.
“Go,” I said.
He craned his neck, his eyebrows raised. “What?”
That wetness appeared in my eye again. I turned and wiped it on my sleeve, tried to pass it off as a yawn. “I think you need to go. Your place is in there avenging your brother with the rest of your pack.”
“What are you talking about? I want to be with you, Keira. I want to–”
I turned back, reached up and kissed him hard on the lips, cutting him off mid-sentence. Whatever sweet words he had to say to me could remain unspoken. This didn’t need to be any harder, and his endearment would only rip my already battered heart from my chest.
Jason leaned his body against mine, holding me in his firm arms. His heat radiated through him straight into me. We stood like that, leaning into each other, kissing. His coat – my old coat – flapped around in the wind. I would remember and treasure this moment for all eternity. Beat me around and throw me off a roof all you want, but the pain of the body was nothing in comparison to the pain of the heart and soul.
“I guess this is goodbye then,” he said as his lips left mine.
“Only for now.”
One last press of his lips, and Jason turned toward the plant – toward his home. In other circumstances it would have bugged me that he didn’t look back, but I understood why he didn’t; to look back would slice open a wound that hadn’t even begun to heal.
I watched him, stood in the cold with my arms wrapped around my chest, that tear finally streaming from my eye and rolling down my cheek. The finality of the door closing behind him hit me like a punch to the gut, but I continued to look on, a part of me hoping that he might have a change of heart. A young girl’s hopes, really – so terribly naive.
The flickering of faery wings sounded in the distance, growing louder as Link came to settle on my shoulder. The wings lay down flat across his back, tucked away safely and out of sight.
“That was… selfless,” he said.
“It hurt.” It was all I could say without breaking into the ugly cry.
Link sighed. I heard it in my ear. He wanted to say something – I could feel it – but he kept his mouth shut. Whatever it was, I supposed that he’d decided to wait until a better time. Any more bad news would have finished me off right now. I really didn’t need that final nail in my coffin.
“Come on,” I said, taking one last, long look at the door to the sewage plant.
“Where are we going?”
I turned and began walking back to the city. The Chaos card throbbed in my pocket, pulsating. As long as I possessed the Elders’ card too, I’d be mostly safe from its influence, but I didn’t want to keep it there for much longer. “We have one more stop to make.”
Chapter 30
It was a strange thing to see Dalton so close to the real world. Although he stood just inside the portal with his hood up and a reddish glow streaming from his pointed fingers, it still felt as though he was a part of Chicago, even if just for a second.
I threw on a robe and told Link to stay put, while I followed Dalton through to the Vault. Amazed, I stood looking up at the tower. Where flames and smashed brick once soiled the walls, the structure slowly repaired itself. A faint light crept up the side of the tower in small, flashing waves. Each time that wave reached the top, it vanished and a new brick appeared in its place, before the light reappeared at the bottom to repeat the process.
“I told you it would be all right, Lady Keira. Now please, follow me.”
Climbing the spiraling, stone stairwell brought back nothing but bad memories for me. Having seen Victor Kronin destroy the Vault, all I could think when I looked at this place was how amazingly disturbed that man had been. I hoped the werewolves were taking care of him, and although he didn’t deserve it, wished they would give him a swift execution.
After a short walk, we arrived in the Dark Room. I wasted no time in handing the Chaos magicard over to Dalton, who took it carefully and slid it into its place in the wall. The bricks opened up, a glyph flashing in a purple ring around it. The bricks consumed it before closing over and, at long last, the card was back in its rightful place.
The two other cards that Victor had used were next. I slid them into the wall without identifying them. If the Vault didn’t consider them to be dangerous, it would transfer them to the downstairs bank, where I could use them as I saw fit. For now, I just wanted to wash my hands of this entire affair and return to my semi-boring life.
“You did well,” Dalton said. He stepped back and took a humble bow. “We have had many guardians of the cards over the centuries, and I hold no bias in saying that you are among the greatest.” He paused for a moment, cleared his throat, and said, “Tell me, have you thought about what happens when that time comes?”
We hadn’t spoken of it until now, and I didn’t really feel like this was the time either. My thirty years of immortality was almost up. I guess I had ignored the small print. Soon, with only two
years left on the counter, it would be time to seek my successor. I didn’t want to think about that just yet, though – I simply needed to head home and sleep. “When that time comes, I will be prepared. Believe me.”
Dalton hesitated, and then nodded.
It was a perfect time for me to shift the topic of conversation, and what better way than to return the Elders to their brother? I gently lifted the card from my pocket and slid it into Dalton’s open palms. I could feel an almost physical weight lift off me.
“Did they serve you well?” he asked.
“They were… powerful.”
“And the effects of the souls?”
I didn’t quite know how to tell him that his brothers had cursed me with unrelenting rage. Doing so would likely hurt him, but he had to know the potential of the Vault’s newest magicard.
“I wouldn’t use it again,” I said, and left it at that.
“Very well.” Dalton led me back to the Grand Hall, and stopped at the gaping fire that burned in the center of the room. For a fleeting moment, the flames licked up and shed light upon his face. “I have a little something for you.”
“Oh?”
He reached inside his robe and produced a scroll. “With Jasper Jones imprisoned, you will need to have your own transportation. Take this, learn the spell and practice your portals, and someday the magic will come naturally.”
My hand shook as I took it. To practice magic without the use of a magicard was no easy task. Unlike the cards, a spell could go either way. I’d heard enough stories of men trying to teleport, only to snap themselves in half. Some who practiced telekinesis had been driven insane. Slow and steady was the key, and I would approach that project with the utmost consideration for my wellbeing.
“Thank you,” I said, and stowed it away.
“It is my pleasure, Lady Keira. Now, let me see you out.”
We didn’t speak another word as he led me back out into the cold, windy mountains and down the dirt path. I thought that he would need the time to mourn his brothers. And me? I would just need to rest and gather my thoughts.
Dalton opened the portal and gave me one more bow before sending me through. The portal closed behind me and I stood inside the antiquated shop once more; coughing on the dust of Jasper’s VHS tapes. I wondered if I would even miss him. I supposed I had the scroll now, so I sure wouldn’t need him. Besides, one less creep off the streets was a good thing.
I slipped off the robe and hung it on the rack. If I did learn to use the portal magic, I would likely do it here, where I knew that it was safe. Where one customer stopped by every couple of weeks just to see if his copy of Emmanuelle 4 had arrived yet.
With my job completed, I was ready to go, but there was no sign of Link. A commotion on the street led me outside where I saw a cluster of lights hovering around my faery friend’s head. Link stood still, staring up at them and mumbling something, as if he were talking to them. I wondered if they were other faeries; they looked similar to the lights that had appeared as he’d spread his wings for the first time.
I stood waiting for a moment, giving him his privacy until the lights flew off into the distance. Link turned, suddenly noticing my presence, and fluttered over to me. Oddly enough, he landed at my feet, rather than on my shoulder.
“What was going on over there?” I asked.
“Oh, that?” Link looked over his shoulder at where he’d been standing. When he turned back to look up at me, he shrugged and smiled. “Those were the fae lords.”
“Really?” I said, a little too surprised. It was funny, I had heard about them many times but never actually seen them. Now that I finally had, my curiosity felt only somewhat satisfied. For some reason, I’d expected something… bigger. “What did they want?”
“Just…” Link waved a hand dismissively, and then hopped up onto me, finding his place in the safety of my hood. “They wanted me to join them and return home, now that I have my wings. Apparently they’re no longer ashamed of me.”
“That’s great,” I said halfheartedly. I imagined his homeland, instantly picturing an expansive lake with tree houses and magical splendor sweeping across the sky. It seemed like his rightful place, and although I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him, I had to speak my mind. Besides, I guess I was on a roll after sending Jason home. “Go with them.”
“Wha–” Link crawled out from my hood and sat on my shoulder. “What?”
“Go. You want to go home, don’t you?”
Link patted me on the back with his tiny hand, and whispered into my ear. “I would rather be right where I am. You’re my best friend, Keira, and I’m never leaving your side. Anyway, someone needs to help you get over Lassie. Might as well be me.”
As warmth spread through me, I smiled and continued up the street. I’d never been more grateful to have someone at my side – or on my shoulder. After all, cardkeeping was serious business, and if I were to continue protecting the Vault, I would rather do it knowing that I wasn’t alone. I had Link, after all, and that was all I would need.
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Author’s Note
Maybe you’ve heard of me, maybe you haven’t. My name is Adam Nicholls and I’ve been writing books for quite some time now. For a couple of years, I was writing crime novels under my real name (those books can be found here). It wasn’t until recently that a friend got in touch and asked why I hadn’t tried my hand at urban fantasy.
Why hadn’t I? Well, to be entirely honest with you, I had no idea that it was even a thing. Of course, I’d seen some TV shows (take ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Supernatural’ as two examples) but I’d never really known what category they fell under. With a lot of help from that same friend, I dug in and started to explore the idea of using magic in my stories.
Fast-forward to present day, and ‘Stolen Chaos’ is available on Amazon. Crime fiction is behind me, and I’ve decided to give urban fantasy my undivided attention (at least for the time being). There are plenty of Cardkeeper stories left to be told, and I have a ton of ideas for other novels too. But there’s one thing they all have in common: I can’t wait to share them with you.
My best,
A. C. Nicholls
Want to connect with this author? You can find him at www.adamnicholls.net, email at [email protected], or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authoracnicholls
Acknowledgments
I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to the friends who have kept me afloat: Leo (for teaching me everything I needed to know about Chicago), Giles (for listening to my rants about every idea that popped into my head), and most of all to Charlotte, the most caring and supportive girlfriend a guy can ask for. Thanks for being involved.
Of course, all of this would mean nothing without an amazing editorial team. It all starts with Tami Stark, my line editor and friend (her services can be found here). Without her, this book would be an utter mess. I also want to thank my beta readers, who do all they can to make sure these stories work the way they should.
Most of all, I want to thank you, the reader. I hope that you found this book worth your time, and decide to continue the series. It’s great to have you around.
Stolen Chaos: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Cardkeeper Chronicles Book 1) Page 14
