by Cassi Carver
He scooted back on his barstool. “Excuse me?”
“You know, for all your observations. Your stakeout.”
He put his hands up, feigning innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, miss.”
Kara bent lower so she wouldn’t be overheard. “Listen to me, buddy. I have my local O.P.A. representative on speed dial, and you can bet he’s going to be hearing from my…lawyer.” Okay, she wasn’t sure the clan employed lawyers. The promise of Gavin’s wrath was all it usually took for these stiffs to back down.
“I…uh…” He scratched his head. “What’s the O.P.A?”
This guy was so convincing at playing stupid that Kara had to rethink her appraisal of him. The meat-head thing was clearly a front hiding a very clever mind.
She put her hands flat on the bar to either side of him. “My clan has a written treaty with you guys stating that I am not to be questioned or harassed in any way. You wanna talk to me? You wanna get in my business? You go through the proper channels.”
“I don’t want to get in your business. I just want to drink my beer.”
“That’s it.” Kara’s lips thinned into a harsh line. “Show me some I.D.”
“But I was just carded at the door.”
“Now!” she hissed, trying not to lose her composure lest she lose tips from other patrons along with it.
He fished out his very thin wallet and retrieved the only thing he seemed to have in there. When he handed her his California I.D., she frowned. It was horrible. “This is the worst fake I.D. I’ve seen in all my years of working here.”
Now he looked guilty. “It is?”
She nodded, and the truth hit her like a hammer—she was off her rocker. The O.P.A. would have way better forgeries than this one. No—she glanced again at his name—Donald was clearly something much more serious. A teen alcoholic.
“Donald,” she tried, softening to the maternal-Kara persona she so rarely got to use. “You can’t be here.”
“I can’t?” he repeated. “But I paid for this beer.”
She really didn’t like to mess with people’s minds, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She leaned down and met his gaze, letting her energy wash over him, allowing her mind to take control of his.
“You want to go home to your parents. You want to finish school. And most of all—you don’t want to drink anymore. It’s nasty. And your breath will smell like beer.” She brushed her hands in his direction. “Shoo. Go now, Donald. You’re free of this addiction.”
By the time she was finished, his eyes were as round as half-dollar pieces, but he pushed from his stool. “Shit, lady. You’re a total nutjob. I’m outta here—and don’t think you’re getting a tip.”
He chugged the last of his drink. “And by the way, whatever the O.P.A. is—I hope they nail your ass!” And with that, he headed for the door. That meant she’d won, right? She’d saved him?
Aiden passed the teen at the exit, and briefly narrowed his eyes, as though trying to place him. Seeing Aiden walk into the Hoolecha Inn was even stranger than drunken teens or O.P.A. stakeouts. Kara’s brows were still stuck halfway up her forehead when Aiden sat at the bar across from her.
“Hey…Aiden. Gavin knows I’m working tonight. He’s not picking me up for training again until the day after tomorrow.”
“Kara.” He nodded in greeting. His short, white-blond hair was gelled into spikes, and the style clashed with the button-down white shirt and gray slacks he wore. “I’ll take a glass of scotch.”
Not being a very good actress, Kara imagined she looked perturbed when she set the drink in front of him and poised her hands on her hips, waiting to hear what he had to say. “You look like the harbinger of doom. What’s going on?”
This was too much. Whatever happened to normal nights at the bar with regular drunk people and guys who left tips based on breast size? She almost felt nostalgic thinking of it.
Aiden put the glass to his lips and took a small sip. “Do you care for Gavin?”
“What?” Kara swallowed and stepped back to lean a hand against the counter. “Where is this question coming from?” It was no secret that she’d always cared for Gavin, and spending so much time with him in the past few months only made her feelings and their friendship that much stronger.
Aiden leaned back on the stool and finished his drink. “I think you do.”
“You know I do.”
“Then I need your help.”
Kara approached the counter. “Stop being so damn cryptic, and tell me what’s going on.”
“Gavin is putting you above everything else once again. And you’re a sweet woman, Kara, but the universe does not revolve around you.”
“Thanks for the astronomy lesson.” Asshole. At least he’d attempted to use the word “sweet” in the same sentence as Kara’s name…but knowing Aiden that could only mean he wanted something big. “Please don’t tell me he knocked up another female on my behalf or something equally crazy.”
A server gave Kara a drink order and accompanied it with a dirty look. Oops. Looked like these heart-to-hearts were slowing her down, and people were starting to notice. “I get off in ten minutes, Aiden. Can you wait for me outside?”
Aiden nodded, pushed his glass toward Kara and then left out the front door. Conveniently, he’d forgotten to pay.
As soon as the clock struck eleven pm, she put down her apron and her pad, handed her drink orders to her replacement and went to meet Aiden. He was leaning against the side of the Hoolecha Inn with his hands thrust in his pockets. Kara came to a stop in front of him and fought the urge to cross her arms over her chest.
The graying security guard at the door eyed them both. He was pretty tough given his age and the fact that he was human. Too bad his eyesight wasn’t too good when it came to fake I.D.s. If word of that got out into the local high schools, her place of employment would be stormed by every teen with access to a photocopy machine and a laminator.
“Everything okay, Kara?” the security guard asked.
“We’re all good.” She smiled at the older man and then turned back to Aiden. “Tell me.”
Aiden lowered his voice. “Gavin needs a black-wing to help in his plan to defeat Brakken, but Julian isn’t strong enough. The Aniliáre who helped hide you when you were born was Gavin’s only other option. Gavin thought maybe this black-wing, Mazeki, would be willing to teach Julian some of the skills he needs not only to thrive in the Shadowland, but to help send Brakken to the Abyss.”
Kara took a second to process his words then nodded. “That sounds like a good idea to me, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that Julian isn’t going to ask my opinion. He hasn’t really been himself lately.”
Aiden’s brow quirked. “He hasn’t been himself for eight months now, Kara. Rising from the dead didn’t do wonders for his cheery disposition. But that’s beside the point…”
“You have a point? Good. Let’s hear it, ’cause I know you well enough to know you didn’t come here to fill me in on the latest other-realmly gossip.”
“Mazeki refused to help.”
“Oh.” She paused and bit her lip. “That’s not good. Julian needs this. And Gavin needs Julian.”
He pushed up from the wall. “Yes, that’s exactly right. Which is why I thought if I came to you, you would help.”
“What can I do?”
“You see, when Gavin went to see Mazeki, the black-wing said he required payment in exchange for offering assistance to Julian.”
“Okay…”
“And what he wants is an audience with you.”
Kara’s whole face drooped. “Me? Why me?”
“Because he was connected to your mother and father. He simply wants to see how their child turned out and have the opportunity to speak with you.”
She thought it over. “That sounds easy enough. What I’m confused about is why you’re here and why I’m getting the whole cloak-and-dagger vibe.”
Aide
n sighed. “Gavin won’t take you. He doesn’t want to get you involved.”
“What?” Kara sputtered, then she remembered where she was and whispered feverishly, “I’ve been training for months. I’m helping him come up with a plan to take down Brakken. Trust me—I’m as involved as it gets.”
“That’s why I thought you’d see the reason in my taking you to see Mazeki without Gavin knowing. You get to meet the man who saved your life as a child, Julian gets to unlock the secrets to being a Son of the Sky, and Gavin gets use of his own personal black-wing. It’s a true win-win.”
Kara nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
Aiden grinned wide. “Follow me. There’s a parking structure around the corner we can use to flash.”
She thought briefly about the house key and the cellphone she had stashed in her pockets. She’d never traveled to the Shadowland with technology from the surface before. “Is this going to fry my phone?”
“No, but I wouldn’t expect to get service.” Aiden chuckled, probably thinking he was so funny, and Kara just shook her head.
Once they’d found a secluded stairwell, he opened his arms to Kara, and she knew they both hated this part. She wasn’t at ease enough with Aiden to be able to relax in his grip, and he didn’t like her enough to make it any easier on her.
When his muscled biceps wrapped across her upper arms and his hands came to her back, he said, “I should probably mention that Mazeki can be a little…odd. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. You’ll be fine.”
She got a strong hit of Aiden’s concern right before the agony of traveling to the other realm descended on her from all sides. Flashing to the Shadowland couldn’t even compare to flashing from one place to another on the surface. It was truly hell.
“Oh, shit,” she moaned, bending at the waist, panting from the feeling of her body becoming real and solid again as the pain faded away. At least she didn’t go unconscious anymore. Wait…was that a good thing?
When she was finally able to stand straight without Aiden’s support, she looked around. This part of the Shadowland was nothing like Julian’s home.
“Is this where Mazeki lives?” she asked.
“This is it. I forgot you’ve only seen the Land of Desolation. When you get closer to the kingdoms, the scenery can scramble your mind. Sometimes literally.”
There were three huge waterfalls cascading down from the top of a tall mountain. It was tropical, like Mercury Island, but instead of a lush landscape extending as far as the eye could see, the big mountain seemed to rise out of nothing and be met by nothing at the end of its sharply angled slopes.
“If I touch it, is it real?” she asked.
“Yes. You can touch things made by will in the Shadowland and they are every bit as real as on the surface. Some black-wings are even strong enough to hold the artifacts together in the earthly realm.”
“But Julian’s apartment…it looked right and he used it, but for me it was about as substantial as a 3-D movie.”
“Well, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it? To help Julian get mastery over his powers.”
Kara’s gaze ran over the strange mountain again. “Okay, lead the way.”
“Try to touch as little as possible.” He walked straight ahead and waded into the knee-deep water, and Kara followed. The water felt drier than a liquid should, like acetone when she saturated a cotton ball and ran it over her nails.
Aiden chose the waterfall to the far right and stepped into the thunderous deluge. The water fell over Kara’s head like pure, luminous joy washing over her spirit. Her body sparked to life, her nipples drawing tight and her core pulsing hard. She sighed and smiled, tilting her face up to catch the drops in her mouth. It was wondrous, sensuous, full of possibilities. Aiden grunted and yanked her arm.
When she stumbled into the wide mouth of a cave, Aiden grimaced and put a hand to his temple. “What happened?” she asked him. That’s when she realized, much to her shock, that although her jeans and Hoolecha Inn T-shirt had been clinging to her body when they’d trudged through the water, they were completely dry now.
“Mazeki’s wards. When you walk through them, they reflect his feelings toward his visitor. They’re very effective at keeping out unwelcome guests.” His eyes narrowed even further. “You seem a bit more welcome than I am.”
The feeling left on her skin was like a lover’s intimate caress. Maybe she could bring a swimsuit next time and sit under Mazeki’s falls for a few hours like a low-cost spa day.
When they started walking again, the first thing Kara noticed was how different this cavern was from the witch tunnels. Witches had narrower passageways into the earth, probably because of the difficulty of carving them in the first place. Mazeki made this of his will, and the cavern was as broad as the waterfall. The earth under Kara’s sandals was a fine brown powder, soft under her steps.
A single red door stood out at the far end of the cavern. Aiden knocked and stepped back. A man opened the door. His hand on the knob was almost covered by the long sleeve of a flowing brown robe. He smiled at Kara and pushed the door wider for her. The brown hair braided down his back was so long it trailed along the floor, and his skin was as rich as melted chocolate. He was handsome, but then she hadn’t met a man with the blood of the angels who wasn’t.
“Kara. At last,” he said and stepped back to allow her to pass. Aiden followed behind her, and a millisecond later, she heard the sound of him running into something. She turned to see what looked like a thick pane of glass—Aiden’s face had even made a little print where it had smacked against the clear surface.
“You wait there,” Mazeki told him.
“No, Kara belongs to my clan. I go where she goes,” Aiden shot back.
“She’ll be fine.” Mazeki’s gaze ran the length of her body. “Most likely.”
Then the red door slammed shut.
Chapter Three
Kara felt more than a twinge of apprehension at being alone with a strange Aniliáre. Julian was the first black-wing she’d met, and she wasn’t sure he counted. Following a safe distance behind Mazeki—as if there were such a thing—she looked around.
The place was huge, maybe as big as the mountain itself, and the walls were probably a hundred feet high. The weird thing was that the walls were covered in book-laden shelves, like one giant, cavernous library, and the living space was centered in the middle.
Mazeki walked in silence to a grouping of rugs and pillows on the floor and sat, motioning for Kara to do the same. All around there were stacks of books, even taking the place of furniture in some cases. Books under the lamp, holding it up. Books where a coffee table might be, with plates of discarded food on their surface and a half-finished glass of wine. Kara chose a pillow and plopped down to the sound of a small squeak.
“Gently, Kara. Let them warm up to you.” As Mazeki said it, a brown-and-gold-striped satin pillow wriggled out of the pile and peeked up at her.
Her eyes widened. A pillow was looking at her? What the hell? And it seemed scared. The gold fringe at the top of the medium-sized rectangle drew low, and the pillow bent, cowering.
The Shadowland was going to take some getting used to…
She extended her hand. “Come here, little guy. I won’t hurt you.”
The pillow waddled over and sniffed her, then rubbed his fringy corner on her hand. It purred and sidled closer. “Does it have a name?”
Mazeki looked bewildered. “I haven’t taken to naming my bedding.”
“Ah.” She blushed but thought it was a fair question under the circumstances.
Stripey, as she dubbed it, trailed around Kara’s arm and nuzzled into her, wedging himself firmly against her back to support her weight. When she relaxed into him, his vibrating purr felt like a form of massage against her knotted muscles. Nice.
She glanced at her host. Aiden had warned her that Mazeki was odd. Dressed in a fraying brown robe like a monk, he looked like a playboy hippie who hadn’t cut his hair since
he’d taken up the cloth. His braid was so long, it coiled beside him like a snake. Hopefully, it wasn’t really a snake, but judging by the pillow softly breathing against her back, she couldn’t be too sure.
Mazeki regarded her with a smile. His eyes weren’t exactly brown. Even from a distance, his irises seemed to be made of facets of yellow topaz and earth-toned jewels. “So you are her…”
Kara fidgeted with Stripey’s fringe. “I guess I am.”
“Deanna’s daughter.”
“That’s what they tell me.” Why was this so damn awkward? “You knew her, too, or just my father?”
“Teras and I had an informal alliance, but I thought he was a fool for dallying with the first Queen of the Shadowland. How could Ailexon not destroy him for what he’d done?”
Her hand stilled. “What he’d done?”
“Fathering you.”
“Oh, yeah.” It was a horrible feeling knowing that her father had been sent to the Abyss because of his affair with her mother. No, Kara hadn’t been part of the decision, but ultimately, her arrival had gotten both of her parents killed—and that was something she could never reconcile or recover from. “So…you hid me on the surface when I was born?”
Mazeki raised his arm slightly, getting comfortable, and a pillow jumped to attention and quickly wedged itself under his elbow. He didn’t even say thank you. “I never touched you as an infant. Infants are foul-smelling and unreasonable. I read up on the care and feeding of them and decided that it was worth a trip to the surface to put you in the right hands.”
“Oh.”
He smiled encouragingly. “Humans are much better adapted to the caretaking of young. I had a servant deliver you to the human orphanage in San Diego that very night. And you’re welcome, my dear. I hear the weather is lovely there year-round.”
“So…you just sort of dropped me off…like in a cardboard box or something?”
His head jerked in affront. “Heavens, no. It was a basket. A lovely basket, hand-woven in the Appalachian Mountains. I got it on a vacation I took there in the fifties. They didn’t give you the basket when you moved to your first home?”
