Gold

by Talia Vance

  They are at least as dangerous as the Sons.”

  “Does anyone actually like the bandia?”

  “I like you fine.”

  Shannon walks into the little bakery. She sees me and

  smiles warmly before walking up to our little table. “How

  are you?” She strings the words together so fast they sound

  like one word.

  “Good.” It’s hard not to smile back.

  Shannon’s hair is plaited in a long braid that falls

  between her shoulder blades, but her bangs nearly cover

  her eyes. “I wanted to apologize for my mum. She’s not as

  off her nut as she sounded. She’s only marginally insane.” “It’s fine,” I say. Your mom was exactly right about me. “I work at the dress shop around the corner now. We

  have some beautiful party dresses. You should come.” “I don’t think I’ll be going to any parties while I’m

  here.” I don’t think I’ll be going to any parties for a while.

  Not when the last one ended up in a blaze of blue fire. “You should come anyway.” Her smile is so genuine,

  that I’m tempted to take her up on it.

  Mick waits until Shannon leaves before he tries to talk

  me out of it. “She’s harmless, but her mother is a different

  story.”

  “I like her.”

  “You need to lay low.”

  “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life under house

  arrest. It’s not like I can’t defend myself.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “Oh.” I stare down at the tray of tea cakes, my appetite

  gone. Is that why Mick doesn’t want me around the villagers without a babysitter? Does he think I’ll lose control of

  my power?

  I had thought I had my power under control. There was no question that it seemed to come at me quicker, stronger, the more I was around the Sons, but I was always able to keep it to a low simmer. Maybe if Mallory hadn’t chosen that exact moment, with fire still lingering at the edge of my self-control, to confront me at her party, I could’ve stopped it.

  Blake’s little sister had marched up to me as I stood behind the tree, her arms crossed tight across her chest, wrinkling the smooth lines of her designer dress. “I didn’t want you here.” Mallory had the same silver blonde hair as Blake, but that’s where the similarities ended. Blake’s easy confidence and friendly smile drew people in. Mallory was pretty, but her features were sharp, her body stiff. Untouchable.

  She probably thought her statement was some shocking revelation. I almost wanted to laugh, but she was only fifteen, so I tried to appease her instead. “I wouldn’t have come, but I think Blake wants us to get to know each other.”

  Mallory’s eyes got huge. “Why? I know everything I need to know about you. You’re a witch. You don’t belong here.”

  I took a breath, checking to be sure the fire inside me wasn’t going to fight me for control. I was pretty sure that taking down the birthday girl in a ball of flame was a party faux pas. “And you feel the need to tell me this because?”

  “I know what you are. Everyone knows. You might be able to lead my brother around by his dick but you’re nothing to me. Less than nothing.”

  Her words shouldn’t have hurt. It wasn’t anything worse than what I’d heard a hundred times from Sierra or Portia or any of the breeders. I couldn’t help the bitter laugh that escaped my lips. Everyone thought Blake was with me for the sex. The truth was we hadn’t been alone together since we broke the bond. The one time we were, Blake wouldn’t let it get that far. He denied it, but we both knew the truth: he was afraid of bonding again.

  I couldn’t expect her to understand Blake and me. Not when I didn’t understand it myself.

  “There’s no such thing as less than nothing.” I tried to ignore my blood’s rising temperature and focus on something more rational. “Under the theory of infinite smallness things can always be halved, shaved into smaller and smaller parts.”

  Mallory blinked. “Whatever. Why don’t you go find my brother so you can screw him and leave?”

  I glanced over to the barbecue. Portia stood next to Blake, her eyes flitting from her sandals to Blake’s charming smile. He looked relaxed, almost happy. More comfortable with the daughter of the Sons’ leader than he could ever be with me.

  I used to know exactly what Blake felt. Hell, I felt it. When we were bonded, we were so tied that we shared each other’s emotions. I knew when his smile was a carefully constructed façade. But that was before. All I had at Mallory’s party was my own loneliness as I navigated a house full of people who would prefer I was dead. My own jealousy as I noticed how genuine Blake’s smile appeared as he talked to Portia.

  Mallory followed my gaze and let out an unkind laugh. “Maybe my brother’s finally coming to his senses.”

  I didn’t need this brat rubbing it in. “You better hope not.” I turned to face her, letting the fire come. I raised my hand so she could see the blue flames arc between my fingers. “He’s the only one keeping you alive.”

  She backed up a step, eyes wide. “Witch.”

  The blood under my skin was hot. I wouldn’t be able to stop the fire this time.

  Mallory backed up another step.

  For the first time since I got to the party, I felt empowered. Strong. Mallory might be a seventh generation daughter of Killian, but only the Sons manifested the demigod’s power. She was just a breeder.

  Human.

  I moved my hand to the right, letting the fire fly from my fingers. The blue flame sailed past Mallory, but she screamed anyway. The fireball hit the center of a large swimming pool with a blue flash that fizzled and vanished almost as soon as it sparked. The loss of fire made me instantly cold.

  A group of breeders standing by the pool looked around with mild panic, trying to find the source of the blue flash. I stepped out from behind the palm tree and smiled.

  Let them look.

  Let them see that their months of persecution had not rendered me weak. It only made me stronger. They shouldn’t hurl stones as if I were a defenseless girl.

  I shivered, but not from the cold. Was I seriously considering hurting these people? What was I becoming?

  I wasn’t lying to Rush when I told him I was no threat to his people. I was lying to myself.

  Blake saw me now. His blonde hair glowed against the setting sun, shading his face in darkness.

  Even after all this time, I reached for his emotions, finding only my own anger and frustration and fear. His body language gave away nothing. Ever the poker player, Blake’s expression was a mask of polite interest. If I was closer, I might see the vein along the line of his neck stand out, the one tell he couldn’t master.

  It would only be a matter of seconds before Rush and Jonah appeared in their demigod forms. They wouldn’t let my display of power go unchallenged.

  Everything happened so quickly after that.

  A flash of blue light flew over the people gathered outside and exploded in flame on the roof of Blake’s house. People screamed and ran as an explosion rocked the west side of the home. Blue fire was everywhere.

  I couldn’t feel it.

  I couldn’t stop it either.

  SIX

  When Mick and I get back to Lorcan Hall, I’m still restless. I pull on a jacket and walk behind the house toward the edge of the bluff. The waves below crash and churn against the rocks, sending sprays of water straight up. It’s nothing like the rhythmic sounds of the waves rolling into the beach in California. There’s no order to the swirls of riptides, waves colliding and attacking before being swallowed by another rush of water from behind.

  Water stirs inside me, there before I even call it, a power as strong as the ocean. As wild. I conjure a wall of water and push it over the bluff with as much force as I can summon. It rushes out across the rocks before collapsing and merging with the sea. />
  This small display of power does nothing to curb the ache in my chest. I want to be closer somehow. Part of the sea. I walk along the bluff until I find a worn switchback trail that leads down to a rocky beach. I pick my way down the trail slowly. By the time I get to the bottom, the sun dips behind dark clouds. The days last forever here, the sun clinging to the earth until nearly midnight, as if to make up for the constant cloud cover.

  Something calls to me here, singing to my blood. It’s a pounding in my chest, a drumbeat that pushes me forward. The water looks even wilder from the shore, waves crashing against tall rocks that soar above me. The wind carries the sea in its grasp, creating its own icy current that pelts my cheeks. This beach has no sand, just rocks in all shapes and sizes arranged haphazardly. A small passageway veers between two boulders, large enough for a person to pass through.

  I make my way across, slipping through the boulders to another, smaller beach. The air swirls through the rocks, trapped against the bluff and boulders, creating a natural wind tunnel. It should be freezing, but steam billows from a crack in the rock wall that rises up at least a hundred feet from where I stand. There’s a glint of gold behind the cloud of steam, and I move toward it instinctively.

  Wind, water, fire and earth converge at once, all my powers harnessed into one chaotic surge. It’s overwhelming and incredible. I lift my hands up to the sky, wanting to take it all in, alive with the elements pulsing through my veins, pulsing through this place.

  The power that fills me is stronger than any I’ve felt before, yet I feel peaceful, calm. This wildness is who I am. I let fire, wind, and water out to the ocean in one burst, as the ground shakes beneath my feet. A flash of blue lights up the darkening sky, creating lightning like arcs that flare out in several directions at once.

  The wall beside me rumbles and shakes.

  I freeze.

  I reach for the earth, finding it, quiet and undisturbed.

  I can’t feel the wall moving. I can’t control it.

  No.

  It can’t be happening again.

  I move away from the wall instinctively. The rumbling continues. Not in the wall, behind it. The sound gets louder. Something is coming.

  I take a few more steps backward, not taking my eyes off the shaking cliff. A rock falls to the ground a few feet away from me. I run to the shelter of the two boulders. The opening in the rock groans and shakes, opening with a loud crack that sends another shower of rocks to the ground.

  A dark shape sails through, landing with a hard thud on the ground, barely missing the boulder I crouch behind.

  The wall cracks and groans again before sealing itself tight with a final shudder.

  I stare at the dark figure on the ground, waiting for it to rise up and attack. But it doesn’t move. I take a tentative step forward. A shirtless guy lays on the rocks, still and unmoving. A body?

  I move the rest of the way to him, kneeling down to place my hand on his neck. There’s a pulse. I pull on his arm, rolling him on to his back.

  Austin’s lips curl up into a familiar crooked smile. He’s draped in ancient plaid, a thick piece of fabric around his waist, but he’s not glowing gold like he normally does in his true form. His jeweled broadsword is nowhere to be seen. He’s filthy, still covered with clumps of rock and debris from the cliff wall, but the dirt can’t mask the sculpted lines of his face and the perfect proportions of his body. He is, after all, a god.

  I drop his shoulder, letting him fall back against the rocky ground.

  “That hurts.” Austin blinks, propping himself up on an elbow. “That shouldn’t hurt.”

  “And you shouldn’t be here,” I say. Should. Not. He’s supposed to be trapped in the underworld for a thousand years. By my count, he still has over nine hundred ninety nine years to go.

  Austin groans and closes his eyes. Beneath the smudges on his face, his skin looks sallow and pale. Sweat beads along his brow. I touch my palm to his forehead. He’s burning up.

  The ocean fills me, cooling my hand before I can think to call it. It’s becoming so instinctual, that the elements come to me almost unconsciously now. Like I am part of them. Except when they take on a life of their own.

  Austin opens his eyes. “And Juliet is the sun.”

  I jerk my hand away from his forehead. “You need some new lines.”

  He rubs his temples. “Best I can do with this vise on my skull. Does pain always feel so bad?”

  “It’s called pain for a reason.”

  Austin lifts his head, his crooked smile in place despite the obvious effort it takes him. “Says the girl with a death wish.”

  I back up until I’m pressed against the boulder. “Are you threatening me?” He doesn’t look like he’s in any condition to threaten anyone.

  “Course not. I would never threaten you.” Austin grunts as he pushes himself up into a sitting position.

  “Oh that’s right, you prefer to threaten the people I love.”

  “For your own good.”

  “I’m the only one who gets to decide what’s good for me.” I take a step forward, flames simmering under my skin. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  He watches the blue flames arc between my fingers. “Right. I’ve made quite a mess of things, haven’t I?”

  “How did you get here?” The spell I used to trap him in the underworld had worked. I know it. “You shouldn’t be able to cross over.”

  “Perhaps fate has other plans for me.”

  A ball of flame appears in my hand. “A fireball to the head?”

  He laughs and then stops himself, rubbing his forehead. “I hope not.”

  The sky darkens as more clouds roll in. Everything is wrong. I am a half a world away from my parents, my friends. Blake. For what? To postpone a war that will come for me anyway? To spend my last days alone, or worse, in the company of the very god who made me kill Blake.

  The fire burns hot, my blood searing my skin from the inside. Austin watches the flames dance in my hand, and I swear there is something that looks a lot like fear in his eyes. Good. He should be afraid of me. But since when is Austin afraid of anything? He may be weak, but he’s still immortal.

  “Go on,” he says. “It’s about time you acted like a bandia.”

  No.

  I am not a killer. I may have killed Blake, but only because I tried to save him. And I brought him back. That has to count for something.

  I turn and throw the fire ball as hard as I can at the water. It sails for fifty feet before it hits a wave with a bright blue blast and dies out.

  Austin sighs and falls back against the rocks. “Perhaps there’s hope for us yet.”

  I reach for the wind, gathering it with such strength that I have to wrap my arms around the boulder to keep from getting swept up in strong gust, and send it flying at Austin. He flies into the air, his back slamming against the wall of rock behind him. I keep the wind on him, pinning him there, five feet above the ground.

  I have to shout to be heard. “There is no us. There will never be any us. And if you come anywhere near me or anyone I care about, I will find a way to kill you.” I stop the wind as quickly as I called it, and Austin drops like a stone, landing hard on his side.

  “That’s my girl,” he says as he rolls to his back and closes his eyes.

  SEVEN

  Mick watches me maneuver my roller bag down the winding staircase. He doesn’t offer to help me. “You’re leaving?” “I’ve already booked a room over the pub in Cath.” Tomorrow I’ll head back to Dublin. And from there, anywhere but here.

  “I’ll get the car.”

  Mick doesn’t lecture me about safety or keeping my power in check as he drives me into town. I don’t know if he knows that Austin is back, but it hardly matters to me now. I just need to get out of here.

  He hands me a cell phone as I step out of the car in front of the pub. “I’m the first number on speed dial.”

  I pocket the phone without looking at it. “Thanks, Mick.
”

  “Mikel,” he corrects. “I know there’s no point arguing, but you should stay at Lorcan. The Sons will be here soon.”

  “The Sons are coming here?” How does he know the Sons are on their way? Did Joe contact him?

  “The call of the gateway is strong. They won’t be able to ignore it.”

  “The gateway? It’s in Del Mar.” It was why the Sons and bandia were all in San Diego County. But the gateway had been sealed when Austin was banished, and Austin wasn’t banished anymore.

  If the gateway is here, I’ve managed to come to the one place where the Sons are certain to be. “Do they know I’m here?”

  Mick shakes his head. “Doubt it. The power will draw them. Just as it draws you.”

  “I’m not staying.”

  “We’ll see.” He does that thing with the corner of his mouth where he almost smiles.

  My room over the pub is tiny, with barely room for a twin bed and small night stand. Apparently, it’s the height of luxury in Cath, because it has its own bathroom, although the shower consists of nothing more than a handheld sprayer next to the sink and a drain in the floor. I wrap a threadbare blanket around my shoulders and curl up in the corner of the bed, flipping through the train schedule on the phone Mick left me. In the morning, I’ll take a taxi to the station in Tralee and catch a train to Dublin. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be in London. Or Paris. Tuscany. Maybe Berlin.

  Anywhere but here.

  Some sick part of me wants to stay. My twisted heart clings to a small tendril of hope, an undeniable spark of longing at the thought of the Sons coming here.

  Blake.

  I stomp on the thought and crush it into a billion microscopic shards. I will rip this little wish to shreds until there is absolutely nothing left. Screw infinite smallness. My heart is a vacuum, as dark and empty as a black hole. As lethal. I can’t afford to indulge a stupid crush on a boy who doesn’t even want me.

  Not after what happened.

  The explosions of blue flame at Mallory’s party seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, bright flashes of heat and fire. The back windows near the living room shattered. Acrid smoke choked my breaths as people ran in every direction at once. I tried to stop it, but it was like the fire had a mind of its own, arcing and shooting back at me in rebellion.