by Kimbra Swain
“Thank you, Mr. Rearden,” she said. I suddenly had a coughing fit.
“You okay, Grace?” he shot me an evil look.
“Swallowed a fly,” I gasped while beating my chest with my fist. “Nasty little buggers.”
Sally didn’t look my way at all. She was completely enamored. I needed to bring Levi with me more often. He’d have the women in this town eating out of his hand. Probably some of the men, too.
“I should get back home,” she muttered. She backed away from us with her eyes glued to Levi. When she finally turned the corner of the block, I swatted at Levi.
“What?!” he said jumping away from me.
“You have such a way with words,” I scoffed. “Add one to the Levi fan club. If I took a portrait, would you sign them for me to sell? I think I could make a killing.”
“Shut up, Grace,” he muttered but smiled.
“It was nice of you,” I concluded.
“She was so ugly that she could turn cabbage to kraut with one look,” Levi admitted.
The laughter swept over me, and I couldn’t hold it back. It echoed off the shops across the road from us. “Sorry,” I said, trying to calm myself down.
“Who is that?” Levi’s face turned solemn.
I gazed across the square and my sight locked on the man I’d seen a couple of times at the bar. I desperately wanted to speak to him. He wore a glamour. I knew that now. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t noticed it before. “It’s a guy from the bar. Nestor knows him, but he said that the man isn’t ready to talk to me yet.”
“Weird,” Levi said. “Wait? Where did he go?”
I looked back, and he was gone. Before I could give it much more thought, my phone rang in my pocket.
“Hello, Lover,” I said. Levi groaned.
“Hey, do you know the old McMari place off Old Mill Road?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure. Creepy abandoned house with a big field,” I said.
“That describes half the county,” Levi muttered. I shushed him.
“Come on out here. Who are you shushing?” Dylan asked.
“Levi, he’s in love with a squirrel. We are sitting on my bench,” I said.
“Squirrel?”
“Grace, really?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you later. We are on our way,” I said. I winked at Levi.
“I hate you,” he said.
“No, you don’t,” I replied.
He sighed.
“Brood for me, baby,” I teased. He stomped off toward the truck like a scorned child. So, fucking adorable.
As I climbed into the truck, I took one last glance to where the mystery man once stood. The spot was empty, but he was seared into my memory. The next time I saw him. I wasn’t waiting for him to come to me. I have lots of virtues. Well, a couple. Patience isn’t one of them.
We parked in the dirt drive behind Dylan’s cruiser. He and Troy stood under a tree in the shade. Levi hadn’t talked to me the whole way, but it didn’t matter. His emotions rolled off him toward me. He wasn’t mad at me. Just frustrated with Riley and the lack of action.
Dylan’s smile sent a warm rush through my chest. When I reached him, his arms wrapped around me and squeezed. “Grant any wishes today?” he asked.
“No, but Levi did,” I said.
“Grace,” Levi’s tone warned. Dylan looked at both of us waiting for an explanation. I let Levi off the hook this time.
“He made a girl feel pretty,” I said.
“Aw, how sweet,” Dylan teased.
“Alright. Why are we out in the middle of bum fuck?” I asked.
“We followed Lamar out here,” he said.
“He’s out messing around in the woods again?” I asked.
“Follow us. Keep quiet,” he said. “We don’t want them to see us.”
“I can mask us,” Levi said. His statement caught me off guard. “What? I can.”
“I know you can, but are you offering?” I said.
He rolled his eyes, then closed the lids over them. I felt the air move around us. It wasn’t full invisibility which I knew he could do, but with all four of us it would be difficult. The camouflage that he cast would make us fit to hunt game if we wanted.
Quietly we stepped into the forest avoiding the underbrush that could give away our approach. The house faded from view to the point where all around us I saw tall pines. It seemed that no other tree grew in this particular part of the area. I had only placed my hand on a few trees since my father died. We dare not travel through the ways because of my uncle’s reign in the Otherworld.
As the trees started to thin, a quiet reverberation swelled around us.
“What is that?” Levi’s voice in my head startled me, and I jumped. Dylan tensed when I did. I frowned and pointed at Levi. Dylan shook his head and continued to follow Troy.
“I don’t know. Stay ready for anything,” I said. It wasn’t the time to scold him or play. Something was going on ahead of us. Cold, damp air surrounded us. It had the unmistakable earthy smell of the Otherworld.
When we got close enough to see, Dylan and Troy squatted down. Levi and I mimicked their moves. The trees had been cut in a perfect circle. Inside the open space, a maze in a concentric pattern made with hedges sat in the center. The middle of the maze a shining ring flickered with blue light. A portal. A stable portal.
Portals into the Otherworld were rare. If constructed properly, the gate on both sides would have to be opened simultaneously by two very powerful beings. I’d only seen one in my lifetime. It was on the hill of Tara in Ireland. A stable portal into Summer’s realm of the Otherworld. This portal clearly connected to winter. The cool, dank air flowing from the portal was definitely connected to my old home.
Standing outside the portal, Lamar, the peg-legged Yule Lad leaned against the hedge holding his peg leg in his hand. Lamar had some power, but not enough to hold a stable portal. He watched around the hedges for movement in the forest, constantly looking back to the portal. As he watched, he tapped his leg in his hand impatiently.
Levi slid his hand over my tattoo igniting the power between us. I swayed at his sudden power steal. Closing my eyes, I fought back the impeding erotic surge. His eyes pleaded with me to remain quiet. Dylan’s nostrils flared when he realized that Levi had taken my wrist. My bard shook his head still drawing power. My legs wobbled with the sexual tension of the connection. Troy’s eyes grew wide as he grabbed Dylan’s shirt as if he were going to hold him in his place.
Levi placed his other hand on Dylan’s shoulder and nodded to him to touch Troy who promptly caught on and touched my other shoulder. Once the circle was complete between us, a surge of static snapped into place around us.
“Circle of silence,” Levi said. “Just hold on Grace. I’m not pulling anymore.”
My chest heaved in and out as my heart pounded. This was the longest he had ever drawn power, and I teetered on the edge of orgasm.
“Fuck,” I snarled. “I’m going to beat your ass for this, Dublin.”
“Not if I get him first,” Dylan spat.
“Good job, Levi,” Troy, the only cool head in the group, said. “This helps. Look we followed Lamar out here. He met up with Chris who opened the portal from this end. He entered but hasn’t returned. I say we wait here until he comes back. Maybe we find out what they are doing, and who is on the other side.”
“I can’t hold the silence much longer,” Levi warned.
“We will talk about this later,” Dylan warned.
“Just shut up,” I told both of them. “We don’t need the silence to watch. Let go, Levi.”
Levi released my arm with the command, and the static popped releasing the privacy circle. I knelt on the forest floor trying to regain my composure. Dylan had positioned himself that he couldn’t reach me. My eyes met his smoldering blues. Before the day was over, I might have to protect my bard from my fiancé, the Phoenix.
What seemed like an hour, we sat watching the portal sparkling in the midst
of the hedges. Lamar, tired of waiting, sat down on the maze floor. Eventually, the shimmering hum of the portal reverberated around the circle. The hedges glowed with an unearthly, greenish hue. A cloaked man and Chris Purcell stepped out of the portal carrying velvet purple bags with gold handles. They looked like Crown Royal bags to me. I needed a Crown right now. Levi’s pull left me feeling empty and dry.
The portal slammed closed, and the circle of bushes returned to their normal colors. Each one of the bags was opened, and the contents were poured into Lamar’s peg leg. He delicately screwed it back on and sauntered out of the circle. I watched the pattern he took as he left the maze. Catching Dylan’s eye, he nodded. I knew he had memorized the pattern just in case. The cloaked man and Purcell stood and talked. They shook hands, and Purcell transformed into a wild boar with enormous whitened tusks. In a burst of white feathers, his wings unfurled, and he took to the sky.
The man turned to look at our position. Within an instant, he was standing less than five feet from us.
“You can come out now,” he muttered.
Dylan’s fists turned to flames, and Troy growled bearing his werewolf teeth.
The man gestured with his hand. Both of them doused their angry stances.
“Who are you?” Dylan asked.
“Goodbye,” he said.
I blinked and all four of us were standing in front of the abandoned McMari house near our vehicles. Wobbling from the power drain, and the locational shift, my knees buckled. Dylan caught me on the way down, growling at Levi in the process.
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“The hell you are,” Dylan said, scooping me up. I hadn’t felt weak until we changed locations so suddenly. He sat me down in the passenger seat of the cruiser, pulling a bottled water out of a small cooler in the floor. “Drink. Slow. I need to have a discussion with Levi.”
“Dylan, please don’t,” I begged.
“I’m not going to kill him, yet,” he said. He stalked toward Levi, motioning with his head to follow him. They walked out of my hearing range. Dylan did the talking, and Levi nodded as he talked. Dylan’s arm moved quickly, and I jumped up from the seat spilling the water. Only he didn’t hit him. They shared a bro hug. I figured I must be delusional, but with the loud pats on the back and the quick release, there was no mistaking the universal signal of affection between two non-homosexual males. The Bro Hug.
I rolled my eyes and sat back down in the car. Troy watched them, then turned his attention to me.
“What’s in the bags?” he asked.
“The vault in my father’s castle has bags like that to move artifacts and valuables,” I muttered.
“What kinds of things?” Troy asked.
I sat trying to remember the few times that father had shown me the vault. He would explain each artifact and its purpose. He also warned me that while most of the things there were very valuable, they were also very dangerous.
“Magical items with fairy bindings. They wouldn’t be of use to a human in this world. I thought most of my father’s treasures were warded. But if Mr. Cloak was a relative, then he would know the wards and protections placed on the items,” I said.
“A relative? Are you sure?” Dylan asked as he approached. Levi hung back.
I watched Levi kicking rocks with his feet. The young man that arrived in a beat-up Buick was suddenly standing before me. “Levi?”
“He’s right. That was stupid. I’m sorry,” he said without looking at me.
“Grace?” Dylan prompted.
“I can see his aura. I believe he is of my blood,” I replied. “Nestor said he would talk to me when he was ready.”
“So, Nestor knows him?” Troy asked.
“Yeah, but you know Nestor. Bartender privilege and all,” I said reminding myself that I needed to get back to work at the bar at some point. I missed keeping myself busy working there, but with my being exhausted from battling my father’s power, I hadn’t been back since before Oberon died.
“They are smuggling artifacts out of the Otherworld,” Dylan concluded.
“Specifically, her father’s vault,” Troy continued.
“Not necessarily. They are bags from the vault, but that doesn’t mean they are moving the artifacts,” I said.
“Like what? Give me an example,” Dylan asked.
“Goswhit, Arthur’s helmet was there. Duban, Cu Chulainn’s black shield. Fabled weapons. Mystical clothing. Gems. Stones. Anything with magical power,” I said. “And gold.”
“Who would buy such things here? Who would have the power? And how does Brock not know?” Dylan asked all the questions at once.
“I’m not sure, but perhaps Brock does know. Perhaps he’s in on smuggling the artifacts out of my father’s vault, but I wouldn’t know why,” I replied.
Dylan walked toward me with his hand open. “Keys,” he demanded. I handed them to him, and he tossed them to Levi. “Go home.”
Levi nodded, then crawled into my truck. It rumbled to life. I watched his dark eyes on me until he pulled away out of sight.
“What’s up with that?” I asked.
“What?”
“The two of you and the bro hug,” I asked as I crossed my arms patting myself on the back loudly like they did. Troy snickered because he had seen it too.
“Levi is like a brother to me. However, I have no intentions of sharing you with him. I warned him to keep his hands off you, and he did it anyway,” he growled.
“So, you hugged him?” I questioned.
“No, I warned him one last time,” he muttered. It didn’t look like a warning to me. It looked like affection. There were some things about the testosterone laden male language that I would never understand.
“Dylan, Levi is my bard. He used the power for a good purpose. I had just gotten on to him for talking in my head. He did it without warning, but it was the right thing to do. I’ve been trying my best to get him to act on his powers, and the moment that he finally does, you scold him for touching me, like he stuck his tongue down my throat or something,” I argued.
“I think I’ll go,” Troy said. He left quickly in his shiny Sheriff’s SUV.
After he spun away, Dylan turned back to me. “Grace, I know what happens between the two of you when you share power. I can’t stand to watch it anymore. It has to stop,” he said.
“Why have you suddenly decided this? Do you want him to leave? Do you want me to release him?” I asked.
He waved his hand. “No, but for him to do his magic, he doesn’t have to use you. Right?”
“Not necessarily, but he might have used a lot of his storage with the camo spell going in. Once we got there, it took a lot of power to hold that silence,” I explained. “It’s just magic, Dylan. You own my heart. Hell, you own my body. Swapping power with Levi doesn’t change that. Jealousy isn’t very attractive,” I said wrinkling my nose.
“He needs to learn to use his own power. I am not jealous of Levi,” he assured me. I was skeptical, but hell, it didn’t matter. I loved Dylan. I questioned myself though. If Dylan demanded that I release Levi, what would I do?
During my thoughts, Dylan got in the cruiser to drive us back to town. He remained quiet with his eyes watching the road closely. The sky darkened, and the first crack of lightning flared across the sky. The long white tendrils stretched across the purple clouds. I watched the storm thinking about the man in the cloak. The man I couldn’t exactly remember.
Thankfully, the council had cooled their hostilities since our last meeting. I sat back listening to all the proposals to have a nice community gathering. We eventually decided on having an Eostre festival, but there were no intentions of including the human Easter adaptations at the gathering. I would make an official announcement in a few days to start the festival with a focus on celebrating rebirth and spring. The town was going through its own rebirth, so celebrating the festival seemed the perfect way to mark it. I informed them that Remington Blake had already volunteered to bring in
the carnival rides for the kids.
“For the record, I’d like to make sure before we adjourn that no one has any arguments. It’s been nice without them, but I’m unsure of all of your well-being,” I quipped.
The table of representatives laughed. “I can come up with something,” Diego replied.
“No. That’s fine. You all have a great day,” I said.
The council members each left the community center, but Tabitha stayed behind to help me rearrange the furniture.
“Everyone got along today. You are right. Something is wrong,” she said.
I laughed. “You shouldn’t joke.”
We walked outside into the warmth of a spring day. Facing the clouds, I soaked in the warm rays of the sun. It had been too cold as of late, and I welcomed the heat. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before the humidity took over spoiling the spring.
“How’s Dylan?” she asked.
“Working,” I replied.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. Tabitha really was my only friend that was a girl.
“It’s just complicated. I don’t really want to talk about it,” I said.
“Is it true that Riley and Levi broke up?” she asked.
“I’m not sure if it’s official, but it was bound to happen,” I said.
“I’m willing to comfort him if he needs it,” she grinned.
“What about Michael?” I asked.
“We aren’t serious. I told you that,” she said.
“I’ll pass the word along,” I said. Actually, I didn’t object to the potential of that relationship. Tabitha was a Seelie fairy, but not royal. I wouldn’t have to worry about her demanding that I release Levi from his servitude.
“I’ve got to get to work. Talk to you later, Grace,” she said.
“Later,” I mumbled.
My thoughts were wrapped up in the growing potential of disaster. It was only a matter of time before this smuggling thing from the Otherworld was exposed. Whatever they were doing pissed off that sylph. An angry sylph could take out the entire town. I sighed. Nothing would ever be normal in Shady Grove ever again.
